Events

Deadline: July 31st, 2017 Payment: $25usd and a contributor's copy We loved our first Mental Ward: Stories from the Asylum call so much, we’re opening another for Volume 2 with the exact same details! Have at it wordsmiths, and send us true depravity to read! Sanatorium, mental ward, psychiatric hospital – they’re all the same. Places where the infirm, the crazy, and the certifiable go for treatment… Or what passes for ‘treatment’. We want stories of bedlam taking place within the padded walls of an institution. Give us stories of experiments gone wrong, patients revolting against the staff, or tales from the perspective of those charged with offering care. Make them sick, make them depraved, make them atrocious – these should be the kind of stories that rarely reach the light of day. Are you brave enough to see what your mind conjures up… Or are you afraid you’ll be locked up for trying? Deadline: July 31, 2017 Word Count: 4,000 – 8,000 words All submissions MUST be submitted to: [email protected] Reading & Evaluation Period: Two to three months after close of the deadline ** NO REPRINTS WILL BE CONSIDERED ** Payment: Each story selected for inclusion will receive a one-time payment of $25US, plus one print copy of the book. As per our standard guidelines, there will be no stories containing pedophilia, or graphic rape scenarios accepted. Full submission guidelines can be found on our website – www.SirensCallPublications.com – we invite you to read them before submitting! Via: Siren's Call Publications.

Deadline: August 1st, 2017 Payment: 5 cents/word (CAD) Note: Only 5% of authors accepted will be from outside of Canada. Speculative writing, whatever the sub-genre, is full of food scenes. Food can be integral to the magic, the meetings, the processes of narratives from hard SF to high fantasy. For all of us, eating is a symbolic and magical act, a transformation, a covenant, a ritual, a comfort, and a necessity, and this awareness has been expressed in story – all the way from myth, legend and fairy tale to modern speculative writing – in many memorable ways. Alice eats and drinks to participate in Wonderland, Ripley's alien has to feed its young, Persephone eats the pomegranate seeds and spends half her life in the Underworld, the witch entices Hansel and Gretel with food to become food, the food in 2001's famous white room is spookily nutritious and generic, and Soylent Green is people. We can’t live without food, but sometimes we can’t live with it, either. In literature and in history, food-themed stories have had a darker side: starvation, poisonings (whether intentional or accidental), struggles with eating disorders, and more. We’re all drawn to candy coatings (in this case, literally) but we also want the story about how the missing ingredient ruined the feast. For the Food of my People anthology, its award-winning editors seek speculative writing that makes the magic and reality of food and nourishment integral to each story and its outcome. See the story "The Food of My People" by Candas that sparked this anthology, and began as an enquiry into what might be the everyday magic of the post-aboriginal incomers to the Canadian prairies, the culture of the jellied salad and the Saskatoon pie. Ursula Pflug and Colleen Anderson chose it for Playground of Lost Toys (Exile Editions, 2015), and when Candas read the story at ICFA...

Deadline: August 1st, 2017 Payment: $5 for flash fiction and $10 to $20 (depending on length) for short stories Issue #9: Nothing but Witches, Bitches! (Fall/Winter 2017) All witches, all the time! Permutations of witchery, magick, crones, warlocks and familiars from fairy tale baddies to black or white magic, witch doctors, and the merely misunderstood. Personal power, communion with spirits and the dead, spells, trickery, solitude and a visionary third eye with a window on the fates. Submission deadline: 8/01/17 We are not afraid." Body Parts Magazine is an online literary magazine of horror, erotica, speculative fiction, essays and art. Each themed issue honors Eros and Thanatos, the Greek gods of libido and mortido—life and death. We celebrate the vast and various expressions of dreams and darkness, our primitive desires and urges, and seek to encounter—and embrace—those shadowy monsters who dwell in the dimly lit corners of human experience.  Upcoming Themes Submissions for each issue are accepted through the last day of each reading period (if specified). You are welcome to submit material for any issue--simply indicate which issue you would like your work to be considered for. Be advised: we generally begin reading submissions for a particular issue after the close of its submission deadline, so don't panic if you haven't heard back before then. Fiction Body Parts accepts well-written, thoughtfully structured horror, erotic horror, speculative fiction, dark fantasy (including fairy tales and mythology), exceptional stories about ghosts, ghouls, monsters and wretched creatures, Gothic fiction, and all combinations of the above. Our boundaries are few and far between. Flash Fiction: 1,000 words or fewer. Short Stories: up to 8,000 words. Serialized or Longer Fiction: query us with total word count. Art/Photography We accept your original artwork and photography reflective of an issue’s theme. Email a query with a link to your art online (web, Dropbox, Google album, etc.) Payment varies. Essays...

