I’ve seen a few comments on Facebook recently from fellow writers struggling to free themselves from the depression that comes from rejection and the frustration of not being able to break through when you know your writing is good enough. I’ve also seen the responses of others who commiserate and offer nothing but support and good vibes. It’s that feeling of solidarity which I love in our community. There is no shame in rejection, it does not always reflect on the quality of your writing, is often subjective or could be the right story at the wrong time, a great story but not the right fit. So many reasons, the majority of which take nothing away from your writing and do not reflect on you as an author. Do not be ashamed to admit rejection, instead be proud that you are writing and submitting, that you are continuing to hone your craft. You have us all in your corner, cheering you on.
Now to this week’s stories:
Trembling With Fear’s lead story this week is Scruples by Catherine Berry is a wonderfully atmospheric piece. Horror in the middle of nowhere, a good Samaritan who makes a mistake, the apparent innocence of children. Harmless, aren’t they, the little ones? Nothing is explicitly stated, except right at the end, yet all is told. The hints, tension and pacing are all spot on.
First Date by Lionel Ray Green is a tragic tale and one that is horrible to consider. The desperation of an abused woman frees her from one horror, only to succumb to another unseen. A clever use of twisting the impulse to survive.
Overcast by Patrick Winters has ruined my harmless hobby of finding images in clouds. The narrator in this also gazes up at those fluffy white bundles but they are not innocent. They are the death that is too come. A good example of taking something regarded as innocent and fun and painting it black.
Sisterly Love by Scarlet Berry takes sibling rivalry to a different and tragic level. A cold, calculating child is always scary. Seems to be a trend in this week’s stories!
Stephanie Ellis
Editor, Trembling With Fear
I’m still slammed at work at the moment. I’d like to personally say welcome to our new Patreons and let everyone know that we should have edits for the upcoming TWF anthologies done this weekend! If all goes well, covers and preview copies will be ordered this next week! Hurray~
Stuart Conover
Editor, Horror Tree
Scruples
The highway had flooded, forcing Sam to detour onto an old back road; but at least the rain had stopped. She’d driven through gloom for hours, adding to the depressing atmosphere of the desiccated scenery. There wasn’t much to see except overgrown fields and an occasional dilapidated farmhouse.
“Why won’t this detour just end?” Sam griped, flicking the radio off as the signal fizzled with static.
Movement further up the road caught her eye. There, on the right near the edge of a field, dirty and ragged, something strange was coming out of the grass. It looked like a kid.
Slowing as she drove by, Sam turned in her seat to get a better look. Sure enough, there was a child under a mess of tangles and grime, carrying a baby. She watched the child make an aborted move towards the car, only to shrink back.
What were they even doing out here? Driving at a crawl, Sam looked for some sign of other people. A sick feeling slithered up from her stomach, burning her throat. There was nothing.
“Hell,” she sighed, pulling off the road. She watched the kids in the rear-view mirror, torn between a creeping feeling of unease and a nauseating guilt. It wasn’t safe to pick up hitchhikers; but those were kids. Grabbing her phone, Sam told herself, “Okay. Okay, first thing.”
A quick call to 911 had an operator promise a patrol car would be sent. Sam was told to stay in her vehicle and wait until they arrived.
Half-turned in her seat, knee against the center console, Sam alternated between watching the kids and scanning the area. Thirty minutes had passed since she’d called and it was starting to get dark.
The children hadn’t moved from their spot near the road. Occasionally, the older one would stare at the car before slowly looking away. The kid seemed to be wilting, struggling under the weight of the baby. Sam watched, stomach twisting, as the kid used a knee to try pushing the baby higher. From what she could see, they looked half-starved and desperately in need of care.
“God, this is a bad idea,” she grumbled, biting her lip as she eyed a bag of snacks on the passenger seat. A bottle of water and half a box of granola bars. It wasn’t much, but the kids probably needed it. Leg bouncing with nerves, she closed her eyes. The cops had to be there soon.
Glancing out the back window, she watched the older child wobble, almost drop, and said, “Screw it.”
Keys clutched in one hand, bag in the other, Sam stepped out of the car, looked around, and slowly headed towards the kids. She made it to the back bumper before the older kid noticed her, head snapping up so hard Sam winced in sympathy.
