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Deadline: October 18th, 2018 Payment: USD 3¢/word, minimum $5, maximum $25 for previously unpublished poetry or prose and a $5 flat payment for reprints. Note: Reprints Allowed For our Fall 2018 issue, Riddled with Arrows is seeking writing-related fiction and metafiction, ars poetica, essays, visual art and non-classifiable written objects that explore the physical manifestations of the written world: think books, paper, letters, writing implements, stone tablets, engraved jewelry, illuminated manuscripts, gravestone etchings, writing on skin, holy texts, ancient scrolls, etc.  We are also interested in submissions that incorporate physical written objects (found poems, epistolary fiction, collage, paper art, etc.). Remember: Riddled with Arrows exclusively publishes writing about writing.  That is to say, all submissions should touch on writing as well as the “tangible” theme. Works that skimp on the meta- or writing-related  part will be rejected.  Not sure what we mean by “meta” or “writing-related”? Read past issues for examples of writers who got it write right.  While you’re at it, pay close attention to our guidelines (below). We have particular tastes. Follow us on Facebook or Twitter or subscribe to our email list for updates, insider tips, and meta-shenanigans You might also be interested in our interview with the “Six Questions For…” Blog or Sapling (Black Lawrence Press).   Guidelines for General Submissions Please read all of this before submitting.  No, really. Editorial Focus: Riddled with Arrows seeks (short) metafiction and metapoems, and writing that celebrates the process and product of writing as art. No restrictions on genre or form, so long as the work is about writing, or comments on itself (consciously or not) in interesting and meaningful ways..  (What is metafiction? We’re so glad youasked…) You might also want to read Genre/Style: We prefer tight, clean (as in no typos), vivid, evocative writing.  Spare the purple prose. We are open to all genres and styles.  Literary? Yes.  Fantasy/Sci-Fi? Absolutely.  Horror? Ok. Experimental? Surprise us. In short, don’t be misogynistic, homophobic, racist, or a...

Deadline: October 24th, 2018 Payment: Short Fiction (<150CH) $3AUD per story, Long Fiction (>150CH/<200CH) $2AUD per story What is the Story Seed Vault? The Vault is an online periodical that adheres to the limitation of Twitter publishing. We consider all types of fiction with one condition – your story must be based on science. We’re looking for stories that act as story seeds – prompts for spin off plots and weird tangents. We want to think in new ways about how our world works and the possibilities for future worlds, expanding tangentially from what we know now. Who can submit to the Vault? The Vault will takes submissions from all sorts of writers, from established writers to new, science communicator, or people who have a personal passion for science. As long as you adhere to our guidelines, we will publish your work! In accordance with the ethics and values of our editorial team, the Vault is also a diversity-oriented publication. As such, we welcome and encourage submissions from a multiplicity of voices and perspectives, particularly those from marginalized and under-represented groups. Science communication is done by all sorts of people – and we want writers who reflect that diversity. Where can I find science to be inspired by? We suggest taking a look at science news websites and science magazines, such as the below: Ars Technica Technology news, provides breakdowns on the latest scientific advancements. Main focus is IT and ‘gadgets’. Science Daily Scientific research news. Does not report on general science news. Science Mag Reports on research and general science news. Almost always evidence-based reporting. Science Alert and Live Science Pop science news. An easily accessible form of science news that doesn’t use academic language. Prone to clickbait titles. If you’re still stuck on what to write, take a...

Deadline: October 25th, 2018 Payment: $10 Tales from the Moonlit Path publishes dark, eerie, speculative stories. Horror is not a necessary element, although fiction should contain some aspect of the weak, frail, changeable human condition. Gore and explicit sex for the sake of visceral shock will not find a home here, though we are not opposed to it in general, if it belongs in the story. We are interested in character-driven stories more so than plot-driven, and we prefer dark fiction that makes us think, makes us feel, wraps us in its well-spun dream. Although we would love to publish fiction longer than 2,000 words, it is our experience that reading stories longer than that on a monitor can be tiresome and hard on the eyes. So please, fiction must be no longer than 2,000 words. Please include a short cover letter with your story, with your name, email address, word count and bio if we choose to publish your work. We accept email submissions only at [email protected]. WE DO NOT ACCEPT ATTACHMENTS. Please submit your story embedded within the email, with this format in the subject line: Your last name: Fiction-submission. For poetry guidelines, please submit them to: [email protected] and embed the poetry in the body of the email. Please only submit 3-5 poems at a time. Please format your subject line: Your last name: Poetry-submission. For full poetry guidelines, please click here. For article or movie/book review guidelines, please submit to: [email protected] and embed the article in the body of the email. Articles and movie reviews should be no longer than 2,000 words. Please format your subject line: Your last name: Article-submission. We offer $10 for every published story. Please allow one month before querying about your submission. Simultaneous submissions are welcomed (and encouraged, you have to get your...

