Category: Anthology

Taking Submissions: Solarpunk Sunscapes

Deadline: November 1st, 2021
Payment: $.02 per word and a contributors copy
Theme: Optimistic views of the future

SOLARPUNK SUNSCAPES: OPTIMISTIC VISIONS OF THE FUTURE

Story Length: 500 to 7,500 words
Story Payment: $.02 per word + contributor copy
Poem Length: 5 poems or 5 pages
Poetry Payment:
 $30 per poem + contributor copy
Submissions Open: September 1 — November 1, 2021
Expected Publication: Summer 2022
Editor: Justine Norton-Kertson

What is Solarpunk?

Solarpunk is a subgenre of science fiction that developed as a reaction to cyberpunk, the decades long dominance of apocalyptic fiction, and a growing desire to tell, read, hear, and watch stories that provide solutions to the very real and potentially catastrophic challenges of climate change. Solarpunk tells optimistic and hopeful stories about future societies (near-future or distant) powered by renewable energy, and where nature and technology coexist in harmony rather than in conflict. This is a subgenre that’s about restoring the web of life that connects us all. It’s about a desire to protect all life, not just human life. It’s about the drive to embrace and empower life, and restore the planet.

Solarpunk futures aren’t usually “perfect” utopias. Well sometimes they are, or at least really close — but not always, not even usually — and even when they come close they are still never without conflict and challenges. But they also are absolutely not dystopias.

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Taking Submissions: Death of a Bad Neighbour: Revenge is Criminal (Early)

Submission Window: October 1st – 31st, 2021
Payment: 10 cents per word and royalties
Theme: Short crime or mystery stories to fit the Death of a Bad Neighbour theme

Anthology to be edited by Jack Calverley host of the CrimeCityCentral Crime City Central podcast

From the rock star in his fairytale Gothic mansion in Central London whose neighbour plans a double basement excavation, to the retiree in a fisherman’s cottage in the northeast of England whose neighbour tells lies to a court to acquire the back garden that is not theirs: we are plagued by bad neighbours.

One recent article in the Daily Telegraph Online which reported the trauma caused by at best inconsiderate, but at worst criminal, neighbours accumulated five hundred registered comments within half an hour of being published.

It does not take a crime writer to know that a plague of bottom-feeders calls for an exterminator. But it does take the creatively criminal-minded to come up with the bestest plan ever…

Such is the inspiration for “Death of a Bad Neighbour: Revenge is Criminal” – an anthology of all-new crime and mystery stories.

Submission window is October 2021.

Incidentally, the rock star is Jimmy Page, he of Led Zeppelin fame. His expansive neighbour is Robbie Williams, some crooner or other. And the original suggestion for an anthology came from Carter Blakelaw who was mid-discussion of his story “Tinnitus” at the time (please don’t use “Tinnitus” as a story title. Now it will sound second-hand).

10 cents a word plus a share of royalties

So, I’m after around 20 short crime or mystery stories to fit the Death of a Bad Neighbour theme, 2,000 to 5,000 words (you’re the best judge of the sweet spot length of the story you tell), paying U.S. 10 cents a word for first English language text (eBook and print) and audio publication rights (exclusivity of these rights reverts to the author 12 months after publication or 18 months after the submission deadline, whichever is sooner, and waived for Best Of collections). The submission deadline is October 31st 2021. Accept/reject decisions during December, if not before. Payment on acceptance.
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Taking Submissions: It Calls From the Veil

Deadline: October 31st, 2021
Payment: .01 per word after approved edits up to $60 CAD, $15 CAD for reprints
Theme: What can give you nightmares (see below for expanded description)

“It Calls From the Veil”

Submission Open: September 1, 2021

Submission Close:  October 31, 2021

Publishing timeline:  2022

HORROR – May have elements of Dark Fantasy, Dark Fiction and Cosmic horror. But must have the intention to scare the readers.

 
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Taking Submissions: Dark Secrets

Deadline: October 31st, 2021
Payment: $10
Theme: Secrets that are darker than others

We all have secrets. We all have dark stories and hidden truths we hide from others. But some secrets are darker than others.

Join Madhouse Books in this upcoming anthology of short, horror stories of sinister secrets and hidden evil. We are seeking stories of the evil of mankind. We are not seeking stories with paranormal elements. Think serial killers, secret identities, and hidden pasts. (more…)

Taking Submissions: Stories of the Eye (Early)

Submission Window: November 1st, 2021, to November 30th, 2021.
Payment: $0.02 per word plus a physical copy upon publication
Theme: Horror stories that explore the complex relationships between artists and models.

We didn’t know if we’d do it again, but Weirdpunk is finally publishing a new anthology with an open call.

Stories of the Eye will be edited by Sam Richard (Sabbath of the Fox-Devils, Wonderland Award-Winning To Wallow in Ash & Other Sorrows) and Joanna Koch (The Wingspan of Severed Hands, Shirley Jackson Award-Nominated The Couvade). It will be published in 2022. Read on for info.

