The Horror Tree

Category: Flash

Flash Fiction

Contest / Events / Flash / Flat Amount

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Contest: Micro Madness For October 2021 (Early Listing)

Submission Window: October 1st-7th, 2021
Prizes: 1st place: $100, 2nd place: $50, 3rd place: $25
Theme: cosmic horror, dark science fiction, or weird

Submissions will be ongoing and open the first week of every month for that month’s contest. THREE stories will be chosen per month to be published the month after they were submitted. (If you submit a story on October 3rd and it is chosen, it will be published in November.)

  • Submissions are open monthly from the 1st to the 7th.
  • One entry per writer per month please!
  • No simultaneous submissions.
  • All stories accepted must be currently unpublished.
  • Once a story has been submitted, please no resubmissions!

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Events / Flash / Flat Amount / Magazine

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Taking Submissions: Freeze Frame Fiction 2021 Final Call

Deadline: December 1st, 2021
Payment: $10
Theme: A complete story in any genre

FREEZE FRAME FICTION IS BACK! We are once again accepting flash fiction submissions. Please stay tuned and keep an eye on our social media for updates.

For more information about what we want and expect, see our editor’s interviews with Jim Harrington at Six Questions For… and on Duotrope (visible to non-members). Also, take a look at 5 Tips for Writing Twist Endings at Flash Fiction Chronicles.

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Events / Flash / Flat Amount / Magazine / Poetry

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Taking Submissions: Last Girls Club Fall Issue 2021

Deadline: August 1st, 2021
Payment: Short Story-2,500 words or less. $20 upon acceptance and a digital copy of the magazine issue Poems-less than 200 words $10 upon acceptance and a digital copy of the magazine issue
Theme: Dark Shadows: The Gay 90s; closeted, cast out, or converted. Short stories and poems from the female gaze.

The Last Girls Club

The Last Girls Club Magazine is a quarterly feminist horror magazine that publishes international short stories and poems from the female gaze. It is an homage to the scary comics and zines of the late 20th century. Please check on the website for the theme in detail.

  • Submissions will be accepted from Jan 1-Feb 1, April 1-May 1, July 1-Aug 1, Oct 1-Nov 1.
  • Final notifications will be Feb 15, May 15, Aug 15, Nov 15.
  • No more than two fiction stories per author per submission period.
  • Fiction is limited to 2,500 words or less.
  • Flash fiction must be under 1,000 words, no more than two from an author.
  • No more than three poems per poet.
  • Poems are limited to 200 words or less for each poem.
  • I prefer to use PayPal to pay authors, but will work with authors where PayPal is not available.
  • Nonfiction columns will must be pitched to editor in chief before submission. Email your idea to lastg[email protected]

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Anthology / Contributor's Copy / Events / Flash / Flat Amount / Poetry

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Taking Submissions: From The Yonder Volume III

Deadline: September 19th, 2021
Payment: $5 (USD) per poem, $10 (USD) per short story, and a contributor’s copy depending on location
Theme: Regional legends and tall-tales from around the World.

 

War Monkey Publications, LLC, is pleased to announce open submissions for our upcoming anthology:
FROM THE YONDER
Volume III
A horror, short-story collection of regional legends and tall-tales from around the World.
Our Staff so loved working on the first volume, we’ve decided to keep doing it.
 
We are seeking short story submissions (1000-7500 words) for this anthology. The stories must be based upon a regional/cultural legend or tall-tale from any location or culture in the World. “Regional” can be a specific place (Loch Ness) or a larger region (Bigfoot in the Pacific Northwest).
We are seeking stories in the horror genre. Inclusion of elements of other genres is welcome, so long as, overall, the story is an horror story. The subject of the story can be based on any legend, so long as it has a horrific flavor. Ghosts, hauntings, alien abductions, monsters, demons, spirits, witches, etc, all are acceptable, as long as the subject is based on an actual legend or tall-tale.
We want an original story involving the legend. Don’t rehash the legend itself or write an essay on the tall-tale. Instead, for example, WOW us with a new fable of some poor unfortunate who finds out that legends are sometimes all too real.
For more examples; read FROM THE YONDER; Volume I (published in February 2020)

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Events / Flash / Semipro

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Contest: Crystal Lake Publishing Shallow Waters Contest: Clowns, Carnivals, and Sideshows!