Deadline: October 25th, 2018 Payment: Contributor's Copy Detective Fantasy Anthology Submission Period: August 1 - October 25 Word Count:    500-10,500 (If over this, please ask before submitting). Theme:    For this anthology, we are wanting you to tell us a story about a mystery, be it a murder, a theft, or something else all together. However, we aren't just looking for normal detectives, we want a fantasy element! The detective doesn't have to necessarily have powers, but we want the story to take place in a fantasy setting. Use your imaginations and run with it! The possibilities are endless for this mystery/fantasy genre mash up! We will consider any sub-genre, but the story must involve solving a mystery in a fantasy setting. No poetry. ALWAYS READ THE FULL THEMES AND GUIDELINES WHEN SUBMITTING. 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. In some cases, we may wait until the end of the submission period to start sending out acceptance emails.   Compensation: Contributor copy of the anthology. Editing: Yes, your story will be edited if we decide to accept it. After we go through and edit your story, it will then be sent back to you for final approval. In some cases, we may ask for revisions to be made.  Reprints, Multiple & Simultaneous Submissions: Yes.  SEND A SEPARATE EMAIL FOR EACH SUBMISSION. MULTIPLE SUBMISSIONS SENT IN ONE EMAIL MAY BE DISCARDED WITHOUT BEING READ. Guidelines for Submissions:   All submissions are to be sent to [email protected]. In the subject line please type DETECTIVE ANTHOLOGY SUBMISSION: . In the body of your email, please include your name, pen name, and word count. If the story is under 2,000 words, please paste the text in the...

Deadline: October 25th, 2018 Payment: $0.50/word To honor Halloween (no, not that one), Gizmodo and io9 are presenting a very special editorial package focused on death in its many forms—we’ll be running essays, investigations, and a work of short fiction on what goes on beyond the veil. And as part of it, io9 is announcing an open call for works of short, speculative fiction that interrogate what death might mean, or be, in the future. Perhaps death has become a thing of the past—for some humans, at least. Maybe a newly sentient AI must decide whether to program some form of death into its universe. Whatever the premise, we’re looking for creative takes on what it means for an object or entity to cease to be. We’re most interested in futuristic and science fiction-infused tales; no gore or straight horror, please. We’re looking for pieces under 2,000 words and the deadline for us to receive your submission is October 25, 2018. Our rates start at $0.50/word and authors will retain the copyright to their work, granting Gizmodo a right to first publication and a 90-day exclusive period. To submit, please email a short summary (a few sentences will do) of the scope and plot of the story, as well as links to any other published work you’d like for us to see, to [email protected]. Please include your story as an attachment. Via: io9.

Deadline: October 31st, 2018 Payment: $10.00 USD “The Future is Broken.” – Black Mirror What horrors will our technological hubris bring us in the future? When technology takes over more of our lives, what will it mean to be human, and will we fear what we have created? Artificial intelligence, robotics, bionics and cybernetics, clones, and virtual reality. These are a few of my favorite things. The technological singularity is fast approaching, and post-humanity is a frighteningly dark future. First and foremost, your submission must be a horror story and contain something emotionally, physically, or mentally horrifying. Secondly, the technology should be front and center, not just a deus ex machina. Whether it be a modern technology we are creating now with a purpose yet fully realized, or some new horror as yet to be discovered. We are looking for stories in the same vein as NETFLIX’s Black Mirror. Post-apocalypse is welcome, as are dystopian societies, but technology must have brought them about. Supernatural elements are welcome in conjunction with the technology. What we don’t want is aliens attacking humanity as the core conceit. What qualifies as “modern” technology is debatable; anything from the Cold War is the farthest back we’ll consider. Manuscript Format: *Font: either Courier or Times New Roman. *Double spaced, font 12 point. *Your manuscript must be in either DOC or RTF format. *Do not place your name in the manuscript, just the title.** *Following pages header to state: author name, story name, and page number. **This year, we are doing blind submissions. Wow us with your story.** In the body of the email: *With no header on the MS, the header info should be in the email as such: author name, mailing address, email address, and word count. *100 words or less biography about you. *One sentence explaining the story...

