Events

Deadline: August 1st, 2019 Payment: $25 and a contributors copy Silent Motorist Media is currently open for submissions! We’re following our debut anthology, Mannequin: Tales of Wood Made Flesh (featuring Ramsey Campbell, Michael Wehunt, Richard Gavin, Matthew M. Bartlett, Jon Padgett, Christine Morgan, and many more excellent authors), closely with another themed collection of fiction, The Nightside Codex. Like Mannequin, we’re expecting a strong TOC, so be sure and send your best work! We’re looking for original weird horror fiction (think Thomas Ligotti, Nathan Ballingrud, Caitlin R. Kiernan, and the fiction published in Vastarien) within 2,000 to 6,000 words about haunted or cursed books, manuscripts, or online media. The texts dealt with should be products of your imagination–we aren’t looking for stories about Lovecraft’s Necronomicon or any other established pieces of unwritten fiction. Outside of these specifications, you are encouraged to take this theme as far as you can! Public submissions will close on August 1st, 2019. Please allow us at least a month following the closing of submissions to get back to everyone. A good portion of The Nightside Codex’s TOC will remain invite-only, so we’re only looking to obtain 5-7 stories from this submission call. Be sure to send only your best work to [email protected]. Please include your name and a short author’s bio with your submission. We are not looking for previously published pieces, and we strongly discourage simultaneous submissions. Fictional works accepted for The Nightside Codex will receive a flat rate of at least* $25.00 paid via PayPal, plus print and electronic contributor’s copies. *We are planning to attempt a Kickstarter for this anthology. If we’re successful, you can expect the $25.00 rate to raise substantially. When it begins, the Kickstarter will be announced on the SMM website, Facebook, and Twitter accounts. We’ll need your help to reach our goal, so please share our Kickstarter links as they become available.  Thank your for your interest in subbing to...

Deadline: August 1st, 2019 Payment: £20 per 1,000 words for prose, £20 per 15 lines for poetry, and £20 per image for visual art Where Blood Bath’s first two issues interrogated the corporeal, then the infernal, Blood Bath’s third issue looks to the metaphysical for explorations on terror, dread and the unknown. Submissions are now open for Blood Bath issue 3: HAUNTINGS Hauntings are some of the most versatile and interesting stories in the horror lexicon. Haunted houses, poltergeists, haunted objects, personal hauntings; all are welcomed, the only criteria for written submissions being that there must be a ghost (or a character’s belief in a ghost) that is linked to an object, place or person. We very much encourage you to get creative on the definitions and implications of these criteria. For visual art, the same criteria apply, but the restrictions are a little more flexible. Not every submission has to include the image of a ghost or haunted house, though we still want pieces that adhere to and complement the theme. If you’re not sure your art fits the brief, send it anyway. Ghosts and hauntings have traditionally been used to exorcise our cultural and societal fears, and the ones that have the most lasting impacts are ones that address and challenge those in a deliberate way. Social issues like race, class, gender and mental health all have a place in horror and we want to read stories about them. As always, we love a generous dose of weird with our horror, so if you can bring us to Hausu levels of madness, it will definitely be appreciated. We try to publish horror that pushes the margins of genre, so any genre defying/genre blending concoctions will also go down well. There are plenty of excellent traditional Gothic ghost stories, so if you’re...

Deadline: August 1st, 2019 Payment: Royalty Split Submission Deadline : 1st August 2019 Anthology : What If? – Volume One Title : What If? Theme : Rewrite events in history…but with fantasy and magic! Word count : 5k – 10k Author eligibility : Open only to authors who have had stories accepted for a Black Hare Press drabble or short story anthology Reprints : Not allowed Simultaneous Submissions : Not allowed Multiple Submissions : No Publication : Expected to release on 5th November 2019 in Print and Digital formats Author compensation : Equal royalty split per word How to submit : See our submission guidelines for formatting. Send your story as an attachment in Word format to [email protected]. Your email title should be Anthology Name – Your Story Name – Author Name. For example; “What If Volume One – My Story – A N Author” Please include an author bio of up to 100 words and no more than two links. Please read the submission guidelines in full. Failure to comply could result in your submission being rejected. Whilst we are open to all genres and styles of writing, ultimately we reserve the right to reject topics that are not suitable for our publications. Please read the individual submission call information for guidance. Word count requirements, deadline dates and author compensation are detailed against each submission call. Hyphenated words will be counted as one word. Paragraph breaks are not included in word counts. All submissions must be in English. Submitting your work All submissions should be made by email to [email protected] unless the call directs you to a different address. Check the call first. In your email subject line, please include the anthology name, your story title, and your name – more information can be found in the individual call for submissions. Please remember to attach your manuscript to your email. In your email body, please include your pen name, author name (if different) and a short 100 word...

