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Deadline: August 31 Payment: $50 – $100 and a contributor's copy of each edition Shadows & Tall Trees Vol. 7 is now open for submissions. Deadline August 31. Based on the number of subs already received in the first few hours, (and the terrific writers submitting wok) I am going to be rather busy, and also will likely have some hard decisions to make. SHADOWS & TALL TREES, VOL. 7 (Undertow Publications) Open to submissions from August 1 to August 31 only! (Standard Manuscript Format) – I want literary horror, weird fiction, strange tales, à la Robert Aickman. – Original, previously unpublished fiction only, please. – Manuscripts should be 2500 to 8000 words – Payment is a princely $50 – $100 and a copy of each edition, for first English-Language rights for Hardback, Trade and eBook editions. – No overly long and effusive cover letters. I don’t read them. – No simultaneous or multiple submissions, please – No familiar tropes. i.e. vampires, werewolves, and zombies. Ghosts, though? Hell, yes. – No science fiction, high fantasy, or poetry please Stories, in standard manuscript format, as attachments, are to be sent to this address only: [email protected] Full guidelines: Quiet horror and weird fiction. Fiction that is offbeat and eclectic; dark, bizarre and psychological. Stories both subtle and prosaic. Weird, strange tales. Shadows & Tall Trees is an anthology of the dark and fantastic, with mainstream sensibilities. I am seeking low-key, literary work. Voice is very important. Volume 6 was a World Fantasy Award, and Shirley Jackson Award Finalist. Several stories published in Shadows & Tall Trees have been selected for reprint in various “Best Of” anthologies. Peter Straub has declared it “A beautiful and courageous volume.” I am looking for stories that share the same weird and strange sensibility experienced in the...

Deadline: Best Story = $100, First Runner Up = $50, Second Runner Up = $25, All other accepted authors = $10, All accepted authors will receive 4% of sales. Winners selected through a double-blind process. Payment: August 31st, 2016 It’s All Trumped Up Trump’s dramatic entrance into American politics sets the stage for global tragedy. His life, a maelstrom of petty lies, construction supplies and gold bricks is Shakespearean. Daily he is the buffoon—representing the absolute worst in us, a cowardice that denies us the better parts of ourselves as Americans. Writers have a long history of holding the idiotic and powerful accountable. When the mainstream media fails, it has been the brave poets and novelists who have skewered the gilded.  Now is the time to wield the pen. We are seeking speculative fiction that explores what four years of a Trump presidency would do to America and the world. Writers should submit stories ranging from depictions of his absurdity to the impact of his politics on the disenfranchised, our international friends, and world peace. We strongly encourage submissions from outside the United States. Feel free to submit a story in a language other than English. We will do everything we can to get it translated. But, if you’d like to submit the story in your native language and provide a translation, we would super love that! Deadline: August 31, 2016. We will review submissions, as they are received. Word Count: 3,000 words. Stories should be short and sweet. Submissions: Compensation: Best Story = $100 First Runner Up = $50 Second Runner Up  = $25 All other accepted authors = $10 All accepted authors will receive 4% of sales. Winners selected through a double-blind process. Book Details: 10 stories with a foreword and an afterword. Storied will be selected with a...

