The Horror Tree Recent Markets, Articles, Interviews, and Fiction!

Artwork / Events / Flash / Flat Amount / Magazine / Reprints Allowed

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Taking Submissions: Cosmic Roots And Eldritch Shores February 2025 Window

Submission Window: February 1st-2nd, 2025
Payment: 8 cents per word for original, 2 cents for reprints, For artwork: $10 for the non-exclusive right to use each image, for as long as the site is online.  If we publish a print collection we will pay a pro-rata share for each image used.
Theme: Well written original work in science fiction, fantasy, myth, legend, fairy tales, and eldritch, in written, podcast, video, and/or graphic story form, and from around the world.
Note: Reprints welcome

 

 

Submissions Schedule

The first and second day of every month, 12 am of the 1st to 12 am of the 3rd, E.S.T.

For reading impaired individuals, our submissions manager and ‘forget password’ have a captcha compatible with screen readers.

We pay 8¢ per word for new fiction, 2¢ per word for fiction reprints, 2 – 8¢ per word for new fact-based work, 1- 4¢ per word for reprinted fact articles.
For new poetry, we pay $1 per line, and for reprints we pay 50¢ a line  We’re looking for poems up to 40 lines. We’ll consider longer poems but that would be a hard sell, and words over 40 lines would be paid at 8¢ per word.

We sponsor The Kepler Award to recognize and encourage writers of excellent science fiction and fantasy stories that creatively extrapolate on known science in constructive and exciting ways. You can learn aboutThe Kepler Award here.

You can read a copy of our standard contract here.   It can be varied as needed to include the rights of translators, voice actors, etc.

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Events / Flat Amount / Magazine / Reprints Allowed

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Taking Submissions: parABnormal Magazine 2025 – First Call

Submission Window: February 1st – March 31st, 2025
Payment: Fiction: $25.00 for original stories, $7.00 for reprints, $6.00 for each poem, $20.00 for original articles, $6.00 for reprints. $7.00 for reviews and interviews.
Theme: Paranormal – this includes ghosts, spectres, haunts, various whisperers, and so forth. It also includes shapeshifters and creatures from various folklores.

Submissions are accepted Feb 1 – Mar 31, Jun 1 – Jul 31, Oct 1 – Nov 30.

Anything submitted outside those periods will be deleted unread.

We no longer accept simultaneous or multiple submissions.

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No matter how far we move forward as humans, we are still bound by the instincts and ancestral memories of our animalistic past. None of these are so strong as the fight or flight response. However, there are times when we seem to be perfectly safe, completely at ease and comfortable, when that urge to run from something sneaks up on us. What causes these sensations? Is there something lurking in the darkness? Why is that man giving you the creeps, he’s not even looking at you? And yet, there is something odd. Something instinctual, something you know without fully understanding. We may have moved on, we may have forgotten and left behind those old stories and legends of beasts, voracious monsters, and dark spirits… But they have not forgotten or left us…

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Articles

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Writing Prompt Wednesdays: Beneath The Ice

Writing Prompt Wednesdays: Writing Prompt Wednesdays: Beneath The Ice

Welcome to “Writing Prompt Wednesdays,” a haven where your imagination can roam free in the realms of speculative fiction. As we embark on this weekly journey, it’s thrilling to think about the untold stories waiting to be penned in the domains of horror, science fiction, and fantasy. Whether you’re a seasoned author or a budding wordsmith, these prompts are your gateway to unexplored worlds and untapped potentials.

Every Wednesday, we’ll serve up a fresh, thought-provoking prompt designed to ignite your creative spark and challenge your storytelling prowess. Think of these prompts as a key, unlocking the doors to uncharted territories where your creativity is the only limit. From eerie, shadow-laden corridors of Gothic horror to the farthest reaches of interstellar space, and the mystical depths of high fantasy, our prompts are a kaleidoscope of possibilities.

Remember, there’s no right or wrong way to approach these prompts. They are mere stepping stones, guiding you towards the vast landscapes of your imagination. Use them to break free from writer’s block, to experiment with new ideas, or simply as a fun exercise to keep your writing skills sharp.

This week’s writing prompt:

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Anthology / Flash / Semipro

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Taking Submissions: Patterns

Deadline: May 31st, 2025
Payment: $0.01 per word
Theme: Dark stories with the theme of patterns

PATTERNS

Submission window now open.

Deadline: May 31st 2025

We’re looking for dark stories (2-4k words) on the theme of patterns.

