Events

Deadline: February 1st, 2017 Payment: 0.03 cents USD What we are looking for: Non-themed short horror stories that arrests readers and leave them haunted for months to come. Since horror is the only genre of fiction defined by an emotion, your story must have the following: Believable, three-dimensional characters just as real as your friends and neighbors. A real world—hitting all the senses—these characters inhabit. Originality is just as important—we don’t want your version of someone else’s story from yesteryear. Although our arms are wide open, we’re more interested in fiction that reflects the modern. Joe Hill, and Mercedes M. Yardley are prime examples of current dark fiction writers encapsulating the above in their work. Quality of the work must be top notch! The following authors have appeared in previous Tales from The Lake anthologies: Jack Ketchum, Ramsey Campbell, Rena Mason, Graham Masterton, Lisa Morton, Tim Lebbon, and Tim Waggoner. That’s the high-water mark you must strive for. If you want to write a story about vampires, werewolves or ghosts, then your story needs to evolve that trope. You must have a unique premise. I cannot stress that enough. If you wish to submit an “extreme horror” or “splatterpunk” story, that’s fine with us. However, you’ll have to make sure that your emotional foundations are solid, and your characters actually have an arch. We will not accept stories that just go for the gore and offer nothing more. What we are not looking for: Stories that are not short horror stories. Novels or novellas. Stories bereft of characters that readers can believe in and root for. The only exception to this rule would be the “terror tale,” which is best kept as short as possible. Think a thousand words or less. Stories with flat worlds. Trunk stories. Stories about serial...

Deadline: February 1st, 2017 Payment: Royalties Supervillains have been invited by the proto-villain, G-Force, and are all seated around the huge table at the old gothic hotel in an undisclosed location. They have decided to come together to pool their resources against the superhero interlopers, who always seem do a much better job of teaming up. The only way the villains can make a new association of misunderstood metahumans work is to choose a leader. So they each give their case, explaining why they should be selected as the Supreme Archvillain. You are invited to submit your writing where your original supervillain pleads his or her case as to why they are the best suited to become the Supreme Archvillain. It can be through their dramatic battle(s), humorous, or some other unique device. The Supreme Archvillain Election is a superhero prose fiction anthology project open to anyone, until February 1, 2017. It is a vehicle for published authors of prose superhero fiction to promote their work. New writers are also welcome to contribute. Stories and characters must be original, or public domain. No fan fiction. This is not a Creative Commons project. Submission does not guarantee acceptance. You may be required to rewrite or edit, or your piece may be rejected. Or, I may do some light editing on my own. The contributions should be around 3,000 to 5,000 words long.Reprint excerpts that fit may be used. Upon acceptance, you will be giving one-time rights to use your piece. Bear in mind that most publications will not publish pieces that have already been published, so after your work is published by us, it can only be marketed again as a reprint, which severely limits the number of markets that will accept it, and drastically reduces the pay rate it can receive. If you submit a contribution, I...

Deadline: February 1st, 2017 Payment: 1 cent per word and a contributor's copy NonBinary Review is a quarterly digital literary journal that joins poetry, fiction, essays, and art around each issue's theme. We invite authors to explore each theme in any way that speaks to them: re-write a familiar story from a new point of view, mash genres together, give us a personal essay about some aspect of our theme that has haunted you all your life. We also invite art that will accompany the literature and be featured on our cover. All submissions must have a clear and obvious relationship to some specific aspect of the source text (a character, episode, or setting). Submissions only related by a vague, general, thematic similarity are unlikely to be accepted. We are open to submissions which relate to the entirety of Edgar Allan Poe's work--poetry as well as prose. We encourage you to explore Project Gutenberg for reference, and suggest Volume I, Volume II, Volume III, Volume IV and Volume V of Poe's Complete Works, or The Complete Poetic Works as your source of inspiration (and accuracy.)  Submissions which do not tie into the plots or make use of characters/settings from the stories WILL NOT be considered--there needs to be a clear connection to the source material.  We want language that makes us reach for a dictionary or a tissue or both. Words in combinations and patterns that leave the faint of heart a little dizzy. FICTION, CREATIVE NON-FICTION, FLASH & HYBRID/EXPERIMENTAL NonBinary Review accepts fiction and creative non-fiction of up to 5,000 words in length, although shorter is probably better. Fiction should be double spaced, 12-point type, in Times New Roman or similar font in a Word document or text file. Authors may submit up to 5 pieces of flash fiction, no more than 1000 words each, in this category....

Deadline: February 1st, 2017 Payment: $25.00 Note: Reprints Allowed Do you have a pet?  Do you want a pet? Do you dream of pets?  Most importantly, do you write about pets? Smoking Pen Press is issuing a Call for Submissions for  an anthology of short stories about pets.  Real or fantasy, usual or unusual, ordinary or not so ordinary.. The deadline for submission is February 1, 2017. Stories should be between 1500 and 7000 words.  Submissions should be in Word (.doc or .docx) format and should be sent to [email protected] As always, there is no submission fee.  Authors of selected stories will receive a one-time payment of $25.00.   No simultaneous submissions. Multiple submissions accepted, and welcomed. Previously published work may be submitted, as long as any exclusivity has expired, all rights have reverted back to the author, and author must fully disclose  all details about the previous publication. For more information on any of our Calls for Submission, or if you have questions, use our Contact Us form, and make sure to indicate in your comment that this is in reference to the Read on the Run series. Via: Smoking Pen Press.

