Events

Deadline: October 1st, 2018 Payment: Contributor's copy, free cover art for a future book. Note: Reprints Welcome Why are we doing this Anthology? My father used to say Well said, O, Toothless One as one of those typical dad jokes. When my dad was diagnosed for the second time with cancer I knew I wanted to put something out into the world to celebrate my father. My dad is dyslexic like I am but he always supported me in my writing. I'm hoping he will get to see a few of these in the time he has left. Those judging the entries will be my sister who is my editor and my mother who along with being my Alpha reader is also a writer herself. I will also be part of the judging process and along with my sister will edit the anthology. When to submit? Submissions are open from now to the 1st of October. The Anthology will be published in December. What are we looking for? The genre is a bit loose but Science fiction or Fantasy would fit fine with what I'm looking for but I will accept other genres as long as it fits in with the tone of the Anthology. The theme for 2018 is to have an inhuman character. This could be a monster or a creature that is more benign. If you can fit a nice guy winning and diversity those are things that appeal to me as well. It will be my family who will be judging the stories as we want to pick stories that either reflects our father or something that would amuse him. So dad jokes allowed. Actually dad jokes encouraged. Humour is certainly sought after in your piece. Keep it PG 13. Swearing and sex can be implied but discretion...

Deadline: October 1st, 2018. Payment: $100 Red Room Press is seeking stories for a new dark crime/thriller/horror anthology, American Psychos: A Serial Killer Anthology. Inspired by the most disturbingly violent and graphic crime thriller novels of our time, including Bret Easton Ellis’s American Psycho, Shane Steven’s By Reason of Insanity, Michael Slade’s Headhunter, our goal is to make American Psychos a brutal, suspenseful, nightmare-inducing hard ride into hell. Stories must be about a serial killer, obviously. The story can either be based on a real serial killer or a fictional serial killer. Stories should primarily be set in the USA, but the character may travel abroad. We want stories that are brutal, graphic, disturbing and violent. The above referenced books will give you a good idea of what we are looking for. Serial killers must be human; no supernatural elements, monsters, or vampires. They can have supernatural beliefs, however, and they can be any gender or race. Editors: Randy Chandler and Cheryl Mullenax. Deadline: October 1, 2018. Publication Date: Early 2019 Length: 3500-5500 words. (Word count is somewhat flexible) Payment for original stories: $100. Note: If we meet our crowdfunding campaign goal, accepted authors will receive an additional $50 bonus. See sidebar for details. No unsolicited reprints or multiple submissions. What to Send In the body of an email: Author name Story title Word Count A brief bio A short description of the story. Attachment of entire manuscript in rtf, doc, or docx format only. Standard formatting. We’ll send a notification within 48 hours that we received your submission. If you don’t get this, please inquire. We may not have received it. EMAIL TO: [email protected] Via: Red Room Press.

Deadline: October 1st 2018 Payment: 3 cents per word The future is now. At least, that’s what we’re told, but the more advanced technology gets, the more ways people find to hurt each other. Many say that technology changes the way we define ‘human.’ In this anthology, we’ll erase the definition entirely. That’s what you’ll answer. In Crash Code, we want to see the pinnacle of our technology meeting the depths of our depravity. Let’s talk voluntary amputations so we can wear cybernetic limbs as fashion statements. Tell us how commercial interplanetary flight changes human tracking. Show the world what the criminal underworld can do in an age of quantum computers. This anthology is going to focus on just how far human kind is willing to fall in pursuit of the next innovation, whether it’s paying for bionic sex in bitcoins, five-year-olds browsing the Dark Web, bar code tattoos, mainstream holographic snuff films, or corrupted neural implants driving their users mad. Think Neuromancer with even more drugs and crime. Imagine Blade Runner meets Saw. Picture Wrath James White’s version of Brave New World. Imagine a test-tube baby made from George Orwell and Jack Ketchum. If your story makes people think American Mary merged with Altered Carbon, we want it. These are just some ideas. Pick one if you like, or come up with your own sick, twisted future. Just make sure it answers one question: In a world where everything demands a dollar sign and subscription fees, is humanity something we can afford to lose? Stories must be previously unpublished in any form Email: [email protected] Length: 1,500 words up to 7K Deadline: October 1st 2018 Multiple Submissions: No Simultaneous Submissions: No Payment: 3 cents/word Editor: Kevin Holton Publisher: Blood Bound Books Via: Blood Bound Books.

