Events

Taking Submissions: Furward Slash: A Furry Adult Techno-Horror Anthology

Deadline: November 30th, 2021 Payment: $10 USD per story Theme: Furries and technology cast in a 'bad' light (details below) Deadline: November 30, 2021 Payment: $10 USD per story Editor: Reinardo Villalobos Word count: 2,500-8,000; a little above and a little below will be acceptable. ​ Isaac Asimov once famously stated, "I do not fear computers. I fear the lack of them." Yet, this exact fear, fear of technology, has been a big staple in the news and in the media ever since. 2001: A Space Odyssey. I Have No Mouth and I Must Scream. The Fly. Black Mirror. Even anime like Sword Art Online talk about the perils that may come from new technology, or from the right technology falling into the wrong hands. The idea is that each story focuses on one or two pieces of technology, their uses or misuses, and the consequences arising from that. A cybernetic genital implant could provide a deadly experience to its users. A deal on the dark web could go wrong for an unsuspecting wolf. An old camera could capture images coming out of this world. A malevolent AI could torment a couple by hacking their Bad Dragon toys.  A Furby could...exist. ​ We will take preference for stories that showcase both furry and their selected technology (currently existing or otherwise) in the front and center, and not just something to throw aside as soon as the main plot starts. Moreso if they find a way to integrate both elements together in unique ways. ​ Things we will NOT accept: ​ Racism, sexism, or discrimination presented in a positive light. Pedophilia or ex with characters under the age of 18 presented in a positive light. Rape, torture, dubious consent, forced seduction presented in a positive light. Snuff, necrophilia presented in a positive light ​​ If you are in...

Taking Submissions: The F*ckening

Deadline: November 30th, 2021 Payment: $10 Theme: When your day is going too well and you don’t trust it and some shit finally goes down. Ah, there it is: The F*ckening. Because we don’t have enough to do, the SFL team has decided to open submissions to a new stand-alone anthology—The F*ckening. We’ve all seen the memes about “The F*ckening”—when your day is going too well and you don’t trust it and some shit finally goes down. Ah, there it is: The F*ckening. We were inspired by this sentiment and thus have heeded the call to create an anthology that embodies The F*ckening. SFL is looking for funny, speculative fiction short stories and poetry that embody The F*ckening. All stories must be science fiction, fantasy, horror, or a combination of the three. These stories can be witty, goofy, dark, sarcastic…whatever, we don’t care, as long as they are speculative fiction and contain a reference to The F*ckening and maintain a general theme of f*ckery. We know that some of you are going to be tempted to shoehorn a reference to The F*ckening into an existing piece; we won’t tell you not to do that. However: please don’t send us something that is obviously not within the theme where you changed two sentences just to get it in on a technicality. Our word limit is 7500 words. We have no problem with simultaneous submissions as long as you tell us as soon as your submission is accepted elsewhere. Two submissions maximum per person. We pay $10 for six-month exclusive print rights, and non-exclusive print rights thereafter. You own your work, and can submit elsewhere six months after the anthology is released. Submissions will be open until November 30, 2021, or we just receive too many words. The planned release date will be May 2022....

Taking Submissions: Stories of the Eye (Early)

Submission Window: November 1st, 2021, to November 30th, 2021. Payment: $0.02 per word plus a physical copy upon publication Theme: Horror stories that explore the complex relationships between artists and models. We didn’t know if we’d do it again, but Weirdpunk is finally publishing a new anthology with an open call. Stories of the Eye will be edited by Sam Richard (Sabbath of the Fox-Devils, Wonderland Award-Winning To Wallow in Ash & Other Sorrows) and Joanna Koch (The Wingspan of Severed Hands, Shirley Jackson Award-Nominated The Couvade). It will be published in 2022. Read on for info. Weirdpunk Books is seeking horror stories that explore the complex relationships between artists and models. Go beyond the male gaze. Show us the queer gaze, the disabled gaze, the un-colonialized gaze, the intergalactic gaze. Turn the model's gaze on the artist or audience. Explore the power of images, why we bring them to life or destroy them through duplication and representation, and how the act of creating changes them and changes us. Invent a future art form or resurrect a forgotten handicraft. Define "model" as widely and surprisingly as you like: people, objects, trees, oceans, ideas. Examine obsession, violence, commitment, love, or indifference. Give us a botanical illustrator on an unknown planet, a modern-day Gericault shipwrecked in a studio with body parts becoming medical waste, a necromancing choreographer, or a performance artist looking for that one special element to transcend reality in a final postmodernist feat of madness. **Given the title of the anthology, we’re seeing a lot of folks talk about eyeball stories. This anthology is not about eyeball horror. Please fully read the submission guidelines to see what we are looking for, which is not—I repeat, not—horror stories about eyeballs. Additionally, the Bataille reference is intentional as we’re both fans, but...

