Wild Child

Sleep… the final frontier

It’s almost three am in La-La-Land. I am exhausted, but getting ready to take a shower. Little miss wouldn’t go down tonight without me. Cling… Cling… Cling… I know why, though. Today, I went to the Y and left her in daycare while I swam. She did not like that at all. After about 1/2 hour – forty minutes, they came to get me because she was crying on and off with very little stop. This was not the first time I have taken her there. We went on Wednesday, and I sat with her in the daycare for an hour and a half to see if she would get used to it and the people who work there, who are very nice, by the way. She was fine, provided I was there. The second I stepped out, she began crying. I really thought she was going to be okay today because after I sat down with her for a while, she left my lap and headed for the toys, bringing them back to me, and then, she just stopped bringing them back.

Next time we go, I will go earlier and spend a little longer in daycare with her. Of course, she did this with my MIL when we first started taking her over there. Well, she only cried a little as she was familiar with my MIL. Now when I say, “Do you want to go to Grandma’s”, she shakes with excitement and races me to the car. LOL

Freya’s Bower is accepting submissions. What are we looking for? Well, here are our guidelines:

Submission Guidelines

Please read these guidelines thoroughly before you submit any work to Freya’s Bower.

Freya’s Bower is a non-subsidy publishing house. We are not a vanity press or self-publishing site. We pay royalties of 40% on electronic formats. Currently, we do not print publish. There is no charge to authors.

We publish erotica and romantica. New writers as well as cross-genre experimental styles and short story collections are welcome.

What we want:

1. Plot driven romances with happy, or at the very least hopeful, endings and varying degrees of sex, depending on the classification of the story. (Sweet, Tangy, Spicy, or Sizzling — links)
2. Heroes and heroines we can relate to. We want to see an arc of development in the characters throughout the story. Shorter stories must be tightly crafted for this reason.
3. Sex scenes must be relevant to the plot and organic to the story. If a scene can work without sex, then the sex isn’t necessary and best left out.
4. Light bondage. This is acceptable as long as all parties are willing.
5. Titillating, passionate, well-written gay, lesbian and heterosexual stories.
6. We prefer third person stories.

We do not accept:

1. Pornography (The difference between porn, erotica, and romantica – include links)
2. Works promoting hatred of any kind (racial, sexism, or homophobia included)
3. Violence not pertinent to the story line.
4. Excessive profanity. We understand that some types of erotica require a certain amount of profanity. However, we do not want every thought, dialogue scene, or descriptive scene overloaded with it. We are looking for classy erotica, not porn.
5. Yellow showers or defecation. That is not erotic.
6. No beastiality, not including with shapeshifters in their human form.
7. No rape for the sake of shock value. Remember, we are interested in sex between two consenting adults.
8. No sex involving minors.
9. No necrophilia.
10. Manuscripts littered with poor grammar, misspellings, and excessive typos. Do not rely on your computer’s spell/grammar check. It does make mistakes.
11. For us to accept a first person story, it has to be spectacular. We prefer third person stories.
12. Although cunt is used in erotic fiction, we at Freya’s Bower don’t like the word because it’s one of the most derogatory words for female genitalia (and more porn than erotica). Try not to use it much, but if you do, be sure it’s used in an appropriate fashion.

How to submit:

1. The first step is to send a query letter with a 1-2 paragraph synopsis of your work and the first chapter of the manuscript. If we like the synopsis and first chapter, we will request a ‘partial’. This is the first three chapters, or approximately 50 pages, of your book. If you send us a partial before we request it, it will be rejected and returned. You obviously haven’t read our submission guidelines.
2. The work must be completed in its entirety. We do not take proposals for books that have yet to be written.
3. No simultaneous submissions. We will do our best to respond within 8-12 weeks. If we are reading work submitted elsewhere that another publisher has already accepted, you have just wasted our time.
4. Our standards are high. We expect submissions to be of a professional quality. Anything you submit must be edited and polished. Submissions with numerous grammatical and spellings errors will be rejected on the spot. If you do not take the time to catch such errors, you are not serious about writing professionally. If you are uncertain about grammar, consult one of the many online websites (see our reference page) or invest in a good reference book. A good dictionary can be your best friend when it comes to spelling and is a vital tool for any serious author. Do not rely only on your word processor’s spell check and grammar program.
5. All works must be in English at this time.
6. You will be notified of our decision in 8-12 weeks, time allowing.

Formatting

1. Double-space your manuscript. Include a header with the title of the book, your name and numbered pages. Indent each new paragraph .5 inches. Start each chapter on a new page. If there is a scene break within a chapter, indicate it with a centered ***.
2. All first submissions must include:
   1. your full name, a pseudonym if used,
   2. a query letter,
   3. a brief synopsis, subject or genre,
   4. the first chapter,
   5. and be in the body of the email
   6. ‘Submission’ must be in the subject line,
   7. Mail submission to mgbaun@wildchildpublishing.com. Please include “Submissions for Freya’s Bower” in the subject line.
3. Should we request a partial, attach an RTF or text file to the email. We will not accept pdf, html, Word, WordPerfect, or any other files besides the two listed above. Include all 50 pages/3 chapters in one file. Name the file an abbreviated title of your book. So, if your novel is titled The Long Journey Home, your file name would be something like ljhome.rtf or ljhome.txt. Include your full name, address, title of manuscript, and length in the file.

We do not accept any pornography, works promoting hatred of any kind (racial, sexism or homophobia included), violence or profanity not pertinent to the story line.

Word counts:

Short stories: 10,000-15,000 words

Novellas: 15,001-30,000 words

Category: 30,001-45,000 words

Novels: 45,001-70,000

Plus Novels: 70,001-100,000 words

Humongous Novels: 100,000 or more words

We are strictly an online publisher. All communications will be made via email.

All works submitted must be your original creation, free of all legal constraints. In other words, you must own all copyright and publishing rights to your book. You cannot have a contract with another publisher on submitted work. If the work has been previously published, we will only accept it if the rights have reverted to you. Unless otherwise agreed upon, Freya’s Bower retains the rights to publish a print copy for sale should Freya’s Bower ever decide to move into print publishing. Should this happen, royalties will be re-negotiated.

All books accepted for publishing by Freya’s Bower will be subject to editing. If you are not open to suggestions and/or recommendations, do not submit. However, we will keep British quotes and spelling provided it is consistent throughout the work.

End Sub Guides

Needless to say, I am tired. I have been running on adrenaline for over a week now as I work feverishly to have Freya’s Bower online by March 5th. In less than three days, we open. Wow! That’s pretty amazing! Every spar minute has been spent working on FB. Usually, I have a couple hours (four or five as I have been crashing at 1 am) at night after Aurora goes to bed to work. I use every second of it.

In other news, WCP now has five new e-books in the editing process. Two are about two or three months from publication. One should be ready to go by April. I’m not sure about the other two. I will have to check with Faith, the editor.

Okay. She stirs. (sigh) I need to shower.

Ciao!

WC