Deadline: October 1st, 2018 Payment: $.01 per word for your story or poem with a $5 minimum Note: This market is open only to individuals who identify as anything other than cisgender. What we're looking for. Send us excellent speculative fiction (fantasy, sci-fi, or horror). We are interested in speculative fiction of any design. As long as it's fiction, and there's a speculative element, send it. Send us short stories, poetry, one-act plays, or comics. Send us your cool weird shit. Who should submit. This market is open only to individuals who identify as anything other than cisgender. If you identify as as anything under the transgender and/or non-binary umbrella, you are encouraged to submit. Please don't self-reject. If you are worried that you are not "trans enough" to submit, please consider submitting. You are quite probably "trans enough." At one time or another, most of us have wondered if we were really "trans enough." How to submit. Submissions should be emailed to SubmitVultureBones at gmail dot com. The header of the email should include SUBMISSION: or else your submission may get caught in the spam filter. Embed your work in the email; no attachments will be opened. Take care to make paragraph breaks clear when you copy/paste your submission in the body of your email. Specifics: There is a hard upper limit of 5000 words. Anything over that will not be considered. This is not an erotica market. Bonus points if content warnings are provided and clearly marked. Multiple submissions are welcome. Simultaneous submissions are also welcome; please let us know if your submission has been accepted elsewhere as soon as possible.   If your work is acccepted. If your work is accepted, it will be published online in Vulture Bones. Vulture Bones does not publish print issues at...

Deadline: October 1st, 2018 Prize: $50 and a book of the winner's choosing Our annual Halloween contest is open to submissions from now until October 1, 2018, 11:59 pm EST. The contest is free to enter. The first place winner will receive $50 and a book in the genre of their choosing. Send us your Halloween-themed poetry, fiction, short plays and creative non-fiction as an attachment to [email protected], and put “Halloween contest” in your subject line. Each writer may submit up to five entries to the contest, totaling 5,000 words or under. Use that however you want, for example send a 4,900 word short story and a 100 word flash piece, or send 5 poems, or 3 poems and 2 stories, the possibilities are endless. Via: The Furious Gazelle.

Deadline: October 1st, 2018 Payment: $5 It might be HOT, HOT, HOT outside but here at Circlet Press we’re already thinking autumn thoughts and you know what that means! It’s time to submit your spooky/sexy/scary October microfictions and flash fiction.  As in years past, these microfictions will be posted on our website during the month of October leading up to Halloween. Payment is $5 and you retain all rights. Details: Stories can be any length up to 1500 words.  No reprints. No excerpts from novels. Multiple submissions are okay. All stories must be erotic and fit within the theme. All gender pairings are welcome and we strongly encourage marginalized writers to submit work to us.  All stories must also be sex positive. DO NOT: Send stories where underage characters engage in sexual acts. Send fan fiction with or without the serial numbers filed off. Send stories where the consent is ambiguous or takes place after the act. Consent MUST be apparent BEFORE the sexual act. Send demon summoning stories. Send stories set at Halloween parties that focus on sexy costumes. Send me stories longer than 1500 words. Send me stories with no erotic content. Send me stories where lovers kill each other. Send stories where witches are evil monsters. Send stories set inside haunted attractions. DO: Think outside the box. The theme here is pretty broad. We want stories that are erotic that also fit into horror/autumn/Halloween. Send us stories that celebrate the season in some way. Scare us while turning us on. Give us period pieces or pieces set in the far future. Make us think of leaves crunching underfoot, the smell of wood smoke carried on chill air, and harvest festivals in preparation for the dead of winter. Do this in a way that celebrates physical pleasure. A...