Taking Submissions: The Other Stories #75: Surgery II

The Other Stories

Deadline: December 1st, 2021 Payment: 15GBP Theme: Surgery 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. (Vol 75.) Surgery II; deadline 1st December 2021 !!!NEW SUBMISSION PROCESS!!! SUBMIT YOUR STORIES USING THIS FORM If, this form isn’t working, then please email your submission to [email protected] as a last resort. But please let us know why as we’re hoping to use the form going forward. Title your email with the following syntax: SUBMISSION | STORY TITLE | THEME | WORDCOUNT (e.g. SUBMISSION | THE MARTIAN | SPACE | 1,982) It is important that your story complies with our Submission Guidelines. Any stories found not to be in compliance will be immediately discarded. Click HERE for details 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 • Include a 1-2 sentence log line for your story at the end of the document • Ensure that your name and an email address are somewhere on the document • Stories must fit an upcoming theme • By submitting your story to us, you...

Taking Submissions: Untitled “Bloody Rock” Anthology

Deadline: December 1st, 2021 Payment: $.03 per word Theme: Stories to draw inspiration from the terrifying tunes of the 1950s, 60s, and 70s Scary Diary Press is accepting submissions from 01 August 2021 to 01 December 2021 for an anthology that has gutsy strings attached! But don’t fret! Are you a horror writer and a music lover? Does the rock of the 50’s, 60’s and 70’s take you back to the nightmares of yore? If you can brew a scary tale that Alice Cooper and the Dead would love, we just might love it too! Submission Guidelines: Scary Dairy Press is seeking short story submissions between 2,000 and 5,000 words max for an anthology that combines a rock song theme and creepy horror into a tale that rocks readers to their bones! Anthology title pending the kinds of stories submitted and selected. For now, “Bloody Rock” is a placeholder. This ear-bursting anthology draws inspiration from the terrifying tunes of the 1950s, 60s, and 70s. Stories need not use the song title as the story title. Stories must not use the original song lyrics, however the song inspiring the tale should be clear. We are looking for stories that channel deathly waves on the air! Bonus points if tales champion animals or animal rights (animals can be our heroes!), focus on human rights, climate change, gender issues, and other important social issues. Any tale that combines terrifying tunes and creepy tales is welcome as long as we can pick it up, play it and shiver! What we want: Stories for this horror anthology may include additional elements of dark fiction, dark fantasy, speculative fiction, sci-fi or bizarro as long as horror is the primary venue. Your story may occur in any time, place or space. Mix it up, but make it...

Taking Submissions: Horror Tales of Rock Music!

Deadline: December 1st, 2021 Payment: $.03 per word Theme: Bloody Rock Anthology Scary Diary Press is accepting submissions from 01 August 2021 to 01 December 2021 for an anthology that has gutsy strings attached! But don’t fret! Are you a horror writer and a music lover? Does the rock of the 50’s, 60’s and 70’s take you back to the nightmares of yore? If you can brew a scary tale that Alice Cooper and the Dead would love, we just might love it too! Submission Guidelines: Scary Dairy Press is seeking short story submissions between 2,000 and 5,000 words max for an anthology that combines a rock song theme and creepy horror into a tale that rocks readers to their bones! Anthology title pending the kinds of stories submitted and selected.   For now, “Bloody Rock” is a placeholder. This ear-bursting anthology draws inspiration from the terrifying tunes of the 1950s, 60s, and 70s. Stories need not use the song title as the story title. Stories must not use the original song lyrics, however the song inspiring the tale should be clear. We are looking for stories that channel deathly waves on the air! Bonus points if tales champion animals or animal rights (animals can be our heroes!), focus on human rights, climate change, gender issues, and other important social issues. Any story that combines a terrifying tune and a creepy tale is welcome as long as we can pick it up, play it and shiver! What we want: Stories for this horror anthology may include additional elements of dark fiction, dark fantasy, speculative fiction, sci-fi or bizarro as long as horror is the primary venue. Your story may occur in any time, place or space. Mix it up, but make it thought provoking and disturbing to the human conscience....

Taking Submissions: The Quiet Ones February 2022

Deadline: December 1st, 2022 Payment: $25 Theme: True Love Never Dies We are presently accepting original work for our February 2022 issue. Short Stories up to 3,000 words Flash and Micro Fiction up to 1,000 words Poetry Author Compensation: $25.00 (USD) per piece Rights: We request first worldwide and digital rights for four months following publication. Thereafter all rights revert to the author. All copyright remains with the author. Feb 22 Theme: True Love Never Dies Publication: Digital Formats Deadline: December 1, 2022 Guidelines For all open calls, submit your work by email to [email protected] with the subject line formatted as such: “ ” (ex.“October 2021 – The Sinkhole – David Fey – Adult”). Please submit your work as an email attachment in .doc/.docx format. Authors may submit up to three pieces per issue. We request that each piece be submitted via its own individual email. You are welcomed to interpret each issue’s theme however you like. Ensure your document contains your story title, your name (or pen name), and an approximate word count. In the event that your story is selected for publication, we will need your legal name for the contract. Please include a header on each page of your document with your surname, title and page number. Your document should be formatted in Times New Roman, 12pt., with double line spacing and indented paragraphs. We do NOT accept simultaneous submissions. In case of acceptance, please also include a brief biography in the third person of approximately 75 words, a high-resolution headshot (optional), and any personal social media links (such as a Twitter or personal website) that you’d like to share. For a more detailed look at classic manuscript formatting, please refer to this article by WILLIAM SHUNN. Via: We Are The Quiet Ones.

