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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.

Deadline: February 28th, 2020 Payment: $10 per flash, $1 per drabble Theme: Weird fiction where the setting is a carnival, theme park, circus or fair/festival Now Issuing a Call for Submissions for the theme of SuperFreak—Freakpunk Issue 2. Freakpunk is a genre I named that encompasses weird fiction where the setting is a carnival, theme park, circus or fair/festival. That's kind of broad, I know, but I'd like to give the writers options when crafting their tales. Clowns can be part of the story, but they don't have to be. A creepy carny is just as good. Can there by a science fiction or dark fantasy freakpunk story. Hell yes! To get a good idea of what Freakpunk is, read some of the stories in the first Freakpunk issue: Issue 13: Come One, Come All! To the Southern Fried Freak Show! Send flash stories less than 1500 words and more than 700 words (any more or any less and your submission will be rejected). Flash will pay $10 upon acceptance, with first rights. Send drabbles of 100 words (exactly, not counting title). Drabbles will pay $1 No double or triple drabbles this time around. Only looking for 3-5 flash stories and 2-3 drabbles. No reprints on this one. Submission Deadline is February 28th, 2020, launch to be April or May 1st 2020 Submissions may cut off prior to this date as the submission manager only gives us 100 submissions per month. If your submission bounces back, check this page to see if the call has been closed. Be sure to read the guidelines before you submit. Via: The Were-Traveler.

Deadline: February 28th, 2020 Payment: $10 Theme: We’re looking for speculative literary poems that touch the heart as much as the head; poems of the liminal, the fluid, and the fantastic. In anthropological terms, liminality is the midpoint of a ritual: the threshold where a person is no longer quite who they were, not yet who they might become. In between masks, what face might you have? What might you be in transit? Where will you go? Everything is possible in that moment; change is its own goal. Liminality is the space between. Liminality is an online quarterly magazine of speculative poetry edited by Shira Lipkin (co-founded and co-edited through our third year by Mattie Joiner). We are very pleased to meet you. We’re looking for speculative literary poems that touch the heart as much as the head; poems of the liminal, the fluid, and the fantastic. We’d love to see work that shifts shape, refuses to be to be easily pinned down or categorised. We actively welcome diversity; we want to hear new as well as established voices. Tell us tales we thought we knew, the way only you can tell them. Give us new myths. Liminality pays $10 per poem, for first worldwide publication rights and non-exclusive anthology rights. We will be open: January 1-February 28 April 1 – May 31 July 1 – August 31 To submit, send up to five poems to liminalitypoetry AT gmail.com with the subject line “SUBMISSION – ”. Please include your poems in the body of the e-mail; if you have formatting that makes that untenable, you may attach the poem as an .rtf. You may send up to five poems per reading period. We do not accept reprints or simultaneous submissions. (If the poem has been publicly viewable online, yes, it would be a reprint.)  “Dear Editor”, “Dear Shira”, and “Dear Mx. Lipkin” are...

Deadline: February 28th, 2020 Payment: $.01/word Theme: We publish an annual anthology of the best vegan science fiction and fantasy of the year. We are open for submissions in the winter of every year. Note: Reprints Only! We publish an annual anthology of the best vegan science fiction and fantasy of the year. We are open for submissions in the winter of every year. What ‘vegan’ means here: We’re looking for stories happen to be vegan – no meat, no hunting, no horse-riding, no leather. Stories don’t have to be about veganism (though we don’t mind that). Still not sure? Here’s one definition of veganism: https://www.vegansociety.com/try-vegan/definition-veganism Formal requirements: Vegan – Stories must be entirely vegan, and they must have been vegan when originally published. Reprints – We’re only looking for stories that were published in the previous year. Length – 1,000 – 8,000 words Venue – We’re restricting eligibility to stories originally published in venues that paid $.01/word or more. Original form – The stories must be presented as originally published, except for correction of typographic errors and similar minor corrections. Again, we don’t want stories that have been ‘veganized’ for this anthology. Simultaneous: Yes. Simultaneous submissions are fine. We’re buying non-exclusive rights. Sell your story as often as you can. Multiple: You may submit a total of two stories. Choose your best. Format Follow the industry standard format defined by William Shunn. He has templates available, or you can use ours. We prefer a proportional, serif font like Cambria or Caladea. Use italics for emphasis, not underlining. Use smart/curly quotes. Use em dashes, not double hyphens. Your story should be in one of the following file formats: ODT, DOC, DOCX. If you’re submitting an ODT, please add a few blank lines at the bottom. Otherwise Submittable’s presentation manager will cut off the last line of your story. Pay We pay $.01/word for non-exclusive...

