Events

Deadline: November 15th, 2020 Payment: $.03 per word, capped at $150 usd, and 2 free contributor copies. Theme: Truly terrifying stories that deal with futuristic themes, set in the near future or far. Corpus Press is now accepting submissions to Volume 3 of the successful In Darkness, Delight anthology series (publication target 2021) to be edited by Evans Light and Andrew Lennon. Submissions should be story-driven and appeal to a wide adult audience. We seek truly terrifying stories that deal with futuristic themes, set in the near future or far. Tales can be Earth-based or extraterrestrial, perhaps featuring technological or social upheavals that have frightful implications for individuals or society at large; as examples, the ongoing erosion of privacy and enduring nature of online activity, artificial human enhancement via DNA manipulation or implants, impact of emerging technologies on developing children, and so on. (Think bigger than stories about an interesting app, even though that might be where thoughts go first. The few slots allocated for app stories will be filled very quickly.) Post-apocalyptic stories will not be accepted. Rather, we desire fiction that occurs during periods preceding any total collapse, be they stable or unstable times. The horrors that await us in utopian futures may be far more chilling and fascinating than those endemic to dystopias, and therein lies our primary interest. We're more interested in "fiction" than "science"; this is a horror anthology first and foremost, not a science fiction anthology. To that end, your math doesn't have to work out to five decimal points for every forward-thinking concept you present. Merely plausible is good enough. If you're looking for popular culture references to give you a general feel, here are a few: Annihilation, Alien, Pandorum, Under the Skin, Cube, Slither, The Thing, They Live, Mimic, Black Mirror, Outer Limits, The...

Deadline: November 15th, 2020 Payment: Contributors Copy Theme: monsters during their middle school years. A Collection of Monsterous Tales Chipper Press is looking for short stories about what life is like for monsters during their middle school years. Do humans know about the monsters? Do they attend school with them? What type of monsters are there? Do they have special classes per species? Do werewolf children get certain days off that trolls don’t? Our readers want a cross between Vampire Academy, Harry Potter, and the School of Night. Our readers want to know what classes are like-when are they held, what subjects do they study, what is the social scene, the sports played, the cliques like? Entertain our readers with complete stories that show more of the action than simply telling and keep the tales PG for the 9-13 year-old-readers, please. Submissions of both short stories and novellas to this anthology are welcome, please keep in mind the minimum word count is 5,500 and the maximum word count is 19,000. Dialogue needs to be believable, and please keep dialects/slang to a bare minimum if you must use them. No head-hopping or POV changes. Pick one point of view and stick with it. (Your submission will be declined if there is head-hopping.) Please show more of the action than just telling the reader what happens. Characters need to be fully developed and the stories need to be complete-not just a scene. This anthology is a great opportunity to showcase emerging writers and allow them to build their professional platforms. Submission Deadline: November 15, 2020, with a targeted release date of late January 2021. Submit your best work. Poorly formatted and unedited work will be turned down. Please use Americanized English spellings. We will be doing light editing as necessary to fit the standards we strive to maintain. Submission...

Deadline: November 15th, 2020 Payment: $0.01 per word (up to $75.00) + contributor copy Theme: Tales that illuminate, investigate or turn the fairy godmother trope on its head New Tales of Fairy Godmothers Anthologist: Kate Wolford Open for Submissions: September 15 - November 15, 2020 Expected Publication: 2021 Story Length: 4,000 to 7,500 words Payment: $0.01 per word (up to $75.00) + contributor copy Wands, wishes, and wonders. That’s the fairy godmother toolkit, and it’s been catching the imaginations of fairy tale lovers for centuries. But it’s time for some new fairy godmother tales, and that’s where you come in. Use your magic to come up with tales that illuminate, investigate or turn the fairy godmother trope on its head. Origin stories are welcome, but so are stories about fairy godfathers, fairy godparents, mundane godparents who find themselves in magical situations, the beneficiaries (or victims) of fairy godmothering—you get the idea. You can use existing fairy tales for inspiration or create a brand new story. What if Cinderella hates everything the fairy godmother does for her? Or, think about retelling “The Goose Girl” from the horse Falada’s point of view. Can the Giant’s wife in “Jack and the Beanstalk” be seen as a fairy godmother? I’m not just looking for old tales with a bit of retread. There’s a lot of that out there. Subvert the tales. Or just create a completely new tale of wonder and transformation. Stories set outside of dominant, Western culture are very welcome, as are new fairy godmother tales about and by people who aren’t usually represented in “classic” fairy tales. Please understand that we have a strong preference for "own voices" when it comes to tales about non-white people, queer or disabled people, and other marginalized groups. Absolutely none of the following: Sci-fi, dystopian, descriptions of people’s bodies through the...