Deadline: February 28th, 2021
Payment: $0.03 per word and inclusion in an anthology
Theme: Clowns, Carnivals, and Sideshows!
Note: Apologies for the quick deadline, I missed this being posted

Your March theme is…

Clowns, Carnivals and Sideshows!

Authors, you have up to 1,000 words to write a Dark Fiction / Horror story based on this theme. The submission deadline is end of February at midnight. Please send your submission in the body of an email to [email protected], with the title of your story as the subject email.

Payment includes $0.03 per word, publication in an upcoming Shallow Waters anthology, and an author spotlight on our Patreon page and newsletter. We’ll post the best stories here on Patreon for our $5 and higher patrons to read, after which they’ll vote for the winner. Authors are not allowed to vote for their own stories.

Have fun!

Via: Crystal Lake Publishing’s Patreon.

Anthology / Flash / Flat Amount / Ongoing Submissions / Reprints Allowed

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Ongoing Submissions: Shelter of Daylight

Payment: Original Stories: $25.00, Reprint Stories: $15.00, Flash Fiction: 1 cent/word, Poems: $5.00, Articles: $20.00
Theme: Original science fiction and fantasy stories that are upbeat and positive in their mood
Note: Reprints Welcome

Shelter of Daylight began with Sam’s Dot Publishing back around the turn of the decade. After some years, it was discontinued. Now, under Hiraeth Books, it has revived.

Shelter of Daylight is now published semi-annually, in January and in July, in print [and, eventually, as an eBook]. It presents original science fiction and fantasy stories that are upbeat and positive in their mood. It also presents a few original poems, again along the overall mood.

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Shelter of Daylight wants original stories with plot, tension, suspense, conflict, and character development. Remember, if readers do not care what happens to your main character[s], they won’t read the story. The narrative should maintain a sense of wondering what’s going to happen next; of what’s lurking just around the corner. Showing is better than telling. Frex, instead of telling the reader that it’s cold, show your character shivering, stomping feet, or having ice form on beard or hair. The inner thoughts and emotions of your character[s] are just as important.

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Stories submitted to Shelter of Daylight should be between 4K and 8K words long. Longer or shorter stories will be considered; however, anything less than 4K will be a difficult sell. Anything 1K or less will be considered flash fiction. We will consider reprint stories, provided they adhere to the guidelines; however, they are difficult sells.

Submit your stories as rtf or .doc attachments [NO .docx, please] to sdpshowcase at yahoo dot com [you must recombine this address for it to work. Sorry for the inconvenience. Blame spammers].

Please submit one story at a time, and wait for the response before submitting another. We hope to keep the response time down to two months. If you haven’t heard from us in three months, please query.

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Flash / Flat Amount / Magazine / Novella / Ongoing Submissions

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Ongoing Submissions: The Colored Lens

Payment: $20 per short story, $10 per flash, and $20 for the first 10,000 words and $1 per 1000 words for novellas
Theme: All varieties of speculative fiction, from alternate history, to high fantasy, to nuts and bolts hard science fiction, to dark fantasy

The Colored Lens was created to showcase stories that shift our perspective on the world, through the far-reaching genre of speculative fiction. However, the fundamentals of good storytelling always come first: stories with characters we enjoy reading about and a solid plot. As long as your story includes them, we’d love to read it.

We publish all varieties of speculative fiction, from alternate history, to high fantasy, to nuts and bolts hard science fiction, to dark fantasy, so long as it meets the guidelines above. Whatever the genre, the focus should be used to comment on our world and society rather than exclusively to keep the reader turning pages.

A few things to keep in mind when submitting:

  • Stories should have a plot. Although we want stories that comment on our world and society, stories should also have a hook, rising action, climax, and resolution, although the handling of those elements can be experimental.
  • Flash fiction is great, but make sure it has a fully developed plot.
  • Stories must have a speculative element. It can be slight, but must be present.
  • Present tense will be a harder sell than traditional past tense. We have published stories in the present tense, and undoubtedly will continue to do so, but stories in the past tense tend to have a higher chance of acceptance.
  • Sex, violence, and related themes are fine, but those elements should not be the main focus of the story.

Length & Format
We publish stories up to 10,000 words, although we prefer stories in the 500-5000 word range. We also publish novellas up to 20,000 words, serialized over multiple issues.
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