Deadline: May 31st, 2020
Payment: $10
Theme: Stories must include a key worker and a hopeful ending

Flashes of Hope is a Flash Fiction anthology being funded by Theresa Derwin to raise money for foodbanks to support victims of Covid 19.
Francois Vaillancourt is donating the cover art. He is a Montreal-Canadian artist who has worked on Stephen King projects.

I will be purchasing HWA Adverts and Newsletter space to help promote the book and also seeking advertising in other venues including Crystal Lake Publishing Newsletter and Twitter boost.

What we ARE looking for:• Flash Fiction – stories of 500 – 1,000 words. Please see info on payment caps in pay rate section below) that can be characterized as being within the broad category of “horror” fiction and having met the following two criterion;

1. as described above.  A key worker hero of any gender, race, creed, ability, religion, etc. By key worker, we mean those currently working to keep the UK running * nurses, doctors, porters, ambulance drivers, paramedics, shop workers, refuse workers * this list is not exhaustive
2. A hopeful ending to the story * right now we need to encourage hope in light of the challenges we are all facing. Together we are stronger.

• Successful submissions will be highly original, well written and cleanly edited.• Stories must hook the reader in opening paragraphs and remain engaging throughout.• Stories that imagine fresh new horrific futures different from anything we’ve seen or read about before.REPRINTS are allowed.
What we ARE NOT looking for:• No multiple or simultaneous submissions.• We are not seeking “extreme horror”Explicit language, sexuality and violence is acceptable, however, if handled in a tasteful manner and integral to the story.• We are not seeking abstract mood pieces, vignettes, or highly experimental approaches to literature. We are not accepting poems.• Stories must not include actual individuals or living public figures. No matter how tempting ….• We are not seeking post-apocalyptic or zombie stories – particularly given that this anthology will raise money for victims of covid 19 and their families – or stories that primarily deal with the emotions of sadness and loss rather than horror and terror.Sense of humour always welcomed.
Submissions must be in an editable format sent via email as a doc or doc X to [email protected] .
No PDFs or scanned documents sent as image files will not be accepted. Preference is for title, author name, email address and word count information to be placed at the beginning of the document.
Subject header; Flashes of Hope submission/Name/word count
Please Note: I am not worried about Shunn style.Do not utilize underlining in place of italics. Do not insert extra lines between paragraphs. Utilize a single space only between sentences. Do not insert tab indents at the beginning of paragraphs.
If you have any accessibility requirements to help you submit to this anthology, please feel free to message me via email or Messenger.Submission window: May 4th 2020 until midnight * wherever you are * May 31st 2020.
Notifications of acceptance / rejection will be sent no later than June 30, 2020, with publication target of late 2020. We will do our best to send out acceptances / rejections as promptly as possible so that you may have the chance to submit the work elsewhere if it does not meet our needs.
PLEASE NOTE THAT SUBMISSION DOES NOT GUARANTEE ACCEPTANCE.
Pay Rate: $10 flat fee token payment.
If you are accepted and wish to donate the token payment to a charity, this can be arranged.
One free contributor copies (paperback) and DRM Free ebook will be provided upon publication, with contributors having the option to buy additional quantities at cost post-publication.
I will be publishing this myself unless a suitable publisher volunteers

Via: Theresa Derwin.