by Stuart Conover | Jul 17, 2018 | Anthology, Events, Token Payment
Deadline: September 30th, 2018
Payment: 1 cent per word
The Basics
Autonomous Press seeks submissions of poetry, short fiction, and short memoir pieces for an upcoming anthology, Spoon Knife 4: A Neurodivergent Guide to Spacetime.
Scheduled for publication in Spring 2019, this fourth volume of the Spoon Knife Anthology series follows The Spoon Knife Anthology: Tales of Compliance, Defiance, and Resistance (Spring 2016), Spoon Knife 2: Test Chamber (Spring 2017), and Spoon Knife 3: Incursions (Spring 2018).
Deadline for submissions is September 30, 2018.
What We’re Looking For
As people, we’re drawn to both telling stories and listening to the stories of others. Navigating life can be joyous, frustrating, frightening, sorrowful, and complex. Among all these realities we usually find one truth that always remains: the unknown. And what do we do when confronted with the unknown? We might fear it, try to avoid it entirely, or charge towards it with aplomb or gusto.
Speculative fiction has long dealt with themes surrounding the unknown. Sci-fi and fantasy themes have allowed their creators to conceptualize how space and time can exist, merge, warp, or even disappear in strange and terrifying ways. How in the hell do you map a black hole? Can you really kill your own grandfather? And what happens if your past self travels forward and meets the present iteration of you? What do past, present, and future even mean?
Those are just a few thoughts, but we’re basically looking for work that examines and explores two fundamental ideas: time and space. Moreover, we want work that engages with themes of neurodivergence, queerness, and/or the intersections of neurodivergence and queerness. These might include, but are not limited to, themes such as:
- Travel through time and space via technological methods (vortex manipulators, star ships, big blue boxes, etc.)
- Involuntary acts of time travel through PTSD-related mental/emotional trauma
- Deliberately journeying/revisiting through memories in one’s own timeline
- “Slipping” through time and/or space via astral projection, quantum jumping, or other non-tech means (such as in Octavia Butler’s Kindred)
- Outcomes and consequences of changing past events
- Meeting one’s past/future selves
The Editor
Spoon Knife 4: A Neurodivergent Guide to Spacetime will be edited by N.I. Nicholson.
N.I. Nicholson is collectively four cats in a human suit, as well as a legal and pen name under which members of the Teselecta Multiverse publish poetry, creative nonfiction, and essays. Nicholson’s work has appeared in publications such as GTK Creative Journal, Alphanumeric, and Assaracus. Editorial work includes collaborating with V.E. Maday to produce Barking Sycamores, a journal for neurodivergent literature, and bringing transformative works to print on Autonomous Press’ NeuroQueer Books imprint. Stay tuned for Nicholson’s first full length poetry collection, Time Travel in a Closet.
Format and Length
Fiction and Memoir: We’re looking 10,000 words or less of fully-polished prose, submitted in standard manuscript format (title page with contact info, double-spaced Times New Roman 12-point font, pages numbered with either title or author’s name in the header.)
Poetry: You may submit up 5 pieces of any length and style, provided they fit the theme of this collection.
All submissions must be in a Word-compatible format (.doc, .docx, .odt).
When and How to Submit
Submissions are now open. Please submit your work no later than Sunday, September 30, 2018.
Authors will be notified of their acceptance or rejection around the end of the year.
Payment for accepted submissions will be 1 cent per word, to be sent by check during the first quarter of 2019.
Email all submissions to [email protected].
When submitting your work, please put in the subject line one of the following:
- “Spoon Knife 4 Submission – Fiction”
- “Spoon Knife 4 Submission – Memoir”
- “Spoon Knife 4 Submission – Poetry”
Also, please include a cover letter that clearly specifies the name under which you want to be credited, along with a 3-4 sentence bio written in the third person. The name and bio should be typed exactly as you want them to appear in the book.
Via: Autonomous Press.
by Stuart Conover | Jul 17, 2018 | Audio, Flat Amount, Ongoing Submissions, Online
Payment: $75 for fiction, $35 for flash or reprints
Are you Black? It doesn’t matter what part of the world you’re from, or where you are now–as long as you’re Black and you write horror, you are welcome to submit!
Here’s what you need to know:
- Short story submissions should be between 4,000 and 5,000 words.
- We may occasionally do flash fiction episodes, so feel free to submit shorter stories–it just may be a bit longer before your story airs.
- We’ll pay you when the story is narrated. This typically happens 2-4 weeks before the episode with your story goes live. You can offer to narrate your own story, but keep in mind we may choose another narrator if we feel sound quality or style doesn’t match our brand.
- Simultaneous submissions are okay, but we respond pretty quickly (currently 5-7 days). Just let us know if you found another home for your work ASAP.
- We pay for exclusive audio and electronic publishing rights for 6 months after the air date.
- We also reserve the right to continue to broadcast, promote, and/or link to your story on our website/podcast, but after six months, you can publish your story in any format elsewhere.
- We accept reprints that have not been published in audio format previously. Just let us know your story has appeared elsewhere and where so we can credit properly.
- We do have plans to eventually publish “Best Of” anthologies. Should we decide to include your piece, we’ll ask your permission first and you’ll be paid for inclusion.
If you have any questions, hit us up on Twitter @nightlightpod.
HOW WE PAY
- If we accept your short story, we’ll pay you $75. We send money via Venmo and the Cash App, but can also do PayPal if you don’t have Venmo or Cash (but we super don’t want to).
- Flash fiction is paid at $35 per story.
- Reprints are paid $35 per story.
HOW TO SUBMIT
To submit your story, email tonia [at] nightlightpod.com with the subject line NIGHTLIGHT: Submission [Story Title].
Please make sure you attach a PDF or Word doc of your story in standard manuscript format, although you can omit your mailing address.
You don’t need to say anything fancy in the email. Just tell me your name, which of your birth parents are Black (we not doing any Rachel Dolezal ish up in here), and anything else you think is interesting about you.
Want to Perform a Story For Us?
If you want to apply to be a narrator for NIGHTLIGHT, email tonia [at] nightlightpod.com with the subject line NIGHTLIGHT NARRATOR: [Your Name] with a link to a sample of your work. Please let us know if you are a member of another marginalized community (LGBTQIA, Muslim, Disabled, etc) so we can reach out to you for stories which feature characters in your community. Voice actors are paid $25 per episode.
