by Stuart Conover | Feb 20, 2019 | Anthology, Events, Semipro
Deadline: March 31st, 2019
Payment: 4 cents per word
Send us your best female predator. We’re looking for a new take.
Villain and hero. Mother and femme fatale. Sinner and saint.
Any time, any place, any genre.
Petticoats not required.
No porn, erotica, poetry, excessive violence.
Requirements:
(Stories that don’t fit these won’t be read.)
No reprints accepted.
Accepting short stories between 4000-7000 words and flash fiction under 1000 words.
Attach story as a Word .doc, .docx or .rtf
Filrename must start with Author-last-name
Subject line: PiP: story title
Include a brief bio and contact information in your email.
Send submissions to [email protected]
Deadline March 31st 2019
Author payment is planned at 4 cents per word with
successful completion of our soon-to-be-announced Kickstarter
Via: Prospective Press.
by Stuart Conover | Feb 15, 2019 | Events, Magazine, Semipro
Deadline: February 28th, 2018
Payment: $0.03 per word, minimum of 30.00
Apparition Lit is open for poetry and short story submissions four times a year.
- February 15-28
- May 15-31
- August 15-31
- November 15-30
Our themes for 2019 will be:
- Resistance (Submission period November 15-30, 2018 (CLOSED), Published January 2019)
- Ambition (Submission period February 15-28, 2019, Publishing April 2019)
- Retribution (Submission period May 15-31, 2019, Publishing July 2019)
- Euphoria (Submission period August 15-31, 2019, Publishing October 2019)
Our themes for 2018: Apparition (Published January 2018) – Delusion (Published April 2018) – Vision (Published July 2018) – Diversion (Published October 2018)
Apparition Lit also holds monthly flash fiction contests. These stories will follow selected themes and be published online.
For more information on themes and submission guidelines, please see the flash fiction drop down below.
Payment:
Apparition is a semi-pro rate magazine, paying $0.03 per word, minimum of 30.00 dollars (excluding flash contest. See details in the Flash Fiction dropdown for flash rates). If we accept your story, we are purchasing the right to publish the story online and in the quarterly edition. Rights will revert back to the artist after one year.
What we’re looking for:
(Click on the sections to see detailed guidelines for each classification.)
Short Fiction:
We will only accept stories between 1000-5000 words. If the story is complete with an extra hundred words, then it will still be considered. Any stories over 5,200 words will automatically be rejected.
Payment:
Apparition is a semi-pro magazine, paying $0.03 per word, minimum of 30.00 dollars (excluding flash contest). If we accept your story, we are purchasing the right to publish the story online and in the quarterly edition. Rights will revert back to the artist after one year.
How to Submit:
- Format the story using the Shunn manuscript
- Please only use Times New Roman or Arial font in your document
- Save as an RTF file and attach to an email
- In the text of the email, provide a brief cover letter that includes your name, the title of the short story, word count, and any relevant publications
- Edit the email’s subject line so it reads: SUBMISSION: Title of Your Story
- Email your formatted email and short story manuscript to [email protected]
- Add Apparition Lit to your Safe Senders list so you can receive our auto-response emails
Response Time:
All acceptances and rejections will be emailed by the 15th day of the following month after submissions close.
If you have not heard back by the 15th, send a query to: [email protected] with the title of your submission. Before emailing, please check your spam folder.
To make sure you receive all emails from Apparition Lit, please add us to your Safe Senders list in your email client.
Apparition Lit is seeking original, unpublished speculative fiction that meet our quarterly theme. Speculative fiction is weird, almost unclassifiable. It’s fantasy, sci-fi, horror, and literary. We want it all. Send us your strange, misshapen stories.
Send us stories with enough emotional heft to break a heart, with prose that’s as clear and delicious as broth. We’re looking for proactive characters and beautiful language, all wrapped up in a complete story.
Diversity is as important in fiction as it is in real life. We want a mosaic of stories, from authors of all identities and walks of life.
What we don’t accept:
While we love dark stories with macabre elements, we will not accept stories with gratuitous and graphic violence or rape, this includes any type of child abuse including sexual abuse. We also will not consider stories that have extreme, purposeless violence toward animals. Stories containing these elements will be automatically rejected.
We do not publish erotica or thinly-veiled fanfiction.
We do not accept multiple or simultaneous submissions. Please send only one submission per category during each reading period. Apparition Lit wants your best story that meets the current theme. At some point, if your story does not meet the theme, you’re just throwing spaghetti at the wall.
At this time, we do not accept reprints or resubmissions.