Deadline: August 1st, 2017 Payment: Contributor's Copy Thurston Howl Publications is now accepting submissions for its third furry anthology, Infurno: The Nine Circles of Hell. Deadline: August 1, 2017 Word count: 2,500-8,000; a little above and a little below will be acceptable The Nine Circles of Hell has been a much-loved conception of the inferno, popularized by Italian poet Dante. Look here for the basic elements of the circles: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Inferno_(Dante)#Overview. This collection will be divided respectively into the nine parts. We expect stories to be framed to focus on people who will end up in a specific circle. Most of a story should focus on what they did back on Earth in life. Showing how they died is not required. We need to see their sin that brought them there, and you can definitely have them in hell (always fun to describe; in general, try to keep infernal descriptions consistent with Dante's). We want to see anthro-animal characters at their darkest and weakest moments: at the brothel, at the chopping block, in the morgue, in the dining room with the candlestick. It is perfectly fine but not required if submissions are NSFW. We are honestly expecting a fair amount of horror and erotica. However, again, adult stories are by no means required for acceptance. All story submissions must be "furry" in nature. We will NOT accept: Racism, sexism, or discrimination 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...

Deadline: August 5th, 2017 Payment: 1 cent per word We are in search of erotic stories centered around the theme of haunted. How you execute this theme is up to you—a multitude of interpretations are possible. While fantastical and spooky elements are welcome, we suggest writers familiarize themselves with the full dictionary definition of “haunt” and think outside the box. For this anthology we aren’t just looking for ghosts, ghouls, and other monsters. We want to feel something that is persistently there. Something that twists the mind, invades our waking thoughts, disturbs our sleep. The characters must be haunted or haunting. The sex needs to be raw, passionate, hot, and at the story’s centre. Four-letter words are neither required nor discouraged, although we have a preference for graphic lust conveyed through beautiful prose. No hard requirements in terms of secondary genres. This theme lends itself well to speculative genres—but think sexy not scary. Please read our general submission guidelines prior to submitting. We prefer the erotic to adult content and have an extreme prejudice for stories with a literary style—however, hot, passionate sex must be at each story’s core. It may help to familiarize yourself with some of our other titles prior to submitting—particularly our short story anthologies and stand-alone shorts. 1,000-5,000 words, although we’ll consider pieces that fall outside those parameters on a case-by-case basis. Multiple and simultaneous submissions ok. No reprints. If accepted, pay is 1 cent per word. The deadline for submissions is August 5, 2017.   Submit here. Via: Mug Wump Press.

Deadline: August 6th, 2017 Payment: Royalties 60% of net earning split evenly amongst the authors123 Calling for submissions for the Deadman’s Tome September issue. The theme? Let’s go deep into the realm of sci-fi horror. Let’s explore the claustrophobic corridors of abandoned space ships, the fragmented ruins of distant worlds, and the demonic horrors that watch us from afar! Theme: Dark horror sci-fi. Gore and adult subject matter welcomed Word Limit: 5k Payment: Royalties 60% of net earning split evenly amongst the authors End Date: August 6th, 2017 Send to [email protected] with SCIFI HORROR in subject. Via: Deadman's Tome.

Deadline: August 10 2017 Payment: 0.01 cent a word and a contributor's copy Note: Reprints allowed A Science Fiction anthology looking at the future well after the current presidents of the USA have moved on. The projected science fiction date is 2030 and can examine American Politics in a new era, or look at world politics changed by the actions of USA policies and people. While war stories can be popular in this collection only 2 will be purchased. Political shenanigans would be interesting, as well as romance, spooks, robots and evil overlords. While the initial inspiration is based after the Presidency of Donald Trump it has been advised not to slander or denigrate him or anyone with anything that is not already well known and shared in open media sources (not rumour or innuendo – facts are okay, mistruths are not) Deadline – August 10  2017 Word Counts – 4000 to 7500 words Pay 0.01 cent a word paid on acceptance. Reprints 1/2 a cent per word.  I buy very few reprints. / Return times 6 weeks/ submissions to - [email protected] (subject line - TRUMPETER) Publication Date. – October/November 2017 The rights purchased are first international right in e-book/reader/pdf/POD/Print. All rights return 6 months after publication, though the anthology will remain in print for an indefinite period. As well as payment authors also get a copy of the anthology in print form and access to all forms of download systems. For Advertisers – a complete ad for the opposite page of a short story and which is in keeping with the futuristic style of the collection will need to be set at 5"x 8" with 5mm bleed all round. To help support this product ads are kept at a low rate of $150 per ad. All payments for ads...

