Events

Deadline: March 1st 2013 Payment: $20 and a contributor's copy Submissions are officially OPEN for the new StrangeHouse Books anthology STRANGE VS LOVECRAFT. We're looking for 5,000-8,000 word stories set inside the Cthulhu mythos. That means all stories must contain characters, settings, monsters, or plot devices from the bountiful worlds created by H.P. Lovecraft. BUT, what we're MOSTLY looking for is the most batshit crazy, insane, bizarro take on the mythos you can come up with. Let your freak flag fly and show us something TRULY original! Subs close March 1st. Payment is 20 dollars flat, and a copy of the finished anthology to be released in late April/early May. No reprints, please. We want 1st worldwide print and digital rights, exclusive for 1 year. Good luck!!! Please direct all submissions to: [email protected] [via: Strange House Books Facebook.

Deadline: 3/1/2013 Payment: Every author will get a contributor’s copy of the eBook and a proportional percentage of the royalties The album Dark Side of the Moon explored, among other themes, chaos in society and madness of the mind. Dark Side of the Moon will feature the dark fantasy, twisted science fiction and horror focused on madness. Bring us your serial killers, your haunted asylums, your deranged computers and aliens. The threshold for profanity, sex and violence will be much higher, but we will still choose quality over shock-value every time. Submission Call Starts: 12/1/2012 Submission Call Ends: 3/1/2013 What We Want: We are looking for fresh perspectives on favorite songs. The story should have the following qualities Non-negotiable The story must be your own work. Reprints are fine, provided you hold publishing rights Multiple submissions are acceptable. Please do not submit more than 10k words at a time No stories which are freely available online. The plot should have a strong correlation to the lyrics of the song. The writer can and should take creative liberties, but the reader should have a clear indication of the base song. Include the song in your cover letter. Not required but strongly advised The story should be science fiction, fantasy, horror or a related sub-genre The atmosphere of the story should reflect either the style of music or the singer/composer Story length may be up to 5000 words in length Simultaneous submissions are okay, but please let us know immediately if you are accepted elsewhere. What we don't want Boring literal interpretations of love songs Adult content– if sex is present, it should further the story Gore or profanity when it is only included for shock value Illegal content of any kind Blatant plagiarism The purpose of Song Stories is to celebrate...

Deadline: March 8th 2013 Payment: We will pay 5% royalties after cost per story published in each ebook only. Royalties for paperback sales will be separately negotiated. Fringeworks is a small independent publisher that hopes to find clever ways of punching above its own weight. We love to find new talent and to give writers the chance to get recognition for their work in the public domain. We are currently seeking submissions for an anthology entitled ‘Potatoes’. Submission deadline for this anthology is midnight on 8th March 2013. Firstly, this anthology is serious. It is what it says on the tin. As the title suggests, we are looking for stories between 1,500 and 5,000 words, which feature, er . . . potatoes! Yes, you read this right. ‘Potatoes‘, said in perfect Keith Lemon voice. Believe it or not, but there is a whole host of stuff you can write about when it comes to potatoes. Consider the history of this mighty veg from its roots with Sir Walter Raleigh’s voyages, to its importance during the Irish Famine. Did you know that Queen Marie Antoinette wore a potato based fancy dress costume at a fancy dress ball? Beat that Lady Gaga. So, ply your imagination, speak to your children (you never know, they may be chip chip off old the block) and let your writing run riot! Any genre will be considered, including mash-ups and pot-boilers, though we suspect this anthology will appeal to writers of horror, SF and fantasy. While we are looking for new and original twists on this theme with surprising elements, we expect no half-baked ideas, and nothing too fluffy. Be fun, be serious, but most of all be unique. And I promise you, the Editor, Theresa Derwin, will not make a hash up of it. In...

Deadline: March 15th 2013 Payment: $.05 per word Glitter & Mayhem: The Speculative Nightclub Anthology is looking for a few glamorous stories. As you know, we’ve got fabulous work from amazing writers like Alan DeNiro, Amal El-Mohtar, Daryl Gregory, Damien Walters Grintalis, Maria Dahvana Headley, Kat Howard, Vylar Kaftan, Seanan McGuire, Jennifer Pelland, Tim Pratt, Cat Rambo, Tansy Rayner Roberts, Diana Rowland, Sofia Samatar, David J. Schwartz, William Shunn, and Rachel Swirsky. But what about you? You’re glamorous, right? We bet you have a dazzling idea for a story, don’t you? You probably even know the prompt by heart: Roller Derby, nightclubs, glam aliens, (literal) party monsters, drugs, sex, glitter, debauchery, etc. Here’s the details you’ve been waiting for: The max word limit is 6000 with a deadline of March 15. We’re paying $.05 per word. You’ll have the chance to be edited by Hugo Award-winning editors and be in a ToC with awesome authors (see above). We expect stories to follow standard manuscript format. We expect that the your name and contact info is on the first page of your submission. Please send only one submission at a time. If you can refrain—mostly due to the extremely short reading period—please do not query about your submission. Send submissions to [email protected] We can’t wait to see what you create. Surprise us. Amaze us. Dazzle us.