Deadline: August 31st, 2016 Payment: £10 and an illustration of your flash This month we’re asking you how the world would be if it were missing something we all take for granted. The colour Blue, the ability to freeze ice, the world was just one continent, etc, etc, etc. The attached videohttps://www.facebook.com/zeroflash.org/videos/1222498304449900/ is just a little fun, but imagine if Sharks lived in Duck Ponds! That’s right. It doesn’t have to be serious but if that’s your thing. Go for it! For those of you that would care to submit, we’re looking for stories of anywhere up to300 words. We’d love a beginning, are partial to a middle and if you could see your way clear to adding an ending, we’d be ever so grateful. Other than that, any genre, any style, any tone, any language. Fill it with character and description and make us think and cry and laugh and gag and stuff. Just the one submission each per month, please. Deadline is Midnight GMT on the final day of the month. Please allow Zero Flash the first opportunity to publish your work. Once the competition is over, feel free to publish anywhere else you like. Do your best to format as Times New Roman and 12 points please. Every month we will decide on the best story and make a showing of it for the world to see. We’ll tell everyone that it’s great and they should admire and praise it…and then we’ll start all over again. PRIZE: An original illustration of your winning entry from artist-in-residence, Sophia Johnson (illustrator of Zeroflash Logo fame) and £10 from my back pocket. If you do decide to grace us with your prose, there’s a good chance that at some point (probably a year down the line) we might use it...

Deadline: September 1st Payment: $15.00 Submissions Before you submit to Goblin Fruit, there are a few things you might find useful to know; for instance, the submission guidelines. If any question you have has not been addressed below, feel free to query at goblin.fruitgmailcom, and please do read our Frequently Implied Questions for additional information. What is it we want? We want poetry that we can call "of the fantastical", poetry that treats mythic, surreal, fantasy and folkloric themes, or approaches other themes in a fantastical way. Re-write a fairytale, ponder an old story, consider history from an unusual perspective — really, it's up to you, so long as the fantastical element is there. Since what qualifies as "the fantastical" is easily debatable, however, here's what we're not interested in: science fiction poetry (it's not you, it's us), horror for horror's sake, and poetry that's self-consciously gothic. We have no prejudice against traditional poetic forms, rhyme, or meter. We'd like to stay that way, so please let the form serve the poem, not the other way around. Prose poems will be harder to sell, mainly because so many of them straddle the flash fiction line. How much do we pay? Beginning in January 2016 we will be paying $15.00 USD on publication for original, unpublished poems, and $5.00 for solicited reprints. If you'd like to submit a poem that has been published elsewhere, please query first with the poem's title, where it was originally published and when. We purchase first North American serial rights and first Worldwide Electronic rights for three months; after that rights revert to the author, although we do request permission to keep the poem in our archives indefinitely. When can I submit? We are accepting submissions during the following times: April 9th - June 1st July...

Deadline: September 1, 2016 Payment: $10 and a contributor's copy Open Submissions: July 1 – September 1, 2016 Theme: This horror/dark fantasy anthology will be centered in a nefarious motel established in the 1960s by the devil himself, some say. Each story needs to take place in a room of the motel. Stories can begin in another location and arrive at the motel or bleed out into the parking lot, but the bulk of the tale should be in the room. Writers can get creative with their stories and the design of their rooms, but the main lobby and innkeeper needs to be consistent if referenced. Name of the Motel and Description: Located in a poor, decimated, part of Atlanta, the Kretcher Motel is a two story construct, with peeling mauve paint on the outside. Inside, the lobby looks bright from harsh yellow lighting. It has a mini fountain with no water that sits in the middle of the sticky, dirty, tile floor. Only the counter seems immaculate with a polished mahogany counter. The elevators are filled with graffiti, smell and are missing panels on the ceiling. The halls are ominous and dark, with flickering lights, and grimy diamond patterned carpet. The motel is in the vicinity of several dilapidated buildings, overgrown shrubbery, and a 24 hour gas station sits directly across from the motel. Although it sells little gas, it is frequented by prostitutes, hustlers and drug dealers who make use of its restrooms for their services. Other desperate individuals down on their luck can be seen standing, leaning against or walking by the hotel as they wait for their miracle or enjoying the many snacks to be purchased there. Name and description of the Innkeeper: Sybline Kretcher is an ageless Black woman who could be anywhere from 35-70,...

