Events

Deadline: August 1st, 2020 Payment: 5 cents per word Theme: Your personal local lore/oddities We’re currently looking for previously unpublished horror stories, 3-6k words, for a themed anthology to be released in September 2020. The theme is: your personal local lore/oddities. Write something dark into a setting you’ve experienced — it could be a place you’ve lived, or even just somewhere you’ve visited on a vacation. Is there a landmark in your town or city that you can write a nightmare scenario into? Have you ever legend tripped somewhere and thought, well, that cave/mausoleum/torture tree was neat, but I wish there was more to the story? If so, you’re welcome to send us (1) submission at [email protected] in DOC or RTF form. Deadline August 1, 2020. Paying .05/word per accepted submission for First Rights Publishing, asking that you don’t republish your story until August 1, 2021. In our fifth year of publishing we’re looking to expand our reach into 21st Century folklore, urban legends, and the space between creepypasta and literary horror. For examples of what we’re looking for, see Other Voices, Other Tombs; At the Cemetery Gates: Year One and Volume 2; or Corpse Cold: New American Folklore -Joe Sullivan, Editor Via: Cemetery Gates.

Deadline: August 1st, 2020 Payment: $50.00 Theme: Giallo/Slasher, Sci-fi Horror, 80's Splatter, Japanese Body Horror, 50's B-Movie Creature Feature, Southern Gothic, Satanic Cult, Lost World, Lost Tribe. Other sub-genres could apply as well, but must have a strong horror connection, including: Carsploitation, Blacksploitation, Spaghetti Western, Women in Prison, Vigilante, etc. Our second fiction anthology, Violent Vixens, will focus on Grindhouse horror films, made famous by movies such as Night of the Living Dead, Death Proof, and Suspiria. Since this genre encompasses so many different styles and mashups, we have decided to focus solely on Grindhouse horror stories featuring a strong female lead. The lead may be the protagonist or the antagonist. In 2007, Quentin Tarantino and Robert Rodriguez set out to revitalize this genre with their excellent double-feature, Grindhouse. Although it was met with critical success, it ultimately failed at the box office. However, in recent years, the genre has gone through a resuscitation of sorts, and a new era of filmmakers are now creating homage-style exploitation films using the borrowed aesthetics of the 70s and 80s--successful films like House of the Devil, Turbo Kid, and Mandy. This is exactly what we are looking for in your stories; we want to see your particular homage to this style of storytelling in narrative form. We are looking to publish around twelve pieces of original fiction for this anthology. Overall, we tend to lean more toward fun, action-oriented stories like Army of Darkness, Planet Terror, and Blood Drive over anything too serious and brooding. Genre mashups are HIGHLY encouraged. All stories and characters must be original works. Fiction Submissions: Giallo/Slasher, Sci-fi Horror, 80's Splatter, Japanese Body Horror, 50's B-Movie Creature Feature, Southern Gothic, Satanic Cult, Lost World, Lost Tribe. Other sub-genres could apply as well, but must have a strong horror connection, including: Carsploitation, Blacksploitation, Spaghetti Western, Women in Prison, Vigilante, etc. Word Count: 2,000 -...

Deadline: August 1st, 2020 Payment: $30 Theme: Super heroes! Super-powered pulp heroes. Supers with a single power who fight crime or villains. Good folks versus bad folks, no gray areas, no amorality, no Byronic heroes. And no non-powered heroes. So think of characters like Doc Savage, the Rocketeer, Zorro, The Phantom, and Flash Gordon, but with powers and ideals like Superman and Wonder Woman (in their earlier renditions). Sorry, this means no Punisher, Logan, or even The Batman. It also means no Superman or Wonder Woman with those surplus of powers. Blatantly heroic original-to-the-author-only characters with no ambiguity in their pursuit of stopping villainous behavior. Super Beings & Wondrous Entities only.   Current or alternate or future world settings. No rules on how superpowers exist (they can be the result of science, magic, disease, aliens, mutation, etc.) or on how they are employed (inherent, learned, bequeathed, device-driven, etc.). 11 week submission period. We will be accepting 13-15 stories, and stories should be 2k-9k words in length. Nothing shorter will be read, and our sweet spot is in the 5k-7k range. Publication is intended for Christmas 2020. Payment of $30 flat per story shall be rendered after publication. Authors will receive electronic copies and permanent discount on print purchases from RBE. You can submit at Rogue Blades' Submittable. Via: Rogue Blades.

