Deadline: January 1st 2014
Payment: 5 cents per word

March–A Night at the Villa Diodati

During the Summer of Darkness in 1816, literary giants includng George Lord Byron, Percy Bysshe Shelley, Mary Shelley, and John Polidori embarked upon a contest to write the scariest story. The contest resulted in the writing of Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein and Pollodori’s lesser known tale The Vampyre. Both were the first novels to introduce two horror staples–the reanimated man and the vampire. So what does this have to do with Penumbra? We want an issue filled with stories that we could have told to these masters by candlelight, pausing occasionally to wet our throats with wine as we read the stories aloud. We want the 19th century elegance paired with the creation of new horror staples in the 21st century. We do NOT want to see stories about vampires, werewolves, re-animated humans/zombies. So channel Byron and Shelley, and write a story worthy of the Villa Diodati.

CALL BEGINS NOVEMBER 1, 2013
CALL ENDS JANUARY 1, 2014

 

 

Penumbra is looking for original, unpublished stories of 3500 words or less. We prefer that writers use Standard Manuscript Format for submissions. (You can read this article by Chuck Rothman on the SFWA site on preparing a manuscript for submission if you are unfamiliar with SMF.)

Please send your stories as file attachments in .rtf or .doc formats only. Please include a cover letter in the body of your email, with the manuscript title, you pen name if applicable, the exact word count of the story not including title and byline, and a publication history if applicable.

Penumbra is a professional rates paying publisher, paying 5 cents per word.

We will evaluate poetry submissions for each issue. We will also consider previously published stories with rights reverted to the author.

Penumbra has multiple issue calls open at the same time, therefore it is imperative that you include the issue theme in the subject line of your email. Submissions that do not include this information risk getting lost in our queue and not read before the deadline.

Penumbra uses Musa Publishing’s house style guide, which relies upon the Chicago Manual of Style. All accepted stories will be edited to reflect Musa house style.

If you have never been published before, please tell us. Penumbra likes publishing new authors as much as we like publishing experienced authors. Every month, we select one of the best stories from an author with little or no publishing experience and feature that story and author as our Rising Talent recipient for the month. The Rising Talent author’s story, biography, and a non-fiction essay will be featured on our website for a full year, as well as spotlighted in the Penumbra issue for that month.

We absolutely do not accept fan fiction.

Penumbra accepts both agented and unagented submissions. If you have any questions or need further information, please contact us at [email protected]..

[via: Penumbra Magazine.]