Crossed Genres Kickstarter Campaign

Tor.com posted about this yesterday on facebook and it's pretty cool.  Crossed Genres Publications is a small press that is asking for money to continue publishing books through 2013.  Their benefits for pledging are quite good - especially at the $25 mark (where you can choose to get all their currently published titles or all their upcoming titles in non-DRM ebook format).

Click here to find out more about their kickstarter campaign.

What interests me about this is their anthologies.  They've taken unique but interesting topics and gathered stories about them.  Like these:

For every supermodel, there are thousands of women who have heard “Why don’t you just eat less?” far too often. Except as comic relief or the unattractive single BFF, those women’s stories are never told.

Crossed Genres Publications presents Fat Girl in a Strange Land, an anthology of fourteen stories of fat women protagonists traveling distant and undiscovered realms.

Subversion: Science Fiction & Fantasy tales of challenging the norm is an anthology of stories about striking back at the status quo – whatever that might be. The Authority can be real or perceived; the act of subversion subtle or overt; and the consequences minute yet significant, or immense and world-shaking. 

They've got submission calls for two new anthologies that also sound interesting.  Click the links to see the submission guidelines.

MENIAL: Skilled Labor in SF  

Other people treat laborers like the dirt they work with. But skilled labor is crucial to the continuation of human culture on earth – and if we ever wish to visit the stars, skilled labor will be indispensable.

We want stories about men and women who understand the nuts and bolts, the atmosphere and the water and the soil. You know – the things that keep us alive. We want characters who get their hands dirty every day; people who aren’t too proud to work their bodies at least as hard as their minds.

We welcome and strongly encourage submissions with underrepresented main characters: characters of color, LGBTQ characters, women characters, etc.!

And:

Winter Well: Speculative Novellas of Older Women

We’re looking for speculative stories featuring women of advancing age (late middle age and older). They’re smart, they’re tough, and they have wills of their own.

They may be warriors, politicians, adventurers, etc. Even if they are also wives, mothers, wise women or healers, those archetypes must not be their defining characteristics. Their motivations, their driving force, must be their own. Whatever was in their past, they’re not interested in being in the background now.

We want stories about women breaking free of suppression; we also want stories of women who’ve been empowered all their lives.