Deadline: August 10th, 2017 Payment: Payment will be one half-cent per word, with a minimum payment of $5.00 and a maximum of $15.00. Reprints are the same but with a max of $10. Note: Reprints Allowed Estimated to come out in time for Halloween.   Word Count:    500-10,500 Theme:    For this anthology, we want glimpses into the world of those we love to hate. Monsters, demons, murderers, etc. Are they as evil as they seem? What made them do those horrible things? What was their breaking point? Were they good once or has their heart always been black? A broader take on the fairy tale villains anthology. Any time period and sub-genre are accepted, however there must be a villain/bad guy as the focus of your story.  Villains may be taken from fairy tales, mythology, folklore, monster legends, history, or entirely original. ALWAYS READ THE FULL THEMES AND GUIDELINES WHEN SUBMITTING. Due to a large number of submissions for the new anthology that fail to meet the theme and/or guidelines, we have decided to give some extra clarification for what we are looking for. This is NOT just a horror anthology about villains/evil people. Get us into the heart of the villains. Make us question if they are really that bad. Help us understand why they do what they do. Show us that underneath their actions, there is something there that could make us empathize with their plight. Go beyond the darkness and evil and help us wonder what's under the surface of those we love to hate. PIECES THAT FAIL TO MEET THE GUIDELINES/THEME WILL BE AUTOMATICALLY REJECTED.   Response Time:  Please allow up to one month. After that, if you don't hear from us then feel free to give us a little nudge.   Payment: Payment will be one half-cent per...

Deadline: August 15th, 2017 Payment: Royalties Season Two Holiday Horror. Mix it up. Give us a story about Easter, 4th of July, Yom Kippur. The big three are acceptable too…but fall last in line. Season Two Submission Deadline: August 15th, 2017 How to submit: At the moment, we are accepting submissions through our Online Submission Form. Only submissions through the online submission form will be accepted. What we’re looking for: We will be publishing 3 SEASONS of genre anthologies each year. Each Season will have its own theme. See the SEASONS page to see what seasons we are currently looking for and what seasons have past. We will also be publishing other anthologies, so feel free to send us work at anytime. We will post if and when we have themes for other anthologies. We publish anthologies with Science Fiction, Fantasy and Horror themes. Please note that we do not consider novel excerpts, or anything with illustrations or photographs. Our anthologies will be available in paperback and ebook formats exclusively through Amazon. What’s the deadline? Check the SEASONS page for each seasons deadline. Otherwise, please feel to send us other work that may be great for another anthology as we will be publishing others. International submissions: We’re based in the US but we accept submissions from authors all over the English-speaking world. Rights We ask for first serial rights on any story we publish. This means that the story should not have appeared anywhere else, either in print or online. (This includes publication on an author’s own website.) When we publish a story, we ask for a brief period of exclusivity (roughly 18 to 24 months), and the right to keep the story in print. We do not place any limits on what you can do with your story after the exclusivity...

Deadline: August 15th, 2017 Payment: $0.06 per word The inevitable breakdown of a long-term relationship; losing your home due to gentrification; struggling with the deportation of a loved one; navigating the crumbling healthcare situation in Trump’s America. How do you define loss and grief? Radix Media presents AFTERMATH: Explorations of Loss & Grief, an anthology that will examine what it means to face the consequences after tragedy strikes. The theme is left intentionally open, giving contributors the freedom to tell their story as it is most relevant to their experiences. SUBMISSION GUIDELINES We prefer previously unpublished pieces (though previously published pieces will b considered on a case-by-case basis), and they can be fiction, personal essays, or poetry, between 500 and 3,000 words. We will also accept comics, illustration, and photography that will retain its integrity in black and white. Accepted works will be collected into either a zine or paperback book, depending on the volume and length of accepted works. Visual submissions should be able to fit a print size of 5” x 8”. CONTRIBUTORS & PAYMENT Contributed pieces will be paid for at the following rates: Fiction & Non-Fiction: $0.06 per word Poetry: $35 per work Comics, Photos, & Illustration: $10 per page or $50 per work, whichever is greater We strongly encourage typically underrepresented voices to submit. If you are a person of color, queer, trans, disabled, or any combination of these, we would especially love to hear from you. DEADLINE Pieces should be submitted via e-mail to [email protected] by August 15, 2017. Please include your name,  e-mail address, and telephone number. Also let us know if the work has been previously published or not, or whether it is currently being considered for publication by another publisher. For written works, please paste the text directly into the body of...