PENCRAFT

Project DBJ

(As of 7, April 2008)
Call Expires Date:
 June 1st, 2008           Final Day for Query Submittal
                                   Initial Pitches to Agents & Publishers
July 1st, 2008            Final Day for First Submission
August. 1st, 2008     Final Day for Final Submission
                                   Selection of Agent / Publisher due
Sept. 1st, 2008         Submission of Finals to Publisher
Setting:
 Fictional Setting:  The Double Bar J is a medium sized 4800 acre (15 miles per side on the property line) ranch in South Western Idaho, " On the Bench" in Gem County, ... Runs fruit orchards consisting of peaches, apples, plums, and grapes, a small winery, a packing warehouse, mustang horses, and an experimental charlaise -- long horn cross of cattle for the U of I.  Obtains water from the canals out of Black Canyon Dam and Resevoir. 

Stories may be placed any time between 1970 and 2010.  Characters can wander anywhere, but mainly in the Pacific and Mountain areas of the USA, but have to tie back to the DBJ.

The main building of the DBJ is the family homestead, currently owned by Mark and Kathy.  This is a plaster and lathe house with many additions from different eras, and lots of trees and lawn. Some equipment sheds but not many.  Not far off down the road is the winery building, sales office, tasing room, and open air farmer's market, where other ranchers sell their produce along side theirs.

The secondary building of the DBJ is the "Bunk House" The Bunk House is in the middle of the property, designed and built by Kathy's older brother, David.  It is a very large adobe building with a modern office, self sufficiency wind and solar power generation, deep water wells, and about 10 2 bedroom ultra modern apartments for the ranch hands and visitors to stay in.  David lives here. Most of the equipment sheds and corrals are here too.
Previous Works to Study:
 Syringa Blossoms  Denise and Mitch's wedding and how the family inter-relates. General fiction, general romance.  Story has ended as first runner up in 4 contests, and is written in Slick Style.

Meaningless Trophies.  Some of Uncle David's past comes back to haunt him and ends up igniting an emotional range war with an old flame. General fiction, general romance.  Story is written in a Pulp and Slick cross style. Intended to be included in this anthology.

When an author's query pitch is selected, a MS word copy of these two stories will be provided for the author to familiarize themselves with the theme, the setting, and the characters.
Restricted Characters:

If you choose Uncle David, Mark, Kathy, or Denise to be in your story it must agree with the main two stories.
 David -- 300 lb typical Western Hero personality.  Has had 2 heart attacks, and sold the ranch to Kathy and Mark.  Was known in younger days as a world class rodeo steer wrestler.   The Only Large person in the family. He is a genetic throwback of some 4 or 5 generations, most of the time nearly as strong as a bull, but no stamina since his heart attacks. Writes poetry,  loves to camp, canoe, garden and is an amature astronomer.  He is a massive unrepentant flirt, and has a love interest in a younger woman in Odessa Ukraine by the name of Lena with a little girl. 

Open Characters:
 Lena & her daughter Yana --- David's love interest
Kathy & Mark --- David's younger sister and her husband
Denise & Mitch -- David's neice by Kathy and Mark
Vikky -- David's youngest neice, 10 y/o
Sharon -- Evil ex girl friend of David.  Wants the DBJ to sell it off and to give David a killing heart attack.  When David turned her down in Meaningless Trophies, she declared him to be a liar, and was starting a range war to get the DBJ.
Daniel WolfBane & Alan Treeman --- David's room mates from his undergraduate studies in Portland.  They were roomed together because they were all from Idaho. Both are corporate lawyers semi-retired now.  Daniel WolfBane just happens to be a Northern Shoshone tribe member, and Alan Treeman happens to be a Southern Bannock tribe member.
Theme:
 "Love develops even in the middle of a modern range war."

Plot:
 Authors are free to create their own plots around the general Theme of the anthology.
Conflict:
 Authors are free to include their own conflict, internal and external as long as    the background progresses the overall story of the emotional range war.
Additional Information:
 The targeted length of the final book will be between 60K to 90K words.  I'm looking for 6 to 10 great ideas to fill in the details of the family fall out in the emotional range war between David and Sharon. I have some very strong ideas developed about David's character but feel free to center a romantic short story around any of the characters.  Just tell me in 300 words or less what you want to do.
Marketing:
 Publisher:  --- provide the sales page, and contacts with the book sellers.  Will look for a publisher who will do both traditional print and E-books.
Pencraft:    --- provide a landing page web site to connect to the Publisher page. Links back to the authors home pages, will include the page in full pencraft online publicity efforts.
Authors & Artists:  -- provide a link from their home pages to the Pencraft landing page.  They responsible for individual efforts such as interviews, book tours, etc. 
COPYRIGHT:  Copyright on the overall collection as an anthology will be held by the anthologist.  Authors and Artists retain all rights to their works.  Authors and Artists grant a world wide print and electronic publication liscense for this anthology.
Revenue: Equal Share among authors & artists  --- not a % of contributions or words or art work count.  It is a final count of participants:  6 authors and 3 artists means the revenue share will be divided 9 ways.
Art Work:
 Open Submissions-- reproducable medium
Genre:
 Authors may choose any genre they are comfortable with.  If you want to give the villianess a female lover in your story, we will consider it.  If you want to have one of the hero's be a werewolf who eats cattle rustlers for fun, we will consider it.
Anthologist:
 M. D. Johnson
Query / Pitch Email:
 mdjohnson@pencraft.biz    Please put DBJ Query in the subject line of your email.



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