Via: Apparition Lit.
by Stuart Conover | Feb 14, 2019 | Anthology, Events, Semipro
Deadline: July 31st, 2019
Payment:
Blasphemous Rumors Call for Submissions
Blasphemous Rumors is a themed anthology of religious horror stories edited by David Barnett and Regina Garza Mitchell. We are seeking dark short stories that focus on religion or spirituality, stories that may be considered blasphemous by the standards of your religion of choice. We are looking for quality dark fiction, not hate-filled rants against religion.
Technical Details: Stories should be formatted in standard manuscript submission format. Stories should be no longer than 5000 words and should be original. Reprints are not accepted. We will not accept simultaneous or multiple submissions.
PAYMENT: $.03 per word up to 5000 words plus two copies of the trade paperback.
SUBMISSION DEADLINE: July 31st, 2019.
Stories should be submitted as an attachment to: [email protected]
Examples of Blasphemy
The term blasphemy refers to saying something about God that is disrespectful. It can also refer to degrading religious concepts or literature. Blasphemy can be included in speech, an act, writing, music, or art.
Blasphemy in Everyday Life
- Some consider rapper Kanye West’s album name “Yeezus” and his consideration of himself as equal to Jesus to be blasphemous.
- Burning a religious document such as the Bible or the Qu’ran is considered blasphemy.
- Vandalizing a church is a form of blasphemy.
- Worshipping Satan is blasphemous.
- Committing suicide is a form of blasphemy.
- To state that God is unkind, unjust or cruel is a blasphemous.
- Artist Andres Serrano created what he called artwork by submerging a plastic replica of the crucified Jesus Christ in a container of his own urine and photographing it as a means, he stated, of exposing the ills of religion. However, this 1987 piece of work was considered highly blasphemous and was destroyed in 2011 during protests in France. The name of the work was Piss Christ.
- In the popular television show, Sex and the City, one episode featured what some considered to be blasphemous artwork. The episode revolved largely around a painting of a woman, crucified as Jesus Christ was, featured in a New York gallery.
- Pastor Terry Jones is the head of a church in Florida who, in 2010, is considered blasphemous of Islamic religion due to his suggestion to hold a “Burn the Qu’ran Day,” his publication of a book entitled Islam Is of the Devil, and his purveyorship of shirts and cups that spread the same message.
- The animated American television show, The Simpsons, has been taken to task for blasphemy after broadcasting episodes in which the devil purportedly was bullying God, amongst various other perceived blasphemies.
- Also underfire for broadcasting blasphemous language is the American animated comedy, Family Guy. Known for its offbeat humor, Family Guy featured Jesus in one particular episode that painted Him in a perverted manner, causing a firestorm of protest.
- Islam’s Prophet Mohammad is often the source of blasphemy. His image, according to Islamic law, is not to be printed yet many cartoonists and others around the world have been considered blasphemous for doing so. In 2006, Norwegian and Danish newspapers faced serious backlash and threats of retribution from Islamic nations for printing cartoons that featured Prophet Mohammad. While the act of printing the cartoons, themselves, would have been considered blasphemy unto itself, the cartoons also featured the Prophet in poses that were considered “unflattering,” particularly one in which the Prophet’s image was made to look like a terrorist.
- In 2010, American animated comedy South Park, also produced images of the Prophet Mohammad in an episode that featured the Prophet as a bear mascot. Angered by the perceived blasphemy, one Islamic website threatened the producers of the show for what they deemed as a high level of disrespect for the Prophet.
Now you have seen many different examples of blasphemy.
Via: Necro Publications.
by Stuart Conover | Feb 11, 2019 | Anthology, Events, Reprints Allowed, Semipro
Deadline: April 30th, 2019.
Payment: 2 cents a word for reprints, 4 cents a word for original work.
This horror anthology, to be edited by Jerry L. Wheeler, seeks stories under 10,000 words that involve one of the traditional tropes of campfire tales and slasher films: the axe murderer. Stories need not focus solely on this antagonist, but all stories must somehow involve this threat or concept. Think Angela Carter’s “The Fall River Axe Murders.” Surprise us by breathing new life into this theme. That said, we anticipate most of the book will be reprints – for which we are offering 2 cents a word. Original work pays 4 cents a word but first query the editor with a synopsis. Specs? Please submit Word docs only, standard formatting, 12 pt Times Roman to me at [email protected], using the title of the anthology as the subject line. The deadline is April 30th, 2019. | |
Via: Lethe Press Books.
by Stuart Conover | Feb 4, 2019 | Events, Magazine, Poetry, Semipro
Deadline: March 15th, 2019
Payment: Accepted poems will be paid for at the following rate: US 3¢/word rounded up to nearest dollar; minimum US $3, maximum $25. Payment is on publication.
Eye to the Telescope 32, Sports & Games, will be edited by Lisa Timpf.