“It’s okay,” she said, trying to be soothing. She hoped they didn’t notice the slightly panicked edge in her voice. “Help is coming, but I have some food if you guys are hungry.”
She waited a beat. Two. Three. The kids did nothing as Sam opened the bag, angling it to show them the food.
“I’m going to come a little closer and put the bag down, okay? Then, I’m going to get back in my car. The food is for you.”
Slowly, watching in case they startled, she took a few steps and put the bag on the ground. The baby’s face was hidden, but the older child watched, eyes fixed on Sam, unblinking.
“It’s okay,” she assured, as the children edged towards her,“you can eat.”
Hours later, a police cruiser pulled up behind Sam’s car.
“Dispatch, this is Kyle. Quinn and I have found the car described in the 911 report. No immediate sign of anyone. We’re going to have a look.”
“Empty,” Kyle said, as they came around her car, flashlights shining through the windows. Turning toward the dark field behind him, he called, “Hello? This is the State Police. Can anyone hear me?”
“HELLO?” Quinn hollered, walking down the road. “We received a 911 call. If you need assistance but aren’t able to respond, try to make some kind of noise.”
“Think we should look around?” Kyle asked after a few minutes.
“I guess,” Quinn agreed. He stopped, staring the edge of the field just behind his partner. “What’s that?”
Flashlights shifted, landing on the kids huddled low to the ground, practically invisible in the long grass.
“Hey, kids” Kyle called softly, as he crouched down, “we’re Police Officers. Could you come out?”
Slowly, the kids crept onto the road; wet, muddy, and splattered in blood. The officers shared a look. A silent conversation passed between them. Quinn turned, closely scanning the area, hand resting on his gun.
“It’s okay,” Kyle assured the kids, holding out his hand. “It’s okay.”
“Kyle. Quinn. What’s your APB?”
The soft crackle of the radio joined the wet, crunchy, smacking that filled the air as the children feasted. They hadn’t eaten so well in years.
Catherine Berry
Catherine Berry lives in Michigan, sings with her dog, and loves potatoes.
Her work has been published in Horror Tree’s Trembling With Fear and in the anthology Trembling With Fear: Year 1.More of her work can be found at www.caterinaberyl.blogspot.com
First Date
Lip dripping blood, Anna slipped into the water, dipping low.
Hurting and hiding but living.
The voice of her attacker, a first-date nightmare of a man, faded into the distance, his quarry lost.
Anna’s sigh of relief sent gentle ripples toward the shoreline.
A glint of moonlight drew Anna’s eyes to a weeping willow along the bank.
Anna felt a sharp tug on her leg.
At the same time, she discerned the source of the shimmer.
It was an aluminum sign cradled loosely by the tree’s branches:
DO NOT FEED THE ALLIGATORS
Anna disappeared underwater, from one predator to another.
Lionel Ray Green
Lionel Ray Green is a horror and fantasy writer, an award-winning newspaper journalist, and a U.S. Army gulf war veteran living in Alabama. His short stories have appeared in the anthologies Alabama’s Emerging Writers, The Heart of a Devil, Fifty Flashes, How Beer Saved the World 2, Graveyard, Frightening, Tales from the Grave, In Creeps the Night, and 22 More Quick Shivers. His short story “Scarecrow Road” won the WriterWriter 2018 International Halloween Themed Writing Competition All Hallows’ Prose and his short story “A Tale of Two Shards” was third runner-up in the WriterWriter 2018 International Fantasy Competition Phoenix Rising. His work has also appeared in The Poet’s Haven Digest anthology It Was a Dark and Stormy Night, in Issue 1 of Cross+Decay magazine, and in the 2017 issue of From the Depths magazine as well as in Trembling With Fear, an online feature of the Horror Tree website.
That one looks like a bunny, someone might say. Or a peace sign.
No, I could answer back. It’s my old friend, John Dearing, getting sliced in two by a sheet of falling glass.
I’ve always seen death in the clouds, you understand? Not sure how, but I do. Premonitions of demise, warnings of fatal accidents—all fluffy and floating along.
I saw my parent’s car wreck in a booming cumulonimbus; and I knew my wife would die of cancer, thanks to a wispy altostratus.
And that one there, passing by right now—what do you suppose it looks like . . . ?
