Category: Flash

Taking Submissions: Tales from the Turning Leaf Tavern

Deadline: March 31st, 2025
Payment: $25 and a contributors copy
Theme: Fantasy stories that take place, in full or partially, within the Turning Leaf Tavern and a recipe for food mentioned within the story

The Turning Leaf Tavern is a way-station for people travelling throughout the fantasy realms. Here, you can find Hobbits and Elves, Humans, Dwarves, Half-feet, and representatives of a hundred different races and fictional worlds. They find themselves at the tavern’s door when need calls, and within its walls they find succor and good cheer. The tavern itself is in its own universe, designed by M. Allyson Szabo, and has its own stories to tell.

Tales from the Turning Leaf Tavern will not be just about the tavern, though. The stories within its pages will come from you, the writers of the world. The anthology will be comprised of somewhere between 15 and 25 stories, each with a recipe or four at the end, so that readers may share in the glory of the story’s victuals. That said, Allyson has decided to provide some preliminary tales about the tavern and its denizens for writers to riff off of. You, the authors, have permission to use the Turning Leaf Tavern and its people in your writing, though M. Allyson Szabo retains the copyright to the tavern itself and the characters she created to go with it. Your stories, even the ones with Turning Leaf and the folk within, belong to you, the original authors. 

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Taking Submissions: Feline Frights: Whiskers Between Worlds March 2025 Window

Submission Window: March 1st – 30th, 2025
Payment: $20 for original stories, $10 for reprints
Theme: Cosmic horror through the eyes of our feline companions
Note Reprints welcome

“Feline Frights: Whiskers Between Worlds” is the first of a planned series of cat themed horror anthologies.

In this inaugural volume of Feline Frights, we delve into cosmic horror through the eyes of our feline companions. We seek stories exploring cats as witnesses, harbingers, and agents of incomprehensible cosmic forces. From cats that stare into dimensional voids to felines that serve as vessels for ancient entities, show us how these creatures exist at the intersection of our reality and the unfathomable beyond.

Submission Details:

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Taking Submissions: Electric Spec May Issue 2025

Deadline: April 15th, 2025
Payment: $20 per story or artwork
Theme: Electric Spec prefers science fiction, fantasy, and the macabre, but we’re willing to push the limits of traditional forms of these genres.

Fiction Submission Guidelinessubmissions at electricspec (dot) com
Issues are published at the end of February, May, August, and November. We reserve the right to shift publication date slightly, as necessary.

We have reading periods for each issue, though we never close to submissions.

February closes January 15

May closes April 15

August closes July 15

November closes October 15

We do not consider stories or art created, or partially created, by A.I.

We consider stories between 250 and 7000 words with speculative fiction elements. We prefer science fiction, fantasy, and the macabre, but we’re willing to push the limits of traditional forms of these genres.

We do not consider poetry, stories with over-the-top sex or violence, serials, novels, fan fiction, or non-fiction. We don’t accept multiple submissions; in other words, only submit one story at a time and wait for a response before submitting another. We accept simultaneous submissions as long as you let us know up front and tell us as soon as it’s accepted elsewhere. We do not publish reprints, including anything that has appeared on a website.

We pay $20 for each story we publish. We buy first-printing world exclusive rights for four months. Payment will be made shortly after publication using PayPal. We encourage our authors to establish a PayPal account if they don’t already have one.

We prefer to read submissions in traditional manuscript format. This means indented paragraphs instead of left justification, and Courier or Times New Roman font in 12 pt, double-spaced. Also, please include the title, your name, address, and word length on the first page of your story.

To submit your story to Electric Spec, e-mail it as an attachment in Rich Text Format (RTF) to submissions at electricspec (dot) com. Use the following subject line: SUBMISSION: Story Title by Author’s Name (Word Count). In the body of the e-mail, include writing credits, if any, and the word count of the story. We do not generally open attachments unaccompanied by a cover letter.

