Last year, CKP published the wildly successful anthology, “Express Elevator to Hell.” This post is to invite you to participate in the open submission period for the second volume of the Universes at War series: “Running with Sharp Things.”

What it is: Every story in this anthology will have some sort of bladed weapon featured prominently in a scifi short story, but it can be whatever you want—someone who throws knives, uses swords in a boarding action, mechas with blades, or whatever else you come up with. It just needs “sharp things” somewhere in the story.

The rules: The rules are the same as all CKP anthologies—a scifi short story, 7-10k words, that includes the theme, submitted to Chris Kennedy in a Word document (single spaced, Times New Roman font). Submissions should be sent to chris [dot] kennedy12 [@] gmail [dot] com (minus the brackets). There will be 11 invited authors, and by submitting, you are competing for one of the additional four slots that are open for submission. The best four short stories chosen by a panel of judges will be offered slots in the anthology.

Stories must be received by October 15, 2025, with a publication date in December, 2025. The cover will once again be done by J Caleb Design (who did the first one).

Good luck to all!