Deadline: September 2nd, 2016 Payment: 5% of the gross profit Anthology Curated by Nicole Petit “Most mediums, with their spurious and specious methods, with their ghostly trumpets and spectral hands, hold few secrets—and fewer terrors.” ~Rose Mackenberg, “Exposing the Weird Secrets of ‘Mediums’ and ‘Spirits’” ADVICE TO THE SPOOK-BUSTERS By Annabelle Lovelace Chicago’s Daily Star, September 28th, 1928 War is boom time for the frauds. Concentrated human misery is a sure-fire way for charlatans of every stripe to find easy marks among bereaved mothers, fathers, brothers, sisters, and wives. As we have recently survived the war to end all wars, today is a gold rush for fraud. Women rapping tables with their toes convince the bereaved that husbands and wives have found peace in the higher realms, and men with collapsible trumpets are all the evidence some need that departed children are not so departed. Every cause has a trick, all performed with the finest materials your corner store has to offer: painted balloons for spirits, corn flour for otherworldly smoke, or tambourines hoisted on black poles. Despite the petroleum jelly ectoplasm, and haunted hands piloted by a man under the table, and all the tricks of the false spiritualist--there are stranger cases. For example, I’ve been called in on three such cases in the last month: The upper crust is beset by fads. A fad for speakeasies and a fad for séances. One enterprising hostess set out to combine them all--inviting her guests down to their favorite speakeasy for a night of summoning. In one of the back booths things progressed a bit further than normal, spirits coming up and running free among the spirits. It’s quite a thing for cowed gangsters to show up at your door, begging for help. While lecturing in England, I came across the...

Deadline: Sept 15, 2016 Payment: Pay rate is a range of $0.01-0.08 per word (averaging close to $0.03 per word). People who have stories for each of the works accepted with the same world will receive a boost on each consecutive story. T ANSTAAAFL Press has an open call for short stories for the “Enter the…” series of anthologies. Guidelines: We will only accept those stories emailed as text in the email OR .txt, .doc, .docx formats. All attachements will be destroyed if not accepted. Email address is [email protected] We will not accept stories by mail or post. If we receive these they will be destroyed at once. All stories must be original and unpublished anywhere If accepted TANSTAAFL Press will take first english publication rights. Note that reprint rights are yours as are first publication in alternate languages, however the value of reprints is low as are the likelihood of getting anyone to reprint. This publication is likely the only location where you will likely be paid for this piece. Stories must be less than 8000 words. Stories considered for Enter the Apocalypse must be stories about the start and / or middle of any type apocalypse. Apocalypse can include (but isn’t limited to) nuclear, epidemic, supernatural, bioweapon, cosmic, aliens, etc. Stories considered for Enter the Aftermath must be stories about the burnout or shortly after any type apocalypse. Stories considered for Enter the Rebirth must be stories about the world coming back to a new stability after any type of apocalypse. TANSTAAFL Press will attempt to get to submissions as quickly as possible, but make no commitment to how quickly. We will accept submissions up until June 15, 2016 for Enter the Apocalypse, Sept 15, 2016 for Enter the Aftermath, and Dec 15, 2016 for Enter the Rebirth. TANSTAAFL Press will...

