Deadline: January 1st, 2024
Payment: $5 and a contributors copy
Theme: Stories about everyday items that have become imbued with the curse just from existing in the home where the story takes place, details below!

The Yardsale Anthology (Full title to be revealed at a later date).
‌
Open call: November 1st 2023 – January 1st 2024.
‌
Payment: $5 upon publication and one physical contributor copy.
‌
Adult Horror Anthology (no extreme horror or splatterpunk please) see more details below.

‌
𝙿𝚒𝚌𝚝𝚞𝚛𝚎 𝚝𝚑𝚒𝚜: 𝚃𝚑𝚎 𝚑𝚘𝚕𝚒𝚍𝚊𝚢𝚜 𝚑𝚊𝚟𝚎 𝚌𝚘𝚖𝚎 𝚊𝚗𝚍 𝚐𝚘𝚗𝚎. 𝙰 𝚋𝚒𝚝 𝚘𝚏 𝚜𝚙𝚛𝚒𝚗𝚐 𝚌𝚕𝚎𝚊𝚗𝚒𝚗𝚐 𝚒𝚜 𝚒𝚗 𝚝𝚑𝚎 𝚊𝚒𝚛. 𝙾𝚞𝚝 𝚠𝚒𝚝𝚑 𝚝𝚑𝚎 𝚘𝚕𝚍 𝚝𝚘 𝚖𝚊𝚔𝚎 𝚛𝚘𝚘𝚖 𝚏𝚘𝚛 𝚝𝚑𝚎 𝚗𝚎𝚠, 𝚘𝚛 𝚜𝚘 𝚝𝚑𝚎𝚢 𝚜𝚊𝚢.
‌
𝙱𝚊𝚛𝚐𝚊𝚒𝚗 𝚑𝚞𝚗𝚝𝚎𝚛𝚜 𝚊𝚛𝚎 𝚘𝚗 𝚝𝚑𝚎 𝚙𝚛𝚘𝚠𝚕; 𝚠𝚑𝚎𝚝𝚑𝚎𝚛 𝚝𝚑𝚎𝚢 𝚊𝚛𝚎 𝚕𝚘𝚘𝚔𝚒𝚗𝚐 𝚏𝚘𝚛 𝚏𝚘𝚛𝚐𝚘𝚝𝚝𝚎𝚗 𝚌𝚘𝚕𝚕𝚎𝚌𝚝𝚊𝚋𝚕𝚎𝚜 𝚝𝚘 𝚛𝚎𝚜𝚎𝚕𝚕 𝚘𝚛 𝚝𝚑𝚘𝚜𝚎 𝚟𝚒𝚗𝚝𝚊𝚐𝚎 𝚍𝚒𝚜𝚑𝚎𝚜 𝚝𝚑𝚊𝚝 𝚊𝚛𝚎 𝚊𝚕𝚕 𝚝𝚑𝚎 𝚛𝚊𝚐𝚎 𝚘𝚗 𝙿𝚒𝚗𝚝𝚎𝚛𝚎𝚜𝚝, 𝚝𝚑𝚛𝚒𝚏𝚝𝚎𝚛𝚜 𝚊𝚛𝚎 𝚕𝚘𝚘𝚔𝚒𝚗𝚐 𝚏𝚘𝚛 𝚘𝚗𝚎 𝚑𝚎𝚕𝚕 𝚘𝚏 𝚊 𝚋𝚊𝚛𝚐𝚊𝚒𝚗.
‌
𝙰𝚝 𝚘𝚞𝚛 𝚜𝚊𝚕𝚎, 𝚝𝚑𝚊𝚝 𝚖𝚊𝚢 𝚋𝚎 𝚝𝚛𝚞𝚎𝚛 𝚝𝚑𝚊𝚗 𝚢𝚘𝚞 𝚌𝚊𝚛𝚎 𝚝𝚘 𝚏𝚒𝚗𝚍 𝚘𝚞𝚝. 𝚆𝚑𝚎𝚛𝚎 𝚢𝚘𝚞𝚛 𝚋𝚊𝚛𝚐𝚊𝚒𝚗𝚜 𝚖𝚊𝚢 𝚌𝚘𝚖𝚎 𝚠𝚒𝚝𝚑 𝚊 𝚋𝚞𝚖𝚙 𝚒𝚗 𝚝𝚑𝚎 𝚗𝚒𝚐𝚑𝚝.