Deadline: October 1 2018 Payment: AU$5.00 for stories under 2000 words / AU$10.00 for anything above 2000 words Current theme: Devilish Over the years, there have been many different depictions of the Devil. From Lucifer, the fallen angel with his immense wings and tufted tails to the bright red, horned beasts of modern pop culture.For their third collection, Thuggish Itch wants your stories about the Devil, demons and Hell. There is a short turn around on this one as we already have several stories for inclusion in the collection. Thuggish Itch is our horror, sci-fi and speculative fiction collection. Please make sure that your story falls within one of these genres. Please ensure that you read through the general guidelines below and format your submission accordingly. If you have any specific questions please contact us using the form on the home page or via the listed social media accounts. To help make sure that your submission gets to the correct place, please include the following in the subject line of your email: 'Thuggish Itch - Devilish - *Story Title*'. Word count: 1000 - 4000 words (we're willing to consider longer or shorter submissions if the story is good) Deadline: October 1 2018 Payment:  AU$5.00 for stories under 2000 words / AU$10.00 for anything above 2000 words General guidelines: Please no extremeerotica or stories that feature excessive violence or vulgarity (unless otherwise specified). All stories should be formatted appropriately. Please see here for more details. Ensure that your name, address, and email contact and word count are at the top of your manuscript. Double check your spelling and grammar before sending your work through. Please submit all stories in .doc, .docx or .rtf formats. International submissions are accepted. No simultaneous submissions. Multiple submissions are encouraged. Where possible, we will provide feedback on request. No reprints. Please send all submissions to [email protected] Via:...

Deadline: October 1st, 2018 Payment: $15 BANJAXED BOOKS is proud to announce short story submissions for our second anthology, Deductions, Delinquents, and Detectives, a collection of mystery/detective stories set in whatever genre the authors choose. Whether it’s a murder mystery set in a world of High Fantasy, a science fiction who-done-it, or the tale of a hard-boiled detective in the near or distant future, Deductions, Delinquents, and Detectives will gather together the best mystery stories from any and all genres. Steampunk, monsters, robots, myths and legends, and–yes–even post-apocalypse…we’re looking for short stories that combine genres in interesting new ways. (We’ll even take a look at realistic mystery stories set in modern times…or during the heyday of detective stories. No monsters or flying cars? No problem! Mystery is a genre all its own.)   SUBMISSION SCHEDULE Submissions open April 1, 2018 and close October 1, 2018. Publication is planned for April 2019. An official date will be announced later in the year. This will launch initially as a paperback. We will get word to you concerning acceptance or rejection as soon as we can, but please remember that we typically get many, many submissions a week, so it could be as long as a month, maybe a bit longer as we get closer to the end of submissions. But not to worry: If you submit and get concerned after a reasonable amount of time has passed, inquire through email. We would never hold that against any author. And we’ll work as fast as humanly possible to get word out to you. If you are interested in sending a story, email it (and a brief cover letter in the body of the email) to: [email protected] Subject line: Submission, Detectives, “Title of Story,” Word Count (Example: Submission, Detectives, “A Corpse in the Rain,”...

