Kill
Those Damn Cats – Cats of Ulthar Lovecraftian Anthology
The
First United Church of Cthulhu is looking for horror fantasy
involving the titular creatures from H. P. Lovecraft's story The
Cats of Ulthar. The original is set in the Dreamlands and is
part of a series of short stories and novellas called the Dream
Cycle.
Everybody's got a story about those cats.
You
can (re)familiarize yourself with the Dream Cycle here:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dream_Cycle
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Underworld_(Dreamlands)
Deadline:
March 31, 2016
Length:
2,000 – 10,000 words
Payment:
$5 + contributor copy
English
only. Non-exclusive anthology rights. Reprints and multiple
submissions are allowed. Author retains copyright. Payment is via
Paypal.
Guidelines:
The
cats are cats.
1.
They do not have spoken lines. They do not have telepathy. They have no
internal monologues. They did communicate with Randolph Carter in The Dream-Quest of Unknown Kadath so this is acceptable, but we do not want talking animal stories (i.e. Wind in the Willows, Alice in Wonderland, Bugs Bunny, etc).
2.
They do not walk upright. They do not wear clothes. This is not
Puss In Boots.
3.
They are not werecats or shapeshifters of any kind. But other
beings from the Cthulhu Mythos who do have shapeshifting abilities
may be found among the cats.
4.
Cats are already very intelligent, so they can act with a human
level of intelligence. Just no driving cars, shooting guns, writing
novels about themselves, etc. They're still cats.
5.
They can have supernatural qualities. But they are not furry little
wizards, so no fireballs or Expecto Patronum.
7.
The majority of the story must be about the cats of Ulthar. Do not
tack on a companion cat to one of your sucky D&D campaign
stories and try to pass it off as Lovecraftian.
8.
Feel free to use any of the people, places, or monsters already
listed in the Dream Cycle stories.
10. Magic and supernatural powers are usable in the Dreamlands. Just don't go all Tolkien on us.
11.
The story can NOT be about humans taking the cats of Ulthar from
the Dreamlands (our head priest has already called that plot
device).
It
is more of a fantastical place instead of a technological one; think
Super Mario World or Little Nemo: Adventures in Slumberland
or even Adventure Time but
with more horrific elements.
The
story can be pro-cat, anti-cat, or anywhere inbetween.
Pictures
can be printed with the story (they will be black and white). Images
should be .jpg or .png; 300 dpi is recommended but not necessary.
Make sure you have clearance to use the image(s) and send with any
necessary copyright information that would need to be listed.
Email
your story as an attached .doc file to bitter_venus [at] yahoo.com
with Kill Those Damn Cats as the subject.