If you submit, please put our email address on you approved email list so you receive our reply. There’s some info about whitelisting on the Electric Spec Blog.

Please do not submit the same story more than once, and please submit only one story at a time.

A note on our editorial policy: before publication we may work with the author to edit the story for length or readability. However, we always remain true to the spirit of the story and the author has final approval.

Please don’t query us about your story submission. We don’t have the manpower to answer such queries. An editor will email you back as soon as possible with the decision about your story. This can take a few days, or, a few months. We make every effort to get back to authors in a timely manner but we get a lot of submissions so sometimes it’s not possible.

Because we are a quarterly magazine, it may take us up to three and a half months to make a final decision, but we will let you know if your story is being held for voting. Please note we do not send out messages upon receipt of stories.

If you want to withdraw a story from consideration, please e-mail us at submissions at electricspec (dot) com and include the word WITHDRAW in the subject line. If you have urgent questions or comments (not a query about the status of your story), please e-mail us at our submissions address and include the word QUERY in the subject line.

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Taking Submissions: Patterns

Deadline: May 31st, 2025
Payment: $0.01 per word
Theme: Dark stories with the theme of patterns

PATTERNS

Submission window now open.

Deadline: May 31st 2025

We’re looking for dark stories (2-4k words) on the theme of patterns.

Please interpret this theme however you like. Write us a quiet mood piece or an action-packed powerful, character-driven story. Make it humorous or as dark as the night. Send us your best speculative, horror, dark fantasy or dark sci-fi stories, as long as it’s full of the feels. We are not, however, the market for violent, bloody, racist, homophobic, or masochistic fiction. And no poetry please, just short fiction.

Some ideas: the pattern could be in the narrative technique (fragmentation, mirror writing, foreshadowing, meta-fictional repetition), the thematic composition (think cycles of death and birth, family curses, sin and retribution) for example. Or how about incorporating chants, supernatural rituals, or echoes in your prose? A story with temporal patterns in it might float our boat (although be careful, we don’t want our inbox flooded with time loops and cyclical stories, unless done exceptionally well or with a novel twist). Seasonal patterns, recurring times, patterns in nature, patterns in objects which feature in your tale, geographical patterns, repetitive architecture, patterns in weather, behavioural ticks, recurring nightmares, obsessions…any tenuous link will do, just make it your best work and give it a good edit prior to sending it our way. You get the idea. Surprise us.

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Taking Submissions: Shenandoah Valley Fantastic

Submission Window: February 1st – April 30th, 2025
Payment: $20
Theme: Speculative fiction that takes place in the Shenandoah Valley (defined as the Virginia counties of Augusta, Clarke, Frederick, Page, Rockbridge, Rockingham, Shenandoah, and Warren; the West Virginia counties of Berkeley and Jefferson; the independent cities of Harrisonburg, Lexington, Staunton, Waynesboro, and Winchester; The Shenandoah National Park; The George Washington National Forest.)

What We Want: Shenandoah Valley Fantastic seeks strange and wondrous speculative fiction that transforms our beloved region into a realm of mystery, magic, and the unexpected. From witches haunting Winchester’s historic alleys to spectral happenings on the Field of Lost Shoes, we invite you to re-imagine the Valley’s rich landscapes and legends.

Envision Shenandoah National Park as a forbidden, fey-infused forest, where wayward travelers encounter creatures older than the hills. What if Duke Dog Alley were a portal to another world? Suppose Cooter’s become a crossroad for supernatural beings—a place where ghosts and wanderers alike grab a bite before moving on to unknown realms. Picture the storied halls of Washington & Lee as a secret training ground for the next generation of spellcasters, with campus traditions hiding dark rites and hidden powers.

Let your imagination run wild with stories that blend the supernatural with our natural splendor. We welcome tales of magic and mystery, terror and transformation—grounded in the historic sites, natural wonders, and quirky landmarks that make the Shenandoah Valley unforgettable. If your story will make readers see the Valley in a new, eerie light, we want to read it.