Deadline: Aug 20th, 2013 Payment: Exposure only. Flash fiction & Short Stories (1,000 – 4,000 words) 2013 is the year a British staple of science-fiction and horror celebrates its 50th anniversary – Doctor Who. The cult time travel show I refer to has redefined the fantastic and the terrifying for decades of children, and has managed to entertain adults alike. So here’s your chance to tell the sort of time travel tale you’ve always wanted to… I’m looking for Gothic horror yarns set in a science fiction universe, not unlike the most popular stories from the program I’ve already mentioned. For obvious copyright reasons, I must ask that your stories are written in a similar tradition only. This means that your stories can behave as if you are writing for the twelfth incumbent of the role, but you must have your time traveller and assistant arrive in their own time machine, and have their own unique back story – complete originality. Let your imagination run wild. Dark fairytales, bizarre, horror, surrealism, dark science-fiction and steam punk are all cool here. Submission guidelines: Deadline for submissions – August 20, 2013. Word Count: 1,000 – 4,000 words. Please submit your manuscript as a *.doc or *.docx file (all other formats will automatically be rejected. Contact me prior to submitting if this presents an issue for you.) Font and formatting: Please submit in Times New Roman, 12 point font; single line spacing. Please format the document to 1st line indentation of 1″. The page margin should be set to .1″ on all sides. Please check grammar. Only stories previously unpublished may be submitted. Upon acceptance into the anthology, you agree that Horrified Press holds exclusive publishing rights for six months from the date of publication; after that date has passed, all intellectual property...

Deadline: March 30th 2013 Payment: Shared royalties plus one print and one eBook contributor's copy. Authors will receive a discount on extra print copies.</strong. Get out those quills & ink and start burning the midnight oil. It's another open sub call from us. Our next anthology project is on the horizon. Remember those cozy Disney fairy tales you watched as a child? Dig deeper. Remember the somewhat horrifying Grimm's fairy tales you read by the light of your flashlight, under the covers, late at night? No. Oh. Maybe that was just me. Well if you haven't read the Grimm versions, you should hop to it lickety split because they are exactly the tone I'm looking for in these stories. Oh, but with a twist. I want the tales to be backwards. I want you to show me that the Grimm Brothers got it all wrong. The wicked stepmother? Really a sweet lady, but that Cinderella chick? Hell on heels. And Snow White? Pure as the newly driven snow, my butt. Hansel & Gretel? Let's just say that old, blind woman never saw it coming. I want tales of terror about seemingly innocent heroes. Dark and gritty stories about not so perfect princesses. Tell me why Red Riding Hood was something far more horrifying than the Big Bad Wolf. Make me recognize the tale, but cringe when it's not as I remembered it. Reading period opens February 1st. And the deadline is March 30th. The tentative publishing date is June 1, 2013. Payment will be shared royalties plus one print and one eBook contributor's copy. Authors will receive a discount on extra print copies. Word length should be between 3000-8000. Please see our submission guidelines for cover letter and formatting specifics. As always, we are looking for original, well written stories...

Deadline: March 301th 2013 Payment: 5 cents per word Penumbra is looking for original, unpublished stories of 3500 words or less. We prefer that writers use Standard Manuscript Format for submissions. (You can read this article by Chuck Rothman on the SFWA site on preparing a manuscript for submission if you are unfamiliar with SMF.) Please send your stories as file attachments in .rtf or .doc formats only. Please include a cover letter in the body of your email, with the manuscript title, you pen name if applicable, the exact word count of the story not including title and byline, and a publication history if applicable. Penumbra is a professional rates paying publisher, paying 5 cents per word. We will evaluate poetry submissions for each issue. We will also consider previously published stories with rights reverted to the author. Penumbra has multiple issue calls open at the same time, therefore it is imperative that you include the issue theme in the subject line of your email. Submissions that do not include this information risk getting lost in our queue and not read before the deadline. Penumbra uses Musa Publishing's house style guide, which relies upon the Chicago Manual of Style. All accepted stories will be edited to reflect Musa house style. If you have never been published before, please tell us. Penumbra likes publishing new authors as much as we like publishing experienced authors. Every month, we select one of the best stories from an author with little or no publishing experience and feature that story and author as our Rising Talent recipient for the month. The Rising Talent author's story, biography, and a non-fiction essay will be featured on our website for a full year, as well as spotlighted in the Penumbra issue for that month. We absolutely do...

