Category: Flash

Flash Fiction

Contributor's Copy / Events / Flash / Magazine / Semipro

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Taking Submissions: Weird Horror Magazine March 2023 Window (Early Listing)

Submission Window: March 1st – 31st, 2023
Payment: 1.5¢ per word (one and one-half cent), with a $25 (U.S.) minimum and 2 contributors copies
Theme: Horror and Weird Fiction

Weird Horror has two reading periods each year – March and September.

FICTION GUIDELINES

OPENS: March 1, 2023

CLOSES: March 31, 2023

We are seeking first publication rights. Fiction must be in English, and previously unpublished in English anywhere, in any format, on any platform, including your blog, website, newsletter, Patreon, etc. Please do not query about reprints.

We will consider works translated to English, as long as you are offering first English-language publication rights.

Simultaneous submissions are welcome. Please inform us if your story is accepted elsewhere. No multiple submissions. Please send 1 story only per reading period.

We are seeking horror and weird fiction from 500 to 6,000 words, firm. Stories over or under the word count will not be read. (Please respect our word counts.) We are not interested in extreme horror.

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Anthology / Events / Flash / Flat Amount

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Taking Submissions: The Devil Take You

Deadline: April 15th, 2023
Payment: $125 – $200
Theme: Original weird tales set in the medieval period that explore the human (and inhuman) experience through the lens of horror.

Sentinel Creatives has opened up for submissions for our “THE DEVIL TAKE YOU: TALES OF MEDIEVAL HORROR” anthology.

Deadline for Submissions: 15 April 2023
Wordcount: 3,000 – 6,000
Remuneration: $125 – $200
Simultaneous Submissions: Yes

WHAT WE’RE LOOKING FOR

We’re looking for original weird tales set in the medieval period that explore the human (and inhuman) experience through the lens of horror.

Some clarifications:

Weird: The term “weird” should be understood to mean a certain sense of breathless and unexplainable dread, of outer, unknown forces present, a suggestion of the defeat or suspension of the laws of nature which have hitherto served to protect our minds and bodies (and souls) from the assault of chaos. By its very nature, weird fiction should invoke in the reader a sense of profound uneasiness and dread, it should hint at the inability of the human mind to comprehend the true nature of existence, and it should cause us to question the stability of our faith in the established laws of nature.

Medieval: The term “medieval” denotes the period in Europe lasting from around 500AD to 1500AD and is typically divided into the Early, High, and Late Middle Ages. There is a temptation here that often proves too powerful to ignore, to view Europe through a monist lens: to see all of Europe as Christian, white, and “Western”. But this is a strange way to view a continent and a period that saw so much strife and upheaval precisely because of the differences of those living within its borders. These are the differences—the tensions—that create the opportunity for compelling storytelling.
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Anthology / Events / Flash / Flat Amount / Magazine

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Taking Submissions: Whetstone Issue 7

Deadline: March 31st, 2023
Payment: $10
Theme: Pulp Sword and Sworcery

Submissions: OPEN (Issue 7)
• Submission deadline: Friday, March 31st, 2023, 11:59p.
• Editorial decisions: Sunday, May 7th.
• Publication of Issue 7: Friday, June 17th, 2023.

Special Guest Editor for Issue 7: Dr. Nicole Emmelhainz is Associate Professor of Composition and Rhetoric at Christopher Newport University, where she also directs the Alice F. Randall Writing Center and serves as Writing Program Administer. She received her MA in English from Ball State University, her MA in Creative Writing Poetry from Ohio University, and her PhD in Writing History and Theory from Case Western Reserve University. She is the co-editor for The Dark Man: Journal of Robert E. Howard and Pulp Studies and has presented widely on elements of pulp fiction, sword and sorcery, and feminism.
Length: We prefer short, compressed stories that are nevertheless complete and cohesive narratives (1500 to 2500 words). These limits are firm. No more, no less. Stories over or under the limit will not be read. We mean it, friends! This limit serves two functions: (1) the limit is an artistic challenge. It takes skill to tell a compressed, punchy story. (2) We are an amateur publication and only pay a token honorarium, so save your longer works for better paying markets.
Style: We prefer “dialog light, action heavy” fiction with vivid imagery that is unselfconsciously literary but nevertheless takes joy in an occasional old word that gives the breath of antiquity. Please eschew typographical emphasis and variation–e.g. bolding, italicizing, underlining (there are more artful ways of rendering verbal timbre).

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Anthology / Events / Flash / Flat Amount

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Taking Submissions: Legion of Dorks Presents: Resurrected – An Anthology of Second Chances

Deadline: March 31st, 2022
Payment: $50
Theme: Stories must include resurrection

Resurrected Now Accepting Submissions

Legion of Dorks Presents: Resurrected – An Anthology of Second Chances is searching for short stories no more than 7000 words.

Submissions are open from January 1, 2023 to March 31, 2023. Your story must be an original, never-before-published creation that centers around the theme.

You must include some sort of resurrection, whether real or virtual, that concludes by the end of the story to meet the theme requirements. You cannot write in anyone else’s world. Otherwise, have fun and let your imagination dominate.

  • A scientist discovers a way to bring back an extinct species.
  • At a new school, an outcast finds a way to reinvent herself.
  • A dead god tricks new worshippers into rejuvenating his power.
  • The ideas are endless.

We are offering $50 per accepted story.

Fifty percent of all revenue after cost of production will be donated to Toys for Tots in conjunction with the Legion of Dorks December fundraiser.

Email all submissions as an attachment in .doc or .docx format to [email protected] with the subject “Submission for Resurrected (last name).” One story per email please and no more than two submissions total. On the first page of your document, please include your name, address, and email in the top left corner. A short bio and anything pertinent about the story itself should be included in the body of the email.

