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Deadline: April 30th, 2022 Payment: $.01 per word Theme: Unstoppable killers of the slasher variety. Call for submissions! Fedowar Press is opening submissions for a Horror/Slasher Anthology. This is a tribute to the glorious slasher movies of the 1980s. We want the unstoppable killers, the claustrophobic sense of no escape, and of course, the blood. This anthology is expected to release in late 2022. Submissions will be accepted until April 30, 2022. Details Suggested Length: Between 7.5k and 15k words Genre: Horror, but other speculative genres may be added. For example Horror/SciFi, Horror/Fantasy, Region: Can take place anywhere in the world Period: Any period, present, past, future Qualifying submissions must have never been published. Pay and Exclusivity Participating authors will be paid $.01 per word. This equates to $100 for a 10k word story, or $10 per 1k words. Participating authors will grant Fedowar Press exclusive rights to the work for 1 year after publication. How to submit? Use our Submission form with the subject “Slasher” in the Submission Type field. Tell us a little bit about yourself in your query letter. For example: Have we met? Remind us. Do you have any writing credits? What is your social media info? Do you like dogs? Include your genres, word count Attach your story to the form. Make sure it is in standard manuscript format. Stories will be reviewed after the close of the submission window. Please allow up to six weeks after the submission window closes for a response. After that, If you haven’t received a response, feel free to check-in for an update. Via: Fedowar Press.

Deadline: April 30th, 2022 Payment: Contributor's copy Theme: New material inspired by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's work (Sherlock Holmes AND not.) Steel True, Blade Straight The Belanger Books Anthology of Sherlock Holmes and Sir Arthur Conan Doyle Inspired Stories, Poems, and Scholarship 2022 Annual Description: This anthology will have stories, poems, and scholarship inspired by and about Sir Arthur Conan Doyle and Sherlock Holmes. While the anthology will contain new Sherlock Holmes stories, the intent would be for at least 25% of the material to be stories and poems inspired by the life and non-Sherlockian writing of Sir Arthur. Another 25% of material would be scholarship on Holmes and Doyle. All proceeds from the Anthology will be donated to The Beacon Society, a 501c(3) nonprofit scion society of The Baker Street Irregulars (BSI), that serves as a link to other scion societies, providing teachers, librarians, children museums, and children theaters with local resources to bring the magic of Sherlock Holmes to life. Guidelines: Stories - 3,000 - 10,000 word submissions that connect to the writing of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. These can be Sherlock Holmes stories, or stories connected to Sir Arthur’s additional writings (far too many to list here). Poems - format and length are open. The poetry submission would have to somehow connect to the life or work of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. Scholarship - 1,000 - 3,000 word submissions. Essays must connect to Sir Arthur Conan Doyle or his writing (Sherlock Holmes or other work). Multiple submissions in the same or more than one category are welcome. Payment: All authors will receive a paperback copy of the anthology. Rights: All authors shall retain the rights to their submitted work outside of the anthology and may reprint their submission one year after the anthology’s publication date. Submission: Email...

Deadline: April 30th, 2022 Payment: £5 Theme: Wintry tales of ghosts and hauntings Note: Female writers and those who identify as women One of the guilty pleasures of Christmas, is that moment when you pull a favourite book from the shelf and reread it for the umpteenth time. Those wintry tales of ghosts and hauntings have become part of a much-loved tradition in this country. Black Angel Press want to add to this genre by providing a collection of new tales from female writers; this includes those who identify as women and both new and experienced writers alike. We are looking for quiet gothic darkness and whilst stories can be set in the traditional Victorian environment, we are also very much open to any who take the gothic tropes and place them in the present – or even the future. The anthology will consist of 20 stories and be a mixture of invitation and submission. Payment terms: £5 per story and an electronic copy of the book. Submission Requirements: stories should be 3-5k but we will allow a little flexibility if the story demands it. Manuscripts should be in Shunn format and either .doc or .docx – do NOT send in the body of the email. The first page should include contact details. Your covering email need only be brief, addressed to myself and Alyson (Faye) and should also include a short bio. If you are at the start of your publishing journey and are worried about lack of credits, don’t be. Use the bio to share the books and authors you love and a little about you. Send to: [email protected] Submissions open: 1 Dec 2021 and close end April 2022. Any questions? Drop us a line! Via: Black Angel Press.