Deadline: January 1st to March 31st 2013 (Do NOT Submit Early) Payment: Undecided at this time monetary payment and one contributor's copy The Alchemy Press Book of Pulp Heroes volume II edited by Mike Chinn Submissions guidelines by the editor: “Following the successful publication of The Alchemy Press Book of Pulp Heroes, The Alchemy Press is following up with a second anthology: Pulp Heroes II. Once again it’s time to celebrate (or subvert) the glorious Pulp tradition – as well as taking a wild new look at it. I suggest you read volume one to get a sense of my requirements (available via Amazon and other online retailers). From the arid plains of Mars to the canyons of Manhattan; the foetid jungle to the naked jungle. Demented criminals versus dark heroes with sinister powers. The flash of steel in the palaces of long-forgotten civilizations or along the sterile corridors of impossible spacecraft. Swords against sorcery or sword and planet. The Alchemy Press Book of Pulp Heroes II will be available as a print edition published in October 2013, to be followed by an eBook edition. Successful contributors will receive a one-off payment (to be decided) plus a copy of the book on publication. I am after original fiction; reprints will be considered if they are exceptional. No simultaneous or multiple submissions. Contributions should be in the range of 3,000-8,000 words (query if you wish to submit outside that range), with full contact details on the front page. I will accept electronic submissions only as email attachments in standard MS format (.rtf, .doc or .docx), sent to [email protected]. Any submissions included in the body of the email will be rejected unread. The subject line should take the form Title/author’s name/word count (i.e. My Great Story/John Doe/5,500 words). The submission period runs...

Deadline: March 1, 2013, and will close at 11:59 PST on March 31, 2013 Payment: 1 cent per word, paid within 90 days after publication. Plus contributor copy of print and e-book. The Future Embodied – An anthology of speculative stories exploring how science and technology might change our bodies and what it means to be human. The editors are looking for character-driven, near-future stories of how the trajectory of current science and technology could impact our daily lives and choices. Social sciences and as-yet-untested or anecdotal discoveries are fair game. If an idea or discovery has the potential to impact human behavior and bodies, it could make a great story. What Type of Stories We’re Looking For: We are looking for stories of medical and aesthetic body modification. Consider topics like genetic engineering, prosthetics, implants, body ornamentation, surgical augmentation, and age retardation or reversal. Surprise us. Don’t give us stories that we’ve read before. We want this anthology to embody the wide range of human experience, voices, and bodies, and, in particular, to credibly consider our present and future demographics. You are encouraged to populate your stories of the future with the kinds of bodies that have been under-represented in speculative fiction but which should be ever more present in visions of our near future — aging bodies, obese bodies, chronically ill bodies, diverse racial and multi-racial bodies, bodies from diverse geographies… Good Fiction Examples: “Faces in Revolving Souls” by Caitlin R Kiernan. This is a story that deftly balances the idea of how a science might progress AND the human feelings behind such changes and how it might change their experience of the world. What do we want to avoid: This anthology specifically is concentrating on the evolution of the human body through technology. We are not looking...

Deadline: March 31st 2013 Payment: Successful contributors will receive a nominal fee of £10, royalties plus a copy of the book on publication. We are purchasing First World Rights, including book and electronic rights, with a six month moratorium subsequent to publication. Astrologica The Alchemy Press Book of Astrologica: Stories of the Zodiac edited by Allen Ashley Guidelines by the editor Alchemy Press is pleased to announce The Alchemy Press Book of Astrologica: Stories of the Zodiac for print publication and e-book versions in 2013. This themed anthology will be edited by award-winning editor Allen Ashley. Allen says: 'I am looking for stories about the signs of the Zodiac, the characteristics associated with those signs and/ or people born under them. I will also consider stories involving the mythical characters and creatures of the astrological signs, perhaps their history and origin, perhaps their present and future state. Note: I am not saying that one has to believe in the paraphernalia associated with modern astrology; but authors should seek to use some of this as inspiration and underpinning of their narratives. I want stories based on the conventional Western Zodiac, the twelve Star Signs, not the Chinese calendar, the Vietnamese calendar, Aztec beliefs, etc. Stories should preferably be specific to a star sign, rather than pan-astrological. If you wish to try the latter, please query first with a broad outline. I will most likely be seeking at least one story per star sign, possibly more. Stories will be expected to contain at least some element of fantasy in its broadest sense. Stories may be fantasy, horror, science fiction, slipstream, fabulist or realist but demonstrating imaginative use of and/ or acquaintance with fantasy tropes. Use of mythical or historical detail is permissible but authors must not use copyrighted material from any artistic...