Deadline: September 15, 2016 Payment: Three cents per word and one contributor copy Title: +Horror Library+ Volume 6 Editor: Eric J. Guignard Imprint: Cutting Block Books Submissions Accepted: July 15, 2016 – September 15, 2016 Projected Release Date: April 2017 (both print and e-format) Payment: Three cents per word and one contributor copy (no royalties) Reprints?: NO Multiple and/or Simultaneous Submissions: YES Response Time: Three weeks or less Send submissions and queries to: Horror.Library.Submissions (AT) gmail.com +++ The Horror Library has arisen anew! That is, new volume, new editor, but with the same passion to advance dark, smart horror short fiction. The Horror Library series has been publishing cutting-edge horror for more than ten years, with new volumes released about every two years. Past contributors include such notables as: Bentley Little, Gary Braunbeck, Kealan Patrick Burke, Jeff Strand, Ray Garton, Lisa Morton, Tim Waggoner, et al. We’d love to add your name to this list! The short of it: We’re looking for non-themed horror short stories. The long of it: The tastes of this anthology series run toward light horror or psychological horror rather than anything brutal (think along the lines of: The Twilight Zone, Tales from the Darkside, Tales from the Crypt,Black Mirror, etc.). Stories about demons, serial killers, or any traditional monster trope (zombies, vampires, etc.) will be a very tough sell. Ideal qualities to make your story a success include: +Emotional Resonance (e.g. Fear, Relief, Joy, etc.)+ +Action (Plot Movement)+ +Unique and Thoughtful Ideas+ +Literary Courage (Push Boundaries)+ +Extraordinarily Memorable ‘Voice’ in Characters+ The audience for this anthology are mature, literary readers (i.e. “R” rating). Profanity and sexually-related material is acceptable, provided it is not gratuitous and not excessive. What is not acceptable is anything relating to torture or sexual abuse of children, or graphic sex/ “erotica.” If...

Deadline: September 15th, 2016 Payment: 02 to .08 per word Behind the Mask (working title) is our next themed anthology and it’s all about superheroes! But not how they saved the world this time. We’re more interested in the ordinary day-to-day challenges facing these extraordinary individuals: growing up, growing old, relationships, career struggles, parenting. How they cope with that age-old desire to fit in when, let’s face it, they don’t. We want superhero stories with originality, diversity, and strong character development that celebrate the genre but manage to push its boundaries as well. Fun, quirky, serious, happy, sad: any tone will do, and we plan to have a nice variety. But bring us something fresh and relevant to this crazy world we live in today. So without further ado, here are the details! Short Fiction (3K to 6K words) for  Behind the Mask: A Superhero Anthology We are currently seeking short stories for our next short fiction superhero themed anthology, Behind the Mask. Submission Deadline 9/15/16 Submission Guidelines: Include a cover email containing genre, word count, brief bio, and contact information Please confirm that your story has not been published before Attach your complete story using  Proper Short Story Manuscript Format in .doc, .docx, .txt or .rtf format. We do not accept reprints We do accept simultaneous submissions for short stories (but ask that you contact us immediately if your story is accepted elsewhere) Send to [email protected] with subject line: Superhero – Genre – Title – Author Payment: We pay .02 to .08 per word for short fiction Via: Meerkat Press.

Deadline: September 15, 2016 Payment: Accepted poems will be paid for at the following rate: US 3¢/word rounded to nearest dollar; minimum US $3, maximum $25. Payment is on publication. Eye to the Telescope 22, the Ghosts issue, will be edited by Shannon Connor Winward. Existence is a circle, and we err when we assign to it for measurement the limits of the cradle and the grave. —Manuel Acuña, “Before a Corpse” For this issue of Eye to the Telescope, I am looking for more than thumps in the attic and pretty dead girls on a moonlit road. I want the unexpected, the unmeasured—I want poems that belie the limits of life and afterlife and what we think a ghost story should be. Give me phantoms and poltergeists, yes, bean-sidhe and È Guǐ, pathos or parody, space ship specters or transmigrating alien souls—I want any and all of it, as long the poem has meat on its bones. No restrictions on genre or form, though graphic violence or gore will be a hard sell. More than anything, I want to be moved. Submission Guidelines SUBMISSION INSTRUCTIONS Please send submissions to [email protected] with the subject line “ETTT sub:” followed by the poet’s name. Please submit 1–5 poems in English (in body of email or attached as .rtf). Include a short bio. Deadline: September 15, 2016. The issue will appear on October 15, 2016. Payment and rights Accepted poems will be paid for at the following rate: US 3¢/word rounded to nearest dollar; minimum US $3, maximum $25. Payment is on publication. Payment can be made to either the translator or the poet or split between the translator and the poet, as agreed upon in each individual case. The Science Fiction Poetry Association normally uses PayPal to pay poets, but can also...