Patrick Winters
Patrick Winters is a graduate of Illinois College in Jacksonville, IL, where he earned a degree in English Literature and Creative Writing. He has been published in the likes of Sanitarium Magazine, Deadman’s Tome, Trysts of Fate, and other such titles. A full list of his previous publications may be found at his author’s site, if you are so inclined to know: http://wintersauthor.azurewebsites.net/Publications/List
Sisterly Love
“Mama, I want a sister,” I said.
“You already have one,” replied my mother.
“I want one that I like,” I responded.
I hated my little sister. She was a brat who tattled on me whenever I hit her. I was always having to take care of her.
One day I did.
It was laundry day. The washtub was filled with boiling water. We were alone for a moment. My little sister leaned too far forward and fell in; with a little help.
As my mother held her baby’s drowned, blistered body, I asked, “Now can I have a sister?”
Scarlet Berry
Scarlet Berry is a Yooper. She’s been married forty years to the same man and they raised four children together. She is a mystery wrapped up in a conundrum, and loves to laugh; both evilly and happily.
Master of Lies
Pelo was known throughout the kingdoms as a man with a golden tongue.
A peddler of secrets.
He knew where your enemies slept.
But information hadn’t kept him safe.
Tied down, he asked, “What do you want? I’ll tell you anything.”
Lord Zenlan gazed upon him.
“I have use for your talents Pelo. But your tongue wags far too much.”
“You can trust me! I can keep a secret!”
“You were willing to sell out anyone for your life. No. Taking your tongue will only be the first step in ensuring your silence.”
The blade drew closer, and Pelo screamed.
Stuart Conover
Who does this guy think he is? Not Batman, that’s for sure!
I did hear he loved the ending to ‘Game of Thrones’ so clearly something is wrong with him. What that could be, we’ll never know!
Your friendly neighborhood editor-man wanted to throw a drabble into the mix last minute and hope you enjoy!
Claire – Hi Don! Great to chat with you. Let’s jump right in. What are you currently writing/working on?
Don – Thanks, Claire. Really nice to meet you. And thanks, too, for the opportunity to talk with The Horror Tree. I’m working on a novel, ‘Dark Voices,’ and also serving as editor for ‘The Thirty,’ a group consisting of me and 29 other writers. We’re lashing together an experimental novel, ‘He Has Stayed Too Long,’ with one chapter written by each of us. I honestly thought ‘Dark Voices’ would be out by now, but ‘He Has Stayed Too Long’ is taking quite a bit of time, as you can imagine. Coordinating with 29 other writers isn’t quite as easy as I thought it would be although everybody involved has been fantastic.
Claire – Tell me about your latest release, ‘Fallen Angels.’
Don – The artist Don Gilbert and I have been good friends since we were in our teens. He came by the house one day to drink whiskey and play guitar and as I was flipping through his sketch pad, I was drawn to a series of bizarre-looking drawings. When I asked him what they were, he said, ‘Fallen Angels’ and we took it from there. ‘Fallen Angels’ are the creatures responsible for every aspect of our lives down to the most insignificant events. Lose a button? A Fallen Angel’s responsible. First kiss? A Fallen Angel’s there. Final breath? Yep—a Fallen Angel. The poems I wrote to accompany the illustrations tell the reader a bit about the particular part of life the Fallen Angel on the opposing page controls and also a bit about how that angel feels about his job.
Claire – Your journals ‘The Meeker Collection’ sound interesting. How did/does your newspaper writing affect your fiction?
Don – Oddly enough, most of my newspaper pieces were in the humour vein and most of my fiction is dark horror. While I was working as the editor of ‘The Wilson County Advocate,’ I wrote a column under a pseudonym every week, usually an entire page, and because I was so completely bored with actual news, I would take the facts, bundle them with fiction, insert my alter-ego into the story, toss in a bit of biographical folderol, and just have a good time with it. The fan mail and the death threats began to pour in (some people have NO sense of humour) and soon ‘Jimmy Joe Meeker’ (that was the name I used) was the most popular writer we had. Once you start writing humour, you can’t stop. There’s a comedian inside me and he’s going to come out whether I’m writing a non-fiction piece for a magazine or writing a horror novel. I enjoy that. Everybody needs a laugh now and again, regardless of what you’re reading, and I’ve never been able to write anything without tossing in a bit of humour, however subtle.