Weirdpunk Books is seeking horror stories that explore the complex relationships between artists and models. Go beyond the male gaze. Show us the queer gaze, the disabled gaze, the un-colonialized gaze, the intergalactic gaze. Turn the model’s gaze on the artist or audience. Explore the power of images, why we bring them to life or destroy them through duplication and representation, and how the act of creating changes them and changes us. Invent a future art form or resurrect a forgotten handicraft. Define “model” as widely and surprisingly as you like: people, objects, trees, oceans, ideas. Examine obsession, violence, commitment, love, or indifference. Give us a botanical illustrator on an unknown planet, a modern-day Gericault shipwrecked in a studio with body parts becoming medical waste, a necromancing choreographer, or a performance artist looking for that one special element to transcend reality in a final postmodernist feat of madness.

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Taking Submissions: Noir, Shattering the Glass Slipper, and Brave New Worlds

Deadline: December 31st, 2021
Payment: 8 cents per word
Themes:

  • Noir: Science fiction, fantasy, or urban fantasy stories with a detective/private investigator set-up and a noir atmosphere
  • Shattering the Glass Slipper: Stories of known fairy tales that have been upended, gender-bent, or twisted around in some way.
  • Brave New Worlds: Science fiction stories set along the pathway of us leaving Earth for the stars.


 

The NOIR, SHATTERING THE GLASS SLIPPER, and BRAVE NEW WORLDS anthology Kickstarter (back us at tinyurl.com/ZNB2021) has hit its goal!  If you have a story idea that fits one of the anthology themes, write it up, revise it, polish it, and send it in for consideration.  I’ve posted the guidelines below.

The NOIR, SHATTERING THE GLASS SLIPPER, and BRAVE NEW WORLDS Submission Guidelines
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Taking Submissions: Mirror, Mirror

Deadline: October 15th, 2021
Payment: 6¢/word on acceptance.
Theme: A fairy tale involving a mirror

MIRROR, MIRROR:

Modern Myths

Executive Editors: Kevin J. Anderson and Allyson Longueira

 

When you’re alone with your reflection, are you prepared for what you see?

A prince in disguise? A monster revealed? An alien race?

Mirrors can be truth-tellers, wish-granters, face-concealers, illusion-makers, even monster-summoners. Maybe the mirror shows an evil twin, or an echo of the life that should have been. Or a portal to another world.

What happens when it shatters?
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Taking Submissions: Horror Tales of Rock Music!

Deadline: December 1st, 2021
Payment: $.03 per word
Theme: Bloody Rock Anthology

Scary Diary Press is accepting submissions from 01 August 2021 to 01 December 2021 for an anthology that has gutsy strings attached! But don’t fret! Are you a horror writer and a music lover? Does the rock of the 50’s, 60’s and 70’s take you back to the nightmares of yore? If you can brew a scary tale that Alice Cooper and the Dead would love, we just might love it too! Submission Guidelines: Scary Dairy Press is seeking short story submissions between 2,000 and 5,000 words max for an anthology that combines a rock song theme and creepy horror into a tale that rocks readers to their bones! Anthology title pending the kinds of stories submitted and selected.

 

For now, “Bloody Rock” is a placeholder. This ear-bursting anthology draws inspiration from the terrifying tunes of the 1950s, 60s, and 70s. Stories need not use the song title as the story title. Stories must not use the original song lyrics, however the song inspiring the tale should be clear. We are looking for stories that channel deathly waves on the air! Bonus points if tales champion animals or animal rights (animals can be our heroes!), focus on human rights, climate change, gender issues, and other important social issues.

Any story that combines a terrifying tune and a creepy tale is welcome as long as we can pick it up, play it and shiver! What we want: Stories for this horror anthology may include additional elements of dark fiction, dark fantasy, speculative fiction, sci-fi or bizarro as long as horror is the primary venue. Your story may occur in any time, place or space. Mix it up, but make it thought provoking and disturbing to the human conscience. It’s up to you whether you curse the world with the Monster Mash or end the tale making every day Halloween. What we don’t want: No child abuse/sexual abuse scenes. No gratuitous splatter, gore or rape. If you use it, there must be a clear purpose for it. If you use vampires, werewolves or zombies then make the creatures or situation something unusual and unique.

If you are not sure about your idea, then message us at [email protected] and ask. Payment: $.03 per word.

Submit your manuscript on Duotrope starting 8/1/2021. Look for the “open” announcement. Your subject line should read: Bloody Rock_Name_Title of Submission. Shunn Manuscript Format is required. Please follow the directions to have your story considered. Use Word documents only: doc or docx are fine. Exclusive publishing rights remain with the publisher for a total of 12 months after publication, and may include written, electronic and audio formats. We look forward to reading and dancing to your words!

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