Via: Nightlight Podcast.
by Stuart Conover | Jul 16, 2018 | Events, Flat Amount, Magazine
Deadline: October 15th, 2018
Payment: $20 per story
Please don’t query us about your story submission. We don’t have the manpower to answer such queries. An editor will email you back as soon as possible with the decision about your story. This can take a few days, or, up to three months. We make every effort to get back to authors in a timely manner but we get a lot of submissions so sometimes it’s not possible.
A note on our editorial policy: before publication we may edit the story for length or readability. However, we always remain true to the spirit of the story.
Issues are published at the end of February, May, August, and November. We reserve the right to shift publication date slightly, as necessary.
We have reading periods for each issue, though we never close to submissions.
February closes January 15
May closes April 15
August closes July 15
November closes October 15
Please do not submit the same story more than once, and please submit only one story at a time.
We consider any story between 250 and 7000 words with speculative fiction elements. We prefer science fiction, fantasy, and the macabre, but we’re willing to push the limits of traditional forms of these genres.
We do not consider poetry, stories with over-the-top sex or violence, serials, novels, fan fiction, or non-fiction. We don’t accept multiple submissions; in other words, only submit one story at a time and wait for a response before submitting another. We accept simultaneous submissions as long as you let us know up front and tell us as soon as it’s accepted elsewhere. We do not publish reprints, including anything that has appeared on a website.
We pay $20 for each story we publish. We buy first-printing world exclusive rights for four months. Payment will be made shortly after publication using PayPal. We encourage our authors to establish a PayPal account if they don’t already have one.
We prefer to read submissions in traditional manuscript format. This means indented paragraphs instead of left justification, and Courier or Times New Roman font in 12 pt, double-spaced. Also, please include the title, your name, address, and word length on the first page of your story.
To submit your story to Electric Spec, e-mail it as an attachment in Rich Text Format (RTF) to submissions at electricspec (dot) com. Use the following subject line: SUBMISSION:Story Title by Author’s Name (Word Count). In the body of the e-mail, include writing credits, if any, and the word count of the story. With the proliferation of viruses on the Internet, we do not open attachments unaccompanied by a cover letter.
Because we are a quarterly magazine, it may take us up to three and a half months to make a final decision, but we will let you know if your story is being held for voting. Please note we do not send out messages upon receipt of stories.
If you want to withdraw a story from consideration, please e-mail us at submissions at electricspec (dot) com and include the word WITHDRAW in the subject line. If you have questions or comments, please e-mail us at our submissions address and include the word QUERY in the subject line.
Why Submit to Electric Spec?
At Electric Spec, we encourage authors to do their market research before submitting work. Electric Spec stands out from other markets because:
- We pay for stories and artwork.
- We don’t have slush readers. At least one of our editors looks at every story that comes in.
- We’ve been around for over eleven years – and we’ve never missed an issue, deadline, or author payment.
- We actually edit the stories we publish. Our experienced editors work with authors to make their stories the best they can possibly be. Many magazines out there don’t do that – and it shows.
- While we do not acknowledge story receipt, we have a quick turn-around time regarding publication. We do not hold any stories longer than 135 days without contact. If you haven’t received an email with a ‘reject,’ ‘accept,’ or ‘hold-for-voting’ message something may have gone awry ==> you should resubmit.
- We love authors because we’re authors, too. All of the editors are published speculative fiction authors.
Art Submission Guidelines
We are currently accepting art submissions for our issues.
Please do not submit the same artwork more than once.
Please submit artwork separately from stories.
We will consider any picture with a speculative fiction element for issue cover art. Look at previous covers to ascertain our tastes. We prefer energetic pieces that narrow the boundary between realism and fantastical, both in genre and style. Consider that our readers come to Electric Spec for stories; we want to see story portrayed by your imagery. Art may be re-sized to fit standard browsers; we will not crop or alter the piece without your permission.
No over-the-top sex or violence, or fan fiction characters or settings, please. Though we appreciate the form, we don’t use caricature or graphic novel style art for our covers.
We pay $20 for each piece of artwork we publish. We buy first-printing world exclusive rights for four months and non-exclusive rights thereafter. Please note this means we want art that has not been published elsewhere. Payment will be made shortly after publication using PayPal.
To submit your art to Electric Spec, e-mail it as an attachment to submissions at electricspec (dot) com. Use the following subject line: ART SUBMISSION: Title by Artist’s Name. We prefer standard electronic formats such as jpeg or gif files.
Unless you receive a note indicating otherwise, your work may be considered for any future issue. We have, rarely, commissioned original artwork for the cover; if we ask, please be honest about how fast you can work. We operate under tight deadlines for publication.
We respond to most submissions within a month. We do not send messages upon receipt of submisisons. Because we are a quarterly magazine, it may take us up to three months. For art work sometimes we consider submissions after the three months has passed, i.e. we consider art work for more than one issue. If we do not reject a piece, it is still under consideration. Of course, in the meantime, if you place it elsewhere, please let us know.
If you have questions or comments, please e-mail us at submissions at electricspec (dot) com.
Via: Electric Spec.
by Stuart Conover | Jul 16, 2018 | Anthology, Contributor's Copy, Events, Flat Amount
Deadline: November 15th, 2018
Payment: $30+ and contributor’s copies, details below!
It’s time: We’re requesting stories for the seventh volume of feminist bicycle science fiction series Bikes in Space.
The fifth volume, Bikes Not Rockets, is funding on Kickstarter through August 8th. The sixth, with the working title Dragon Bike, is in edits. This seventh volume is scheduled to come out in early 2021.
For the first time we’re excited to welcome a guest editor to the series: Lydia Rogue, who stepped in to edit the most recent issue of the Taking the Lane zine, True Trans Bike Rebel, pitched the theme for this volume and we couldn’t resist.
Without further ado, here are the submission guidelines:
The theme for this issue is: trans and nonbinary characters and writers. Working title: The Great Trans-Universal Bike Ride
Story length: 500 to 8,000 words (shorter stories means we can publish more!). Submissions of black and white illustrations or comics are also welcome.
Deadline: November 15, 2018
Format: Email a Word, Google, PDF, or txt/rtf document to lydia at takingthelane dot com. If submitting art, email first to ask about dimensions and format.
