Events

Deadline: September 30th, 2017 Payment: $5.00 flat rate plus equal share of 50% of the anthology’s royalties. Welcome to the Fluffy Bunny The Fluffy Bunny? You say? What kind of name is that for an adventurer’s bar? Well, it’s not only the name of the bar it’s also the name of that blade you see hanging over the bar. The blade I used to slay the ancient dragon Thorenoak. All adventurers are welcome here. But I have found the ones who are truly the bravest are not those who give themselves or their weapons grandiose names. They are the ones who are reluctant to tell their stories. However, the best stories come from the ones who have silly nicknames – like The Fluffy Bunny. So pull up a chair and tell us how your weapon earned its name. First drink is on the house. And depending on the quality of the tale another may follow as well. -- What we are looking for are Fantasy stories that feature your main character telling a tale about how they or their weapon earned their name. Humor is a plus. All stories need to start with: “This is my tale…” Please note the editor will be adding a frame to each story to maintain the illusion the story is taking place in The Fluffy Bunny and is being told to the bartender/patrons therein. You do not need to add any elements/breaks in the story – just tell the story about your hero and/or their weapon’s silly nickname. Break the story-writing rules if you want. If you use a tried and true plotline, twist it in an original and interesting way. Original stories are preferred. Query for reprints. ALL writers are encouraged to submit. Doesn’t matter if you’re a pro with years of credits,...

Deadline: September 30th, 2017 Payment: $50 for stories up to 1,500 words, rising to a maximum of $150 for stories up to 5,000 words. Does a train whistle in the distance make you excited, wistful, or afraid? Trains have fired the imaginations of many people, especially writers. Anna Karenina, Night on the Galactic Railroad, The Signal Man, Strangers on a Train, The Lady Vanishes, Murder on the Orient Express all use trains as their main setting, not to mention the trains in children’s books—like Thomas the Tank Engine, The Little Engine that Could, and The Polar Express. As travelers, we’ve been spurred to go farther because of trains, see new things, take chances. Trains have also, sometimes, pushed us too far, sliced the wilderness, inserted us into places to draw out resources, assisted in invasion. Trains, in a sense, even created Time as we know it. Trains altered our perceptions of identity, place, even of destiny. Suddenly, people could travel far away quickly, leave their families and homes for a better life, or opportunity—or people could escape the destiny of location. Step on a train, and you never know what you might find, or with whom you might cross paths. In essence, trains are Change. We’re looking for your stories of trains—fantasy, steampunk, science fiction, horror, slipstream, urban fantasy, apocalyptic, set in any time, any place,—we’ll buy a ticket on all of them. We’d like to see what you can do with a train. A good part of your story should take place on a train—or most, if you can do it. We don’t care what era, what planet, or how the train might look differently there (it might even be alive!) or even if the train is moving. We just want that train—what you do with it is your magic. This book will be...

Deadline: September 30th, 2017 Payment: Royalty Split Announcing NOIRVILLE an exciting new competition for crime fiction authors. We get hundreds of submissions every week and in among all the novels we've noticed an increasing number of writers pitching short stories to us - at Fahrenheit we're passionate about giving new talent a chance to break through so we thought what better way to kill two birds with one stone? So how is it gonna work? Simple. The best 12 stories (as chosen by our panel of judges) will be published in Fahrenheit's first short story collection NOIRVILLE which will be published in both eBook & paperback towards the end of 2017. Who are the judges? Rather than the usual publishing industry suspects we've compiled a panel of judges made up of four of the very best book bloggers around. As an added bonus, Jo Perry, Fahrenheit's very own High Priestess Of Noir, has agreed to chair the judging panel. Jo Perry (Author) Kate Moloney (Bibliophile Book Club) Gordon McGhie (Grab This Book) Janet Emson (From First To Last Page) Verity Wilde (Verity Reads Books) What does it cost to enter? Unlike most short story competiions this one is FREE TO ENTER and winning authors will be paid royalties on their stories. The Rules You know we hate rules so we've tried to keep this simple.... 1} Stories must be LESS THAN 7500 words in length 2) Stories must NOT have been previously published. 3) Stories must be set firmly in the Crime/Thriller genre. 4) Existing Fahrenheit authors are very welcome to submit entries but the judges will be voting blind so there will be zero chance of preferential treatment. 5) This is meant to fun so use your common sense, stick to the rules, and don't be a dick. 6) ALL our decisions are...

