Several interesting items for our readership and our submitters follow. First, I note many more submissions from authors living outside of the U. S. Anotherealm welcomes them. I've published several and will continue to do so. However, payment for all stories comes from my checking account in US dollars on standard, old-fashioned, paper checks via the US Postal Service. Anotherealm pays on publication (rather than acceptance) and has no control over delivery delays, exchange rate vagaries, or currency conversion delays. We don't use PayPal (don't trust it) or any other online, money transferring system.

Second, you may be wondering how I determine which stories to publish each year. Note that anotherealm does not "reject" stories. We simply choose those tales that best fit our needs for the upcoming year. Stories that will never fit our needs include:

1. Stories with misspellings or gross grammatical or stylistic errors. (Hints: use a spell checker program. Refer to earlier editions--that is, a pre-political correctness edition--of Strunk and White's Elements of Style. A free version of the First Edition is available online.)

2. Stories that include gratuitous (unnecessary to the story) sex or gore. (And, yes, that means stuff that I find offensive.)

3. Stories that too closely match already published works. (Don't plagiarize others' ideas.)

4. Chestnut stories (that is, overdone tales about vampires, werewolves, zombies. If you're gonna write about these, originality is paramount. Good luck.)

Third, fantasy tales we get lots of. Horror submissions are a close second. Hard science fiction--not so much. We love all of these types of fiction but your best chance of publication might be well-written sci-fi.

Finally, anotherealm is a hobby--a labor of love for me and for our webmaster. I am 70 and still working a "real" job. Please be patient when you submit your stories. It may take me a while to respond. When your story gets published, please wait until the end of the publication month to ask about your stipend. But do email me with a reminder if you don't receive payment by then. Age and memory lapses occupy the same lump atop my neck.

Thank you for your attention.

Gary A. Markette

Senior editor, Anotherealm.com

Wordslinger enterprises

gmarkette@aol.com