Events

Deadline: March 31st, 2019 Payment: $0.01/word for previously published pieces, and $0.02/word for first run. All pieces under 500 words or 5 minutes are compensated at a $5 flat rate. Note: Reprints welcome. Note: LGBTQ+ authors only. A LGBTQ+ HORROR FICTION PODCAST Episode 21 - Ritual Sacred rites exact a menacing toll in this episode exploring belief and power. Submissions due April 21st, 2019. Submissions of fiction, poetry, music, art, and more are always accepted on a rolling basis. Late submissions can be sent up to a week after the formal deadline if you inform us ahead of time to expect a late piece. Upcoming episode themes, can be found below the calendar. Note: We try to respond to all readers and artists within 48 hours. We consider all piece lengths, but generally have difficulty accepting pieces over 20 pages long. No ableist, racist, transphobic, homophobic, sexist or otherwise oppressive work will be accepted. Lastly, we only accept work by self-identified LGBTQ+ artists! Thank you! To submit content: Fill out the following form HERE to submit content to us. Please specify if you are submitting for a specific episode and whether you would like editorial feedback! Submissions are compensated at $0.01/word for previously published pieces, and $0.02/word for first run. Music is compensated at $1/minute for previous released tracks, and $2/minute for music released through us. All pieces under 500 words or 5 minutes are compensated at a $5 flat rate. To read/act for us: If you would like to be a volunteer reader or voice actor, please fill out this form HERE. We will follow up via email to collect further information for our directory. Via: Monsters Out Of The Closet.

The Contest: Write a story of 5,000 words or less about the myth below. Deadline: March 31 2019 by midnight Entry Fee: FREE! Prize: $300 * Let’s talk about Medusa. There are multiple versions of this myth, and layers upon layers of potential meanings. I’ll start with the version that most of us are familiar with. In this version, Medusa was a beautiful mortal woman. So beautiful, that she was desired by Poseidon. Medusa didn’t reciprocate his desire, but Poseidon was a Greek God, and brother of Zeus, by damnit. He decided to have his way. Medusa fled. She went to Athena’s temple for protection, but it didn’t help. Poseidon caught up with her and raped her—right there in Athena’s temple. Now, Athena is a “virgin goddess” (a term popularized by Jean Shinoda Bolen), who does not have lovers. If we’re talking archetypes, Athena is actually a friend of the patriarchy. This archetype tends to ally herself with powerful men, and even serve them at times. Think of the high-performing executive assistant, offering advice to her boss to help him close huge deals that grow the company. She tends to be conservative in temperament. Her main attribute is strategy—strategy on the battlefield, strategy in the courtroom, strategy when it comes to being craftsy (she is a goddess of weavers and artists), strategy when it comes to wisdom. Athena is a thinker, not a lover. She was known to support Zeus staunchly, and her archetype is a man’s woman. When Athena saw this act of fornication in her temple, she was seriously offended. How dare this upstart, self-important mortal woman have sex in her inviolate virgin’s temple? She punished Medusa by turning her into a hideous gorgon, half-snake and half-woman, with serpents for hair and a gaze that could turn men to stone. Try attracting...

Deadline: March 31st 2019 Payment: Contributor's Copy if from Australia You’ll find current and upcoming Micro Fiction anthology calls, here. Please be sure to read and adhere to all Submission Guidelines carefully before submitting, or your story may be deleted, unread! PLEASE NOTE: If an anthology fills prior to its Deadline, then the anthology will close to Submissions early and continue on through the Publication process. Similarly, if an anthology is slower to fill, its Deadline may be extended. Series: Tiny Tales – Volume I Name: Curses & Cauldrons Theme: Witches Word Count: 100 words (Exactly! Title not included.) Deadline: 31/03/2019 or until Full Publication: eBook/Paperback TBA Compensation: Australia – Contributor’s Copy (paperback) International – Contributor’s Copy (digital) Reprints: Yes, as long as the rights have reverted to you. Multiple Submissions: Yes, up to a maximum of 10 per author will be accepted. About: This is the first of hopefully several volumes of micro fiction, each with it’s own unique theme! Submissions for this call must be Speculative and be about witches in some way. Think about the witches themselves, their coven, their familiars, their magic, the seasonal celebrations, summoning, tarot, crystals, candle magic, curses, sacrifice, blood debts… if it’s dark and it features a witch, we want to read it! Via: Blood Song Books.