Deadline: August 1st, 2019 Payment: Contributor's copy, potentially pay as well depending on Kickstarter. Note: Sorry for the short turnaround, this just hit my inbox! You may remember a year or so back a girl found ‘Excalibur’ in Britain, in Dozmary Pool (where the Lady of the Lake lives), you may also remember a few months ago, another girl found a sword in Norway, which immediately made me think of Sigmund’s sword Gramr. This all got me wondering what other mythic weapons might be out there. Turns out there are a lot. So of course I had to wonder what happened if girls around the globe started finding these magical weapons. I tossed out the idea to a couple of forums and got a huge response. So of course those stories have to be written. This is where you come in. I’m looking for stories about those girls. Let me start off by saying, do not use Excalibur. If you want to mention Excalibur, it is found by a girl named Aggie Farrier, a school girl who lives in council estate outside of London. There are a huge number of other objects It doesn’t have to be a sword. Here’s a list to get you started: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_mythological_objects Be creative. A knife or ring from Asia could find its way into a house in North America. Some research will turn up other possibilities. A word about cultural appropriation, be sensitive about things like whether your object is still important to a group of people, do your research, if in doubt, maybe use something different. I would love to see lots of multicultural stories. The story needs to be about what happens when a girl finds some mythical object. I’m more interested in the aftermath than the finding, so don’t’ spend most of your story...

Deadline: August 3rd, 2019 Payment: 8 cents per word Longevity -  Legends tell of people who lived a long time, like Methuselah. Some are just lucky (Lazarus Long), some have it thrust upon them (Lestat), some just naturally come by it (cats, bristlecone pines, megaliths), and some rightfully earn their immortality (Shakespeare, Sophocles). Is life extension possible via diets or genetic manipulation, and will there be side effects? Is ageism a real thing? Give us your speculative take (SF/F/H) on longevity and how it is achieved. Reading period: July 10 - August 3, 2019 (Note: shortened by a week so we can attend WorldCon) Writer deadline: August 3, 2019 Publication date: October 15, 2019 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, 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 or can be mini-essays that tell people what they ought to do, how to do...

Deadline: August 5th, 2019 Payment: $5 UPCOMING THEMES FOR CONSIDERATION: (Vol 45.) Abandoned Places; deadline 5th August. SUBMIT YOUR STORIES TO [email protected] Add subject line 'Story submission - The Other Stories' Write for The Other Stories! If you think you’ve got what it takes to terrify, scar and haunt our audience of 10,000 daily listeners, then we want your stories! If accepted, we'll get our fantastic narration team to lend their voices, our editor will sprinkle some magic pixie dust on the track, and you could have your story heard by thousands of listeners each week. If you think you’ve got what it takes to terrify, scar and haunt our audience of 10,000 daily listeners, then we want your stories! If accepted, we'll get our fantastic narration team to lend their voices, our editor will sprinkle some magic pixie dust on the track, and you could have your story heard by thousands of listeners each week.   HERE'S WHAT YOU NEED TO DO: Stories must be 2,000 (10% tolerance +/-) Save stories in a Word document - Times New Roman font, size 12 Please include a 1-2 sentence log line for your story. Ensure that your name and an email address are somewhere on the document Stories must fit an upcoming theme You must be the original creator of the story We will consider entrants whose work has been entered and published elsewhere, however please ensure you state where and when on the document You will be allowed to place one call-to-action for your own work at the end of the episode. Be sure to include this in your document. Payment per accepted story is 5USD to be paid on the 1st of the month following publication via Paypal. All rights remain with the author.   SUBMIT YOUR STORIES TO...

Deadline: August 15th, 2019 Payment: $10 per poem, $10 per flash piece (under 1,000 words), $25 for short fiction and essays (over 1,000 words). Send us stories we can’t put down. Our emphasis is literary fiction:  “the Bigfoot's heart in conflict with itself,” as Faulkner famously  said. But we aren’t biased against genre. To the contrary! Experimental,  science fiction, fantasy, slipstream, magical realism, minimalist,  maximalist, flash, etc., etc., are all welcome into our home, so long as  there is an emphasis on character and/or language rather than on  cleverness and conceit. Let us reiterate: character and language are  important. We want sentences radioactive with the bizarre, the  beautiful, the ugly—the world as only you see it. Surprise us. Break our  hearts. Humor is always a plus. Humor and heartbreak together? Oh, boy.  That’s a dream come true. Outlook Springs isn’t looking for merely competent stories—stories that are technically proficient but emotionally cold. Zap us with life. In short: send us your best work. We can't wait to read it! Hello from Outlook Springs! Send us your weird, wobbly wordwork: fiction, nonfiction, and poetry. See genres for specific submission guidelines, but here's a quick rundown: - Please only one submission at a time. - Please submit only twice per Reading Period. - Of course simultaneous submissions are OK. They should always be OK. - Payment is $10 per poem, $10 per flash piece (under 1,000 words), $25 for short fiction and essays (over 1,000 words). Payment via PayPal or Venmo. - Double-spaced, Times New Roman is good, but hey, you do you! - Please don't hide any curses or hexes in your semi-colons (ahem, Dave) - See our site for some examples of what we publish (www.outlooksprings.com) - No counterfeit exclamation points or hyphens Questions? Email [email protected] Thanks for submitting. Thanks for reading. Thanks for...

