The company Rosarium Publishing is looking to create an anthology of short stories called THE SEA IS OURS, and they are holding open submissions to fill it. The stories should be in the Steampunk genre, but they also need to focus on characters from Southeast Asia or a Southeast Asia like place, if you want to write a story set in a completely fictional world.

I think this is an interesting project, and I enjoy any type of writing project that opens the door to exploring cultures outside of the West. I feel that one of the major problems with fantasy (and in many ways sci-fi) is its Western focus and mentality. In the case of traditional fantasy, too many stories and settings attempt to emulate or are overly inspired by Tolkien’s Lord of the Rings, making them essentially all inspired by the medieval West.

Similarly in steampunk…