Deadline: February 28th, 2020 Payment: $0.03 per word, minimum of $30.00 dollars for short stories. $30 per poem Theme: Transfiguration Note: This call doesn't officially open until the 15th but is going live early due to the short submission window Apparition Lit is open for poetry and short story submissions four times a year. February 15-28 May 15-31 August 15-31 November 15-30 Submissions received outside of posted open dates will be deleted unread. Our themes for 2020 will be: Experimentation (Submission period November 15-30, 2019 CLOSED, Published January 2020) Transfiguration (Submission period February 15-28, 2020, CLOSED Published April 2020) Redemption (Submission period May 15-31, 2020, CLOSED Published July 2020) Satisfaction (Submission period August 15-31, 2020, CLOSED Publishing October 2020) Our previous themes for 2019: Resistance (Published January 2019) – Ambition (Published April 2019) – Retribution (Published July 2019) – Euphoria (Published October 2019) for 2018: Apparition (Published January 2018) – Delusion (Published April 2018) – Vision (Published July 2018) – Diversion (Published October 2018) Apparition Lit also holds monthly flash fiction contests. These stories will follow selected themes and be published online. For more information on themes and submission guidelines, please see the flash fiction drop down below. PAYMENT: Apparition is a semi-pro rate magazine, paying $0.03 per word, minimum of $30.00 dollars for short stories (excluding flash contest. See details in the Flash Fiction dropdown for flash rates) and a flat fee of $30 per poem. If we accept your story, we are purchasing the right to publish the story online and in the quarterly edition. Rights will revert back to the artist after one year. WHAT WE’RE LOOKING FOR: (Click on the sections to see detailed guidelines for each classification.) SHORT FICTION SHORT FICTION: We will only accept stories between 1000-5000 words. If the story is complete with an extra hundred words, then it will still be considered. Any stories over 5,100 words, or incorrectly formatted, will automatically be rejected. PAYMENT: Apparition is a semi-pro magazine, paying $0.03 per word, minimum of 30.00 dollars...

Deadline: February 28th, 2020 Payment: A contributors copy and: £50 for original work, £20 for reprints. Theme: An upcoming mass extinction. Note: Reprints Welcome The next Midnight Street Anthology (#4) will be published in the New Year. The submissions window will close on 28th February 2020. WHAT I WANT: The world is in a mess. It seems that from a human perspective, we’re pretty well screwed. Is that TRUE? Maybe the generation that comes after ours will be able to save the planet for human habitation. Who knows? It seems that this generation has pretty well messed up everything that would ensure the long-term survival of humanity. Why is that? Greed, political imperatives, narrow- minded thinking, poverty, ignorance. There are many reasons. It remains true that we are experiencing very strange days. There’s a mass extinction happening and it may well include our species. What do you think? Can you come up with an original story that reflects this approaching catastrophe? I’m looking for stories – sci-fi, horror, slipstream, weird – that reflect the strange times we are living in and that sum up the precariousness of modern existence. WHAT I DON'T WANT: Badly written and constructed stories. To me, spelling and grammar are important. That doesn’t mean you can’t push the boundaries, but remember that you have to know the rules before you can break them. Slasherfests that rely on violence and cliché to propel the stories. Poor, badly constructed characterisation whose only function is to drive the plot towards an unconvincing, or contrived conclusion. Waffle that bears no relationship to the plot, but only serves to slow down or unnecessarily bulk out the story. Excessive strong language that does not help to shape characters or events. If it’s necessary & appropriate: no problem. RESEARCH: As part of your research, read...