Pay: A percentage of net profits from the Kickstarter project used to fund the book will be split evenly between contributors, if the project is successfully funded. This payment will be at least $30 per story, plus 10 contributor copies per printing.
More about the themes: For this issue, we’re looking to feature trans and nonbinary writers writing trans and nonbinary characters. At least one trans or nonbinary character should be a protagonist and centrally featured, though they don’t have to be the POV character. Their gender can be integral to the story or can be mentioned in passing, but please make the theme clear.
Stories can be in any science fiction or fantasy – ish genre: high fantasy, hard SF, space opera, fairy tales, solarpunk, spec fic, slipstream, you name it—anything but fanfic. Note that we aren’t looking to ‘bury your gays’ (or trans/nb characters). And sorry… we also aren’t looking for erotica.
All stories must contain bicycles—the story doesn’t need to be about bicycling, but this element must be central enough that removing it would change the story significantly. Same goes with feminism.
We are especially looking for stories by writers from other minorities whose experiences aren’t often reflected in mainstream science fiction and fantasy.
Via: Taking The Lane.
by Stuart Conover | Jul 15, 2018 | Trembling With Fear
Important things first. Belated Happy Birthday to Richard J. Meldrum, one of our more prolific submitters. Look out for his stories in August and September. Also, lovely to see @SophieKearing celebrating the publication of her story, Servitude, in TWF on twitter and the responses from people to this. First publication is always a huge step for anyone, I know it was for me, and it’s great to see writers cheering each other on.
There are many other firsts to come as well following on from publication and something I have still not got used to is the online interview. An accepted story will often go hand-in-hand with a request to answer questions ready for promotional purposes. I’ve done a few, not loads, but they always make me cringe inside (possibly a British thing). I don’t know about anyone else but this is often the time I feel like a fraud. Other interviewees declare how they knew they would be a writer from the age of five, loved horror in all its forms and proceed to quote classics, use long, ‘intelligent’ phrases … and then there’s me. I’ve always loved reading but never considered writing until a few years back, never crossed my radar as a career, the onus being to get out and work. Horror films – enjoyed Hammer Horror in 70s, saw all those 80s horror films, then went off them. Read Stephen King and Poe but on the whole did not delve deeply into the genre until more recent times when my writing took me that way, although the books I did read always had a dark undercurrent; never was a Mills & Boon fan. What has always affected me more is the dark nature of music and the atmosphere of places, whether twilit fields or old ruins. So, do I try and be part of the club or do I be myself? Well, I’ve opted for the latter, better to be true to yourself than say what you think people want you to say. I might not sound as ‘learned’ as others but at least it’s me.
Talking of music, I was about 13yrs old when punk (and later, new wave) hit Britain and I was a big fan of Siouxsie and the Banshees (her music was always dark – Juju was a classic album), The Stranglers, Magazine, Joy Division. These days I listen to a lot of the darker side of metal and I often share it with people on twitter, just because I love it. The emotions in the music and the story in the videos can often be as powerful as any book or film, two favourite videos being Behemoth – O Father O Satan O Son, which has a hypnotic quality to it and Rotting Christ’s 666, nor should you forget Marilyn Manson’s version of Sweet Dreams. So if you can’t find inspiration in book or film, turn to music’s darker side. It’s a wonderful world out there. (And just to clarify, I am not a devil worshipper!)
Stephanie Ellis Editor, Trembling With Fear
At the time I wrote this there were a few days left on extended contracts for our anthology from last year. At the time you’re reading this we’ve closed up shop and have a solid idea of whose work will be included! This means that if all goes well, I’ll be ordering a proof copy for both Steph and myself by the end of this coming week and we might actually get this thing out and into the world soon!
I’m not going to hint at a release date quite yet as we need to make sure everything looks good first but hopefully, at long last, this is happening! (I promise you that this years release won’t take nearly this long to release and the year after Steph and I are already discussing on how to mix things up even further!)
‘Trembling With Fear’ Is Horror Tree’s weekly inclusion of shorts and drabbles submitted for your entertainment by our readers! As long as the submissions are coming in, we’ll be posting every Sunday for your enjoyment.
Stuart Conover Editor, Horror Tree
Visitors
A line of cards with prints of flowers and comforting messages stand uniformly along the mantelpiece above a warm, crackling open fire. Orange flames dance between charred, splintered logs sending spirals of incandescent sprites twisting up the chimney flue.
I sit on the sofa, eyes wandering between the flickering images on the TV screen and my dad, sat snug in the recess of his favourite chair. He stares blankly across the room barely registering an acknowledgement to what is happening.
It’s been six months since the accident and I think dad still hasn’t come to terms with the unfortunate situation. Unsurprisingly, the whole thing has hit him badly.
Mum, sitting beside me on the sofa, places a hand on the back of my head and gently strokes and toys with my loose, blonde curls. She hasn’t done this since I was a little girl and the whole thing brings back a flood of memories of happier times. Baking cakes, going on picnics, dressing up and inventing fun games on soaking wet Sunday afternoons.
The TV show draws to a close as the credits role steadily up the screen. A musical crescendo finishes everything off. It’s time to go.
Mum stands up, straightens her skirt and offers me a comforting smile as she walks over to the television. A soft, white light appears. The brighter it gets the more transparent mum becomes until she disappears completely.
I get up from the sofa and cross the room towards dad’s chair. He’s still staring with sunken, empty eyes towards the TV. I bend down and kiss him gently on the cheek. A translucent tear builds in the corner of one eye then spills over the aged, wrinkled creases around his eye and rolls down his cheek. I’m touched by his sadness. With an emotional lump in my throat and a heavy heart I turn to leave the front room.
As I approach the door I hear a rasping, hushed voice. Dad is calling my name, Jane.
He calls again, this time he’s closer. Jane.
I turn to see my dad standing before me, his eyes are looking pleasingly brighter.
“Wait for me,” he says, holding out a fragile hand.
I gently take his hand in mine and together we turn and walk towards the living room door.
A the warm, inviting, bright light appears and hand in hand we continue on our way.
Dad has made his peace and now, despite the accident that stole the lives of mum and I, we’ll all be together once more.
With two novels to his name and when not watching soccer Gary enjoys writing short horror tales. He lives a hectic family life outside of a small town in the north of England.
Another Nail In Your Coffin
Another nail in your coffin, every lie you ever told me. Each time you put me down when you made me feel as if I was not good enough. You never will see who I have become.