Claire –Tell me about your writing process. Where do you write? When do you write? Do you have any writing rituals?
Don – When the muse visits me, I’m like a man possessed. I’ll write 5,000 words in a day, getting up every hour to spend 5 minutes on the recumbent bicycle so I don’t forget how to walk—but the muse doesn’t visit daily. I don’t force anything because I don’t think, for example, that making yourself write 1,000 words a day is going to get you quality results. There are going to be days when you’re not on, days when you’ve got other things on your mind. Yeah, it’s a job, and it’s a difficult job, but you have to enjoy it. Readers are smart folks—they know if you didn’t enjoy what you wrote and forcing yourself to write when you don’t have the spark is not an enjoyable experience for the reader OR the writer. Having said that, though, my works-in-progress are always on my mind and it’s rare a day goes by when I don’t work. I’m up early. I grab a mug of black coffee, plop myself down in my office, fire up the computer, and I’m off to the races. I use a two-monitor set-up which I find really helps when I have to research something, but I’m still torn about that because I’ve caught myself getting distracted. My office is where my guitar collection hangs and it’s much too easy to be able to grab one when I stumble onto another guitar player on YouTube demonstrating a song I always wanted to learn. It’s easy to be lazy.
Claire – Tell me about your novels ‘Pandemonium,’ ‘Phantom Dead Man,’ and ‘Sarcophagus.’ Where did the inspiration come from?
Don – ‘Pandemonium’ was my first novel and the inspiration came from several old buildings in Lebanon, Tennessee. Spooky, creepy old buildings—McClain School and the Lebanon Hotel. Late one night I went into the Lebanon Hotel—just walked right in—and took a tour of the place. After leaving, I drove to the abandoned school building and found it unlocked, so I took a moonlight tour of it, too. I got home at 2 a.m. and immediately began ‘Pandemonium,’ a story about an incubus in a small, Tennessee town. ‘Phantom Dead Man’ was an experiment in stream of consciousness and it arose from having too much on my plate. I was going to graduate school, working on two horror stories with deadlines looming, writing a how-to piece for a craftsman journal, working on a documentary for public television, and outlining a novel. I sat down one day with all these things whirling around in my head and I just started writing whatever popped in there. The book had a wildly opposing reception; readers either liked it or hated it—there was no middle of the road. ‘Sarcophagus’ came about after a trip to New Orleans. I’ve always been fascinated by the above-ground graveyards there and during that visit, I saw several tombs in St. Louis Cemetery #3 with gaping holes in them large enough for a person to squeeze through—and all the holes looked as if they were made by something pushing out, rather than in. ‘Sarcophagus’ was started on a legal pad the moment I got back to my hotel room.
Claire – Where does your inspiration come from? Do you have a writing ritual?
Don – Most of my inspiration comes from things I see; very little of it comes strictly from imagination. When I see something that triggers a “What if…?” I take out my phone and click a picture of it, but I’m also very old school. I carry a small, brown, leather notebook with me all the time and I’ll scribble the beginnings of the story in there. Once I’m back in the office, I open a document, type my notes into the document, write the first line or first few lines of the story, and save it in a working directory for later. That’s how I keep up with ideas these days and it’s much handier than shuffling through stacks of paper.
Claire – You received some great reviews for ‘Fallen Angels,’ most compliments enjoying the mixture of creepy and humorous. Do you often blend writing styles?
Don – Ha! Yes, the ‘Fallen Angels’ are just like us—some of them are funny, some are sarcastic, some are pricks, and some take themselves way too seriously. I do blend writing styles, though, and I do it with a purpose. Too much of anything is too much. In horror, you need a funny character—not laugh out loud funny, but observationally witty and self-deprecating. When you ask readers to suspend disbelief, you’re asking a lot, so having a character or a scene that’s something amusing out of real life helps the unbelievable become believable.
Claire – Tell me about your chapbooks. I see they were penned in the ‘80’s. Has your writing style changed since then?