Please interpret this theme however you like. Write us a quiet mood piece or an action-packed powerful, character-driven story. Make it humorous or as dark as the night. Send us your best speculative, horror, dark fantasy or dark sci-fi stories, as long as it’s full of the feels. We are not, however, the market for violent, bloody, racist, homophobic, or masochistic fiction. And no poetry please, just short fiction.

Some ideas: the pattern could be in the narrative technique (fragmentation, mirror writing, foreshadowing, meta-fictional repetition), the thematic composition (think cycles of death and birth, family curses, sin and retribution) for example. Or how about incorporating chants, supernatural rituals, or echoes in your prose? A story with temporal patterns in it might float our boat (although be careful, we don’t want our inbox flooded with time loops and cyclical stories, unless done exceptionally well or with a novel twist). Seasonal patterns, recurring times, patterns in nature, patterns in objects which feature in your tale, geographical patterns, repetitive architecture, patterns in weather, behavioural ticks, recurring nightmares, obsessions…any tenuous link will do, just make it your best work and give it a good edit prior to sending it our way. You get the idea. Surprise us.

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Anthology / Events / Royalties

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Taking Submissions: Wyrd Warfare

Deadline: February 9th, 2024
Payment: Royalties
Theme: Wyrd/Weird combat stories

Wyrd Warfare
Edited by Christopher DiNote

Combat! Arcane action! War and wizardry! More combat, but wyrd! Experience trench warfare with fixed bayonets, zombies, and arcane technologies. Discover why U-boats aren’t the only danger in the North Atlantic. Something stalks the jungle patrol. What happens when knowledge of things Mankind was not meant to know is used for war? Gasp in horror at Cryptid Combat! What was really unleashed during the Trinity A-bomb test? Make sure to do your homework!

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Articles / Interviews

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An Interview With R. Haven

  Author R. Berry has been writing since the age of 9. He has written several novels and shorts stories. His work explores not only queer themes but also video games, rogues, and even horror recipes! A lot of fun to talk to and read (go check out www.theirritablequeer.com), we discuss writing, life and what makes Berry tick. Berry also discusses his forthcoming book The Other Face of Sympathy coming out September of 2025 with Renaissance Publishing.

      His new novel shows how traumas can turn people into monsters. His trans protagonist, Edward Barrett, discovers various diaries of trauma victims and follows them into darkness. There are trigger warnings listed.

You can watch the interview below:
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Events / Novel / Royalties

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Wild Hunt Books is Temporarily Open to Unagented Novel Submissions

Deadline: January 26th, 2025
Payment: Royalties
Themes: Stories that experiment with narrative, plot and structure. in darker genres

Wild Hunt Books are open to unagented submissions from 13-26 January 2025. For this submission period we are looking for novels only (50K-90K words with a grace of 1000 words, over/under). We are only looking for standalone novels and are not acquiring series or duologies. We are not seeking short story collections or novellas this time. We are not a home for poetry, non-fiction, screenplays, translations, and children’s or YA fiction.

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Anthology / Events / Flash / Flat Amount

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Taking Submissions: Shenandoah Valley Fantastic

Submission Window: February 1st – April 30th, 2025
Payment: $20
Theme: Speculative fiction that takes place in the Shenandoah Valley (defined as the Virginia counties of Augusta, Clarke, Frederick, Page, Rockbridge, Rockingham, Shenandoah, and Warren; the West Virginia counties of Berkeley and Jefferson; the independent cities of Harrisonburg, Lexington, Staunton, Waynesboro, and Winchester; The Shenandoah National Park; The George Washington National Forest.)

What We Want: Shenandoah Valley Fantastic seeks strange and wondrous speculative fiction that transforms our beloved region into a realm of mystery, magic, and the unexpected. From witches haunting Winchester’s historic alleys to spectral happenings on the Field of Lost Shoes, we invite you to re-imagine the Valley’s rich landscapes and legends.

Envision Shenandoah National Park as a forbidden, fey-infused forest, where wayward travelers encounter creatures older than the hills. What if Duke Dog Alley were a portal to another world? Suppose Cooter’s become a crossroad for supernatural beings—a place where ghosts and wanderers alike grab a bite before moving on to unknown realms. Picture the storied halls of Washington & Lee as a secret training ground for the next generation of spellcasters, with campus traditions hiding dark rites and hidden powers.

Let your imagination run wild with stories that blend the supernatural with our natural splendor. We welcome tales of magic and mystery, terror and transformation—grounded in the historic sites, natural wonders, and quirky landmarks that make the Shenandoah Valley unforgettable. If your story will make readers see the Valley in a new, eerie light, we want to read it.

What We Don’t Want:Your trunk stories with a couple of references to the Valley bolted on.

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