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Deadline: September 20th 2013 Payment: $10 per story Each monthly flash fiction call has a theme. We ask you to write an SFF story (SciFi, Fantasy, Horror, or related sub-genres) that fits the theme in some way. You’ll find a list of upcoming themes below. Please only submit a story for a particular theme during that theme’s submission period. Stories submitted during the wrong submission period will be deleted unread. Though this is a flash fiction contest, we’re still looking for stories with a strong narrative arc. We want stories that introduce us to character, world, and conflict in the opening 1-2 graphs. (Conflict isn’t just a fight, by the way.) We want a middle free of too much backstory; we want forward momentum. Last, we want an ending the resolves the plot, directly or subtly. We only want stories between 500 and 1,000 words, inclusive. We pay a flat rate of $10 per story, regardless of length. Theme: Outsiders   Send your submission in an email to kazkapressgmail.com. Attach your file to the email. Don’t forget to include your cover letter in the body of the email. Subject Line: Flash Fiction Contest (e.g. “Flash Fiction Contest ” for the ‘Sax & Violins’ prompt). Imprecise subject lines may result in lost submissions. Here are the rules and details. Word Count: We’re looking for a piece of flash fiction that is between 500 and 1000 words long. Thus: 499 < YOUR STORY < 1,001 We won’t publish stories north or south of this mark. Deadline: At midnight, as the 20th rolls into the 21st in California, we’ll stop accepting submissions for the current month’s contest. All dates and times relate to California time (Pacific PST/PDT). Manuscript & Cover Letter: Please get close to standard manuscript formatting. However, we’ll be formatting your story for the web, so...

Deadline: September 25th 2013 Payment: There will be two Editor’s Choice Awards for $25 each. Each Editor’s Choice Award winner will receive a free contributor paperback copy and $25. Cash award is payable via PayPal only and will be made approximately 65 days from publication of the anthology. "Editor’s Choice Award Winner" will be posted under the author's name where the piece is placed inside the anthology. All contributors will earn a free Kindle edition of the anthology. There’s nothing quite like the birth of a child. Children are born in our likenesses... we treasure their beauty, their innocence, and marvel as they take their first breaths outside of their mother’s womb. In a perfect world, babies are miracles. But as we know, the world is not always perfect. “... then something like a stick insect, enormous bulging eyes among stiff fragilities that were limbs... a small girl all blurred, her flesh guttering and melting... a doll with chalky swollen eyes, its eyes wide and blank, like blue ponds, and its mouth open, showing a swollen little tongue. A lanky boy was skewed, one half of his body sliding from the other. A child seemed at first glance normal, but then Harriet saw there was no back to its head; it was all face, which seemed to scream at her.” -- from Doris Lessing’s Fifth Child What happens when we allow ourselves to conceptualize the horrible possibilities -- the terrifying consequences of childbirth gone wrong -- the unimaginable monstrosity that might be born into this world, or perhaps another -- the worst case scenario of what could but shouldn’t be? UGLY BABIES -- the anthology. Bring us your ruminations on the abnormal, the abominations, the grotesque, the downright appallingly hideous children your dark minds can conceive... from the time of...

Deadline: September 25th 2013 Payment: Exposure Only Fascination With Fear is a blog by a dedicated horror fan for horror fans. Sarcasm abounds, ranting ensues, and opinions are readily available. Movie reviews, random lists, and general discussions about the horror genre is what it's all about. Hey kids! Naturally we Halloween here at FWF and we go all out on our blog with a Festival of Lists. This year we want to try a few new things, one of which is hearing from our readers. Do any of you have a ghost story? If you have had a weird, creepy, unexplainable experience, we want to hear it! Christine and I are hoping to gather your ghost stories and post them on the blog in October, including a few of our own. It could be a "friend of a friend" tale, or a local urban legend, as long as it is bone chilling. Please send your yarns to my (Marie) email with the subject "FWF Ghost Story". Please let me know if you would like to remain anonymous. [email protected] Halloween is coming, and we are excited. Are you? Via: Fascination With Fear's Facebook.