Don – My style hasn’t changed all that much, but my focus has changed. I’ve moved away from poetry to fiction mainly because it suits me better. Poetry will drive a person nuts. I have two pieces in the newly released ‘Speculations’ edited by my friend Frank Coffman and I bled over those two poems like I’d been beaten with chains. Thirty lines of poetry and I spent weeks on them. I love poetry; it’s the easiest thing to do poorly, the most difficult thing to do well, and not many people seem to know the difference anymore. Hearing “I don’t like poetry” from people who’ve barely read any is painful, so although I continue to do it, I don’t publish much of it, not even in chapbooks. I still contribute to anthologies but chapbooks seem to be becoming a bit passé. I hope that’s not true, but it’s the impression I get lately.
Claire – Tell me about your avant-garde project ‘The Thirty.’ Who did you work with?
Don – I got this wild idea that it would be very cool to read a horror novel where each chapter was written by a different author; where each author could take the story in whatever direction they wanted. After turning the idea over in my head for a few weeks, I approached the writing community on Twitter with the concept and the response was fantastic. Within just a day or two, I had 35 people on board and the mix was as eclectic as you can get. We have well-known horror authors, we have noteworthy book reviewers, we have bloggers, and we have horror aficionados who’ve always wanted to try their hand at writing but never have. Using some very basic calculations for word count, and realizing we’d lose some participants along the way, I decided on 30 chapters, wrote the first one, and sent it out. The next author in line wrote their chapter, sent it back, and it took off from there. We’re on Chapter 18 now and I’ve been pleasantly surprised, especially at the writing from newcomers—people who’ve never written fiction in their lives. It’s been an amazing, exciting experience. If I mention everybody involved we’ll be here all day, but I do want to say that the “name brand authors” on board have all been extremely generous in lending credibility to the project. We have new writers who still cannot believe they’ve got a chapter adjacent to Jonathan Janz or Chris Sorenson or D.W. Gillespie. This speaks volumes to the support and camaraderie present in the horror community.
Claire –Let’s learn more about you. Who is your favourite author and why?
Don – Wow… It’s incredibly difficult to pick just one, but though it may be cliché, I’m going with the master. If it weren’t for Stephen King, I don’t know what we’d all be reading and writing now. Stephen King took a genre that had been marginalized for two centuries and with raw talent, dragged it into the mainstream and kept it there. At the risk of sounding like a fanboy, I think King is the greatest horror writer who’s ever lived. Sure, he misses the mark sometimes—everyone does—but when it comes to the most important thing in fiction, which is story—story—story, he can pull it off 99% of the time.
Claire – Do you get writer’s block? If so, what do you do to overcome it?
Don – I get writer’s block from time to time, but I have the greatest remedy—I grab my Gibson SG, plug it into a Marshall amplifier, and play along with Pete Townshend while The Who blasts “Won’t Get Fooled Again” over the sound system. It works every single time. The neighbours probably don’t care much for it, but most of them have “real” jobs so they aren’t home during the day anyway.
Claire – Writers are weird, right? What’s the strangest/most interesting thing about you?
Don – Most people would never guess, especially from my politics, that I was a United States Army Chief Warrant Officer for 26 years.
Claire – What’s on the horizon for you?
Don – I hope to see ‘Dark Voices’ published by year’s end and also see ‘He Has Stayed Too Long’ wrapped up by then. I’ve got an idea brewing for another book featuring the most terrifying monsters known to humankind: babies.
Claire – And finally, you’re stuck on an island with only one book. What’s the book?
Don – US Army Field Manual 21-76, ‘Survival, Escape, and Evasion’ along with Stephen King’s magnum opus: ‘The Stand.’ Thanks for your questions, Claire—it’s been a genuine pleasure.
Our church worships at the altar of the Unholy Trinity. Its gospels are delivered as a trio of dark drabbles, linked so that Three become One. All hail the power of the Three.
Marauders
The first man checked the device on his wrist, Braunau am Inn, Austria, 20/04/1889.
They’d arrived safely, now to find the hospital. Leaving the seclusion of the forest on the outskirts of town they followed a worn, twisting track towards their destination.
The first man ushered his companion with the surgical bag inside the hospital and followed the signs towards the maternity ward.
Finding their destination they prepared themselves for the task ahead. A porter, pushing a trolley, approached them. He raised a silenced pistol and fired.
They fell.
Why do these time-travellers insist on coming after Hitler? he thought.
