Homework: Goblin Souk

Cedar Sanderson gives you your assignment

We’ve had a lot of fun dipping our toes into the world of fae marketplaces. Goblin Market and Goblin Bazaar wove tales about back alley deals with vendors whose doors are only open in those times between times. For our third installment, Goblin Souk, editor Cedar Sanderson wants you to push through liminal spaces and explore the fantastic new realms.

See all are open submissions here.

Goblins need not be the pop culture idea of green, greedy, and miniature. The concept behind a goblin is an earth-dwelling tricky spirit. Like so many of the fae, they love to make a bargain, which is where the original Goblin Market concept came from, and from the Christina Rosetti poem. Dealing with the uncanny is always a chancy business, and the stories that have appeared in the previous anthologies told of the markets, the deals, and the souls lost or won in the balances.

A roc’s egg, or ruhk if you’re feeling exotic.

This anthology, though, is set in a different part of the world. The shimmering heat of the desert, the silken robed throngs making their way into the souk, where the known world comes to trade. Here is the world of the djinn, the ifrit, the haboob dust storm that raises the hair on the back of one’s neck and drives everything before it seeking shelter. The souk is timeless, and stories might be historical, or future, or the prosaic present with the glittering eyes of the far-seeing peeking around a shadowed corner. This is a mysterious, exotic place, and we are looking for stories that reflect that!

Heel? Sit?

Want ideas?

Read Arabian Nights, the older the version the better. Here’s a public domain one for free! https://www.gutenberg.org/files/34206/34206-h/34206-h.htm

Consider the Silk Roads, and their routes, the caravanserai in the wild and wonderful corners of forgotten kingdoms.

All the world’s goods and services pass through the souk, from Africa and Asia through to Europe and back again, an endless tide of trade. There are stories waiting for you to tell them, of legendary deals, and the creatures who offer truly incredible wares.