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Deadline: January 31st 2014 Payment: One electronic copy of the publication (due Spring 2014) and one electronic copy of Matt Leyshon’s The Function Room: The Kollection Take a hike. Seriously, I’ll know if you haven’t. I want stories that feel authentic and capture the mystery of the countryside. Befriend a hedgewitch, take up twitching, gather some mushrooms… Do whatever it takes to transport your readers from their homes and into the fields. Then send them running home to book a long course of trauma counselling! Resist the temptation to write another sequel to The Darling Buds of May or a James Herriot spin-off; the atmosphere in your story should be less than comfortable. Morpheus Tales is Britain’s most controversial horror magazine afterall - so do not feel obliged to spare the scythe. I won’t be offended by the spilling of sap, though I might be more impressed by a subtle sense of unease or strangeness. The following are a few examples of what I consider to be good horror tales that are set in rural Britain: Arthur Machen’s The White People, The Woodwitch by Stephen Gregory, The Rain Horse by Ted Hughes. The Wendigo and The Willows by Algernon Blackwood are not set in the UK, but they are also a good indication of what I’m looking for. Your story must be set in the countryside or within a rural community. It does not have to be set in the British countryside, though I might show a preference towards those tales that are. I’m looking for stories of around 3500 words. Submissions over 5000 words won’t be read. Morpheus Tales’ usual formatting guidelines apply. The deadline for submissions is 31/01/14. Send submissions to [email protected] with “Rural Horror Submission” in the subject. Payment will be one electronic copy of the publication...

Deadline: January 31, 2014 Payment: Contributor's copy and unnamed token amount LADIES AND GENTLEMEN AND AUTHORS OF ALL AGES ... GOOD MORNING CIRCUSPUNKS!! I am pleased to announced that Chupa Cabra will be publishing my Circuspunk book Bumping Noses and Cherry Pie. Editing and artwork are in progress now. Look for it around the beginning of the year. Now we move on to Circuspunk 2.0. Now I want to hear YOUR strange and bizarre tales of the world of the circus, carnivals, side shows, magic shows etc. Bring me your freaks, your bearded ladies, your tightrope walkers, your magicians, your lions and tigers and bears (OH MY!). I want it all. I will be editing a book that Chupra Cabra has already agreed to publish. It will be called The New Whakazoid Circus - The Greatest Show on Paper. And I want to hear from YOU. Circuspunk can be anything from bizarro to scary and everything in between. Got a favorite author? Write a circus story in their style. ANYTHING GOES in the world of Circuspunk! Not sure what Circuspunk is exactly? This is my listing at Urban Dictionary "Circuspunk is a new sub-genre of punk/bizarro literature scene created by Charie D. La Marr aka Persiphone Hellecat aka Kotton Kandy - a former professional clown. The genre includes stories that take place in circuses, carnivals, midways, sideshows and also includes stories of birthday party clowns, freaks, magicians and costumed characters. With some elements taken from her experiences in the world of clowns (she won't tell which are true and which aren"t) the genre is a blend of truth and fantasy that takes in the usual bizarro mixture of fun, sex, satire and splatter. Also included in the genre are dark stories, Lovecraftian stories, noir stories and other variations and combinations...

Deadline: January 31st 2014 Payment: An eBook copy will be sent to all contributors and up to 5 paperback copies per author will be available to purchase at cost plus shipping. 50% of the royalties will be distributed between all contributors This is a Horror Anthology. What are we looking for? Let's equate it to the red-headed stepchild of the family. What does that mean? It means we're looking for stories of horror that may be perceived as a bit odd or different from the rest. Tales that take two steps to the left of normal instead of one. Peculiar yarns just bizarre enough to straddle the line. We're not just looking for odd - we're looking for good stories with a unique spin. No horror trope is too tired for this one as long as it's strange enough to grab our attention. Intrigue us with your eccentric imaginings, and we may adopt your tale as a part of our family of offerings.   Submission Deadline: January 31, 2014 Word Count minimum: 4,000 words - nothing less will be reviewed; no reprints considered. Submission guidelines:Submission Deadline - January 31, 2014Word Count: 4,000 - 8,000 words. Please submit your manuscript as a *.doc or *.docx file (all other formats will automatically be rejected. Contact us prior to submitting if this presents an issue for you.) Font and formatting: Please submit in Times New Roman, 12 point font; single line spacing with a 0 point definition above and below each line. Please format the document to 1st line indentation of .5" (1.27cm), do not space or tab to indent the line. The page margin should be set to .5" (1.27cm) on all sides. Graphic gore must be kept to a minimum unless it is integral to the story; absolutely no incestuous or sexual abuse...

Deadline: January 31st 2014 Payment: $25 USD and contributor's copy A new anthology is open. We are looking for stories that are between 3,000 to 6,000 words. This is a speculative fiction anthology for dark tales. Bugs and Creepy-Crawlies focuses on all sorts of organisms with six, eight, and millions of legs. Themes range from swarms of bees that kill, alien bugs that cause havoc to the ecosystem, robotic bugs and nanotechnology that scientists lose control of, mosquitos that spread illness to thousands, spiders that lay their eggs on the human body. We want original tales that will scare and creep out a reader. Great fiction, well written, and enjoyable to anyone that loves the weird tale. Get your writing hats on and start producing. We look forward to your submissions. Full guidelines can be found here.