Missing
Placing a gloved hand upon the door handle he forced his way inside the residence.
A cloaked man was standing over the body of a mutilated and disembowelled woman. He was holding a knife in one hand and her heart in the other.
Aiming his pistol towards the murderer the man spoke, “Put everything inside your bag and move slowly towards the door.”
Puzzled, he begrudgingly obliged.
Pressing the pistol into the murderer’s back, he cautiously escorted him from 13 Miller’s Court.
“Walk slowly towards the yard on your left.”
In an electric blue flash Jack the Ripper disappeared, forever.
Mission
“Do you have everything, Lewis?”
One final check and the man gave a solemn thumbs up.
“Great, now go fetch your companion.”
Lewis left the room, momentarily, returning accompanied by another man dressed in a smart suit, top hat and cape, carrying a leather surgeon’s bag. They both presented the appearance of 19th century gentlemen.
Before securing away his pistol Lewis gesticulated it in front of The Ripper, “Don’t give me cause to use this. Just do exactly as I say.”
Lewis directed his fellow traveller towards a futuristic, arched steel construction.
“Good luck, Lewis. Time to go kill Hitler.”
Gary Hazlewood
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.
Near the end of 2017, Selene MacLeod interviewed both Josh Finney & Patrick McEvoy who are the creators of ‘Casefile: Arkham.’ The two write horror but are also both hilarious and informative.
Deadline: June 30th, 2019
Payment: $5 per printed page
LGBTQ+ Humor
Are you queerly hilarious?
Well, prove it!
Seeking humorous original work by and/or about LGBTQ+ people and lives. This is a positive publication celebrating the LGBTQ+ community through the lens of humor. Only pieces supporting this mission will be considered. No homophobic, transphobic or hateful material will be considered.
This premiere edition of our first LGBTQ+ humor anthology will be published in print & ebook. It will be made available in paperback on Amazon, the Barnes & Noble website, QommunicatePublishing.com and wherever books are sold (available to booksellers and libraries through Ingram.) Ebook versions will be compatible with the Amazon Kindle, Barnes & Noble Nook, Kobo, iOS, Android, MacOS, and Windows devices in addition to PDF and other downloadable formats and web-viewable formats.
Submission Guidelines
Please read the following submission guidelines carefully before submitting your work to Funny Queer. If you have any questions not answered below, please write us at [email protected] and we will be happy to answer.
Theme
Humor by and/or about LGBTQ+ people. The only criteria is it makes us laugh!
Genres
Anything meeting the theme, including:
Fiction.
Nonfiction.
Jokes.
Comics/graphic shorts (black and white only).
Poems.
Short scripts.
We will NOT consider:
Erotica
Work written for children
Length
Prose: up to 3,500 words
Poetry: Up to 3 pages
Comics & Scripts: up to 10 pages
These length recommendations are flexible.
Formats
All submissions must be typed. No handwritten submissions will be accepted.
If you send your submission in, please do NOT mail us your only copy of your work. We can not be responsible for returning submissions.
Multiple Submissions
Multiple submissions (submissions of more than one work) are fine. Send us what you’ve got!
Simultaneous Submissions
Simultaneous submissions (submitting work you’ve already submitted–or are planning on submitting–elsewhere) are fine too.
Please just be sure that if your submission gets accepted elsewhere, you contact us at [email protected] to withdraw it from consideration for More Queer Families: A LGBTQ+ True Stories Anthology.
Reprints
Reprints will NOT be considered.
Rights
We are seeking First English Anthology Rights and First World Anthology Rights in print and ebook formats.
NOTE: These rights only allow the material to be used in the anthology and its reprints, and the writer retains all rights to their work not specified here (i.e. in the contract), including copyright to their work.
We are also seeking, for all material, Non-exclusive Excerpt Rights (for the purposes of promoting the Anthology on the website).
Compensation:
Contributors of writing will receive, as a humble token of our appreciation, $5 per printed page, and contributors of art will receive $15 per piece.
What to Submit
Your submission
A brief bio telling us something about you and (if applicable) any publishing experience
At least one form of contact information (phone number, email, or mailing address. Please do not give a social media account handle as your only form of contact information.