Deadline: November 15th 2020 Payment: AU$5.00 for stories under 2500 words / AU$10.00 for anything above 2500 words Theme: Birds Have Teeth Some people are scared of birds; ornithophobia the professionals call it. We've always enjoyed spotting the local birdlife, that is until a late night discussion that involved the hypothetical question "what if birds had teeth?" The conversation went back and forth, but one thing that we all could agree on was that the addition of razor-sharp fangs would make them truly monstrous. Something worthy of being afraid of... For this collection, we would like you to send us stories that feature birds with teeth. Any birds you like as long as they possess a large set of extra sharp teeth. Thuggish Itch is our horror, sci-fi and speculative fiction collection. Please make sure that your story falls within one of these genres. Be original. We also encourage new and unpublished writers to take the leap and get in touch. Please ensure that you read through the general guidelines 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 - BHT - Story Title. Word count: 1000 - 5000 words Deadline: November 15 2020 Payment: AU$5.00 for stories under 2500 words / AU$10.00 for anything above 2500 words Via: Gypsum Sound Tales.

Deadline: November 15th, 2020 Payment: 3¢ per word, $150.00 max, 1¢ per word for reprints Theme: Not locked to a genre and love “The Twilight Zone” and “The Outer Limits” Note: Reprints accepted We are a literary magazine of dark fiction, both short stories and flash fiction. We want your best. But then, doesn’t everyone? No specific sub-genres or themes, just good stories. For inspiration, we suggest “The Twilight Zone”, “The Outer Limits”, and LampLight, Vol1 Issue 1 which is free. We go for stories that are dark, literary; we are looking for the creepy, the weird and the unsettling. We do not accept stories with the following: vampires, zombies, werewolves, serial killers, hitmen, excessive gore or sex, excessive abuse against women, revenge fantasies, cannibals, high fantasy. Writers We have published writers of all backgrounds from all over the world in LampLight, but not everywhere, nor all shapes and sizes of writers. Help us to shine a light on greater diverse writing and keep LampLight a showcase of the best dark fiction out there by submitting and encouraging others to as well. Edition and Rights The quarterly is published as print and ebook, and at the end of the year all the quarterlies are bound together in an annual collection. We are asking for non-exclusive, worldwide, serial rights to your work for both electronic and print. We want to publish it, we don’t want to own it. We will take reprints, provided you have the rights we are asking for. We will not consider reprints that are currently available for free online. If you have already been in LampLight, we ask you wait until the next volume to submit again. Payment We accept originals and reprints up to 7,000 words (firm). Payment in USD. Unpublished Fiction: 3¢ per word, $150.00 max Reprints: 1¢ per word...

Deadline: November 15th, 2020 Payment: $5 USD Theme: "Most" Speculative fiction, read below for specifics. Note: Open only for women-identified authors. Simply follow the schedule below to be notified when we close and open for submissions. Criteria Luna Station Quarterly publishes speculative fiction written by women-identified authors. We think women write awesome characters and really cool stories and we want to show it to the world. We will consider stories submitted by any woman writer, regardless of experience or writing resume. If you consider yourself on the woman end of the gender spectrum in any significant capacity, you’re welcome here! Stuff we want: Fantasy Science Fiction Space Opera New Fairy Tales (not retellings) Some creepiness Stories that explore the nooks and crannies of an original world Big events from the everyman perspective Unique settings and storytelling forms Well written stories with strong characters Stuff we don’t want: Anything biased toward any religion, race or moral preference Extreme gore or sexual content, in particular no explicit rape or sexual assault. (everything in moderation) Bizarro fiction Poetry Fan Fiction (original stories only, please) Bad grammar/punctuation (please proofread and watch your sentence structure!) Plagiarism A further note about sex and violence in submissions. Science fiction has a long-standing tradition of pushing boundaries and asking difficult questions. It is meant to challenge us and ask us to look at ourselves and how we treat each other and the world around us. That said, LSQ is centered on uplift and so any story that contains explicit sexual situations or violence especially toward women will be considered more carefully than other stories and the content must be justified within the story’s arch. Format and Details Stories should be 500 to 7000 words in length. We may publish longer or shorter works, but the greater your story is...

Deadline: November 15th, 2020 Payment: .01 cents per word and a contributors copy Theme: New takes on fairy godmothers New Tales of Fairy Godmothers Anthologist: Kate Wolford Open for Submissions: September 15 - November 15, 2020 Expected Publication: 2021 Story Length: 4,000 to 7,500 words Payment: $0.01 per word (up to $75.00) + contributor copy Wands, wishes, and wonders. That’s the fairy godmother toolkit, and it’s been catching the imaginations of fairy tale lovers for centuries. But it’s time for some new fairy godmother tales, and that’s where you come in. Use your magic to come up with tales that illuminate, investigate or turn the fairy godmother trope on its head. Origin stories are welcome, but so are stories about fairy godfathers, fairy godparents, mundane godparents who find themselves in magical situations, the beneficiaries (or victims) of fairy godmothering—you get the idea. You can use existing fairy tales for inspiration or create a brand new story. What if Cinderella hates everything the fairy godmother does for her? Or, think about retelling “The Goose Girl” from the horse Falada’s point of view. Can the Giant’s wife in “Jack and the Beanstalk” be seen as a fairy godmother? I’m not just looking for old tales with a bit of retread. There’s a lot of that out there. Subvert the tales. Or just create a completely new tale of wonder and transformation. Stories set outside of dominant, Western culture are very welcome, as are new fairy godmother tales about and by people who aren’t usually represented in “classic” fairy tales. Please understand that we have a strong preference for "own voices" when it comes to tales about non-white people, queer or disabled people, and other marginalized groups. Absolutely none of the following: Sci-fi, dystopian, descriptions of people’s bodies through the objectifying eyes of the protagonist, erotica, high fantasy, excessive...