Red hot love, now just bitter ashes. Used to burn bright enough to light up even the darkest of nights. Now your screams will rip open the skies as I slam the lid shut. Each nail is a dream I had, now my dream is your death.
Your death is my freedom, I shall walk away knowing you will suffer as I did.
Kim Plasket is a Jersey girl at heart relocated to sunny Florida. She enjoys writing mainly horror and paranormal stories and lives with her husband and 2 kids. When she is not slaving away at her day job, she can be found drinking coffee with fellow author Valerie Willis and planning the demise of some poor character. Currently she has several short stories featured in anthologies such as ‘Demonic Wildlife’ and ‘The Hunted’, also has a story in an Anthology Titled Fireflies and Fairy dust she also has had a story featured in Shades of Santa with more to come.
Fatberg
Down in the sewers, fat and wet wipes collect, combine, grow grotesquely in the darkness, merging with layer upon layer of filth. And, so fatbergs are formed.
Workers, masked and suited, with high pressure hoses, grudgingly descend into the malodorous darkness and set to work breaking it up.
Muttered curses and the whoosh! of water muffle sounds in the shadows, soft whispers like running water.
Oblivious, the men prove easy prey for the viscous darkness that flows from shadowed pipes, sometimes liquid, sometimes plastic, reaching out with crude and temporary limbs.
The men vanish and the fatberg continues to grow.
DJ Tyrer is the person behind Atlantean Publishing and has been widely published in anthologies and magazines around the world, such as Chilling Horror Short Stories (Flame Tree), All The Petty Myths (18th Wall), Steampunk Cthulhu (Chaosium), What Dwells Below (Sirens Call), The Mad Visions of al-Hazred (Alban Lake), and EOM: Equal Opportunity Madness (Otter Libris), and issues of Sirens Call, Hinnom Magazine, Ravenwood Quarterly, and Weirdbook, and in addition, has a novella available in paperback and on the Kindle, The Yellow House (Dunhams Manor).
DJ Tyrer’s website is at http://djtyrer.blogspot.co.uk/
The Atlantean Publishing website is at http://atlanteanpublishing.blogspot.co.uk/
Rattlesnake Stew
“Where’s my supper, woman?”
“You’re late, deadbeat.”
“Watch your lip.”
“Or what?”
“Or I’ll make it fatter.”
“Dinner’s cold now.”
“It’s food, ain’t it?”
“Stew.”
“Aw heck!”
“All I could scrape up.”
“What’s in it?”
“Broth and desert sage. And reptile.”
“You couldn’t find a bird?”
“Slim pickins along that road.”
“Slim pickins when I married you.”
“You lose tonight?”
“Who says I wagered?”
“That fucking casino!”
“It’s my money!”
“Never for long.”
“Watch that lip!”
“You can’t make me any uglier.”
“I can make you hurt.”
“Dish up your own stew.”
“What the—Something’s moving in this pot.”
CHT-CHT-CHT-CHT-CHT-TT-TT-TT-TT-TT-TT-TT-TT-TT-TT-TT-T-T-T!
Please share using any of the links below and scroll down a bit further to leave a comment as to which of these works you enjoyed and why!
by Ruschelle Dillon | Jul 14, 2018 | Articles, Interviews
Ruschelle: Thank you for sitting down to share a little about yourself with us.
Debra: I’m thrilled to get the chance to interview with you. We all love The Horror Tree!
Ruschelle: You’re written a few books on the paranormal, two of them being memoirs. Tell us a little about the events in your life that motivated you to pen your stories.
Debra: I think the thing that affected me most, was spending three years in a haunted house. I was a fairly normal kid until we moved in. Whatever it was, the invisible thing living there with us seemed to focus on me in particular and unleashed a lot of poltergeist-style terror. This was the beginning, for me, of realizing there might be things out there we weren’t being told about by the grown-ups! Since that early age of fourteen, I’ve dealt with many similar experiences, and tried to help others who didn’t know where to turn. (I even worked a bit for California Psychics-and yes, they actually make you go through testing with two different managers before you’re hired) Eventually, this evolved into deeper understanding of hauntings, people involved with them, and learning the parameters of psychic abilities. Somehow, from all this, I also developed an understanding of the psychology of people in general, their motivations, both good and bad, and their triumphs and tragedies.
Ruschelle: You refer to yourself as a ‘reluctant psychic.’ Your books, A Haunted Life: The True Ghost Story of a Reluctant Psychic and The Dead are Watching: Ghost Stories from a Reluctant Psychic- splash your feelings out on their covers. Why reluctant?
Debra: Some of the female line of my family had psychic abilities. They were also very religious, so “psychic” wasn’t in their vocabulary. We heard the word demon bandied about enough that it terrified me to admit to having abilities, let alone using them! My mother’s family is also descended from Alice Nutter, one of the Lancashire Witches, who was executed by King James I in August of 1612. I don’t believe she actually was a witch of course, but then again, it has made me wonder if she had these same psychic abilities. Back then it was enough to get you executed.
Ruschelle: Have you embraced your psychic insight, your ‘gift’?
Debra: I have, and I haven’t. Yes, they can be a good thing and can help others. But over the years, I’ve come to believe they can attract negative energy, sometimes in the extreme. I think everyone has them to some extent, but some people shut them off young—especially if your family of origin is not accepting of it. I’ve also found the so-called right brained types have more experiences. This may be due to the creative person’s greater ability to adopt a childlike openness and viewpoint, which I believe is necessary in order to write, paint, play music, or act, well.
Ruschelle: Have you met others like you and have you thought of working with them to write another book on the subject of the supernatural?
Debra: It’s funny, but people seem ashamed to talk about this for the most part. They’re afraid of being called delusional or whatever. Once my books came out and I was doing a lot of appearances and events, I heard story after story from folks who had seen spirits, or had a deceased parent come back to them after death, or they lived in a haunted house. Once you break the ice discussing this stuff rationally, you would be surprised at the huge number of people who’ve had these experiences. I recently did a regional book on hauntings, mostly a labor of love for my area history and legends. I love the subject, the research, and would always be willing to write more nonfiction paranormal books. I’ve also done some smaller articles for charity and so forth. I am a big believer in giving back whenever possible.
Ruschelle: You have written fiction as well. What did you find easier to pen, fiction or your own experiences?