Deadline: September 30th, 2017 Payment: 0.06 per word and a contributor's copy Tales of Ruma is an anthology of stories inspired by Greek and Roman mythology. Some of the stories are set in the world of the Ruma: Dawn of Empire tabletop role playing game, while others are in worlds of their own, perhaps even alternate versions of Earth. The anthology will be released in paperback and electronic (epub and mobi) format, with potentially a hardcover limited edition. Submission Window: August 15 – September 30, 2017. Length: 500-5000 words. What We Want: Original stories set in the world of Ruma, Earth, or another world, which build upon the themes (such as heroism, the gods, and the arcane) and imagery of Greek and Roman mythology. Please see below for additional details on the world of Ruma. Stories set in the world of Ruma do not have to meet any exact criteria as the world is fluid so anything can fit somewhere. What We Don’t Want: We would rather not see anything overly sexual or with excessive violence/swearing. The audience level is teen and above. Format: RTF or DOC/DOCX in Standard Manuscript Format, or as close as possible. Send Submissions To: Please send submissions to seneschal at azurekeep dot com, with “Tales of Ruma Submission” in the subject line. Limit of 1 submission per author. Payment: $0.06 per word + contributor copy (paperback and electronic). Payment upon acceptance via PayPal. Rights Sought: First Worldwide print and electronic English language rights. Exclusivity for 90 days from date of release. Non-exclusive print, ebook, and audio rights afterward. Copyrights for stories set in the world of Ruma remain with the author. About the world of Ruma: Ruma is an alternate Roman Empire set on an alternate version of Earth where the gods and magic are real. The RPG is...

Deadline: September 30th, 2017 Payment: Flash 500-2,000: New:$10.00 Reprint: $5.00 - Short 2,001-8,000: New:$20.00 Reprint: $10.00 What We Want We are OPEN to regular submissions until September 30, 2017. Unless specified otherwise, we’re looking for stories that are: 500-8,000 words long. First person. Arguably mad science related. The mad science is negotiable. The rest is not. We are strongly biased towards science fiction, fantasy, and horror. We are also committed to publishing work by authors belonging to marginalized groups. If you are LGBTQ, a person of color, or belong to some other group that is underrepresented in the genre, we really want to hear from you. When it comes to “first person,” this can includes fictional newspaper articles, press releases, brochures, etc. We’re also happy to consider reprints and more than one submission at a time. Do not send us poetry, screenplays, stories that are being considered by another market (also known as simultaneous submissions), or long winded ramblings from disgruntled mad scientists without any plot. Stories should be submitted in Standard Manuscript Format. Here’s a an explanation of what that means. We currently only open for submissions one month at a time. Sometimes we will hold a story until the end of that period before deciding. If you haven’t heard from us within a month of our submission period closing, send us an email. If Accepted Stories will require a fictional identity for the narrator, with a bio. Authors will still be credited under their own name as follows: Title of Your Story An essay by , as provided by . We will send a contract for esignature. For new stories, we will ask for exclusive first worldwide electronic and print rights for one year and nonexclusive rights afterwards. For reprints, we will ask for nonexclusive reprinting rights. Payment is based on story...

Deadline: September 30th, 2017 Payment: $30 per story, $10 per poem Please read the following in its entirety before submitting. The rules are needed, and EC will not consider your work if they have not been followed. It's important to read samples of published work on EC. You can find just a few examples . HERE IS HOW YOU SUBMIT: No unsolicited work of any kind is being accepted. Only the kind of submissions outlined below will be accepted at EC. -- Six times a year, writers and poets will have a chance to submit fairy-tale inspired stories and poems. No non-fiction of any kind. -- Here are the submission periods: Months--January, March, May, July, September, November.      -- Days of those months--the first through the 30th. That's starting at 12 a.m. on the first day of a submission month. That's ending at 11:59 p.m. of the 30th of a submission month (28th for February). Those are Eastern Standard Times.      -- No stories or poems will be accepted in the following months, so please do not send any: February, April, June, August, October, December.      -- You submit through email only. Please use this address only: [email protected]. That's for submissions only.      -- All questions, but no submissions, should be sent to [email protected].      -- Your last name, the month and the year should be in the subject line of the email.      -- You must be 18 years old or older, but may be from any country.      -- You should try to use American English word forms and punctuation.      -- Do not send attachments. They will not be opened or considered. Paste your work in the body of an email.      -- You will receive a response telling you I have received your...

Deadline: October 1st, 2017 Payment: $20.00 - $40.00 and a contributor's copy Fiction: All stories must end with the last line provided. The line cannot be altered in any way, unless otherwise noted by the editors. The story should be between 300 and 5,000 words (this is more like a guideline and not a hard-and-fast rule; going over or under the word count won't get your story tossed from the slush pile). Also, we understand that writers may add our last line to a story that they are currently working on or have already completed, and that's cool. But please do not add our last line to a previously published story and submit it to us. We do not accept previously published stories, even if they have been repurposed for our last lines. All Stories: Writers should include a two- to three-sentence biography of themselves that will appear in the magazine should their story run. Multiple Submissions: We don't mind if you want to submit multiple stories for the same issue. However, it is unlikely we will use more than one of your stories in the same issue. Submissions: We prefer you send manuscripts via e-mail to submission (@) thelastlinejournal (dot) com. We accept stories in MS Word or Word Perfect format (we prefer attachments). Please do not send .pdf versions of your story. Make sure your name and contact information, as well as your bio, are part of the attachment. Stories also can be sent to The Last Line's post office box (PO Box 250382, Plano, TX, 75025-0382). No manuscripts will be returned without an accompanying SASE with sufficient return postage. Here is the last line for 2017: Benjamin was a man of his word. Due date: October 1, 2017 Notification: We don't make decisions about stories until after...