Deadline: October 31st, 2018 Payment: 5 contributor's copies Critical Blast Publishing is taking submissions for the anthology GODS & SERVICES. This anthology will be a collection of modern and post-modern fantasy stories revolving around the trope of the mysteriously appearing and disappearing shop. It settles onto any street as though it's always been there. The plate glass window hosts a letterboard sign advertising "GOODS & SERVICES."  The first "O" has fallen and lies stuck in the bottom of the letterboard.  The proprietor sells bric-a-brac to unsuspecting customers, which releases or puts them into contact with a god from any time or place in mythology or history. Chaos ensues as the protagonist gets the god he or she needs -- or deserves (and "deserves" can be widely interpreted).  Think along the lines of Tony Randall and Burl Ives in THE BRASS BOTTLE meets TWILIGHT ZONE and NIGHT GALLERY. Stories should be between 2000 and 10,000 words, submitted in manuscript format to [email protected] a Word attachment. Feel free to query the address to clarify and ask questions. For published pieces we ask for First Serial Rights. Understand most publications will not publish pieces that have been published in print, eBook, or on the web; as such, once your work is published by Critical Blast Publishing, it can only be marketed as a reprint, severely limiting the number of markets that will accept it, and could drastically reduce future potential pay rates. It is up to you, the author, to decide if publishing your work in print and/or eBook formats and/or on the web, giving up your First Publishing Right for a token payment, is really what you want to do. Payment: 5 copies of printed book. Deadline for submissions is October 31, 2018. Via: Critical Blast.

Deadline: October 31st, 2018 Payment: One penny Sterling per word, with a minimum payment of £10 Sterling for poems and very, very short stories, I am looking for stories and poems for a new anthology that involves British Folklore. The stories may be short or long, even as long as a novelette. The stories or poems can be of horror, humour or psychological. But, I don’t want any twee stories. I will pay one penny Sterling per word, with a minimum payment of £10 Sterling for poems and very, very short stories. For illustrations, I will pay £30 for ‘header’ illustrations to a story, £100 for full page illustrations and £200 for the cover illustration. All rights are reserved by the author and the artist. If your story, etc. has been published elsewhere, please let me know where and when the work was published. I would like to have all the material in by Halloween this year as I would like to have enough to keep me busy over Christmas. The anthology, hopefully, will be ready for release by February/March 2019. Contact me by email ([email protected] or [email protected]) or by post to Jon Harvey, 56 Mickle Hill, Sandhurst, Berkshire, GU47 8QU, UK. The following is a list of festivals, people and creatures of British folklore that I can think of. There are likely to be numerous others that either I don’t know or have forgotten about: There are festivals like Beltane (the Gaelic May Day festival), Samhain (the Gaelic celebration of end of the harvest) normally held on the night of the 31st October and there are other festivals held in Wales, Scotland and Ireland, such as Lughnasadh, which is similar to Samhain. There are folk such as the ‘The Green Man’, ‘John Barleycorn’, ‘Wayland Smith’ and ‘Herne the Hunter’. There’s the ‘Wild Hunt’ or the ‘Eternal Huntsmen’....

Deadline: October 31st, 2018 Payment: $10. 13 Postcards from Hell (partnered with The Bold Mom) This anthology is a PAID anthology ($10 plus e-copy of the book or audiobook, paid on publication) due to the level of difficulty. All stories are due by Halloween and the book will be released on Xmas. Also keep in mind, this will be an audiobook. What it is about: The theme behind each story is that Satan has decided t deliver postcards from 13 evil people condemned to Hell to someone who is living. Each story is made up of three stories. 1) First story: How did the bad guy die? 2) Second story: What did he encounter in Hell? and 3) Third story: The postcard, which is a message to anyone they believe is still living (can’t be someone who is dead and in heaven, I have a feeling God won’t let him deliver the correspondents) and the person’s reaction to the postcard. Each story can be anywhere from 300 to 7,000 words (they obviously don’t need to be the same length, the post card, most likely will be the shortest piece). I’m looking for extreme horror, but no violence against animals, no ….. Now, I know this is limiting, but I’m hoping this will bring out the creativity in the writers. After all, there is still a wide range of possibilities. How did the guy die? Natural causes, killed by a victim defending themselves, stupid accident, cops shoot him? Why did he get sent to Hell? What happened in Hell? Is it his worst nightmare or is he enjoying himself? Is he being tortured or he the one giving out the torture? Does he/she know they are in Hell? Also…has he/she escaped from Hell…I said condemn, never said they were still in...

Deadline: October 31st, 2018 Payment: Royalties and a contributor's copy Off the Beaten Path Press is proud to announce a call for submissions for a brand new anthology titled "HEROES OF THE APOCALYPSE". We're looking for submissions in the 5,000 - 15,000 word limits with stories of the end of the world. You pick the way. Whether it be natural disaster, zombies, pandemic, alien invasion, space asteroids, killer AI, supernatural demons or ghosts, giant monsters, nuclear war, or however you envision the end of everything coming for civilization. The only thing that these stories need to share are the heroes who fight against all odds to prevent the end (either in success or failure). This is what the stories need to be all about. The human response to the end. So even if you have a 1000 foot Lovercraftian demon stomping on major cities, we need to see the courage on the ground before the boot goes to ant. Please send your story copied into an email with your contact info to [email protected]. We're looking forward to seeing what you've got. Payment will include royalties paid for sales and a copy of the print version of the anthology. Close Date: Oct 31. Thanks!