Deadline: January 31st, 2014 Payment: $100 flat rate per each manuscript accepted into the anthology Now Accepting Short Story Submissions What happens after death? That’s the question Grey Matter Press would like you to answer. For our next anthology–working title “Death’s Realm”–we’re looking for dark, horrifying tales exploring themes from “the great beyond.” We do not want to limit your creativity with a narrowly themed collection, so “Death’s Realm” will include works of truly terrifying dark fiction that investigate the concepts of hauntings, spirits, life after death, ghostly encounters and just about any other subject that pertains to the afterlife and the horrifying things that might reside just beyond the veil. Be prepared to scare the hell out of us. Please review our Submissions Guidelines below, and feel free to contact us here on the site with any questions. or send a message to [email protected]. We thank you for your interest in considering Grey Matter Press as a potential home for your work. *”Death’s Realm” is a working title. Grey Matter Press reserves the right to change the title as necessary.   GUIDELINES FOR SUBMISSIONS Word Count: 3,000 – 10,000 words Deadline: January 31, 2014 Payment: $100 flat rate per each manuscript accepted into the anthology Formats: *.doc, *.docx, *.txt, *.rtf Contact Address: [email protected] Acceptable File Formats: Grey Matter Press wants to make your submission process easy and painless. We accept manuscripts that are *.doc, *.docx, .txt or .rtf file formats. If you have any questions about the formatting of your manuscript, feel free to contact us directly [email protected] Digital Submissions: Unfortunately, we cannot accept manuscripts of previously published pieces. (Published work includes work that have appeared online in magazines, journals and/or personal websites.) Only previously unpublished work will be accepted. We will accept your submission via email at [email protected]. Subject lines should...

Deadline: January 31st, 2014 Payment: Exposure Only Women in Horror - Issue #13 Hard to believe a year has gone by, but it has! It's almost February again, which means 'Women in Horror Recognition Month' is almost here!!! The 13th issue of The Sirens Call eZine is all about celebrating women in the horror genre! Rule One: You have to be a woman! Rule Two: It has to be a work of horror! Rule Three: See rules one and two again if it isn't clear by now... Ladies, send us your creepiest, darkest, most twisted submissions. Deadline: January 31, 2014 Sirens Call Publications is currently accepting submissions for our bi-monthly e-zine, focusing on edgy & dark fiction including Horror, Fantasy, Science Fiction, and Suspense genres. We welcome short stories (1000 - 2500 words), flash fiction (300 - 500 words), and dark poetry in the dark fiction/horror realm. Artwork, photography, film and literary reviews are also accepted as long as they are horror related. Submissions should be sent to [email protected] with the subject line of "eZine(number)Submission_(YourStoryTitle)_(YourName)" Formatting: The file should be a .doc or .docx; Times New Roman 12 point font; single spaced; first line indented. Please do not include a header. Please inquire if you have any questions, or visit our Submission Guidlines page. Interviews with both up and coming or established authors will also be featured. Take advantage of this superb opportunity to gain exposure for your work and email [email protected] with your submissions, or contacting [email protected] with any queries. Ad space is available for books, web sites and organizations supporting the literary or artistic community. A full page ad is $25. Please contact [email protected] for information. We ask for one time publication rights only; stories that are previously published elsewhere are accepted provided that you hold the rights...

Deadline: January 31st, 2014 Prize: $10 and read in audio form   Current Contest: Aliens Invade History Aliens. What’s up with these guys anyway? They’re always flying across the unimaginable interstellar void to conquer earth, and somehow, despite being vastly outgunned, those plucky earthlings always manage to blow them out of the sky. It’s like, guys, if you have the technology to traverse the great gulf of darkness, how do you not have the ability to terraform Mars? Or one of the other planets in your own system for that matter? What? Oh, right the prompt. See, Aliens are sort of a recent idea. You can probably trace the alien invasion genre back to H. G. Wells and the War of the Worlds, and you could argue the whole flying saucer sighting thing got kicked off with the Great Airship Scare in 1896, both pretty recent on the scale of human civilization. But what if the flying saucers had shown up earlier? How would the fictional aliens of today fare against the Roman Empire or the Genghis Khan’s Mongol army? That’s the idea we want to explore in this month’s flash fiction challenge. You get a thousand words. Send your entries in to [email protected] with “Aliens Invade History” in the subject-line of your email. We prefer “.doc” attachments. The winner of the contest will receive ten dollars and have their story produced in audio form to air on the podcast. Good luck and happy writing! The deadline for this contest is January 31st, 2014. Story Examples: To get an idea of what we are looking for, check out these stories. Expecting by Donald Jacob Uitvlugt Zombies Have No Respect for Plumbing by Tony Southcotte

Deadline: January 31st, 2014 Prize: £15/$20 Amazon voucher Do you like a challenge? Can you write short and snappy horror? Why not enter our spring flash fiction contest? Take a look at the photograph below…   Now, write a story in no more than 250 words, drawing inspiration from the photo. Remember, we are looking for horror, the strange, the weird and worrisome, the macabre and mysterious. When done, paste your story directly into the CONTACT form in the top menu. Please add SPRING CONTEST to the ‘Subject’ line. Closing date is 31st January 2014. We will pick one winner who will receive a £15/$20 Amazon voucher and have their story published in Massacre Magazine. Our decision is final, any moaners will be mangled. Good Luck! Source: Massacre Publishing.