Deadline: August 1st, 2020 Payment: $25.00 - $50.00 for fiction, $5.00 - $10.00 for poetry Theme: Story must begin with: The Simmons public library was a melting pot of the haves and have-nots, a mixture of homeless people and the wealthy older residents of the nearby neighborhood. We love 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 three to four 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...

Deadline: August 1, 2020 Payment: $25.00 CAD Theme: Elemental magic Submission Open: April 1, 2020 Submission Close: August 1, 2020 Publishing timeline: December 2020 OPEN DARK FANTASY Rated R Stories welcome ​ Theme: Elemental Magic - Earth, wind, fire, water and spirit. Dark versus light. We are giving a lot of leeway for story building, but magic must play an integral part in your world and there must be a dark fantasy element. Create a fantasy world for this to all play out in, or build something in ours. The choice is yours. The only requirement is that you must feature elemental magic. Fae and other realms, magic and witches, dragons or orcs, all magical and fantastic creatures are welcome. This one has opportunities for a lot of world-building so the call out is for larger stories. We will only be accepting a limited number of stories for this project, but volume II is under consideration. Stand-alone stories only, no to be continued. ​ Word Count is 5000 - 15000 we are looking for longer stories and small novella's. ​ Compensation: $25.00 CAD. Digital copy & discounted author copies ​ Formatting guidelines: See our Submission Format guide below ​ How to submit: Access submission form here, or use the submit button ​ Multiple Submission: Yes - We will be happy to read up to two stories per author, but note we will only be accepting one story per book. Please send each story in a separate form. Reprints: Yes we are accepting a small number of reprints. ​ Things that are a hard pass: any animal erotica and all forms of rape Via: Eerie River Publishing.

Deadline: August 1st, 2020 Payment: Royalties Theme: A 1980's genre story that involves a haunting and pizza parties Note: Reprints Welcome What’s the coolest place around? The Mall! Outrageous neon-drenched, air-conditioned corridors welcome us inside. It’s an oasis. From the food court pizza parlor to every hip store, you could totally find everything you ever wanted. It’s good times to the max! But that’s not all you can find at the mall. Not even! Pastel paint streaks the walls, flowing over the occasional gaps between shops. But if you stare at it, the colors shift and combine, and follow you. The music store is rockin’, but don’t get the used cassettes. Debbie Gibson gives way to electric howls as something screams from the void. And don’t even think about trying that weird game at the back of the arcade! The guys say it’s giving them nightmares and weird vans are following them. But I saw the van, and I know it was Bobby driving and trying to scare us. So don’t encourage them! I love the Mall. But you wouldn’t want to be trapped here alone at night…   WHAT WE WANT THE BASICS: Supernatural stories set in the 1980s. Not horror stories, necessarily, but stories that use the 1980s and its culture in an engaging way. Bring us supernatural adventures, supernatural mysteries, supernatural fantasy, or supernatural pulp. First and foremost, aim to capture the spirit of the era. That’s something we feel both Speakeasies & Spiritualists succeeded in for the 1920s, and Sockhops & Séances succeeded in for the 1950s. If you’re looking to know exactly what we want, reading those books is the best place to start. THE PIZZA PARTIES: Historical accuracy is required. This extends beyond technology to attitudes, beliefs, and so on. See below for a full discussion of historical...

Deadline: August 1st, 2020 Payment: 8 cents per word Theme: SF, F, H, steampunk, cyberpunk, mythology, satire. Stories could feature puzzle solving and ingenuity, inverted tv tropes, inventions (clockwork, practical, or Rube Goldberg), masterful creations (like JS Bach's Goldberg Variations), and social commentary Brain Games: Stories to Astonish - SF, F, H, steampunk, cyberpunk, mythology, satire The left side of the brain is associated with logical and analytical characteristics, while the right brain with creativity. We'd welcome stories from both sides of the brain. Stories could feature puzzle solving and ingenuity, inverted tv tropes, inventions (clockwork, practical, or Rube Goldberg), masterful creations (like JS Bach's Goldberg Variations), and social commentary Reading period: July 1 - August 1, 2020 Writer deadline: August 1, 2020 Publication date: October 15, 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...