Deadline: November 15th, 2020 Payment: $150 Theme: Poetry in or about variety Englishes (see below for an explanation.) Submit poetry written in or regarding variety Englishes, to be published in Spring 2021 Issue (41.1). Poems in Singlish, Konglish, Spanglish, AAVE, and other English-associated linguistic forms will be considered for publication. Poets may be asked to contribute supplementary linguistic information to facilitate publication. *A maximum of three poems may be submitted. *No submission fee. Accepted pieces will be awarded $150 for publication. *Deadline November 15th. For inquiries, email [email protected]. Via: The Pinch's Submittable.

Deadline: November 15th, 2020 Payment: £10 Theme: Hell H is for Hell – Submissions open October 1st. Deadline November 15th.  For this one we’re thinking about experiences of Hell, whether that be a literal interpretation of fire and brimstone or a hellish situation. We are currently calling for submissions for a series of horror anthologies – The A-Z of Horror. The series will be based on a variety of themes and will consist of twenty-six books in total. We are looking for short horror stories, between 4000 and 8000 words, on each of the themes listed below. You may submit to more than one book, but we will only include a maximum of one story from each author, in each book. Being accepted into one book does not guarantee acceptance into one of the others. The story must be your own work, to which you hold the rights. The story must not be available elsewhere and, if accepted, we will hold the rights to it for three months from the date of publication. After that time, you may use the story however you wish. Any sub-genre of horror is suitable, even extreme, so long as the story fits the theme of that book and does not include anything which may unnecessarily cause offence ( ). Payment for the story will be £10, to be paid by PayPal, as well as a contributor’s e-book of the finished book. Please send submissions in a Word document (ideally Times New Roman 12pt, single spaced) to [email protected] with the title of the book you are submitting to in the subject line. Please ensure you have included your name on the Word document. If you have any queries, feel free to get in touch using the Contact page. We aim to respond to submissions within 2 weeks of...

Deadline: November 15th, 2020 Payment: 8 cents/6 pence for each word Theme: An unthemed horror anthology Note: Competition will be tough on this one, there are only 4 open slots. Beyond the Veil A New Collection of Horror Stories We are very excited to open submissions for this new anthology, edited by Mark Morris ("...one of the finest horror writers at work today" – Clive Barker)! Beyond the Veil is the second book in the Flame Tree Book of Horror series, and follows After Sundown, which published October 2020. Mark has once again approached an impressive range of authors but we've reserved space for four new stories from the online submissions. This is a prestigious anthology and will be published worldwide in hardcover and paperback. Fees, Copyright and Other Terms: We pay Science Fiction & Fantasy Writers of America (SFWA) rates of 8 cents/6 pence for each word for new stories. We will not accept reprints for consideration to this anthology. We would prefer to pay for the selected stories via PAYPAL because bank charges to the US and Canada in particular can be crippling for all concerned. Payment for the chosen stories will be made within 30 days of the final advertised publication date (see our website flametreepublishing.com for details), although some may be paid earlier than that. Submission does not imply the right to publication. Each story will be read and assessed by the selection panel. Please submit in .doc, .docx or .rtf formats, double spaced, with your name and email address in the footer or header of each page. We will aim to read each story and confirm its status within 4 months of the submission deadline. The anthology will be published worldwide, available online and to bookstores worldwide, in print and ebook formats. Guidelines: Please only submit unpublished/original/new stories for consideration....

Deadline: November 15th, 2020 Payment: $10 Theme: Nuclear Winter Nuclear winter. The frozen plains of the wild west. The ice-capped mountains of a dark wizard. Modern cities drowning in dunes of snow. Wherever or whenever the story takes place, winter is the worst enemy and is the deadliest monster chasing the hero. Survival is almost impossible as the sun hides behind billowing, gray clouds. The wind chaps their flesh. Whether the world has been covered in a 100-year winter or the snow has just started to fall, inciting an anticipated panic, Winter’s Vindication is at hand. ​ Stories of fantasy, sci-fi, literature, and/or survival are acceptable genres. Stories between 5,000 and 9,000 words will be selected for this anthology. Submissions close November 15th, 2020. Tentative release date: January 15th, 2021. ​ Please see the submission guidelines on how to submit to this anthology before you send your story. Pay: $10 per accepted story. Via: Summer Storm Press.