Deadline: October 1st, 2018 Payment: $15 April 1 through October 1, 2018 BANJAXED BOOKS is proud to announce short story submissions for our second anthology, Deductions, Delinquents, and Detectives, a collection of mystery/detective stories set in whatever genre the authors choose. Whether it’s a murder mystery set in a world of High Fantasy, a science fiction who-done-it, or the tale of a hard-boiled detective in the near or distant future, Deductions, Delinquents, and Detectives will gather together the best mystery stories from any and all genres. Steampunk, monsters, robots, myths and legends, and–yes–even post-apocalypse…we’re looking for short stories that combine genres in interesting new ways. (We’ll even take a look at realistic mystery stories set in modern times…or during the heyday of detective stories. No monsters or flying cars? No problem! Mystery is a genre all its own.)   SUBMISSION SCHEDULE Submissions open April 1, 2018 and close October 1, 2018. Publication is planned for April 2019. An official date will be announced later in the year. This will launch initially as a paperback. We will get word to you concerning acceptance or rejection as soon as we can, but please remember that we typically get many, many submissions a week, so it could be as long as a month, maybe a bit longer as we get closer to the end of submissions. But not to worry: If you submit and get concerned after a reasonable amount of time has passed, inquire through email. We would never hold that against any author. And we’ll work as fast as humanly possible to get word out to you. If you are interested in sending a story, email it (and a brief cover letter in the body of the email) to: [email protected] Subject line: Submission, Detectives, “Title of Story,” Word Count (Example: Submission,...

Deadline: October 1st, 2018 Payment: Contributor's copy Thurston Howl Publications is now accepting submissions for its first volume of its HOWLERS series, Sinister Sheets. Deadline: October 1, 2018 Word count: 2,500-8,000; a little above and a little below will be acceptable Sex and horror are often considered separate. Notable exceptions include the the “sex means death” rule of slasher films; Stephen King’s Gerald’s Game; and the danger of sex throughout Gillian Flynn’s dark novels. We want to see a collection of erotic horror at its finest. For this editor, erotic horror is best defined as literature that arouses the reader...and then makes them complicit in the horror that ensues because of that arousal. We will NOT accept: Racism, sexism, or discrimination presented in a positive light. Pedophilia or sex with characters under the age of 18 presented in a positive light. Rape, torture, dubious consent, forced seduction presented in a positive light. Snuff or Necrophilia presented in a positive light If you are in doubt, ASK. Better to ask then to get a straight up rejection! If you are unsure, just shoot me an email at [email protected]. (restrictions borrowed from Voice: https://t.co/MWykJ6RY36) You can submit up to three stories, but we will only accept one per author (if any). Reprints are fine, but you have to own full permission of the work in order for us to consider it. We will not accept simultaneous submissions. Payment: Authors will receive a free copy of the print book. Send submissions in .doc or .docx format to [email protected]. Title your email with the story title in all caps. If you are sending more than one submission, send multiple emails instead of putting them all in one. We will inform all authors regarding decisions within a week or two after the deadline.

Deadline: October 1st, 2018 Payment: $50.00 and contributor copy. Yes, Clash Books is at it again, and this time they’re letting me take the wheel. If you needed more proof that these folks are crazy, look no further. In any case, hot on the heels of Tragedy Queens: Stories Inspired by Lana Del Rey & Sylvia Plath, we’re celebrating The Notorious B.I.G. and his music. You know I’m looking for that good barrio noir, horror, bizarro, whatever goodness. Details below. Gimme the Loot: Stories Inspired by The Notorious B.I.G. Listening to Biggie is listening to the streets. There is something gritty and powerful in his bars, something real and dripping the kind of authenticity that makes songs and stories stand out and claim a corner of your brain. Listening to Biggie is hearing how things are done in the streets, and anybody with at least a day of street experience knows that the man understood what he was talking about. From Brooklyn to San Juan, I’ve heard his impact in music, and none told is as clear as he did. Violent, real, and raw; those are the qualities of Biggie’s music that we’d like to capture in story form. That’s right, we’re talking crime, horror, and bizarro, but with a Biggie flavor. The cover is done, and it’s fantastic because it was done by the supernatural entity known as Matthew Revert.   Now, if you listen to Ten Crack Commandments, you know there are some rules to everything, and this anthology is no different. Listen up and keep these things in mind: We love Tupac, Nas, and Rakim. We dig Big Pun, Snoop, and have already published an anthology celebrating the world of Wu-Tang Clan. This time? This time it’s all about Christopher George Latore Wallace, aka The Notorious B.I.G., Biggie,...