Deadline: April 30th, 2022 Payment: $.01 per word Theme: Any theme of horror and slashes, MUST be set in the Specimen 6 universe. Call for submissions! Perfect Ratio Productions is opening submissions for a Specimen 6-themed magazine. Unstoppable monsters, glory kills, few win by escaping, most die.  Give us your gore, your bloodshed, the madness and mayhem that is found within the Specimen 6 universe!  Give us the Necronomiconic, the unfathomable, the bloodthirsty, give us the stories where even the flesh and bone quenches not the hunger of the immortals, where even the dreams and souls of their victims must be destroyed. This anthology is expected to release in late 2022. Submissions will be accepted until April 30, 2022. Details Accepted lengths: 500 words to 5000.  No minimum when the work involved is poetry. All works MUST be original! All submitted works must have never been published before, indie or trad. Genre: Horror, but other speculative genres may be added. For example Horror/SciFi, Horror/Fantasy, Region: Can take place anywhere in the world Period: Any period, present, past, future MUST: be set entirely in the universe of Specimen 6. Pay and Exclusivity Participating authors will be paid $.01 per word. This equates to $50 for a 5k word story, or $10 per 1k words. Participating authors will grant Perfect Ratio Productions exclusive rights to the work for 1 year after publication. Some exceptions may be granted. How to submit? Email us [email protected] Use “S6 Magazine Submission” Tell us a little bit about yourself in your query letter. For example: o Your author biography (500 words or less) o Title of the submitted work o Word count o Genre (if specific or niche) o First page (or ten pages should the work be of 10k or greater word count) of your submitted work at the bottom. Should Perfect Ratio Productions wish to use your submitted work,...

Deadline: April 30th, 2022 Payment: 0.03 USD per word and a contributor's copy Theme: Horror stories inspired by neurodiverse experiences DO NOT ADJUST YOUR BRAIN WE ARE CONTROLLING THE TRANSMISSION For our next major anthology, slated for release in September 2022, we’re looking for horror stories inspired by neurodiverse experiences. Stories about perception, communication, the feeling of being ‘differently wired’. Challenge us. Scare us. Show us the world the way you see it. We’d love to see work that encompasses the whole spectrum of neurodiverse experience. SF and fantasy elements are welcome as long as your story is primarily horror. This call will close on 30th April 2022. Length: 1,000 – 6,000 words. (This is a hard upper limit.) Payment: 0.03 USD per word. All payments will be made via PayPal and contributors will receive one paperback contributor’s copy. Publication: E-book and print. Deadline: 30th April 2022. Rights: We request first worldwide and electronic rights for 6 months after the date of publication, after which rights revert to the author. All copyright remains with the author. We accept simultaneous submissions but no reprints please. Multiple submissions not accepted. All submissions will be responded to after the deadline. Email your submission as a Word document to [email protected] with “Rewired ” in the subject line. Please see our Submission Guidelines for more information on formatting. Via: Ghost Orchid Press.

Deadline: April 30th, 2022 Payment: $0.02 per word + two (2) contributor copies Theme: Positive visions of the future If you could catch a glimpse of the future, what would you hope to see? An environmentally-friendly paradise? High-tech advancements? Newly-evolved species of wildlife? For this collection, we want positive visions of the future. Show us terraces covered in gardens and solar panels, sprawling colonies under glass on Mars, and the explorers of tomorrow. Tell us what you think cities will look like in the year 2300, what it would be like to take a cruise on a spaceship, or what new organisms might evolve in the Amazon rain forest. Science fiction, fantasy, humor, and weird fiction are all welcome. Submission Details Open for Submissions: February 1, 2022 through April 30, 2022 Expected Publication: September 2022 Story Length: 2,000 – 8,000 words Payment: $0.02 per word + two (2) contributor copies Submission Requirements Please submit your complete story in standard manuscript form in digital format (DOCX, RTF, or ODT) to submissions (at) waterdragonpublishing.com. Please include “The Future’s So Bright Anthology” in the Subject line of your submission. Include the following in your cover letter/email: Title of your story Your real name Your physical mail address Your preferred email address Genre Approximate word count Submission Guidelines Your story can be from whatever genre best fits its theme. However, we are not looking for erotica or stories that contain excessive gore or violence. You may submit more than one story. However, we will only publish one of your stories in this edition, so choose wisely. Please wait until you have been notified about the acceptance status of your story before submitting another one. Simultaneous submissions are permitted, but please inform us immediately if it is accepted elsewhere. We are not accepting previously published stories for this...