Deadline: September 29th 2013 Payment $30-$50 if one of the top winners ANNOUNCING THE FIRST ANNUAL FICTION VORTEX HORROR CONTEST Greetings to everyone navigating the Fiction Vortex. Mike here. I come with great news, and a little bit of backstory. During one of our many staff conference calls, which usually consist of me proposing ideas and Dan saying it will never work, the old Voice of Reason himself surprised me by expressing a desire to spice up our process, to try something new and exciting. Here’s about how it went: Dan: We need to do something to spice up our process, something new and exciting. Mike: Yeah? I thought we had a lot of exciting stuff. Move it, you idiot! Dan: Excuse me? Mike: Oh, sorry, not you. I’m driving. The person camped on a green light in front of me. Dan: No problem. Glad to see you’re getting control of that road rage issue. Mike: Yeah, making leaps and strides. So what exciting things did you have in mind? Dan: I don’t know. Mike: Let’s do a contest. Dan: We already do a contest each month. Mike: Let’s do a special contest. Halloween’s coming up. Let’s do a contest in October. Horror. Dan: It’ll never work. Mike: C’mon, it’s Halloween. Plus Jon knows a lot about horror. Let him judge and what not. Dan: Are you sure? You know what happens when Jon reads too much horror. Mike: Uh, yeah… Bwuh. Who else could be the judge? Dan: I don’t know many horror writers. I’ve deliberately distanced myself from them. Might be closeted serial killers. Mike: That’s the stupidest thing I’ve ever heard. It’s just as likely that the sad looking kid bagging your groceries at Walmart is a serial killer. Dan: Which is why I get my groceries...

Deadline: September 30th 2013 Payment: 20% of the total profit will be paid for each accepted story (at quarterly intervals; if more than five stories are accepted, they will be placed in another anthology in this series. We’d dislike reducing your pay) The cashier who hands you your change as if bills are foreign and coins are a tiny mystery, cast in circle, is a fay; he’s still ginger with the silver coins, expecting iron. He gives pennies, mostly. Bridge trolls are misplaced in the city, shoving themselves between the homeless (there are no goats; they eat dogs now, mostly). A siren in fishnets pouts on her corner, her whispers drawing in more dinner than her cleavage. In the subway station three old women, six blind eyes among them, sell doilies to the tune of a jangling cup; the first spins the thread, the second allots them to your days, the third inexorably binds it to you. Avoid them. But there are others. So many others. The son of Zeus is among the WWF. The daughter of Fu Manchu rules much of the world. Not with bombs or blades or the ever-popular dacoits, but with the subtle weapons of her age: treaties and laws and, most frightening of all, accountants. Sherlock Holmes is dead, replaced by fellows with all of his name and none of his talent. Cell phones are better than talent, aren’t they? We seek stories that take something out of the past, be it mythological or fictive or horrific, and show us how it adapts to the present. Show us why the old myths are still relevant, show them stepping into our lives and disarraying every little thing we tell ourselves. We’re open to everything from urban fantasy to magical realism to golden age detection to noir...

Deadline: September 30th 2013 Payment: We pay five cents per word up to 5,000 words, with 30% paid on acceptance and the remainder to be paid after the complete manuscript has been accepted by the publisher. Stoker Award-winning anthologist Del Howison (Dark Delicacies 1-3, The Book of Lists: Horror) and internationally bestselling urban fantasy author Joseph Nassise (Eyes To See, By the Blood of Heroes) have joined forces with horror Grand Master Clive Barker to bring you back to the city of Midian and the creatures of the darkness known as the Nightbreed! Tor Books will be publishing MIDIAN UNMADE: TALES OF CLIVE BARKER’S NIGHTBREED in simultaneous hardcover and trade paperback editions in the fall of 2014 and we’re looking for original horror and dark fantasy stories that fit the guidelines below. MIDIAN UNMADE: TALES OF CLIVE BARKER’S NIGHTBREED We’ve all felt it at one time or another – that sense of unbelonging, of being isolated, possibly even shunned because of our differences; not for anything that we’ve done but for simply being who we are. We’ve all felt it – in childhood and adolescence, certainly, but even as adults as well, when the winds of change blow through our lives and we discover that those things we thought immutable are, in reality, anything but. When this happens we all become like changeling children, at odds with those around us as well as with ourselves, looking to distant horizons for fresh comprehension of our purpose, sometimes even of our very nature. The fiction of the fantastic literally overflows with metaphors for times like these, though none more so than the Nightbreed, those freaks and grotesques and shapeshifters extraordinaire that inhabit the hidden necropolis of Midian and make it their own in the pages of Clive Barker’s CABAL. The Nightbreed are...

Deadline: September 30th 2013 Payment: Exposure Only Miseria’s Chorale is a planned anthology of horror short stories comprising the best in the genre from both established and new voices. This will be the first volume in what is set to be an annual release. The topics of your stories can be far-ranging, however originality is key. We also encourage writers to push the envelope. Nothing is off-limits. We are particularly interested in dark, atmospheric literary fiction that shows a proficiency in language and tone. Terrify us. Challenge the boundaries of horror. Word Count: 2000-10,000 words. Closing Date: 31 September 2013. Reprints: No. Multiple Submissions: Yes. Simultaneous Submissions: Please do inform us if your story gets accepted elsewhere before the end of the reading period. Payment: This anthology is a for-the-love market. Payment will be exposure. Rights: Forgotten Tomb Press request One Time Print and Electronic Publishing Rights for each story published. How To Submit: Submit it as a .doc or .rtf attachment to [email protected] with the subject line “Miseria’s Chorale”. Include the word count and a brief biography in the body of the email.