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Events / Flash / Flat Amount / Magazine / Non-fiction

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Taking Submissions: Cunning Folk #6

Deadline: March 1st, 2023
Payment: £100 per article, interview or short story and £50 for poetry and rituals
Theme: The Vampire

We are open to non-fiction pitches and short fiction and poetry submissions for issue 6 until 1 March 2023. The theme is THE VAMPIRE.

“Vampires are so nearly human that they are excellent to think with.”

–Professor Nick Groom, author of The Vampire: A New History

Vampires charm and terrify us. We fear them, envy them, and pity them, eternal witnesses to the passage of time, conquerors of impermanence, and creatures of the night. The vampire is a symbol of the shadow side, of the old world meeting modernity, and of the 19th-century preoccupation with mesmerism and blood; the vampire eludes, too, to the pitfalls of aestheticism, for behind this creature’s seductive glamour lies a ruthless – often narcissistic and nihilistic – consumer. Of course, the vampire also has roots in older, Eastern European folk beliefs, such as the Romanian strigoi – which had much in common with the witch of the witch trials – and this supernatural being converges with many other cultural beliefs around the undead. The modern vampire continues to haunt our collective imagination, from Count Dracula and Carmilla to Anne Rice’s Vampire Chronicles and True Blood, exposing our basest impulses and thoughts, and forcing us to confront the personal and collective shadow. Why does this monster appear to us in dreams and sleep paralysis? Why are we scared of – and fascinated by – the liminal space between life and death? What even is death? What is it to live forever? And what does the vampire’s infinite quest for blood tell us of our own lives? Are we, too, a little vampiric? How can we fend off the vampires exterior and interior to ourselves? We want your articles, interviews, rituals, poetry and short fiction pertaining to the vampiric, that intersect with our other themes and that shine light on what lies behind the vampire’s shiny façade – and what that tells us about the current age, the unconscious shadow and humanity. This question can be explored via journalism, art, literature, science, pop culture and the personal.

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Anthology / Events / Flash / Semipro

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Taking Submissions: We Fear Not the Sea

Deadline: March 30th, 2023
Payment: 2 cents per word
Theme: Stories inspired by sea shanties, more on that below!

This is a Call for Submissions for We Fear Not the Sea, an anthology of stories inspired by sea shanties.

Each tale should be based on, or somehow incorporate, one sea shanty and include a speculative element of some kind. Give us your adventures with ghosts, sea monsters, and mermaids! Put us in the salty sea boots of sailors, whalers, pirates, and privateers!

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Anthology / Events / Flash / Flat Amount / Token Payment

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Taking Submissions: Jane Nightshade’s Serial Encounters

Deadline: August 30th, 2023
Payment: $5
Theme: Short stories about casual encounters of fictional people with serial killers

Have you ever wondered about the ordinary people who came in contact with famous serial killers before everyone knew them for their depraved, murderous acts?

What did Jeffrey Dahmer’s plumber experience when he unclogged the notorious cannibal’s toilet? Or how about the guy who worked in the music shop where Charles Manson had his guitars strung? The girl who waited on Ted Bundy at his favorite coffee shop? Jack the Ripper’s neighborhood bartender? How about one of the kids who had John Wayne Gacey perform as a clown at their birthday party?

For this anthology, we’re looking for short stories about casual encounters of fictional people with serial killers, that turned creepy or deadly. Stories can be straight crime/thriller stories or ones with a supernatural bent (haunted objects, ghosts, demons, etc.).

Characters and victims, aside from the serial killers, must be fictional—real names of victims or family members can not be used. Also, feel free to use lesser-known killers like Richard Speck or The Boston Strangler, in case the Bundy and Manson stories start piling up like the bodies of their victims…

Note: Stories should not lionize or celebrate the serial killers, or promote racism, bigotry, or depictions of violence against children.

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Anthology / Contributor's Copy / Events / Flash / Semipro

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Taking Submissions: Novus Monstrum: The Midnight Zone (Full Call)

Submission Window: February 1st, 2023 – March 30th, 2023
Payment: 3 cents per word plus 1 contributor’s copy.
Theme: Stories with original monsters
Note: We had previously included a listing for this call, however, it was only a partial one and we now have the full details to share!)

NOVUS MONSTRUM

OPENING 2 FEB for submissions from Dragon’s Roost Press:
volume one of the weird, dark, speculative new anthology series,

 

THE MIDNIGHT ZONE

Our first season of mind-rattling speculations, our volume one, is a menagerie of original monsters. To qualify, your story must feature, meaningfully, a never-before-seen monster (however you define the word) and must contain a speculative element. 1000-5000 words, with a sweet spot of 3k. All land, sea, space, time, earth, wind, and fire monsters welcome.

Join featured authors Ramsey Campbell, Gemma Files, Gabino Iglesias, Gwendolyn Kiste, Joe R. Lansdale, Jonathan Maberry, Lucy A. Snyder, Jeffrey Thomas, and Gaby Triana, and the twisted editorial minds that brought you Stitched Lips, Appetites, Burnt Fur, and Harmony & Dissonance, to go to strange-and-dark new places, to plumb the depths of a Twilight Zone with sand in its teeth.

The real-world midnight zone is that depth between 1,000 and 3,000 meters in the ocean where no sunlight penetrates.The pressure is intense, life is fleeting, and predators and scavengers abound. Take us to that place only you know, the one that is inhospitable, surprising, uncomfortable, strange, or otherworldly. In The Midnight Zone, we’ll lose ourselves and awake to find an impossible face staring, inches from our own.

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