‌
𝚃𝚑𝚎𝚜𝚎 𝚍𝚎𝚊𝚕𝚜 𝚊𝚛𝚎 𝚜𝚘 𝚌𝚑𝚎𝚊𝚙, 𝚒𝚝’𝚜 𝚜𝚌𝚊𝚛𝚢.
‌
At this sale, every item carries a curse, simply for having existed in the home or on the property (more details on this part of the story to come later). All you need to know for now is that we are looking for stories about how the object of your choice acquired at our sale now affects its new owners.
‌
We are looking for more everyday items that have become imbued with the curse just from existing in this home.
‌
You may use any of the following terms: yard sale, garage sale, estate sale to refer to where you acquired your object/piece of furniture but please don’t spend any significant amount of time at the sale. You can make mention of where you got it (we’d like that), but it should be a subtle, passing mention as we just don’t want stories that take place half the time at the sale. These should be separate stories away from the sale and focusing on how the item’s curse affects its new owner/s.
‌
𝘏𝘦𝘳𝘦 𝘢𝘳𝘦 𝘴𝘰𝘮𝘦 𝘴𝘮𝘢𝘭𝘭 𝘥𝘦𝘵𝘢𝘪𝘭𝘴 𝘢𝘣𝘰𝘶𝘵 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘴𝘢𝘭𝘦 𝘵𝘩𝘢𝘵 𝘮𝘢𝘺 𝘣𝘦 𝘶𝘴𝘦𝘧𝘶𝘭 𝘵𝘰 𝘤𝘰𝘯𝘯𝘦𝘤𝘵 𝘺𝘰𝘶𝘳 𝘴𝘵𝘰𝘳𝘪𝘦𝘴:
‌
The sale is conducted by the adult children of an older couple who have passed away. With their parents dead, the siblings are cleaning out the house and having an estate/yard/garage sale of their belongings.
‌
It’s a beautiful, bright, crisp, spring day. The sale is in a nice clean suburban neighborhood and the whole street is sunny until you reach the house with the sale and it’s cloudy and overcast and looks like a storm is brewing. Everything else is fairly normal, just like any other yard sale, and there is no reason to suspect anything creepy or weird or amiss at the sale (though the item’s themselves may give off an unsettling vibe for some, especially young children and animals).
‌
S͟t͟o͟r͟i͟e͟s͟ ͟s͟h͟o͟u͟l͟d͟ ͟b͟e:
• 𝐖𝐨𝐫𝐝 𝐜𝐨𝐮𝐧𝐭: 1500 – 5,000 max
• 𝐅𝐨𝐫𝐦𝐚𝐭:
o DOC or DOCx only
o Times New Roman
o 12pt Font
o Double Spaced
o 1” Margins
o No extra spacing between paragraphs
o Scene breaks should be signaled with three ###
‌
• 𝐃𝐞𝐭𝐚𝐢𝐥𝐬:
o Previously published works will not be considered
o Anyone 18 years of age or older may submit.
o Multiple submissions are fine! No more than 3 per submission period, please. Please email each submission separately.
o Simultaneous submissions are accepted but if your piece is accepted elsewhere, we ask that you withdraw your story from us in a timely manner.
o All contributors will be provided one physical copy of the book as compensation and a $5 payment at time of publication.
o Email submissions to: 𝐡𝐨𝐮𝐬𝐞𝐨𝐟𝐭𝐡𝐞𝐦𝐚𝐜𝐚𝐛𝐫𝐞𝟏𝟎𝟕@𝐠𝐦𝐚𝐢𝐥.𝐜𝐨𝐦
Subject line should be: [Author Name – Title – Word Count]
o Submissions will close on January 1st 2024 at 11:59pm PST
o We will require exclusivity on your story for the first six months from the date of publication; after which, you’re free to use it as you wish and you retain all rights to your submission piece.
‌
• 𝐖𝐡𝐚𝐭 𝐰𝐞 𝐝𝐨𝐧’𝐭 𝐰𝐚𝐧𝐭:
o Please keep your stories as PG-13 as possible.
o Gore, body horror, and sex are acceptable if they make sense to your story. However, please avoid anything too gratuitous or extreme; we don’t want any splatterpunk and or extreme horrotica in this collection.
o No rape, incest, bestiality, child abuse, necrophilia or torture porn.
o No AI generated stories. It’s not hard to spot these and we will be running thorough checks.
‌
Please see or Instagram page for more details and answers to FAQ
‌
https://instagram.com/house_of_the_macabre?igshid=NzZlODBkYWE4Ng&utm_source=qr
‌
Or email us if you have questions [email protected]