Taking Submissions: Freeze Frame Fiction 2021 Final Call

Deadline: December 1st, 2021 Payment: $10 Theme: A complete story in any genre FREEZE FRAME FICTION IS BACK! We are once again accepting flash fiction submissions. Please stay tuned and keep an eye on our social media for updates. For more information about what we want and expect, see our editor’s interviews with Jim Harrington at Six Questions For… and on Duotrope (visible to non-members). Also, take a look at 5 Tips for Writing Twist Endings at Flash Fiction Chronicles. What are we looking for? Good flash fiction is like a freeze frame—a snapshot of a real story about real characters. The word count is low, so many of the details are left to the reader to fill in, but they’re there. Flash fiction is neither a vignette nor a character sketch. Something must happen, and there must be an ending, whether explicit or implied. So first and foremost, we want a story. A complete, interesting story. 1000 words or less, any genre, no content restrictions. We want your science fiction, fantasy, horror, mystery, drama, literary works, satire, bizarre fiction, or anything else you can come up with or mix together. The more original, the better. The weirder, the better. The best way to find out what we’re looking for is to read what we’ve already published! Check out our current volume, free to read at https://freezeframefiction.com/. What are we NOT looking for? We are 100% okay with explicit content, so long as it serves a purpose to the story and/or characters. Profanity for the sake of profanity—or the same thing for sex, violence, or gore—does not impress us. Also, animal cruelty. Please just send that somewhere else. We do not publish fan-fiction, i.e., stories based in worlds or using characters created by other authors. All content must be original. The following things might be accepted, but will be a very hard...

Taking Submissions: Contrary Winter 2021 Issue

Deadline: December 1st, 2021 Payment: $20 Theme: We ask our fiction writers to imagine their readers navigating a story with one finger poised over a mouse button. Can your story stay that finger to the end? “Turning words into art is unnatural. It begins with a contrary attitude. It says, I am unhappy with the way things are and desire to make things different. Rather than represent the world, I will make something wildly and savagely new. I will defy logic. I will invest in new perceptions. I will combine and recombine and fabricate and juggle until something that I have never experienced is experienced. The process is alchemical. The process is violent. It goes to the heart of creativity. It disrupts and shatters. It is splendid with provocation. It is an aggression against banality. It is sharp and loud like a janitor scraping frost from a window. The hectic bounce of steam on a street after a truck roars by. The anarchy of waters, the comedy of the face, dangerous feelings vented from a cage of skin.” ~ John Olson Poetry — We believe poetry is contrary by nature, always defying, always tonguing the tang of novelty. We look especially for plurality of meaning, for dual reverberation of beauty and concern. Contrary’s poetry in particular often mimics the effects of fiction or commentary. We find ourselves enamored of prose poems because they are naturally contrary toward form – they tug on the forces of exposition or narrative – but prose poems remain the minority of all the poetic forms we publish. Please consider that Contrary receives vast amounts of poetry and that we can publish only a small percentage of that work. Please submit no more than three poems per issue. Our poetry editor is Shaindel Beers. Fiction — We ask our fiction writers to imagine...

Taking Submissions: Archive of the Odd #1

Deadline: December 1st, 2021 Payment: $15.00 for 500-1999 words, $20.00 for 2000-4999 words, $25.00 for 5000+ words Theme: Speculative, horror preferred but not needed, Stories can be in any format except traditional prose A home for the strange, the uncanny, and the odd. Open Submissions Issue #1 (Oct 1- Dec 1 2021) Rules Prose: for the most part, the rules are simple. There is, however, a lot of them. Stories can be in any format except traditional prose. Stories told in forum messages? Great! Police blotters? Excellent! Receipts? If you can swing that, we want to see it! More weight will be given to new and unusual formats. Part of that is the sake of novelty, part of that is just because we don’t want five epistolary stories in one issue. Submissions do not have to rely entirely on text! If you would like to submit something in the form of a webpage that has considerable html/CSS going on, just make sure it’s in pdf form when you submit it. We still pay by word, but mixed media pieces are wholly welcome. All work must be speculative, horror being preferred. We’d like a variety of time periods but won’t judge against you for being set in the present or near present. Story lengths between 500-7500 words are accepted. You can haggle a bit on either end, but drabbles and novellas aren’t an option. (However, if you have a story you want to serialize, please query at [email protected].) Payments for writing are as follows: $15.00 for 500-1999 words $20.00 for 2000-4999 words $25.00 for 5000+ words After initial funds are recouped, contributors receive an equal split of 50% of royalties- the rest will be used to improve the zine for future issues, including increasing payment rates for authors. We understand that this isn’t...