Kunlun Journal of Chinese Historical Fiction -- Now Accepting Submissions

[John Dishon]

I don't know how many here will be interested in this, but anyway:

 

I started an online literary journal dedicated to wuxia and other Chinese historical fiction. I'm currently accepting submissions for the first issue. Submission guidelines are here. Although Chinese fiction is the focus of the journal, I'll also accept stories set in Japan, Korea, Vietnam, etc. Aside from being set in an historical time, there is no restriction regarding genre. 

 

I'm preparing a special introductory issue to give readers a sense of what the journal will be like. I hope to release that issue next week. You can see the cover for that issue below.

 

http://kunlunjournal.blogspot.com

 

[John Dishon]

Martial arts stuff is find, but so is any other genre. Mysteries, romance, whatever. Everything goes as far as genre is concerned. 

 

Thanks about the cover. I'm not a professional, but design and layout are hobbies of mine.

[I. J. Parker]

But I take it the subject will be "martial arts" style?  Warriors.  Battles.  Quests.  As for example, ronin stories in Japan, or ninja tales. Possibly that could include mysteries.

The subject matter should appeal to a large audience here.  And again, that cover has great class.

[John Dishon]

That sucks. It's so boring to have so few shows that really go into a topic in a realistic way. That's one of the reasons I no longer watch TV.

A Chinese character in another country is fine as long as it's not a modern setting (specifically, this means sometime before the end of the Qing dynasty in China, which was 1912).

[John McFetridge]

John, the show I worked on, The Bridge, aired all 13 episodes in Canada (and Australia and France and a few other countries) but was cancelled after two weeks in the USA. There was talk of a second season but that hasn't gone anywhere.

 

The truth is, it wasn't a very good show. It was going to be difficult, political material, going after some issues that don't often get discussed - and then we discovered no one wanted to talk about tough issues ;)

 

About your magazine, do the stories have to be set in China and surrounding areas, or can they feature Chinese characters anywhere in the world?

[John Dishon]

Thanks for the well wishes everybody. 

 

There's not much Chinese historical fiction being written in English, which is one of the reasons I started this journal -- to encourage more writing of this nature. Hopefully I'll be able to draw together the various readers and writers who are interested in this genre, as well as cultivate a new audience. It's been a dream of mine for a while to start my own publication, so I'm pretty excited.

 

John, how is that TV show you're working on going? I'm guessing it's been out for a while now? 

[John McFetridge]

Looks very good, John, good luck with it.

 

 

[I. J. Parker]

Oops!  I see it's historical fiction, but even so, most of my reading of Chinese fiction has been of works that were contemporary, even if they date back a few hundred years.

I do own Van Gulik's translation of a compendium of criminal cases that were gathered over the centuries.

Now I wonder if there is much historical fiction being written by modern Chinese authors.

[I. J. Parker]

Thanks, cj, but I think this will be general fiction and by Chinese (etc).  I'm not really up on modern Chinese authors.

[cj forrest]

You should know, IJ.  This is kinda your expertise.

[I. J. Parker]

Oh, that looks very interesting.  Wishing you great success!  Great cover!