Events

Deadline: February 10th, 2020 Payment: Royalties Theme: Classic trickster trope: have them fearlessly playing pranks on the powerful – not picking on the weak.   If you get them in deep trouble, get them out before the end of the story. It’s finally time! We’ve been looking forward to this since the very first Grumpy Old Gods.  We’re inviting you to submit your trickster stories. That’s right. We’re gearing up for Grumpy Old Trickster Gods (to be released April 1st). Send us your best tales of conniving tricksters that are past their glory days, tricksters that find their mojo again after being retired.   We want to see the classic trickster trope: have them fearlessly playing pranks on the powerful – not picking on the weak.   If you get them in deep trouble, get them out before the end of the story. We want the readers to finish each story with a grin. Trickster myths are all about the canny and clever winning.  We want stories where they defend the less powerful from those who are in power: have them take on the IRS, the local homeowners association, a diamond smuggling ring, or Zeus when he’s being rapey. In many cultures, tricksters are generally male, but we’re equal-opportunity editors, so we’ll take tricksters in any form they come in, though we’d prefer most of the stories to keep the trickster in human form for at least part of the story, because it works better with the modern setting we’re asking for. Trickster Gods In April Call for Submissions V7 Stories need to be 3000-4000 words and include a Grumpy Trickster God – preferably one that’s coming out of retirement, or planning to retire (though he’s not required to actually retire; the world needs the tricksters today more than ever). We try to only use...

Deadline: February 14th, 2020 Payment: Royalties VOLUME ONE: THE ONCE AND FUTURE KINGDOM Theme: Camelot. King Arthur. Merlin the magician. Knights in shining armor. It's one of the most frequently told stories in the history of Western civilization... But we haven't heard YOUR story yet. Tell us your tale of Camelot, Avalon, the Once and Future King, any of the Knights of the Round Table or their ladies (faithful or otherwise). Genre: Fantasy and all of its subgenera - as light or as dark as you want to go Heat level: PG to R; if there are enough submissions, we will do a volume of Camelot-related erotica. Length: 5,000 - 10,000 words NO TV OR FILM RELATED STORIES - THIS IS NOT A FAN FIC COLLECTION DEADLINE: 2/14/20 PUBLICATION DATE: 3/17/20 IRISH HORSE ANTHOLOGIES is a small publisher specializing in themed anthologies. We will accept submissions according to the theme of each anthology. Submissions should be provided electronically to our email or via private message on Facebook. Submission guidelines: 12 pt. Times New Roman 1.5 line spacing Indent 0.5" All submissions should at a minimum be proofread and spell checked before being sent. NO simultaneous submissions. NO buy-in ever. word length 5k-10k Royalty structure: 40/60. Publisher retains 40% to recoup editing and cover art costs. 60% will be split evenly between the authors. Via: Irish Horse Productions' Facebook.

Deadline: February 15th, 2020 Payment: Equal royalty split per story. Submissions Open: Now Submissions Close: February 15, 2020 12:00 a.m. EST Publishing timeline: April 2020 Style: Dark Specualtive Fiction/Horror Theme: Give me your tales of monsters in the woods, urban legends, a family that mysteriously goes missing, a haunted cabin, a hiker that stumbles upon something unthinkable. Anything that happens in the woods or is from the woods is welcome. ​ Word count: 1000 - 4000 (hard limits) ​ Compensation: Equal royalty split per story. PDF digital copy. ​ How to submit: See our Submission Format guide below - stories will be rejected or sent back. ​ Send your story as an attachment in Word format to  [email protected] Your email title should be read: "Submission: Forest Anthology - Story Name - Author name" ​ Multiple Submission: Yes - Please send no more than five. Up to three acceptances. Must be sent in a separate email. What is speculative fiction? Think paranormal or anything that cannot be rationalized. Here is a better description. Things that are a hard pass: any animal erotica, rape or unnecessary violence. Via: Eerie River Publishing.

Deadline: February 15th, 2020 Payment: $5 USD Theme: "Most" Speculative fiction, read below for specifics. Note: Open only for women-identified authors. Submissions for Luna Station Quarterly close on February 15th. 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...