Deadline: February 1st, 2017 Payment: $25.00 - $50.00 for fiction, $5.00 - $10.00 for poetry, and $25.00 for nonfiction and a contributor's copy Spring: Eddie tended to drift into whatever jobs were available that would pay the rent. Due date: February 1, 2017 We love the fact that writers around the world are inspired by our first lines, and we know that not every story will be sent to us. However, we ask that you do not submit stories starting with our first lines to other journals (or post them online on public sites) until we've notified you as to our decision (usually two to three weeks after the deadline). When the entire premise of the publication revolves around one sentence, we don't want it to look as if we stole that sentence from another writer. If you have questions, feel free to drop us a line. (Also, we understand that writers may add our first line to a story they are currently working on or have already completed, and that's cool. But please do not add our first line to a previously published story and submit it to us. We do not accept previously published stories, even if they have been repurposed for our first lines.) One more thing while I've got you here: Writers compete against one another for magazine space, so, technically, every literary magazine is running a contest. There are, however, literary magazines that run traditional contests, where they charge entry fees and rank the winners. We do not - nor will we ever - charge a submission fee, nor do we rank our stories in order of importance. Occasionally, we run contests to help come up with new first lines, or we run fun, gimmicky competitions for free stuff, but the actual journal is not...

Deadline: February 1st, 2017 Payment: Unlisted but "will always meet or exceed SFWA minimum compensation guidelines" Retro Future is a bi-monthly pulp magazine that searches for diverse, surprising, and progressive science fiction in art, prose, essay, and comics. Issue #2: "Love" - February 1, 2017 Issue #2: Relationships and love in the future. Submissions Guidelines We welcome submissions of art and writing that approaches retrofuturism through a progressive lens. Essays and flash fiction of approximately 250-500 words is especially welcome; longer works may be serialized. Comic submissions should be 1-8 pages of finished work. Anything longer may get serialized across multiple issues. Please note that inside art should be in grayscale (please refer to art and comic templates for details.) Galileo Books acquires first serial rights; upon publication, these rights revert back to you, the author. We ask that you acknowledge Retro Future (Galileo Books) as the venue of original publication when the work appears in your book or is otherwise collected. If a work becomes unavailable while under our review, please contact us via email. Submitted work for specific issues may be considered for other issues if themes fit. Art and comic templates are located here. (Dropbox will ask you to join, you can ignore that and click the 'continue to download' link) Retro Future is a progressive publication. Subjects such as sexual violence, un-examined racism, and other potentially offensive material are often used as fodder for exposition in genre stories–this is not appropriate for inclusion in Retro Future. We are looking for forward-looking and optimistic science and science-fiction. Sensitive topics can be part of a good story, but a vision of a future better than our present is the focus of Retro Future. Keep this in mind when submitting. Submission Email [email protected] In the subject, please format as follows for artwork:...

Deadline: February 1st, 2017 Payment: Split Royalties Do you remember that guy or girl you did everything for? The one you walked on water for, bent over backward for and sacrificed your own happiness to please them... The one who ended up leaving you distraught, numb, and dying on the floor? Revenge of love is the best remedy to soothe your burning soul! Piece by Piece is an Anti-Valentine's Day Horror Anthology for short stories. Massacres, heartbreak hotel, obsessive love; the one thing they all have in common: The color red that smears the walls and allays the maniacal laughs of the once dying and broken soul. 3k-10k word count Times New Roman 12 pt font Deadline: February 1st Crisp, clean, polished work Must be Valentine themed Please send submissions to [email protected] Split royalty payment Via: Azoth Khem Publishing.

Deadline: February 1st, 2017 Payment: Contributor's Copy Locker Shockers: Urban Legends is a Young Adult horror anthology. Deadline February 1, 2017 Edited by Cassie Carnage We are looking for 5,000 word stories about young adults and their encounters with the paranormal entities of urban legends. Such as: Creatures living in the rain sewers Aliens Vampires living next door Children who mysteriously died when breaking into school at night Bloody Mary Slenderman Possessed/haunted school objects- computers, phones, furniture, appliances, pictures, trophies, mirrors etc. Ouija boards that keep showing up, even after they are burnt and their ashes are thrown out Paranormal Games, like the Charlie, Charlie Challenge When you were a teenager did your friends tell you scary stories about your home town or school? Think back to your own childhood for inspiration. What scared you then? Channel that into your young character’s psyche and run with it. Submission Guidelines: 5,000 Firm Word Count. Please note that you  can go over the word count, but not under this amount. The main character must be between the ages 13 and 18 years of age for it to be considered a Young Adult horror story. Keep your story PG-13. No graphic sex, no hate speech, no gratuitous violence, no adult content. Keep swearing to a minimum. (Anything that can be said on night time television is acceptable.) Please follow the proper manuscript format, which can be found here for your reference:  http://www.shunn.net/format/story.html Submissions that do not follow the proper manuscript format will not be considered for publication. Multiple submissions are accepted. However, simultaneous submissions with other publications are not. All authors published in Locker Shockers will receive a contributor’s copy. Locker Shockers: Urban Legends Deadline February 1, 2017 Please email all submissions to [email protected] Via: GLAHW.