Debra: I love writing fiction too. Somehow, letting my imagination run wild and creating unlimited story ideas is so freeing. I love to write what scares me. So, monsters, both human and cryptid, Post Apoc and SHTF, ghosts, demons, and almost anything that would pit people against something scary, is fair game for me. Writing nonfiction is easier in some ways, since it’s merely retelling what happened. So, I think that making it up out of whole cloth, so to speak, is more exciting!
Ruschelle: Have any of your real-life experiences with the supernatural oozed into your fiction?
Debra: Yes, since feeling that heightened terror at a young age, I think I’ve been affected in many ways, and I can’t help but pass it on in my writing. That sense of possibility, of the existence of unseen things in the dark, or in the light, is always with me. We read horror to get that thrill. When we put the scary book down, doesn’t it make us want the lights on a little longer? That’s what I mean by affecting me. I want others to suffer with me. Ha ha, just kidding, sort of… I just finished edits on a book that will be coming out with Digital Fiction Publishing in the next couple months, titled “The Evil in the Tower”. It’s got a lot of personal experiences within it. Obsession, possession, and evil from the past get triggered by circumstances that mirror the original traumatic event which caused the haunting. It flips back and forth in time, to the California Gold Rush days, retelling the story.
Ruschelle: Red Death and its sequel Red Death Survivors take place in a post-apocalyptic world. What inspired you to create a world filled with different ’ghosts’?
Debra: Oh man, I’ve always been two things–a bit of an armchair prepper, of the what–if mentality, and a total germaphobe. So, combine those two things and add an Ebola Zaire pandemic, and you’ve got “Red Death: A Post Apocalyptic Thriller”, released by Severed Press. I loved the research that went into that stuff. How many microns of virus can live on the seat of an airplane, for how long, that sort of thing. The premise of those books, is what would a couple of normal people do if most of the world died? How would you avoid the virus? What would you eat? Can you hunt? Trap? How would you gather water and the firewood needed to boil it? What about the gangs of starving madmen you see chasing down the neighborhood cats to cook and eat them? I did learn you can eat any variety of Hosta—those green and white striped plants you see in everyone’s yard. I actually went out back, dug up daylily roots and roasted them in olive oil and salt. Yummy. Yes, I’m one of “those” writers…experience it all, live it, soak it in, whenever possible-except the chasing cats to eat part.
Ruschelle: Here’s a fun question. The Ghost and Mr. Chicken or the Ghost and Mrs. Muir? The young’uns might have to Google this. LOL
Debra: Oh yeah, The Ghost and Mr. Chicken! I was flipping through channels not long ago and saw that one. I watched the ending, and it sure brought back good memories.
Ruschelle: Some of us have a book inside us we’d love to write or think we should write but it just eludes us. Mine is romance. I think I can write it but…blood and guts end up happening. Carnage is always a mood killer. LOL Is there a genre you’d LOVE to write to but aren’t sure if you can or should?
Debra: Wow. Now that sounds familiar! I started trying to write a cozy mystery, and blood and guts and possessions started happening to me too. So I went with it, and that’s the book I mentioned above, The Evil in the Tower. I’d love to write some YA or midgrade. There are parameters I’d have to research, or maybe one of my writer friends could give me guidelines on rough patches. I’d still like to try the cozy mystery though, if I can tame the monsters inside. LOL
Ruschelle: Are you lucky enough to craft your books quickly from beginning to end or are you a writer that let’s things stew, steep and bubble before it sees the light of the moon?
Debra: You know, I think I am sort of a hodgepodge type, using whatever comes to mind. I usually start with an idea, as most of us do, then I start a file on my desktop, adding scene ideas, or whatever as I go. Then at some point, when it looks as though there’s enough of an idea there to make an entire book, I will start it. When I first began all this, I found a book on a screenwriting style of novel writing, called “Story Engineering”, by Larry Brooks. It was very helpful, and I always see my scenes in my head first, so it made sense. I do think I did it all a bit backwards though-most of my friends started writing short stories first, then moved on to full length works. I’ve written eight books, and just recently started on short stories. I’m really enjoying writing them too. There are so many great anthologies coming out this year alone-The Twisted Book of Shadows, Lost Highways, New Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark, Monsters of Any Kind, Haunted are These Houses—wow. I can’t wait to read them all.
Ruschelle: Writing music is a different art form from writing books. Lyrically, one can be more cryptic and sentence structure isn’t always followed which can be very liberating. How do you tackle writing each art form?
Debra: Songwriting really helped me lay the foundation for writing novels I think. The Nashville songwriter mantra is “Paint a picture with words”, because you only have three or four minutes to tell the story in a song. So you end up trying to be more descriptive, choosing words carefully to convey exactly what you want. No extraneous words, because every single one counts. I find in songwriting, I look at it as, every line counts, whereas in novels, it can be looked at more as every paragraph. Some may quibble with me on that one, but the songwriting rules are so exacting sometimes, you can’t deviate. In novel writing, it feels freer, like you can mess around a bit without getting into too much trouble.
Ruschelle: Since you are an author and therefore a wordsmith, when you concentrate on songwriting do you write the lyrics first or is it the music that spurs the lyrics?
Debra: For me, they’ve always come at the same time. It might be just a single line, which comes to me along with a melody. Then I work on the melody most, adding the lyrics as I go along, changing them as needed. I’ve also found a little trick, for the songwriters out there: always write the melody in your head first. If you sit down to a guitar or piano, your melody will be limited to the chord structures you know, and sometimes we get into a rut with those. Go for the soaring new melody, then try to find the chords that fit with it afterwards.
Ruschelle: One of your songs was featured in the movie Killer Joe with Matthew McConaughey. Could you tell us what the process of submitting music is compared to submitting a story or book to be published?
Debra: I’ve had several music publishers over the years, and signed many single-song contracts. (as opposed to being what’s known as a staff songwriter) The Nashville publishers bleed over into the Los Angeles music scene these days, whereas not so long ago, they were more separate. I’ve signed several songs with a publisher who had many #1 hits in his catalogue, both country and pop. He teamed up with an LA music publisher (Pen Music Group), who specialize in TV, and Film, doing everything from commercials to movie soundtracks. I have about twenty songs signed at the moment being pitched for various things. The way it works is, I record something I like or think is right for a certain star, or for TV or whatever, then I send it via MP3 to him. If he likes it, he signs it, and starts pitching it. (I have my own recording studio in my basement, so that makes it nice) So in a way, the book publisher pitching is similar. I think I had the edge on what to expect when I started writing for print publishers. I’m a little new to print publishing, my first book having come out in 2013, but as far as rejection goes, it comes with the territory in both music and print publishing!