Deadline: February 16th, 2020 Payment: 04 per word for original work, $0.01 per word for reprints, and a contributors copy Theme: Fairytale related-stories based on non-mainstream characters Note: Reprints welcome Inverted Fairy Tales & Folklore (Title Pending) We’ve all heard the stories of Little Red Riding Hood, Sleeping Beauty, the Princess and the Pea, and other faithful classics. We're sure that more than a few are familiar with the mythology of ancient Greece, Egypt, and others. Great! That’s NOT what we're looking for, with a few exceptions. ​ We're looking for folklore, mythology, or fairy tales from other places, and fantasy stories that invoke these. Have a story about Baba Yaga? Toss it over here. One about Raw Head and Blood Bones? Sure, would love to see it! We want tales that have been lost to time, but we want you to twist it into being your own story. Give us something new and imaginative! What we DO NOT want: Explicit Gore – You’ll have a much better shot at being selected if we can make it through your story without feeling physically ill. Horror without explicit gore is more than fine. Explicit Sex/Erotica – Not that kind of anthology. Romance or alluded intimacy among characters is fine, but nothing that would require us to use a brown paper covering. The intended audience for this is 14+, so if you wouldn't feel comfortable with a 14-year-old reading the story, don't send it in. "Zipperbacks" (meaning characters that are animal-people, and the fact that they are part animal has no significance to the story) – Some examples of what you can do to avoid having "zipperbacks": if your story has wolves in it and they don’t engage in canine behavior (the occasional scratching, boundless energy, a fixation on scents, etc), then...

Deadline: February 21st, 2020 Payment: $5 for anything under 5000 words. $10 for anything over 5000 words. Theme: Ghost stories! 'Nuff said Note: Reprints Welcome For this anthology, we’re looking for the best of the best ghost stories. The kind you tell around a crackling campfire holding back the darkness surrounding you. The kind that stick with you as you make the dark trek to your car through an empty parking garage. The kind that make you sit wide eyed in the middle of the night because the rhythmic tapping from the other room is just a little too inconsistent and, somewhere deep down, you’re sure it’s getting closer.  Give us new and exciting takes on old tropes, give us original horror, give us classic ghost stories told expertly, give us comedic stories of spirits that are more a nuisance than a threat. We’re hoping to make this anthology larger than our first two so there’s plenty of room for all types of stories in this one, as long as they're about ghosts.   Anthology Title: TBD Word Count: 2,000 - 7,500. A little over or under is fine. Payment: $5 for anything under 5000 words.                  $10 for anything over 5000 words. Authors will have the opportunity to purchase an author copy at print cost plus shipping after release. Submission Deadline: 2/21/2020 Multiple submissions welcome.  Reprints will be considered.  Important Bits: Please send all submissions as a .docx or .rtf attachment with the subject line of your email as: DBND - Ghost Stories - Story Title  If you email is not titled this way it may end up in the wrong folder and go unread. Stories sent after the submission deadline will be rejected unread. Don't sit on your submission! If we reach the word count for the anthology, we will close submissions...

Deadline: February 22nd, 2020 Payment: 8 cents per word Silk & Steel: An Adventure Anthology of Queer Ladies Edited by Janine A. Southard Submissions due: February 22, 2020. Princess and swordswoman. Scholar and mecha pilot. Warrior women… and the courtly ladies who love them. The Silk and Steel anthology was initially inspired by artwork from Al Norton (see below). She’s put so much tension into these characters! Yet, among all that edginess and conflict, there are also romantic feelings… and a definite sense that both women have the upper hand. We’re looking for stories of high adventure that feature one weapon-wielding woman and one woman whose strengths lie in softer skills, but who is just as powerful in her own right. You’re free to choose any setting – from historical to modern to wildly futuristic. You can expect to share a Table of Contents with distinguished authors such as: Ellen Kushner, Aliette de Bodard, Amal El-Mohtar, Arkady Martine, Claire Bartlett, Django Wexler, Freya Marske, Jennifer Mace, JY Yang, K.A. Doore, Kelly Robson, Nibedita Sen, and Yoon Ha Lee. Editor’s Note: I’m looking for all speculative genres except straight-up erotica or hard-core horror. (We’re aiming this anthology at general audiences, after all. Erotic and horror elements within your story’s context are definitely okay! But if they’re the thrust of the story, then you’ve gone off genre.) I think the idea lends itself well to swashbuckling romance and operatic comedy, but it’s really up to you. Other Inclusions: Yes! I would love to see trans women, bi, pan, and ace characters. Art by Al Norton (and used with her permission) How to submit: Send your story in .doc, .docx, or .rtf format to Janine A. Southard at [email protected] Note about conflict: Yes, this is an f/f anthology, but that doesn’t mean your women need to be fighting against homophobia! While this is...