Submission Window: April 1st-30th, 2022 Payment: $0.03 per word up to 4000 words Theme: Take your least favorite horror trope and make it work. What is your least favorite horror trope? Why? Has it been overdone? Is it predictable? Is it unrealistic? Here’s your chance to fix it. Open call submission window open April 1, 2022 - April 30, 2022. Extended submission window exclusively for LGBTQIA+, BIPOC, and marginalized writers open May 1, 2022 - May 7, 2022. The anthology will be a mix of solicited stories and stories selected from the open call submission period. What are we looking for? Short horror, weird, dark fiction between 1500 and 4000 words (firm limit) that take your least favorite horror trope and make it work. Take a trope that’s well-worn, overused, predictable, tough to swallow, and scare the hell out of us with it. Turn it on its head, or make it bizarre enough to still surprise. Really take some time to understand why your chosen trope often fails and how you can make it into a successful (read: scary, surprising, weird, shocking, heartwrenching, maybe even funny) horror story. This anthology is open to all writers, but we strongly encourage writers from the LGBTQIA+, BIPOC, and other marginalized communities to submit. What are we NOT looking for? Stories that deal with bigotry are fine, but bigoted stories are not. Graphic rape or sexual assault scenes will not be accepted. Any story that does not contain elements of horror, weird fiction, or dark fiction will not be considered. Erotic elements are fine, but keep in mind this is not a call for erotica so make sure it contains elements of horror, weird, or dark fiction. How to submit: Word format (.docx), in something approximating standard manuscript format (double-spaced, 12pt font, word count...

Deadline: April 30th, 2022 Prize: Grand Prize: Pro rate contract on story and $500 of free Baen Books, Second Prize: $500 of free Baen Books, Third Prize: $300 of free Baen Books Theme: Adventure fantasy with heroes you want to root for. Warriors either modern or medieval, who solve problems with their wits or with their weapons—and we have nothing against dragons, elves, dwarves, castles under siege, urban fantasy, damsels in distress, or damsels who inflict distress. Contest Rules Write and submit a short story of no more than 8,000 words. It must be a work of fantasy, though all fantasy genres are open, e.g. epic fantasy, heroic fantasy, sword and sorcery, contemporary fantasy, etc. No entry fee. But only one submission per person...we suggest your best one! No reprints (i.e. the story must be unpublished). All entries must be original works in English. Plagiarism, poetry, song lyrics, settings and/or characters from published gaming worlds or another author’s works of fiction will not be considered. E-mail submissions only. Send entries as .RTF attachments to: [email protected] Please put BFAA SUBMISSION in the subject line when sending a contest entry and BFAA QUESTION in the subject line for questions to the contest administrator. Please include the following in the body of your email: the title of the work the author's name, address, and telephone number an approximate word-count The manuscript should be a RTF attachment, in standard manuscript format, and should be titled and numbered on every page, but the author's name MUST BE DELETED to facilitate fair judging. Click here for our standard manuscript format guidelines. Employees of Baen Books and Staff of Dragon Con are not eligible. Previous Grand Prize winners are not eligible (previous second and third place winners are eligible). Contest opens for submissions on February 1st, 2022 at...

Deadline: April 30th, 2022 Payment: Literary horror with a fantastical twist Theme: $25 – $150 CAD for original work depending on length, $10 – $70 CAD for reprints Note: Reprints welcome Nestled in a forgotten wood deep within a shadowed valley lies the hidden heart of the world: A dark, enchanted garden where every blossom holds a secret, every tree bursts with ten thousand memories, and each mushroom pulses in an endless relay, transmitting tales from half a world away. The wind itself whispers forgotten sorrows to the only creature left in the garden: The terrifying and enchanting Storyteller. But the garden’s lushness is a lie. Its explosion of ferns and flowers hides a terrible secret: the garden is dying. Without listeners to sustain it – without imagination, hearts, and souls to feed it – the heart is fading, and taking the world with it. So the Storyteller waits in vain for an audience that never comes—an audience whose ears and eyes can save the garden, who can keep the world’s heart beating a little while more. One a stifling, starry midnight, a stranger finally stumbles into the wilted garden and listens to the Storyteller’s wonderful, terrifying tales. But when this visitor – the first in centuries – learns that no listener leaves the garden alive, she strikes a desperate bargain. She promises to spread these stories across the earth, and in doing so remind humanity of the garden that is the heart of the world…and of the sacrifices it needs to keep beating.   That promise has been fulfilled. So settle into the lush grass, but take care not to crush the night flowers. It is time to listen now. Time to hear, time to give the garden what it needs. It’s already so late, you see, and the...