Deadline: December 31st, 2023
Payment: $30 CAD
Theme: Hometown (Writing about film, TV, and pop culture related to your hometown. I suspect there are plenty of speculative fiction options out there that can fit this theme.)
Note: Not our usual fiction call but I felt that this would be a great fit for some of the authors who frequent the site and have pop culture knowledge about where they live (or whose own books may have taken place in their hometown.)

Submissions are OPEN for In The Mood Magazine Issue 9: HOMETOWN! We’re looking for writing about film, TV, and pop culture related to your hometown—however you may define it. These could be films shot or set in your town, state/province, or country. Or maybe it’s a town you’ve always identified with, an invented hometown, or a hometown hero.

– Theme: HOMETOWN
‍– Deadline: December 31st, 2023
‍– Word count: 1,000 words max for features, 300 words max for Film Diaries
– Honorarium: $30 CAD for features, $20 CAD for Film Diaries

💡 Some ideas for inspiration:
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‍– Cities pretending to be others (Vancouver as L.A., Toronto as New York)
– Films set in your hometown, school, or workplace (What do they get right/wrong? How does it affect the town’s reputation?)
– Hometown heroes (stars or filmmakers from your hometown, what the hometown thinks of them) or celebrities that went to your school
– Movies that were big in your hometown (Phantom of the Paradise in Winnipeg, Bon Cop/Bad Cop in Ottawa)
– Imaginary hometowns (In the Mouth of Madness, Pleasantville)
– Films about places you wish were your hometown
– Film/TV production hotspots (Atlanta, New York, Vancouver, Toronto)

👇 Please read our guidelines before submitting:‍

Submission/Pitch Guidelines

Magazine: Submissions are open 3 times a year, and issues are themed. If you have an off-theme and/or timely pitch, consider sending it to our newsletter.

‍Newsletter: Submissions are always open, and we publish 1-2 times a month. We especially welcome timely pieces on new releases or seasonal topics (e.g. horror in October, summer films).
‍

What We Publish

We’re looking for writers with a distinctive voice, who aren’t afraid of getting personal, and who are curious about why we watch what we watch. We appreciate thoughtful analysis but also a playful tone; we want intelligent pieces that aren’t too full of themselves. We don’t think of ourselves as an authority, but a confidante.

🎬 We publish the following about film, TV, pop culture, and moving image media—click for some examples we love:
‍
‍– Personal essays and non-academic essays
‍– Conversations, roundtable discussions, interviews
‍– Poetry
‍– Round-ups, lists
‍– Experimental pieces, fan fiction, spec scripts
‍– Games, questionnaires
– Visual art, comics
‍– First-person, on-the-ground pieces about going to movies or working behind the scenes
‍– Film Diaries (short personal piece about something you’ve watched lately)
– Anniversary pieces (but try to think beyond “this movie is still great”)
– Works on other moving image media, e.g. music videos, celebrities, commercials, filming locations, interesting areas of the film industry

❌ Things to avoid:
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‍– Straight up reviews
– Excessive summary
– Academic or overly-formal tone
– Flat-out pans (if something is bad, tell us why that’s interesting!)
– Pre-1970s media
– Clickbait/hot takes

Please check out our past issues and our newsletter to get a sense of what we publish!

How To Submit

‍We strongly prefer completed pieces, but we understand that writing on spec is not a realistic prospect for many writers. With that in mind, we still accept pitches.

👇 Please include:
‍
‍– Completed piece (doesn’t need to be perfectly polished!) OR if you’re pitching, a short paragraph on the piece (topic, relevancy, intended word count) – 1,000 words max for features, 300 words max for Film Diaries
– Why you think your piece or pitch is a good fit for In the Mood
‍– 1-2 writing samples (they don’t need to be published)
– Short bio or link to your website

Send Submissions, Pitches, and Queries to:

[email protected]

Via: In The Mood Magazine.