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Avast, ye scurvy dogs! It’s time to plunder! Pirates have enchanted and haunted readers for generations, from Robert Louis Stevenson’s Treasure Island to the ill-fated Firefly. Whether it’s Blackbeard, Mal, or Han Solo, we love our swashbucklers, our One-Eyed Willies, and our scruffy-looking nerfherders. In SKULL X BONES, we want writers to give us their best science fiction or fantasy pirates, whether they be on the sailing ships of the deep wide ocean or the spaceships of the black void!

SKULL X BONES is to feature science fiction, fantasy, or urban fantasy stories where the story revolves around pirates. We would like a wide variety of genre settings for this anthology. In other words, we don’t want the entire anthology to be urban fantasy settings; we are actively seeking science fiction and fantasy. There must be some science fiction or fantasy element to the story; it cannot simply feature pirates at sea. As always, we are looking for a range of tones, from humorous all the way up to dark. We welcome submissions from diverse voices. We DO NOT accept anything that includes gratuitous violence or sex. If you really want to know what we like, read our previously-published themed anthologies.