Deadline: February 24th, 2020 Payment: $25 Theme: Your work MUST also contain elements of the natural world. (Not fans of genre heavy work.) NOW ACCEPTING SUBMISSIONS THROUGH FEBRUARY 24TH FOR ISSUE FOUR: EQUINOX Theme: STRIPES We look forward to surprising and evocative interpretations of this theme!   NEW: Submissions are now initially read BLIND. Please do not include your name anywhere in your uploaded file. WHAT Please familiarize yourself with Claw & Blossom’s About page to get an idea of the type of work we seek. (For instance: your work MUST contain elements of the natural world.) For more detailed information on our submission hopes-and-dreams, it’s also a good idea to check out our interview at the Six Questions blog. For POEMS, send one poem per submission. We are partial to free verse and NOT keen on publishing traditional forms (haiku, haibun, sonnet, rhymed couplets, etc.). For PROSE, send up to 1,000 words. This can be one piece or linked micros. Feel free to send what moves you, but it’s safe to say we are not big fans of gore/thriller/slasher stories, or romance/erotica. Genre work that comes our way will probably be a tough sell. We do not consider multiple submissions. We ask that you wait for a response before submitting a new piece. We do not consider unsolicited submissions of previously-published work. We encourage simultaneous submissions. Should your work be accepted elsewhere while under consideration with Claw & Blossom, please withdraw the piece from us as soon as possible by using the Withdraw option in Submittable. There is no submission fee. We pay $25 USD per acceptance upon publication via PayPal. (Linked micros are considered one acceptance.) WHITHER By submitting your work to Claw & Blossom for consideration, it is understood that you understand and accept the following terms: That you have actually read our About page, as well as perused some earlier Issues, so that you are not sending...

Deadline: February 25th, 2020 Payment: $3 Theme: Ideas: Spring Break, International Women's Day, Purim, Daylight Savings, Ides of March, St. Patrick's Day, first day of spring (Vernal Equinox), Feast of the Annunciation We are looking for some suitable stories for March 2020, including: Spring Break International Women's Day Purim Daylight Savings Ides of March St. Patrick's Day first day of spring (Vernal Equinox) Feast of the Annunciation The deadline for these stories is February 25, 2020, at the end of the day (11:59 PM Pacific Time). Writing Guidelines Every Day Fiction is looking for very short (flash) fiction, of up to  1000 words. There’s no such thing as too short — if you can do the job in 50 words, have at it! — but our readers prefer pieces that tell or at  least hint at a complete story (some sort of action or tension rising  to a moment of climax, and at least a clue toward a resolution, though  it doesn’t have to be all spelled out). All fiction genres are acceptable, and stories that don’t fit neatly into any genre are welcome too. While personal experiences and other  non-fiction can be great sources of inspiration, please turn them into  fiction for us, or send them elsewhere. Our readership is adult, so children’s stories are unlikely to be accepted unless they are relevant to adults as well. On the other hand, we are not impressed by gratuitous sex and violence, or pointlessly foul  language; edgy content should be necessary and appropriate to the plot  and characters. It ought to go without saying that any story submitted to Every Day Fiction must be your own unpublished original creation. If  you publish a story on a blog, even your own personal blog, or any  website accessible to the general public (i.e., if the...

Deadline: February 28th, 2020 Payment: $5 Trigger Warning is our annual celebration of upsetting stories. Each year we choose a theme and ask for your grossest, most violent , most genuinely upsetting stories in your arsenal. For 2020, our theme is psychosis, specifically we want the most horrendous hallucinations driving the most terrible actions. Stories of the things only the mad can see. Give us the decline of the upstanding member of society into something changed, different and monstrous. Bring our own anxiety to life and make us wonder if the thing we see out of the corner of our eye is real, just the first stages of the end. We will not accept any stories about rape. Racism/Sexism/Bigotry of any form will never be accepted here. Minimum word count is 1500. Double check your grammar and spelling. Format your story correctly. Please submit all stories in DOC/RTF format. We prefer stories that have not been published before. We prefer to avoid multiple and simultaneous submissions. We retain exclusive publishing rights for 12 months. We pay $5.00 for stories Acceptance/Rejection letters will be sent out once submissions are closed. Submissions Will Be Closed Once Enough Stories Are Accepted or On 2/28/20 Via: Madness Heart Press.