Sports and games have been played since ancient times, and have continually evolved. From a speculative viewpoint, I’m interested in what they might look like or morph into in the future, or along some alternate timeline or universe. Time travel, magic, science—the field is wide open, as long as it involves the theme. Ideally, I’m not looking for items taken from other authors’ universes (poems about quidditch, three-dimensional chess, or the like), but modifying existing or historical sports and games is—well—fair game. (And, as a Canadian, I’m hoping for at least one really good hockey-related poem…)
How will athletes and competitors vie, and what’s the future look like for spectators? What sports and games will colonists on other planets miss the most? What might they take with them to their new homes, and how will they shape it into something different? Provided there is a speculative bent, any format is welcome—free verse, scifaiku, haibun, or formal verse of any variety, etc. are all fine. It’s original ideas and twists, effectiveness of language and imagery, and works that get at the essence of sports and games and what they mean to us as people that I’m looking for. Spark our imaginations, make us think, make us feel, make us laugh. The game’s afoot. Let’s see what you’ve got.
Submission Guidelines
SUBMISSION INSTRUCTIONS
- Please submit 1–3 poems in English (in body of e-mail, or attached as .doc, .docx, or .rtf).
- Please send submissions to [email protected] with the subject line “ETTT sub:” followed by the poet’s name.
- Include a short bio.
- Deadline: March 15. The issue will appear on April 15, 2019.
Payment and rights
- Accepted poems will be paid for at the following rate: US 3¢/word rounded up to nearest dollar; minimum US $3, maximum $25. Payment is on publication.
- The Science Fiction & Fantasy Poetry Association normally uses PayPal to pay poets, but can also send checks.
- Eye to the Telescope is an online publication. Therefore, First Electronic Rights (for original unpublished poems) are being sought.
Who can submit?
Anyone writing speculative poetry.
What is Speculative Poetry?
Speculative poetry is poetry which falls within the genres of science fiction, fantasy, and supernatural horror, plus some related genres such as magic realism, metafiction, and fabulation. It is not easy to give precise definitions, partly because many of these genres are framed in term of fiction rather than poetry.
A good starting point is “About Science Fiction Poetry” by Suzette Haden Elgin, the founder of the Science Fiction Poetry Association. Despite its title, this article is applicable all forms of speculative poetry.
Tim Jones, editor of Issue 2, had a go at defining science fiction poetry on his blog, in two parts (These blog posts date from 2009, and the Voyagersanthology has since been published. These posts do refer specifically to science fiction poetry, rather than the broader field of speculative poetry.):
timjonesbooks.blogspot.com/2009/02/what-is-science-fiction-poetry-part-1.html
timjonesbooks.blogspot.com/2009/02/what-is-science-fiction-poetry-part-2.html
What Is the Science Fiction & Fantasy Poetry Association (SFPA)?
As the SFPA says on its website at sfpoetry.com, “The Science Fiction Poetry Association was founded in 1978 to bring together poets and readers interested in science fiction poetry. What is sf poetry? You know what they say about definitions—everybody has one. To be sure, it is poetry (we’ll leave that definition to you), but it’s poetry with some element of speculation—usually science fiction, fantasy, or horror. Some folks include surrealism, some straight science.”
See the SFPA site for lots more information—and please consider joining.
* * *
Interested in editing an issue of Eye to the Telescope? See the Editors’ Guidelines for information and requirements.
Via: Eye to the Telescope.
by Stuart Conover | Jan 17, 2019 | Anthology, Events, Flat Amount, Royalties, Semipro
Deadline: April 15th, 2019
Payment: 2 cents a word and royalties or a flat rate of $25
B Cubed Press is pleased to announce three new open calls for anthologies to be released in 2019. Submissions open immediately and close on April 15, 2019.
Submissions should be in Word or RTF attachments, using SFWA manuscript format. Include your name and email on the document, e-mails and stories get separated, and that is never good.
Include “SUBMISSION” and the title of the anthology to which you are submitting in the email subject line.
Pay is 2 cents a word and royalties for stories. For very short fiction, poems, and nursery rhymes, we offer an option of a flat $25 to the writer. Payment is on publication.
Multiple and simultaneous submissions are okay. Reprints are allowed, but they are held to a higher standard.
Read on for details on individual stories.
TALES FROM THE SPACE FORCE
Edited by Irene Radford and Bob Brown
Okay, how could we not? Now that America has an official Space Force, we need to incorporate it into literature.
What to do we want? Camp? Satire? Bug-eyed monsters? All good. We’ll do serious stories, too. Mostly, we want good stories. And if I am to confess, we want campy stories. We want the golden age of pulp to live again.
Political bends are allowed. Poetry and essays are allowed.
Ask yourself: what would an American Space Force do? Will there be a space wall around the International Space Station? Will NASA and the Space Force get along? I have no idea, but I’m leaving it up to you to tell us. Here at B Cubed, we leave the writing to you.
We’re looking for 500 to 5,000 words.
