Events

Deadline: March 15th, 2020 Payment: 8 cents per word Theme: Positive futures, SF, urban fantasy. Gotta Wear Eclipse Glasses - Positive futures, SF, urban fantasy. The future we all want. Examples might include effects of technology on the young (online learning, socialization), climate mitigation and adaptation, new opportunities to boldly go where none have gone before The untented Kosmos my abode, I pass, a willful stranger My mistress the open road And the bright eyes of danger (Robert Louis Stevenson, Youth and Love) Reading period: February 15 - March 15, 2020 Writer deadline: March 15, 2020 Publication date: June 1, 2020 Third Flatiron Publishing is based in Boulder, Colorado, and Ayr, Scotland. We are looking for submissions to our (approximately) quarterly themed anthologies. Our focus is on science fiction and fantasy and anthropological fiction. We want tightly plotted tales in out-of-the-ordinary scenarios. Light horror is acceptable, provided it fits the theme. Please send us short stories that revolve around age-old questions and have something illuminating to tell us as human beings. Fantastical situations and creatures, exciting dialog, irony, mild horror, and wry humor are all welcome. Stories should be between 1,500 and 3,000 words. Inquire if longer. Role models for the type of fiction we want include Kurt Vonnegut, Arthur C. Clarke, Dan Simmons, Connie Willis, Vernor Vinge, Iain Banks, Alastair Gray, and Ken Kesey. We want to showcase some of the best new shorts available today. For each anthology, we will also accept  a few very short humor pieces on the order of the "Shouts and Murmurs" feature in The New Yorker Magazine (600 words or so). These can be written from a first-person perspective or can be mini-essays that tell people what they ought to do, how to do something better, or explain why something is like it is, humorously. An SF/Fantasy...

Deadline: March 15th, 2020 Payment: 8 cents/6 pence for each word (SFWA qualifying market rate) and 6 cents/4 pence for reprints. Theme: The Lovecraft Mythos, more details below! Note: Reprints accepted Lovecraft Mythos Anthology Featuring a foreword by Ramsey Campbell, this offering of H.P. Lovecraft's shared universe will be a thrilling immersion into the world of Old Ones and the Elder Gods, an ancient race of terrifying beings. In Lovecraft's vision we live in a deep, but fragile, illusion unable to comprehend the ancient beings, such as the Cthulhu who lies dead but dreaming in the submerged city of R'lyeh, waiting to rise then wreak havoc on our realm of existence. Lovecraft used the mythos to create a background to his fiction, and challenged many writer companions to add their own stories. Clark Ashton Smith, Robert E. Howard, Robert Bloch, Frank Belknap Long, Henry Kuttner were amongst the first but over the years many others such as Ramsey Campbell, Lin Carter and August Derleth added their voices to the many mythic cycles, developing themes and new fictional pathways for the town of Arkham, and the creatures Azathoth and Nyarlathotep. The Lovecraft Mythos is fertile ground for any writer of supernatural, horror, fantasy and science fiction, so for this edition we are opening our submissions for brand new stories, many published here for the first time, to continue expanding the shared universe. Word count is 3000 - 7000 and submissions will be accepted between 24th February and 15th March - please send to [email protected]. Payment will be 8 cents/6 pence for each word (SFWA qualifying market rate) and 6 cents/4 pence for reprints. If your story is a reprint please let us know in your submission email. Multiple submissions are accepted. We will aim to read each story and confirm its status within 4 months of the...

Deadline: March 15th, 2020 Payment: $10 Theme: 90s erotic horror Deadline: March 15, 2020 Word count: 2,000-8,000; a little above and a little below will be acceptable There’s a club on the outskirts of town. The neon lights outside flicker over silhouetted forms smoking. Inside, a rat bartender watches forms dancing, glares exchanged, and drinks sloshing. The bass is loud, and the dancers strip more and more...and more. Welcome to the Electric Sewer. This anthology is set in a neonpunk world in the 90s. You can take your characters anywhere. This is pretty open world! The only rules are these: 1. It has to be furry erotic horror. 2. You have to at least mention the nightclub Electric Sewer, even if no one goes there! 3. Carlos is the name of the pink rat bartender and owner of the Electric Sewer. He can be in your story, but just know his personality is stoic, more of a sinister watcher than a participant in what goes on at the club. Other than those three things, you have free reign! What is neonpunk? First of all, think of what cyberpunk is and does. It’s often progressive and alternative and based on a digital sci fi technological world. Now, move that world backward in time to the 80s/90s. So examples aesthetically would be Stranger Things, Caravan Palace’s Lone Digger music video, the neon chapter of the video game Infamous Second Son, elements of the music video Into the Night by Nero, etc. In a nutshell, it has this neon aesthetic, and characters can be whatever species and whacky colors you want! It has a setting in the 80s / 90s. And it’s still punk! Possible stories might include things like this: a slasher is killing strippers at the club and a gay gang...