What We Don’t Want:Your trunk stories with a couple of references to the Valley bolted on.

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Taking Submissions: Foofaraw 2025

Deadline: March 31st, 2025
Payment: Fiction: $0.01 per word, Poetry: $5.00
Theme: Stories inspired by either of the definitions of “foofaraw”: A great fuss or disturbance about something very insignificant OR an excessive amount of decoration or ornamentation, as on a piece of clothing, a building, etc.

Guidelines

The Anthology is an annual print-only hardcover anthology based on the definition of “foofaraw.” It is split into two parts based on these two definitions:

  1. a great fuss or disturbance about something very insignificant.
  2. an excessive amount of decoration or ornamentation, as on a piece of clothing, a building, etc.

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Taking Submissions: Waystation Issue #2

Deadline: February 28th, 2025
Payment: $10
Theme: Space Opera

WAYSTATION is an amateur magazine that seeks to discover, inspire, and publish emerging authors who are enthusiastic about the tradition of “space opera.” Space opera is a pulp genre of science fiction, known for grand, epic adventures, interstellar empires, and complex character relationships. Set against a vast cosmic backdrop, space operas explore themes of heroism, warfare and militarism, political intrigue, and occasionally elements of cosmic horror, as seen in the Aliens movies or fictional universes such as Warhammer 40k. Classic authors include C.L. Moore (Northwest of Earth stories) Isaac Asimov (Foundation series), E.E. ‘Doc’ Smith (Lensman series), Frank Herbert (Dune series), Leigh Brackett (Sword of Rhiannon), and Joe Haldeman (Forever War). These works captivate readers with thrilling journeys through the numberless stars, weaving human drama into the sublime vastness of the cosmos. Published by Spiral Tower Press.

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Taking Submissions: Modern Mummies

Submission Window: Feb. 1st – Feb. 28th, 2025
Payment: 5 cents per word for original fiction, 1 cent per word for reprints
Theme: New horror related to the sub-genre of Mummies in horror
Note: Extended submission window exclusively for BIPOC, 2SLGBTQ+, Disabled, Neurodiverse, and other underrepresented voices: March 1 – March 15, 2025
Note: Reprints Welcome

Modern Mummies Anthology

Open call submission window: Feb. 1 – Feb. 28, 2025

Extended submission window exclusively for BIPOC, 2SLGBTQ+, Disabled, Neurodiverse, and other underrepresented voices: March 1 – March 15, 2025

The Prompt

Modern Mummies is a new horror anthology looking to update the “mummy genre.” The anthology’s title has several possible interpretations to help guide submissions.

First and foremost, it means stories that take place in the reasonably understood present day. That means a world in which the internet, social media, industrialization, urbanization, etc. exist. Sure, some elements can be fictionalized to make a story work, but we don’t want period pieces that take place in the 1920s or in the far-flung past.

“Modern mummies” has other meanings to us too. In the short story “Asleep on the Job” by Scott Parson, mummies were described as time travelers in a sense. Through the preservation of their bodies, these characters awaken to find all that they had known and loved gone, replaced by some modern-day other. While time is certainly a key element of the equation, we also want you to think about space. Mummies all over the world are likely to find themselves in radically different locales than where they were originally buried. With these ideas in mind, we’re curious what you think a mummy might have to say about modern-day living. What might they have to say about their new surroundings and the colonialism that brought them there? How might these things influence their actions over the course of the story?

Modern mummies could also mean a modern-day person being mummified and its ramifications. We’d like you to think about how social media or our politics might react to a “new wave” of mummification. And what does that say about death in the modern era?

We are also keenly interested in seeing:

  • Mummies as heroes AND villains

  • Diverse characters with agency (we’d love to see stories with gender-inclusive, BIPOC, queer, and/or disability visibility)

  • Mummification from around the world (i.e. not just Egypt)

  • Non-human mummies

  • Unique, modern settings (museums are not off-limits, but we do foresee quite a few stories taking place in that setting.)

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