Ruschelle: You’re a blues gal with a sultry, rich voice. I love it. Other than your voice being perfectly suited for the genre, why else did you choose to write and perform the blues comparatively to other genres?
Debra: Thank you. Honestly, I love singing all kinds of styles. In live performance, I sing everything from Adele to Joplin, Stevie Nicks, to Carrie Underwood. People comment on the bluesy voice, and I like singing (and writing) blues, but it apparently comes natural, and it chose me, rather than the other way around.
Ruschelle: Could a concept blues album based on the supernatural be on the horizon? New things could happen at the Crossroads. LOL
Debra: Ha, ha. Never say never! I am always up for a challenge. Now you’ve got the wheels a turning.
Ruschelle: You set up a scholarship fund in memory of your son. That’s a beautiful yet meaningful gesture to those you are able to assist. Could you tell us a little about the scholarship?
Debra: Yes, I am excited about the scholarship. My son James was killed by a drunk driver in 2009. He was an only child, so it’s a devastating thing, all around. Rather than wallow in the grief-which believe me, is easy to do- I wanted to try and somehow turn a negative into something positive. So, eight years ago, we started an annual aggressive roller blading contest and music festival. All proceeds went into an account to fund this music/arts scholarship. The contest itself grew huge, and many people helped donate their time to achieve the final result. In May, 2018, this year, the first scholarship was given out. Long after we are gone, it will continue to help a young person going into the arts, music, or writing. It’s self-sustaining now, so all the work was worth it. My son James (a pro roller blading musician) would be happy.
Ruschelle: You just had a story in Killing It Softly 2. Congratulations! What can you share with us on your future offerings? Books, music?
Debra: I’m busy pitching short stories at the moment, and three are shortlisted with publishers, so wish me luck! I expect my book “The Evil in the Tower” with Digital Fiction to be out very soon. I also signed a two book paranormal suspense series with them, which will follow late this year or early next. I continue to perform locally, at my favorite gigs, and my publisher also continues to pitch songs. You just never know what will happen, and that’s the beauty of both songwriting and print writing. If you do it for the love of it, anything else that happens is a bonus!
Debra
Thank you so much for sharing a little of your life with us. We look forward to hearing your music and reading your tales!
If you want to find out more about Debra and her work you can find her via the below links.
Goodreads: https: //www.goodreads.com/author/show/6981130.Debra_Robinson
Amazon author page: http://www.amazon.com/Debra-Robinson/e/B00BMHA032/ref=ntt_dp_epwbk_0
Linkedin: www.linkedin.com/pub/debra-robinson/11/71a/336/
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/debrarobinsonauthor?ref=hl
Twitter: https://twitter.com/reb_robinson
Soundcloud: https://soundcloud.com/rebsongs
by Stuart Conover | Jul 13, 2018 | Events, Flat Amount, Magazine, Poetry
Deadline: July 20th, 2018
Payment: $25 for shorts, $10 for poetry.
READ EVERYTHING…TWICE
Current Themes Being Accepted Until Midnight, 07/20/2018:
We are all addicted to conflict, which is what makes our hands turn the page. We want you to start with a bang and end with the reader finally taking their next breath. We want your submission to have an impact. Take us away from the known world for a few minutes and make us forget what we are doing.
The central idea for every submission should focus solely on one of the themes for that issue. Embrace the theme. Love the theme. Breathe the theme.
Short Story/Fables (Pay is 25.00 for each piece accepted for publication):
Gathering Storm Magazine (GSM) publishes fictional short stories of 2,000 words or less based on the themes for that issue; always an old saying, proverb, or maxim. If your story does not meet the theme for the respective issue, then it will be rejected. Most genres welcome (fantasy, horror, science fiction, steampunk, weird, Lovecraftian, sword & sorcery, etc.), the only rule being that it is new, original, weird, fun, scary, exciting, or another emotion that invokes something out of the reader. DO YOUR BEST TO CATCH OUR ATTENTION IN THE FIRST PARAGRAPH.
Poetry (Pay is 10.00 for each piece accepted for publication):
Give us something good. Tell a story. Pull at our hearts. Make me turn the light on. Make us think. Poetry is a tough sell, so sell it well.
Other Tidbits & Masterpieces:
Everyone has something interesting hiding somewhere. If it doesn’t match the guidelines above, but you still want the world to see it, we’d be happy to share it on our social media. From time-to-time, we will publish something so out of the ordinary, it does not fit into any category but it’s certainly worth putting in our publication. If you have something truly neat, let us take a look at it. For example, any snippets of fun, like a fantasy recipe for a good meal that may be unknown to other universes. On even rarer occasions, we will take non-fiction, such as reviews, essays, etc., but at the moment there is no pay for nonfiction or for this category. We can certainly add a link to send some visitors your way, just provide us with your contact/portfolio/website.
Podcasts (TBA):
Most submissions that are published will be adapted into an audio version based on the approved, final edits between GSM and the author. The pieces may or may not include sound effects, musical accompaniments, etc., based solely on the imagination and creativity of the GSM editors.
Interactive Fiction:
Known in the old days as “choose your own adventure”, we are happy to accept one piece of interactive fiction each issue, but please remember the themes. Please visit Inkle Studios (@inklestudios) below for more information and to use their free software to write your very own interactive fiction. Inkle makes narrative games and interactive fiction.
It’s fun! Just submit the story link in the appropriate category in Submittable rather than uploading a document.
Do’s:
First and foremost, have fun writing. If you absolutely love what you wrote, then you have good chances. If you trudged through it just to get it done, it may not be suitable for us either.
This is a themed publication, so make sure your story fits within the respective theme of your choice. The theme must be somewhere in the submission and should not be the title. It can be listed in anyway you deem is worthy (a thought, part of the dialogue, or even the name of a road sign). Be creative. We like creativity.
If you haven’t got us in tears, sweating from excitement, fearing something dreadful, or laughing so hard we fell out of the chair by halfway through your story, then stop, revise, and submit when you’ve accomplished this.
Submit all writing in Microsoft Word (.doc/.docx) only.
