Deadline: September 1st, 2015
Payment: Contributor’s Copy
Note: Reprints Welcome

FICTION
We at the Great Lakes Association of Horror Writers (GLAHW) are looking for stories that are well written and character driven, preferably with a Michigan or Great Lakes connection, but any well written story with a dark side has a chance with us.

All stories need to be Horror, Dark Sci-Fi, Dark Fantasy, or Dark Humor, especially Dark Humor. If you can make us laugh and creep us out at the same time, you have a good chance of acceptance.

Please don’t send us sword & sorcery or space opera stories. Tolkien and Lucas have their place, but not here. Also, we don’t and can’t accept “fan fiction” which includes anything based on a video game, book, movie or any other creator’s work or conception unless you have written permission from the creator. If you don’t own the copyright to the characters in your story, we cannot publish your work. By submitting to GLAHW you, as the author of the work, accept responsibility for any possible copyright infringement.

Please don’t send us “Slash”, “Fem-Slash” or anything graphic sexual descriptions. Sex is okay as long as it’s integral to the story, but don’t overdo it. Please don’t use gore for gore’s sake.

Again, gore is okay as long as it’s integral to the story. After all, we are horror writers.

Though we cringe at the thought of violence toward children or pets, we understand that this type of violence does occur in real life, but please make sure it’s integral to your story. Any story that insinuates an act of sexual violence between an adult and a child will be automatically rejected.

Please use spell check and proof your work before sending to us. As writers, we should be doing this already, but it surprises us how often this is not done. Multiple submissions are okay but please send them under a separate email. Also, only three submissions per author per reading period. Simultaneous submissions are also okay as long as you let us know if you sell your story elsewhere.

FORMATTING

Stories should be between 500 – 6,000 words. This word count is firm. Stories above this word limit will be deleted unread. If you have a story shorter than this, please query.

Please follow proper manuscript format. If you don’t know what proper manuscript format is, please follow this link. http://www.shunn.net/format/story.html

Specifically what we are looking for is as follows:
• Use Courier New or Times New Roman fonts only.
• Double space between lines.
• Indent paragraphs.
• No extra space between paragraphs.
• All words meant to be italicized, bolded, or underlined in the final print, please make sure they are italicized, bolded or underlined in your manuscript.
• All stories must be submitted as an attachment in.doc, .docx or .rtf.

Stories should be submitted as an attachment in either MS Word or Rich Text Format. Stories submitted in the body of an email will be deleted unread.

Please be aware that we reserve the right to reformat your story as necessary to fit the specific format for our magazine. We will not rewrite your story, but on occasion, we may have to alter line placement to eliminate blank space. We may also center all lines or right and left justify them. If you have a problem with this, please do not submit to us.

POETRY

Poetry submissions are being considered. You can submit up to three poems per reading period.

Please attach them to the email as .doc, .docx or .rtf file. Poems can be up to fifty lines each. We will consider poems for Editor’s choice, but it will take a very special poem to be given this title.

Please do not submit poetry inside of an object such as a photo or drawing. If you have a problem with this, please do not submit to us.

Please be aware that we reserve the right to reformat your story or poem as necessary to fit the specific format for our anthology. We will not rewrite your story or poem, but we may have to alter line placement. We will ask if the special formatting is key to the understanding of your piece, but we may not. If you have a problem with this, please do not submit to us. Poems sent in the body of an email will be deleted unread.

ARTWORK

At this time, full color cover artwork will be accepted from GLAHW members only.

Interior artwork must be your original work and in black and white only, no color artwork will be accepted for the interior of the magazine. And it should go without saying that the artwork should be horror related, but we cannot accept anything with graphic nudity or sex. Dark Humor is always of interest to us, so if you have a comic of dark humor send it along, as long as it is no more than six frames.

All artwork needs to be in JPEG format and attached to the email.

PHOTOGRAPHS

We are also accepting black and white photographs for this magazine. All photographs must be original and creepy, but again, just like the artwork we cannot accept anything with graphic nudity or sex.

Photographs needs to be in JPEG format and attached to the email. If you are a GLAHW member feel free to send your photograph for consideration for the cover.

RIGHTS

We are asking for non-exclusive First North American Print and Digital Rights.

REPRINTS

We do accept reprint for inclusion in our magazine. Please tell us at the time of the submission when and where your work first appeared.

PAYMENT

All acceptances will receive one (1) Contributor’s Copy and our humble thanks.

SUBMISSION

With all submissions, please include a short 100-150 word bio. Stories must be attached to the email, not within the body. We are permitting up to three submissions for either poetry or fiction but please send them under a separate email with individual bios. Simultaneous submissions are also okay as long as you let us know if you sell your story elsewhere.

Upon acceptance of your piece into the anthology, a contract will be emailed. It can be mailed back via US Post, but we must receive it within two weeks after initial acceptance.

Your email subject header should read SURNAME/TITLE – GHOSTLIGHT SUBMISSIONS and sent to [email protected]

RETURN TIME

Please give us one month to review your story. If you have not heard from us after six weeks one way or the other, please feel free to send us an email. Send all submissions and/or inquiries to [email protected]. We will not accept snail mail submissions. We look forward to reading your work and thank you for giving us the honor.

Via: Great Lakes Association Of Horror Writers