IMPORTANT: Pen names are acceptable. However, for contractual purposes, all submissions must also include the author’s legal name.
or mailed to us at:
Qommunity
201 Lancelot Lane
Becket, MA 01223
AGAIN, MAILED SUBMISSIONS WILL NOT BE RETURNED
Submission Deadline
June 30, 2019.
Response Time
We do our best to respond to all submissions within 3 months of receiving them. If you haven’t heard from us in that time, please feel free to reach out.
We are looking for new original short stories in the speculative fiction genres:
Science Fiction
Fantasy
Horror
Paranormal
Supernatural
In general, we are interested in strong character driven stories. We do not want stories that have explicit sex or violence, rapists, child abusers, or cannibals in them.
Original Short Fiction
Submissions must be between 1,000-7,500 words.
Stories must be in English.
Payment for original fiction is $.02 per word up to 7,500 words.
Please familiarize yourself with our About page to get an idea of what Claw & Blossom are about.
For PROSE, send up to 1,000 words. This can be one piece of flash fiction or CNF, or linked micros.
For POEMS, send one poem per submission.
We do not consider previously-published work. This includes work posted on personal blogs and social media accounts.
We accept and encourage simultaneous submissions. Should your work be accepted elsewhere while under consideration with Claw & Blossom, please withdraw the piece from us as soon as possible by using the Withdraw option in Submittable.
We do not consider multiple submissions. Please submit to either the Poetry category or the Prose category and wait for our response before submitting another piece.
There is no submission fee.
We pay $25 USD per acceptance upon publication via PayPal. (Linked micros are considered one acceptance.)
WHEN
We publish in March, June, September, and December. We read nearly year-round (the exception being for a two-week period just before each issue is released, so that we can have a little moment to make sure all of our duck-rows are properly quacking, and maybe to drink some hooch).
WHITHER
By submitting your work to Claw & Blossom for consideration, you agree that you understand and accept the following terms:
That you have actually read our About page, so that you are not sending us work that is wholly incompatible with our stated goals and thereby making our hair fall out in clumps.
That the work you send Claw & Blossom is of your own making and has not been plagiarized in whole or in part.
That Claw & Blossom are purchasing the rights to publish your work on our website and to archive that work in our Issues archive.
If your work published with Claw & Blossom is later reprinted elsewhere, we would appreciate acknowledgement of first publication.
soft surface primarily publishes work by women, LGBTQIA, gnc folks, BIPOC, and/or otherwise marginalized voices. submissions are always open, but please don’t submit more than once every 6 months. send all queries and submissions to [email protected]
simultaneous submissions accepted. please be in touch if your work is accepted elsewhere. soft surface does not accept previously published work in any capacity. all accepted contributors are paid $10. funding is generated through sales at the used bookshop. soft surface has first publishing rights, after which rights return to the writer/artist. if your work is reprinted in the future, please acknowledge first publication in soft surface.
journal submissions: poetry – send 2-5 unpublished poems in a single .pdf. each poem should be on a separate page. please no poems exceeding 2 pages.
visual art – send up to 5 high-quality images. links to short films, sound art, etc. are encouraged.
when submitting, include your pronouns, a short third-person bio, and any relevant links – whatever you’d like published alongside your work, if accepted.
residency requests:
to be considered for digital residency, include the above as well as a detailed description of what you’d like to publish on the site during the residency. if this work is finished, please include it; if it is in-progress, send a description and some sample work. please don’t apply for residency if you have already been a resident or if you have had work published in soft surface in the last 6 months.
poem letter submissions:
to be considered for publication in the monthly newsletter, please send just one poem in a single .pdf, along with the other details about yourself as listed under “journal submissions.”
general inquiries:
always interested in collaboration opportunities, or whatever questions you have. soft surface was founded in 2019 by lindsay costello.
Send us your yin/yang stories, your tales of good twin/bad twin, your thoughts about anything and everything twinnish, even the astrological sign of Gemini. Stories should contain strong plotlines or strong characters … and be creative. We want our readers to be immersed in each story and invested in each character. You needn’t stick solely to humans. Feel free to write a fairy tale and/or a dark tragedy—or anything in between.