Deadline: September 30th 2013 Payment: 5 cents per word December 2013: Family Traditions "Ah Christmas…warm and rosy time. The hot wine steams, the Yule log roars, and we're the fat that's in the fire." Geoffrey, The Lion in Winter—Act I Obviously, Henry II and Eleanor of Aquitaine probably aren't the best example for family traditions—particularly when the biggest tradition they shared was warring with each other, but we couldn't resist giving our Christmas issue a bit of spice. While we realize that we'll be getting a plethora of stories about murdering in-laws over the holiday turkey—BUT we are still holding out hope that we won't get Norman Rockwell in space. Family traditions can happen anywhere—or anywhen—so take the turkey and run with it. CALL BEGINS ON JULY 1, 2013 CALL ENDS ON SEPTEMBER 30, 2013 Penumbra is looking for original, unpublished stories of 3500 words or less. We prefer that writers use Standard Manuscript Format for submissions. (You can read this article by Chuck Rothman on the SFWA site on preparing a manuscript for submission if you are unfamiliar with SMF.) Please send your stories as file attachments in .rtf or .doc formats only. Please include a cover letter in the body of your email, with the manuscript title, you pen name if applicable, the exact word count of the story not including title and byline, and a publication history if applicable. Penumbra is a professional rates paying publisher, paying 5 cents per word. We will evaluate poetry submissions for each issue. We will also consider previously published stories with rights reverted to the author. Penumbra has multiple issue calls open at the same time, therefore it is imperative that you include the issue theme in the subject line of your email. Submissions that do not include this information risk...

Deadline September 30th 2013 Payment: 2¢ USD/word We like things Martian: the Red Planet, H.G. Wells, Bradbury, Robinson, Burroughs, Roman God of War, Yellowknife Bay, Marvin ... Reading Period: August 1 - September 30, 2013 Writer Deadline: September 30, 2013 Publication Date: December 1, 2013 If you’re interested in having your work read and getting paid a little something for it, then submit your story today. Third Flatiron Publishing are a specialist digital publisher and can help you distribute your work to a truly global audience. Third Flatiron Publishing is an e-publishing venture based in Boulder, Colorado. We are looking for submissions to our quarterly themed online anthologies. Our focus is on science fiction and fantasy and anthropological fiction. We’re looking for tightly plotted tales in out-of-the-ordinary scenarios. 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. Role models for the type of fiction we want include Kurt Vonnegut, Arthur C. Clarke, Dan Simmons, Connie Willis, Vernor Vinge, and Ken Kesey. We want to showcase some of the best new shorts available today. See the "Submissions" tab for preferred formats, etc. 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 bent is preferred.

Deadline: Contributor's Copy copy, and 25% of proceeds to be distributed among contributors Payment: September 30th, 2013 An anthology of the aberrant Edited by Christine Morgan To be published in 2014 by Daverana Enterprises What we’re looking for: Short fiction, poetry, or non-fiction written darkly! Send us the indescribable, the transgressive, the controversial, the surreal, the darkety-dark, the gothic-as-hell! Traditional horror, horror targets, and stuff that could have come right out of a horror writer’s nightmare, or a metal album! Send us your “nods” to the genre’s greats! Send us arachnid domiciles, apocalyptic weather systems, obfuscated oculars, ghostly periodicals, intentions of scandal-sheets, archives of nameless dreads! Are you a woman? LGBT? A fan-fiction hack? Conservative? Christian? Fine by us; we welcome authors of all kinds because, here, it’s the story that counts! We’re far less concerned with subject matter (even erotica, or extreme stuff like self-cannibalism!) than we are with good writing, a sense of humor, the ability to handle criticism and work with an editor, and just generally being personable and having fun. Basically, if you’re reading this, you probably already have an idea of what we’re looking for, and why. Bonus points for stories set in, mentioning, loosely tied to, or in some way involving a ‘Fossil Lake,’ however you choose to interpret it. Deadline: September 30, 2013 Word Limit: up to 5000 Compensation: comp copy, and 25% of proceeds to be distributed among contributors Standard manuscript format preferred; Times New Roman or Courier 12-point Send submissions attached as a .doc or .rtf to: [email protected]