James Stuart Bell is asking for submissions for his next anthology, Angels, Miracles, and Heavenly Encounters 2
The following is a letter from him describing the opportunity along with where to send for detailed guidelines.
Dear Contributor,
You may recall my role as editor for story collections such as: A Cup of Comfort, Life Savors, Extraordinary Answers to Prayer, and Love is a Verb. At present I am putting together a sequel volume of stories that will follow Angels, Miracles, and Heavenly Encounters, published by Bethany House Publishers in the first half of 2012.
The content will be similar to the original volume. The supernatural realm consisting of God and His angels, as well as evil spirits, is ever present in our midst. On rare occasions this realm becomes visible or we see its direct effects that can in no way be explained in the natural realm. These stories will cover the gamut of supernatural encounters: from supernatural miracles including physical healing, angelic visitations, near-death experiences of the afterlife, manifestations of evil, apparitions, and miraculous rescues. For the sake of authenticity, we are interested only in first-hand accounts in the first person. The stories need to go beyond subjective or speculative interpretations of events and be as concrete as possible, so if presented in a court there would be no human explanation of hard evidence.
We’ll consider original, unpublished stories from 1,000 to 2,000 words. The stories should have a creative title, an attention-grabbing introduction, main body with a conflict or challenge, and a clear, satisfying resolution. They need to be descriptive, rooted in time and place, with a realistic portrayal of the characters involved. They need to be substantive stories rather than mere testimonies or teachings, and the focus should not be on the supernatural realm alone, but rather the spiritual lesson learned. Please include a personal biography of 30 words or less at the end of each manuscript.
The book will be released by Bethany House Publishers sometime in 2014. Your manuscript will be due no later than July 1, 2013, but we would prefer it much earlier. Please send your manuscript attached to the e-mail rather than pasting text in the email window as a Word document. Send your manuscript in normal manuscript formatting, with your full contact information–name, address, phone number, and e-mail address on the actual manuscript, not just in your e-mail. We are offering a one-time fee of $50 for stories 1,500 words and over, and $25 for stories under that word count.
We will send you contracts upon the publisher’s acceptance and would need them back promptly. Payment will be made after all contracts have been received. Please direct all inquiries and manuscript submissions to my colleague, Jeanette Littleton, at supernaturalstories2@earthlink.net. If this e-mail has been forwarded to you, and you can’t submit to this call, but would like to hear about other editorial needs as they arise, please send us your e-mail address and we’ll add you to our notification list.
Blessings to you and yours,
James Stuart Bell
Supernatural Stories (Bethany House)
A James Stuart Bell Project