Deadline: March 31st, 2019 Payment: $0.01/word (1 cent a word) USD. For poetry, we offer a flat rate of $5 USD per accepted piece Kaleidotrope is currently open to submissions until April 1, 2019. Kaleidotrope tends very heavily towards the speculative — towards science fiction, fantasy, and horror — but we like an eclectic mix and are therefore interested to read compelling work that blurs these lines, falls outside of neat genre categories. Man does not live on space ships, elves, and ghostly ax murderers alone, after all. We’d suggest looking through the archives to familiarize yourself with the zine, and/or checking out other work by our past contributors, to get a sense of what we’re looking for and what we like. In the end, what we want is interesting, sometimes unconventional work, well-written stories and poems that surprise and amuse us, shock and disturb us, that tell us things we didn’t know or reveal old truths in brand new ways. We want strange visions of distant shores, of imaginary countries and ordinary people, and work that doesn’t lose sight of entertainment and the joy of good writing. We are also interested in publishing diverse writers. Kaleidotrope welcome writers of color and other groups, as well as work that represents the diversity of characters we want to see more of. Fiction We have no maximum word limit, although anything over 10,000 words is definitely going to be a tougher sell. We do like well-crafted flash fiction, too, although preferably not under 250 words. Poetry We will consider all forms. Humor is encouraged, if tricky. Rhyming is not actively discouraged — done well, it can be terrific — but be careful about overly simple, sing-song-like structures. Individual haiku, or other very short poems, may be a tougher sell. Nonfiction We do...

Deadline: March 31st, 2019 Payment: Royalty Split Note: Reprints Accepted John Wayne Gacy. Pennywise. Juggalos. The Great Clown Panic of 2016. That birthday party you went to when you were four. Society is full of people being scared of clowns. But what are clowns scared of? I’m looking for tales about that, tales where the clown in the room isn’t the real threat. From the high horror of an evil from before time to the tawdry prejudice of those who ‘know what sort of man likes playing with children’, give me stories about clowns with a reason to be scared. Genre: Horror/Dark/Thriller/&c. Probably not literary; I want to see something creepy, weird, or unsettling, rather than a clown overcoming his fear of rejection. Word Count: 1,000 – 10,000 words. I don’t want to miss your story just because it’s a bit longer than the traditional short story. Submission Window: 1 February — 31 March 2019. Reprints? Yes. If you have something that fits, I’ll give it equal consideration. Just let me know where it’s previously appeared. Simultaneous Submissions? Yes. Please tell me if your story is accepted by someone else first. Multiple Submissions? Yes. Within reason. Please send each one in a separate email. Payment: All successful contributors will receive a share of royalties paid via PayPal. Submissions: Email the story as an attachment to [email protected] with the subject FEARS OF A CLOWN – Your Name – Story Name. Stories should be a ODT/DOC/DOCX file. They don’t have to be in standard manuscript format but if I struggle to read them then they probably won’t be selected, so use a sensible typeface and layout (someone has already asked if I want them in Comic Sans; so, you’ve missed your chance to do that “joke”). Cover letters are optional; feel free...

Deadline: March 31, 2019 Payment: $25 In 2012 we published our first book, Shotgun Honey Presents: Both Barrels, an anthology featuring 29 tales of crime from authors like Frank Bill, Chris F. Holm, and Kieron Shea. We continued with two additional volumes in 2013 and 2015, Reloaded and Locked and Loaded. All three were general crime, noir and mystery compilations. All three are still in circulation and are a good indicator of the kinds of stories we like. In late 2019, we’re going to do it again and are actively looking for submissions for Shotgun Honey Presents Volume 4, yet to be titled. Deadline for submissions is Sunday March 31, 2019. Please consider and follow our guidelines No Simultaneous Submission1 No Multiple Submissions2 Word count must be between 1000 and 5000 words. Genre is Crime, Noir, or Hard-boiled3 No content that could be deemed as condoning or promoting: sexual abuse child abuse animal abuse No romance, fetish, or adult content fiction Shotgun Honey Presents pays a token payment of $25 upon publication. All fiction published by Shotgun Honey is the copyright of the author. If you do submit a story to multiple markets please let us know in advance, and if your story has been picked up elsewhere let us know as soon as possible. We attempt to read and review submissions within 2-4 weeks of receipt. Submit only one story at a time. You may submit a new story as soon as your current submission is either accepted or rejected. We are not looking for any mob or crime syndicate related stories. We love stories about regular Joes put into hard situations, whether as criminals by necessity or victims of crimes. Click the link below to submit: Shotgun Honey.

