Category: Flash

Artwork / Events / Flash / Magazine / Non-fiction / Semipro

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Taking Submissions: Cosmic Horror Monthly July 2024 Window (Early Listing)

Submission Window: July 1st – 17th, 2024
Payment: 3 cents per word for fiction and non-fiction, $20 for interior artwork and $100 for cover art
Theme: Weird and cosmic fiction

What do we want?

Weird and cosmic fiction under 5,000 words

When do we want it?

Twice a year: January 1-7 and July 1-17

How do we want it?

Submitted via email to [email protected] as a .doc or .docx file. Please also include a short cover letter with some background information about you, the word count of the story, and a brief synopsis.

Other Stuff!

Please only submit your work once, and please only submit one work per submission period. Please only resubmit works that have already been rejected if invited to do so.

We believe that the horror genre’s diversity is its greatest strength, and we wish that viewpoint to be reflected in our story content and our submission queues. We are especially interested in hearing from those whose voices are underrepresented in the cosmic/weird. If comfortable, feel free to drop this information in your cover letter.

We strongly favor stories that use contemporary narrative styles.

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Anthology / Artwork / Contributor's Copy / Events / Flash / Flat Amount / Non-fiction / Poetry

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Taking Submissions: Atlas of Deep Ones

Submission Window: June 1st, 2024 to July 30th, 2024
Payment: Contributors copy and Story: $25, Poems: $15. Non-fiction: $15, Query for art submissions
Theme: Stories about Deep Ones

A cultural, geographic and unnatural history

Dive Deep into the Weird

The stories we are looking for are all about Deep Ones. But not just “I met a Deep One and I fainted because the Innsmouth Look is just that jarring to my fragile psyche.” We want stories that are truly about Deep Ones: Deep One pirates willing to raid some truly unusual ships, beach bums sharing a smoke with a new friend. How do you handle the call to the sea when you live in Kansas? How did encounters with Romans, Vikings, and rum runners play out? Maybe they were the Sea People leading to the Bronze Age Collapse. Did they sink the White Ship that messed up English Royal succession? Or what or a more distant, perhaps primordial past? The “non-fiction” should be articles about aspects of Deep One culture, biology, history and everything in-between.

Nothing from New England or South Pacific seas unless you give us a time period we haven’t seen before. Dive deep and grasp the Weird.

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Anthology / Events / Flash / Flat Amount / Poetry

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Taking Submissions: Black Cat Tales (Early)

Submission Window: June 1st – July 15th, 2024
Payment: $50 for story, $25 for poem
Theme: Speculative fiction including a black cat

A black cat approaches, do you eagerly cross its path, or run in the opposite direction? From the superstitious to the unlucky, from a witch’s familiar to a soul stealing grave robber, black cats have captured our imagination and remain solidly in the realm of the dark.

Dazzle us with your best black cat story or poem. A black cat or a clowder of black cats must be featured predominantly in your story and not simply set decoration. Think outside of the box and show us something we haven’t seen before.

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Anthology / Contributor's Copy / Flash / Flat Amount

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Taking Submissions: Too Bad, You Died

Deadline: July 31st, 2024
Payment: $25 and a contributor copy
Theme: Horror/Scifi that deals with the strange and unusual and must involve your death.

Send us your best (previously unreleased) 2,000 to 4,000 word speculative fiction with a leaning towards horror/sci-fi or a combination of both. We want something strange and unusual.
There’s just one catch… Your death has to feature somewhere within the story.

If your soul is accepted, you will receive $25 and a contributor copy.

We are looking for 8 stories in total for this anthology.
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Events / Flash / Flat Amount / Magazine

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Taking Submissions: Astrolabe Summer 2024 Window (Early)

Submission Window: June 20th to July 20th, 2024
Payment: $50 upon publication
Theme: Stories about how we seek out, discover, and grasp onto connection in all genres with a particular fondness for anything that moves beyond realism in form or content or spirit

Please read below for details about our next submission window, guidelines, honorariums, and rights.

At Astrolabe, we’re looking for work about how we seek out, discover, and grasp onto connection. Into the woods. Across a line. Beneath the ocean. Along a seam. Into the branches of an alternate present or the crevasse of an alternate future. Across the rifts between one another.

And then, once we find one other, the myths we make.

We’re excited to see as many interpretations of this broad theme as there are stars in the night sky.

We’re open to work of all genres, with a particular fondness for anything that moves beyond realism in form or content or spirit.

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Artwork / Flash / Flat Amount / Magazine / Ongoing Submissions / Poetry

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Ongoing Submissions: Centaur

Payment: $20
Theme: A mashup of fiction with prose poetry or nonfiction, also known as hybrid. Fantasy, reality, and everything in between.
Note: Only one submission every three months.

Centaur is on the lookout for writing that’s inspired, bold, and surprising. With four seasonal issues a year, and up to eight pieces in each, there’s only room for your best 400 words or fewer. Learn more about Centaur in the interview Six Questions.

 

Centaur’s pledge to its writers and artists

  • You will not pay a submission fee. Ever. You’ll get a nice acceptance or an equally nice decline within two months of story or artwork submission. (If you don’t hear from Centaur, check your spam folder. Every submission receives a response!)
  • Writers: Centaur will nominate pieces for each of the annual literary competitions or anthologies, including Best Small Fictions, Best Microfiction, and Best of the Net.
  • Additionally, your editor will light her Dolly Parton candle for Centaur’s writers at each issue’s launch, in hopes that your work may be honored and anthologized elsewhere. (Please just credit Centaur as first publisher.)
  • Centaur will feature its author and artist books on its Bookstore page.
  • Your published story or art will be its own prize—shined (copyedits on stories), shown (social media), and shared (however, all rights reserved and rights revert to creator upon publication).
  • Your published story or art will receive $20 in payment and a fortune in goodwill.

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Events / Flash / Magazine / Semipro

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Ongoing Submissions: Big Smoke Pulp

Payment: 1₵ CAD per word.
Theme: Fun Pulp Stories from 99 to 7500 words

What We’re Looking For

Pulp stories are one thing above all else: Fun.We are not looking for flowery prose or character pieces without a plot.We’re looking for breakneck pacing, thrilling action and relatable characters in heaps of trouble. We’re looking for something that readers can’t put down because they can’t imagine not knowing where it ends.

We’re looking for PULP.There is no limitation on genre or content. Bring us your young adult romance, hard-nosed noir or epic sci-fi.As long as it follows the guidelines laid out here, we’ll want your stories.

 

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Events / Flash / Flat Amount / Magazine / Poetry / Pro

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Taking Submissions: The Orange & Bee Issue #2

Deadline: May 31st, 2024
Payment: Flash & Fiction: 8 cents per word, Poetry: $50, other written options, 8 cents per word
Theme: All styles and genres when it comes to fairy tales

Submissions are currently OPEN for Issue #2. This window will close at midnight AEST (Australian Eastern Standard Time) on 31 May 2024.

Upcoming submission windows

  • Submission window for Issue #3: 1 to 14 August (closes midnight AEST on 14 August)
  • Submission window for Issue #4: 1 to 14 November (closes midnight AEST on 14 November)

What we are looking for

We are especially interested in work from or about diverse perspectives and traditionally under-represented groups, settings, and cultures, written from a non-exoticising and well-researched position.

Please read the FULL guidelines below for the type of submission you are sending us, and our preferences in terms of format and cover letters. Currently, we only accept original, unpublished work. We have a swift turnaround time on submissions (about two weeks), and so ask that you do not submit your work to other markets while it is under consideration for The Orange & Bee.

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