Submit all art/comics in an appropriately sized file format, prefer .jpeg/.jpg.
Follow a proper manuscript format. (Hint, hint), MUST HAVE COVER PAGE WITH CONTACT DETAILS AND WORD COUNT
Check spelling and grammar…three times.
Always send a cover letter that you want published. We aren’t just about publishing original work; we want you to gain followers as well, so include links to your portfolio and/or website. This same bio will be included in any advertising we use if your story is selected for publication but may be trimmed for space so try and keep it to 50 words or less (with your social media/website included). If you go by another name, make sure you include that name and mention that is the name you are published under. We do not have time to constantly update different names for the same person.
MIND THE DEADLINES as once they are closed, no more submissions will be accepted for those particular themes.
Check out one of our interviews here for some other insights!!
Don’ts:
Above everything, don’t try to impress us with clever fonts, colors, flashes, or out-of-the-norm formatting. If it doesn’t follow a very standard submission guideline, it probably will be immediately rejected. We certainly encourage you to check out what formatting style is acceptable here.
Don’t send us something that has been previously published unless we specifically asked for it. Don’t send us a revision of the submission that we previously rejected.
Don’t be overly vulgar, graphic, or gross. If that needs to be defined any further, or if you are wondering if your piece might get through, then keep it.
Don’t send your submission via email, fax, postal service, UPS, FedEx, etc. Use our Submittable only.
Don’t query why a submission was rejected as we do not have the time to answer these requests.
Be professional.
Timeframe:
We will read everything as long as you follow the above guidelines. With this in mind, it takes time because we get a lot of submissions. Responses can generally take 1-15 days and we aim to give you a response by then. Sometimes, we may read it on a coffee break and have a response to you within a day or two. Unfortunately, we are unable to give personal responses due to the volume that we receive, unless your submission was super special, then we will write you a personal rejection note.
Payment (USD only):
Paypal is our payment method for everything (see above sections for payment rates). You can expect payment within 30 days of GSM receiving the edited and approved version, signing the contract, and publishing your submission. If you would like your payment to be forwarded to a charity, please give us the instructions as to how to donate on your behalf.
What We Buy:
Everything we publish will be line-edited for grammar, punctuation, and clarity by our own staff. The author will be contacted for a review of any MAJOR edits before publication.
For payment of your submission, we purchase the following rights:
First World Serial Rights
First World Electronic Rights
Non-Exclusive World Audio Rights
Non-Exclusive World Anthology Rights
In other words, we buy the rights to publish your story on our website, in our eBooks/PDF’s/other forms of digital copies, and to publish an audio podcast version of your final, edited submission (if we choose to use it in our podcasts) for a period of one (1) year from the date of publication. Your submission may be selected for reprinting in a future anthology or collected works by us, which will be detailed by the original contract you sign, to be published anywhere in the world. With this in mind, you can’t publish your submission as a new, original, or “first-run” story anywhere in the world, it can’t appear in print, online, or in any audio form, within one (1) year of publication date. After the one (1) year period, it can be submitted wherever you’d like as a reprint, non-exclusive version.
By submitting to us, you also agree to sign up for our newsletter. Don’t worry, you can always remove yourself from it at anytime. Gathering Storm Magazine reserves the right to refuse publication of any submission at anytime.
Via: Gathering Storm Magazine. (Visit the webpage to submit.)
by Stuart Conover | Jul 13, 2018 | Anthology, Events, Flat Amount
Deadline: August 31st, 2018
Payment: $6
Submissions open until August 31st… Send your story of between 666-1,000 words using one of the themes below.
Include the name or number of the theme in the Subject of the email and send to [email protected]
No reprints, thanks!
We will pay a nominal fee for this fun fiction-magazine ($6 per story) or if you prefer we can donate your payment to a women’s refuge.
You can submit to 1 or more themes, but only 1 story per theme please.
If sending multiple stories, please send them separately and include the theme in the subject of the email.
Photograph (Left) (C) Steve Dillon, 2018
Theme 2: Pumpkin Head
Artwork (below) (C) Copyright Steve Dillon, 2018
Theme 3: Trick or Treat!
Photograph (below) licensed from Adobe.
Theme 4: Haunted Forests and Trees!
Photograph (left) by Steve Dillon, 2018
Theme 5: Bob-Apple
Artwork (below) (C) Copyright Steve Dillon, 2012
Theme 6: Fancy Dress
Photo (Left) by Ellen Duffy, 2013
Via: Things In The Well.
by Stuart Conover | Jul 13, 2018 | Articles
Our articles may contain affiliate links. If you purchase something through the links in this article we may receive a small commission or referral fee. This happens without any additional cost to you.
Previously on “Growing With Technology” I spoke about the importance of the author bio. Today, I’m going to be tackling a subject that goes hand in hand with it! Not only is this a subject that has come up from the ‘Trembling With Fear’ submissions which we’ve received to date but we’ve even seen it pop up in our author interview series “Horror Tree Presents,” and that is the importance of an author’s homepage. If you don’t have a homepage or have neglected it than I hope you find what I cover today both useful and easy to implement!
Today’s Topic? The Author Homepage.
Why You Should Have A Self-Hosted Author Page
The author’s homepage should be one of the key ingredients in every author’s marketing efforts. Quite a few authors have used the reason that they don’t want to blog or have time for making constant content for a page and I’m not even going to stress on that as being one of the reasons to start one. Yes, reaching out to your readers in this manner can help keep them interested and interacting with you but I’m going to go about the reason you should have a homepage with something else in mind.
Why Is The Author Homepage Important?
There are a few key factors that I want to cover here with you today as to WHY exactly you really should get an author page up and running.
Ready to dive in? Let’s do it!
Readers can find MORE of your work.
Put yourselves in the shoes of one of your readers. They’ve just found one of your works. It could be a short story, a novel, a novella, a comment you wrote about a cat one time three years ago that resonated with this potential reader. They want to find more of your work.
YOUR work.
They crave it.
They put your name into the Google and get… A slew of random things such as your Twitter or a review of the work that they love so much. But what about all that other stories which you’ve slaved over a keyboard to produce?
I’m going to be brutally honest here – People are lazy.
If they don’t see a direct link to your homepage, or if you’re lucky an Amazon author central page that will be the amount of time that they’ll put into digging up what else you’ve penned. They may have loved your drabble with all their heart but with the attention span or lack of knowledge on finding anything else that was your moment to shine.