Deadline: August 15th, 2019 Payment: Contributors Copy Note: Reprints welcome Since its beginnings in the early 1980s, the Life, the Universe, & Everything Symposium academic symposium has been a staple of the Utah and Intermountain West author and artist community. Many authors, artists, and editors found inspiration for their careers at the feet of scores of symposium guests. Influential professors and others have mentored those planning and running the symposium, but many of these mentors have passed on. The symposium helps students of all ages by providing greatly discounted student memberships. Hemelein Publications—in conjunction with LTUE Press—created a series of memorial benefit/charity anthologies to help the symposium continue to help these aspiring creators learn about their crafts at a reasonable cost. The third of these anthologies, Twilight Tales, is a light horror anthology, created in honor of Betty Pope. She was a librarian at the Harold B. Lee Library at Brigham Young University for many years. She established the science fiction and fantasy literature Special Collection section. She also hosted a reception at her home each year after LTUE for the guests and committee. This anthology will contain stories Betty would have loved. In summary: Light horror stories (think Twilight Zone or Goosebumps) any length up to 17,500 words Unpublished or reprint stories Up to two submissions per author This is a benefit/charity anthology, so stories are donated and author receives no monetary compensation Authors receive a print copy of the anthology and an electronic copy Meet the content guidelines described on the Submission Guidelines page Stories are due by August 15, 2019 If you have a story that meets these criteria, please submit it using our online form. Contracts will be sent by November 1, 2019 to those whose stories are accepted. The anthology will be released during the LTUE symposium in February 2021 in electronic and printed form. As this is...

Deadline: August 18th, 2019 Payment: 8 cents/6 pence for new work, and continue to pay 6 cents/4 pence for reprints A Dying Planet: Resources running low, the population exploding, the planet is in danger: are we masters of our own destruction, or have we been invaded by aliens bent on mass extinction? Is this a pattern across the entire universe, or just our small sector of cosmic life? New stories needed to explore themes of a dying planet. Formal Call for Submissions (2019) We are looking for new and recent short stories. We do not require exclusivity. You hold copyright, licensing us just for this publication. We don’t mind if your story has been previously published online or in print (though we do need to know publication and date). Simultaneous submissions are fine, but you must have the right to license your story in an anthology. Word length is most likely to be successful at 2000–4000, but we will still read stories slightly outside this range.  Submit stories for 'Detective Thrillers' and 'A Dying Planet' by email to [email protected] Fees, Copyright and Other Terms From these two titles onwards, we will pay 8 cents/6 pence for new work, and continue to pay 6 cents/4 pence for reprints. This will bring us into line with the new qualifying rates for SWFA. We would prefer to pay 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...

Deadline: August 18th, 2019 Payment: 8 cents/6 pence for new work, and continue to pay 6 cents/4 pence for reprints Detective Thrillers: The thrill of the chase, the steely-eyed detective (either gentle or hard-boiled), the dark alleys and the double-cross, the unsolvable crime by a masterful criminal mind: we're looking for chills and double twists, unexpected turns and private investigators with an eye for the unusual. Formal Call for Submissions (2019) We are looking for new and recent short stories. We do not require exclusivity. You hold copyright, licensing us just for this publication. We don’t mind if your story has been previously published online or in print (though we do need to know publication and date). Simultaneous submissions are fine, but you must have the right to license your story in an anthology. Word length is most likely to be successful at 2000–4000, but we will still read stories slightly outside this range.  Submit stories for 'Detective Thrillers' and 'A Dying Planet' by email to [email protected] Fees, Copyright and Other Terms From these two titles onwards, we will pay 8 cents/6 pence for new work, and continue to pay 6 cents/4 pence for reprints. This will bring us into line with the new qualifying rates for SWFA. We would prefer to pay 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...