We want stories from 500 to 3,000 words in length, fiction or non-fiction. Uninvited are screenplays. Also uninvited are stories that are publicly available on any website, such as your Facebook page or Wattpad. We will not accept stories with graphic porn (especially the tired twins fantasy), and yes, we’ll know it when we see it. We want YA readers to enjoy the published anthology without parental balking.
Submissions will open on at 12:00:01 a.m. May 21, 2019 and will close at 23:59:59 EST on June 20, 2019. The judges will not read submissions as they arrive; they will begin to read submissions on June 21. You will receive a status notification (rejected or accepted) approximately three months after submissions close (around September 21). Judges will only offer an acceptance or rejection email, without feedback. Along with their thanks for submitting of course, either way.
There Is No Reading Fee
You may submit up to three stories, but we will accept a maximum of two stories per author. We will pay $10 USD via PayPal per story accepted. Contributors will receive one copy of the book electronically (even if two stories are accepted). We will plaster your name around the universe as best we can. In other words, wherever we market the book, publicize the book, or mention the book, the contributing authors’ names will be mentioned. We expect to publish paperbacks and eBooks, which will be available through Amazon, Barnes & Noble, and online. For authors local to Southeast Pennsylvania, we will attempt to provide as much face-time as possible, including book signings.
Submissions must be via Moksha. Do not put your name on your submission, but follow the instructions on the site to ensure your work is attributable to you. Format: Use Word, 12-point font in Georgia, Times New Roman or equivalent, in black ink, and double-spaced (Shunn formatting). If you need a reminder about formatting: http://www.shunn.net/format/story.html
Your work should be as perfect as possible prior to submitting. We want to read your best writing. We are editors by trade so grammatical, typographical, and syntactical errors will be glaring to us and will take us out of your story. We will notify you if we feel your story is excellent but could use a few edits, and we will work with you to elevate the writing.
We will accept reprints if you have the rights back; please note in your cover letter if this is a reprint. If you submit your story simultaneously to other markets, you must notify us via email by close of submissions on June 20, 2019 if it has been accepted elsewhere.
We anticipate approximately 120K words in the anthology.
Now the legal jargon: We’re asking for first rights nationally and internationally, but all rights will revert back to you six months after initial publication release. After those six months, you can publish it wherever you like so long as you note that it was first published in our anthology. If for some odd reason the book is not published within 24 months from the date of acceptance (as John Lennon said, “Life is what happens to you while you’re busy making other plans,”) we will return first rights to you immediately. Once your story(ies) is/are accepted, you will receive a contract with details of rights and how you get paid. Accepted authors under the age of 18 must get a parent to sign the contract. You will get a galley sheet of your story(ies) prior to printing to ensure that you are a part of this process.
We will accept a maximum of two stories to be published.
Claire – Hi Don! Great to chat with you. Let’s jump right in. What are you currently writing/working on?
Claire – Your journals ‘The Meeker Collection’ sound interesting. How did/does your newspaper writing affect your fiction? 
Don – ‘Pandemonium’ was my first novel and the inspiration came from several old buildings in Lebanon, Tennessee. Spooky, creepy old buildings—McClain School and the Lebanon Hotel. Late one night I went into the Lebanon Hotel—just walked right in—and took a tour of the place. After leaving, I drove to the abandoned school building and found it unlocked, so I took a moonlight tour of it, too. I got home at 2 a.m. and immediately began ‘Pandemonium,’ a story about an incubus in a small, Tennessee town. ‘Phantom Dead Man’ was an experiment in stream of consciousness and it arose from having too much on my plate. I was going to graduate school, working on two horror stories with deadlines looming, writing a how-to piece for a craftsman journal, working on a documentary for public television, and outlining a novel. I sat down one day with all these things whirling around in my head and I just started writing whatever popped in there. The book had a wildly opposing reception; readers either liked it or hated it—there was no middle of the road. ‘Sarcophagus’ came about after a trip to New Orleans. I’ve always been fascinated by the above-ground graveyards there and during that visit, I saw several tombs in St. Louis Cemetery #3 with gaping holes in them large enough for a person to squeeze through—and all the holes looked as if they were made by something pushing out, rather than in. ‘Sarcophagus’ was started on a legal pad the moment I got back to my hotel room.
Claire – Tell me about your chapbooks. I see they were penned in the ‘80’s. Has your writing style changed since then? 