Deadline: October 1st, 2017 Payment: Contributor's Copy Thurston Howl Publications is now accepting submissions for its furry anthology, Furry Frolics (tentative title); Fred Patten, editor. Deadline: October 1, 2017 Word count: 2,500-8,000; a little above and a little below will be acceptable Humor has been a rarity in furry fiction.  We aim to change that!  Furry Frolics will friz your fur and tickle your tail.  We want your funniest fiction. There have been stories with anthro animals mixing with humans in our civilization:  what would it REALLY be like for a furry in our world?  Having to wear clothing on top of thick fur?  The ever-popular "tails and doors don't mix"?  Or having tails and wearing pants at all; or tails and chairs with no tail-holes?  Being in a stinky crowd with an animal's enhanced scent?  Or: being the manager of a hotel that caters to all sentient animals, predators and prey, of all sizes?  (Think Zootopia.) Funny-animal stories will be accepted, but try to make it a genuine anthro-animal story, not one that would work just as well if the characters were all humans.  Also remember that "funny" is not the same thing as "silly", although if you can make it both, go ahead.  (What is the anthro equivalent of a pie in the face?  Remember that most mammals besides humans and horses don't sweat.) We will NOT accept: Racism, sexism, or discrimination presented in a positive light. Pedophilia or sex with characters under the age of 18 presented in a positive light. Rape, torture, dubious consent, forced seduction presented in a positive light. Snuff or Necrophilia presented in a positive light. If you are in doubt, ASK. Better to ask then to get an outright rejection! You can submit up to three stories, but we will only accept one per author (if any)....

Deadline: October 7th, 2017 Payment: $.02 a word and royalties B Cubed Press is proud to Open Cosmic Caravans for submissions. Cosmic Caravans is a science fiction anthology that will focus on Pre-Teen readers. The work will be illustrated. We are looking for stories or poems that re-enforce strength of character and scientific principles in a way children can relate to. We want to entertain and challenge curious readers to learn more about the universe, life, and the science that makes it all possible. See our Facebook Group, Cosmic Caravan Your sci-fi story or poem can be funny, scary, somber, mystery, wibbly-wobbly, thriller, or a fantastical romp through time and space. Whatever it is, you should be sure to explain the science behind it. Leave the reader learning something. Cosmic Caravans, from B Cubed Press: we’re putting the science back in fiction. Guidelines + Other Info ● Submissions can range from 300-3,000 words. We’re looking for quality over quantity. ● Stories must be presented in age appropriate ways. Anything over a “PG-13” rating will be automatically rejected. If Star Trek wouldn’t air it, it’s too risky. ● Fanfiction is not allowed. Sorry/not sorry. ● Payment is $.02 a word, plus a royalties share. Poetry pays $0.25 per-line (up to $25). ● Submissions are open from July 1-October 7. Please allow 2-3 weeks for our editors to review your stories. ● Manuscript format is required. Unsure what that means? Feel free to ask! ● Reprints are accepted. ● Multiple submissions are accepted, however we ask that you notify the publisher if your story is bought elsewhere. ● Cosmic Caravan will be edited by Bob Brown, Cheyenne Brown Ockerman, and Nathan Ockerman ● Submissions can be sent to [email protected], with the subject line “Cosmic Caravan Submission; .” Via: Cosmic Caravan's Facebook Group.

Deadline: October 15th, 2017 Payment: $20 per story Please don't query us about your story submission. We don't have the manpower to answer such queries. An editor will email you back as soon as possible with the decision about your story. This can take a few days, or, up to three months. We make every effort to get back to authors in a timely manner but we get a lot of submissions so sometimes it's not possible. A note on our editorial policy: before publication we may edit the story for length or readability. However, we always remain true to the spirit of the story. Issues are published at the end of February, May, August, and November. We reserve the right to shift publication date slightly, as necessary. We have reading periods for each issue, though we never close to submissions. February closes January 15 May closes April 15 August closes July 15 November closes October 15 Please do not submit the same story more than once, and please submit only one story at a time. We consider any story between 250 and 7000 words with speculative fiction elements. We prefer science fiction, fantasy, and the macabre, but we're willing to push the limits of traditional forms of these genres. We do not consider poetry, stories with over-the-top sex or violence, serials, novels, fan fiction, or non-fiction. We don't accept multiple submissions; in other words, only submit one story at a time and wait for a response before submitting another. We accept simultaneous submissions as long as you let us know up front and tell us as soon as it's accepted elsewhere. We do not publish reprints, including anything that has appeared on a website. We pay $20 for each story we publish. We buy first-printing world exclusive rights for four months....