Having a single central website with your name all over it that a reader can easily find all of your work through is key on making it easier for them to do just that!
Readers can learn about you.
Some readers like to know more about the authors that they read. What makes them tick? What do they have in common from interests or locations? I’m not saying to share your home address to the world but saying that you’re from a certain area could tie you to readers who live there or have passed through.
Similiar interests count just as much and could easily find a new reader chatting you up on Twitter or elsewhere about whatever fandoms you share which could encourage them to keep coming back for more.
Interviewers can get ideas on questions to ask you.
I’ve been doing author interviews for websites for years. Both after having read the author’s latest work and in many cases before its release or in between publications. Once you’ve read a new book, you’ll have plenty of questions to ask about but if you haven’t that makes it a bit harder to come up with unique questions if you aren’t overly familiar with the author.
Enter: The author’s homepage. Full of random facts and details that can be used to create unique questions for you to answer instead of just copying and pasting a set of bland and generic questions that no one cares about.
You need just enough details out here to make it a little easier to get these questions into your inbox and without them, many interviewers could even pass on the interview opportunity and these are all the details which could be found above!
The Internet Can Help You!
I want to stress a couple of major reasons that the Internet can help you when it comes to having a homepage. The first and foremost is having a hub to be the first place a search engine finds your name if a potential fan looks for you. When a reader wants to know more about you, what you’ve written, how to contact you, how to connect with you, a homepage will provide all of that.
Not only that but the second you start a homepage you need to start a mailing list.
ASAP.
Even if barely using it at the start. Every time a reader hits your page they have a chance to sign up and if it was a spur of the moment thing that could have been your moment to shine. Various authors use mailing lists for different reasons such as sharing updates, but the most critical areas are helping connect your readers with your material. Offer free samples of your work, drabbles if you write them, and let them know when new books are out or on sale! Yes, marketing is horrible but most authors these days have to do at least some form of it.
I doubt many readers wouldn’t expect to hear about new books in a sales letter and as they have signed up for it, this is one of the easiest ways to help sell your work. Yes, you still have to sign up for it, but these were readers who came to you for news and not just sharing your link on Twitter or Facebook a million times in hopes that the algorithms will display your post.
Side note: If you’re looking to sign up for mailing list software I highly recommend Mail Chimp as the base levels are free and you can learn it before needing to see if you need their advanced solution or not. If you feel that you want to get the most out of your list and feel that it will grow quickly and that you’ll need a robust set of options, you should really look into Aweber. There isn’t a free option here outside of a test period of 30 days but you really just can’t go wrong with it!
Increases legitimacy
This one might not be the case for everyone. However, if you’ve got a reader who found your name in an anthology and can’t find a webpage they might not try as hard to look for more of your work. Not only that but when approaching agents and publishers, many will check your websites and/or social media as well. Not having one won’t guarantee a no but it won’t help your chances.
I should note here that this is where it helps to own a domain and hosting. Instead of having a yourname.wordpress.com I would always suggest owning YourName.com. Overall, my favorite hosting option to offer up is Kinsta who just has an overall good pricing scheme and reliable network. If you’re looking for cheaper hosting and don’t expect a lot of traffic right off the bat I would suggest going with DreamHost though if you’re looking for something that will keep you covered for quite some time to come, we’re big fans of Hosting For Writers. There are plenty of free themes out there to use but (personal plug here) if you’re looking for a decent template at a low cost or consulting on what to do I can help you out through Red Gear Works by delivering you with a Divi enabled WordPress site!
What if I don’t have the skill for web design or the money to get something started?
There are free options out there with pretty simple interfaces to learn. WordPress (my preference) and Wix (eh) are the two major players these days. While I will ALWAYS suggest a self-hosted website, you could even get a WordPress account for free and start a blog there to learn the ins and outs before you buy a domain and hosting.
It can help to learn the backend of the software ahead of time before you start working with your own installation of it. I just can’t stress enough that when officially launching your own site to go the self-hosted route.
But what does it all mean Basil?
A personal website is a gateway for readers to find you and interact with you both directly and indirectly. The more professional it is, the better it will resonate with fans, media outlets, and even search algorithms. It isn’t required to be an additional timesink, but it can be highly useful in keeping your writing moving forward and into the hands of those who love your work.
If you have any thoughts or questions on this, please be sure to leave a comment below! Also, if you enjoyed the article, please share it with your favorite social network(s) by using the buttons below.
by Stuart Conover | Jul 12, 2018 | Anthology, Events, Flat Amount
Deadline: September 30th, 2018
Payment: $25.00 CAD
Dead Light Publishing
(A Division of Evil Pig Entertainment)
“NOT JUST A PRETTY FACE” Horror Anthology Submission Call
(This is a women only anthology to coincide with WIHM 2019)
Behind those sparkling eyes, curvaceous figures, and pouting lips, lurk some of the darkest minds horror has to offer. These women are not just a pretty face and they’re out to prove it. Are YOU one of them?
Send us your best, most horrific story and show the world woman are made of more than sugar and spice.
THE GORY DETAILS:
This is an open theme. Send your best, no reprints!
Deadline is September 30th, 2018, est. pub date is January 13th, 2019.
Please use industry standard formatting 12 pt font, Times New. If you are unsure you can find it here: https://www.shunn.net/format/story.html
Word count is best between 2500 – 5000 words, but there are always exceptions.
Attach your submission as a word document .doc, .docx.
Add a brief cover letter with your contact info, story title, and word count.
Subject line should read as follows: Pretty Face Sub / Title / Your Name
*NOTE *
Please name your submission file – story title, last name – as this creates less confusion for staff.
Send your submission to: [email protected] Attn: Slushie
Dead Light Publishing asks for First Anthology Rights with the possibility of a future Anthology Audio Rights. (This would entail a second contract and payment.)
Payment at this time is a flat rate of $25.00 CAD per story within 30 days of acceptance and return of signed contract. Contributors will also receive an electronic copy of the anthology, (also a copy of the audio version if your story is included and one is created,) and a 30% discount for print copies, less shipping and handling. We require a 90 day exclusivity right after publication at which time you are free to republish your story elsewhere.
It is our mission to evolve our pay scale in the future to include print copies as well as other bonuses. As we are just starting out this is what we can do for now.
Dead Light Publishing looks forward to your submission!