Deadline: March 31st, 2019 Payment: 4 cents per word Send us your best female predator. We're looking for a new take. Villain and hero. Mother and femme fatale. Sinner and saint. Any time, any place, any genre. Petticoats not required. No adult content, erotica, poetry, excessive violence. Requirements: (Stories that don't fit these won't be read.) No reprints accepted. Accepting short stories between 4000-7000 words and flash fiction under 1000 words. Attach story as a Word .doc, .docx or .rtf Filrename must start with Author-last-name Subject line: PiP: story title Include a brief bio and contact information in your email. Send submissions to [email protected] Deadline March 31st 2019 Author payment is planned at 4 cents per word with successful completion of our soon-to-be-announced Kickstarter Via: Prospective Press.

Deadline: March 31, 2019 Payment: $10 Theme: Dark fantasy and horror by disabled artists featuring disabled protagonists. Looking for 1,500 to 5,500 words in length short horror and dark fantasy by disabled authors. Paying $10 flat and an eBook copy, plus offering unlimited at-cost print books to authors in the anthology.  Previously unpublished original work preferred, but reprints will be considered if the work is no longer in print or the work is older than ten years in age. Please let us know if it is a re-print. No simultaneous submissions. We will want exclusive e-publication rights for one year (first publication rights if it’s unpublished). Please submit it as a .doc or .rtf or .txt document, double spaced, 12 pt, Times New Roman or similar, to [email protected] Deadline: March 31, 2019 Cover art by Lillian Rose Asterios Via: Sumiko Saulson.

Deadline: March 31st, 2019 Payment: Royalties The Writers’ Co-op invites submissions of short stories (and poems) for the second edition of our yearly anthology, The Rabbit Hole. Volume one was released in November last year, volume two is scheduled for September 2019. This year, we are looking for weird stories dealing with the following themes: entertainment, weather or science. (If you want to combine all three, we’re very open to stories about a group of scientists on their way to the theatre when they’re caught in a freak snowstorm.) However, there will also be a section Weird At Large for stories that don’t fit the specific themes suggested. There is a maximum word count of 5000. This is more a guideline than a strict limit – quality is the main criterion, not length. So a great story will be accepted, whether it’s 6000 words or 200 (flash fiction is welcome). But we’re looking for short stories, not novellas or extracts from novels – the story should be complete in itself. Though the anthology will be comprised mostly of stories, there will also be room for some poems or pieces of an experimental nature. The deadline is 31st March 2019. Submissions should be sent in an attached file to curtis.bausse(at)outlook.com with the subject ‘Co-op submission’. They may have been previously published on personal websites (or elsewhere) but authors must have full rights to them when submitting. Authors will retain said rights after the story or poem is published in the Writers’ Co-op anthology. Writers whose stories are selected will have the choice between keeping their share of the royalties or donating them to the Against Malaria Foundation. What is meant by ‘weird’? Like many categories, it’s fuzzy, because it stands in distinction to ‘normal’, and there’s no common acceptance of what is normal. Not all writers will approach it the same way,...

Deadline: March 31st, 2019 Payment: Contributor's Copy Swinging Dick's Saloon, the kind of dive that has way better beers on tap than a hole in the wall like it should have. Like this one It's the kind of place that doesn't have to say it's a dive bar because everyone knows just by looking at the place. Also, any bar that advertises itself as a dive bar is not a dive bar. This is not Swinging Dicks Saloon   It's the kind of place where the owner (Dick though he tells people to call him, Richard) is often the drunkest guy in the place, though sometimes he drinks in the bar down the street because the barmaids are hotter. This is not Dick but he is a regular It's the kind of place where the barmaids wear skimpy outfits even when they shouldn't. They do wear more than her but not much more It's the kind of place where the bartender never remembers what your drink of choice is but he believes he does. Not my drink of choice but still pretty good They have live bands on the weekends and occasionally they're even good. Like the Graveyard Rats or Yvette It's the kind of place where great stories are told. All kinds of stories - Crime, sci-fi, horror, often with a distinct grindhouse feel and a dark sense of humor. Shotgun-toting Jesus wants  you to submit (a story) You can't tell such a story at Dick's over a few cold ones, because Swinging Dick's Saloon doesn't actually exist. However, you can send them us and if we like them we'll publish them in an awesome bit of pulp fiction called A Night at Swinging Dick's Saloon. That's right, send us your best story about Dicks (the saloon, not actual dicks). Send...