Events

Deadline: March 15th, 2020 Payment: 8 cents per word Theme: Positive futures, SF, urban fantasy. Gotta Wear Eclipse Glasses - Positive futures, SF, urban fantasy. The future we all want. Examples might include effects of technology on the young (online learning, socialization), climate mitigation and adaptation, new opportunities to boldly go where none have gone before The untented Kosmos my abode, I pass, a willful stranger My mistress the open road And the bright eyes of danger (Robert Louis Stevenson, Youth and Love) Reading period: February 15 - March 15, 2020 Writer deadline: March 15, 2020 Publication date: June 1, 2020 Third Flatiron Publishing is based in Boulder, Colorado, and Ayr, Scotland. We are looking for submissions to our (approximately) quarterly themed anthologies. Our focus is on science fiction and fantasy and anthropological fiction. We want tightly plotted tales in out-of-the-ordinary scenarios. Light horror is acceptable, provided it fits the theme. Please send us short stories that revolve around age-old questions and have something illuminating to tell us as human beings. Fantastical situations and creatures, exciting dialog, irony, mild horror, and wry humor are all welcome. Stories should be between 1,500 and 3,000 words. Inquire if longer. Role models for the type of fiction we want include Kurt Vonnegut, Arthur C. Clarke, Dan Simmons, Connie Willis, Vernor Vinge, Iain Banks, Alastair Gray, and Ken Kesey. We want to showcase some of the best new shorts available today. For each anthology, we will also accept  a few very short humor pieces on the order of the "Shouts and Murmurs" feature in The New Yorker Magazine (600 words or so). These can be written from a first-person perspective or can be mini-essays that tell people what they ought to do, how to do something better, or explain why something is like it is, humorously. An SF/Fantasy...

Deadline: March 15th, 2020 Payment: 8 cents/6 pence for each word (SFWA qualifying market rate) and 6 cents/4 pence for reprints. Theme: The Lovecraft Mythos, more details below! Note: Reprints accepted Lovecraft Mythos Anthology Featuring a foreword by Ramsey Campbell, this offering of H.P. Lovecraft's shared universe will be a thrilling immersion into the world of Old Ones and the Elder Gods, an ancient race of terrifying beings. In Lovecraft's vision we live in a deep, but fragile, illusion unable to comprehend the ancient beings, such as the Cthulhu who lies dead but dreaming in the submerged city of R'lyeh, waiting to rise then wreak havoc on our realm of existence. Lovecraft used the mythos to create a background to his fiction, and challenged many writer companions to add their own stories. Clark Ashton Smith, Robert E. Howard, Robert Bloch, Frank Belknap Long, Henry Kuttner were amongst the first but over the years many others such as Ramsey Campbell, Lin Carter and August Derleth added their voices to the many mythic cycles, developing themes and new fictional pathways for the town of Arkham, and the creatures Azathoth and Nyarlathotep. The Lovecraft Mythos is fertile ground for any writer of supernatural, horror, fantasy and science fiction, so for this edition we are opening our submissions for brand new stories, many published here for the first time, to continue expanding the shared universe. Word count is 3000 - 7000 and submissions will be accepted between 24th February and 15th March - please send to [email protected]. Payment will be 8 cents/6 pence for each word (SFWA qualifying market rate) and 6 cents/4 pence for reprints. If your story is a reprint please let us know in your submission email. Multiple submissions are accepted. We will aim to read each story and confirm its status within 4 months of the...

Deadline: March 15th, 2020 Payment: $10 Theme: 90s erotic horror Deadline: March 15, 2020 Word count: 2,000-8,000; a little above and a little below will be acceptable There’s a club on the outskirts of town. The neon lights outside flicker over silhouetted forms smoking. Inside, a rat bartender watches forms dancing, glares exchanged, and drinks sloshing. The bass is loud, and the dancers strip more and more...and more. Welcome to the Electric Sewer. This anthology is set in a neonpunk world in the 90s. You can take your characters anywhere. This is pretty open world! The only rules are these: 1. It has to be furry erotic horror. 2. You have to at least mention the nightclub Electric Sewer, even if no one goes there! 3. Carlos is the name of the pink rat bartender and owner of the Electric Sewer. He can be in your story, but just know his personality is stoic, more of a sinister watcher than a participant in what goes on at the club. Other than those three things, you have free reign! What is neonpunk? First of all, think of what cyberpunk is and does. It’s often progressive and alternative and based on a digital sci fi technological world. Now, move that world backward in time to the 80s/90s. So examples aesthetically would be Stranger Things, Caravan Palace’s Lone Digger music video, the neon chapter of the video game Infamous Second Son, elements of the music video Into the Night by Nero, etc. In a nutshell, it has this neon aesthetic, and characters can be whatever species and whacky colors you want! It has a setting in the 80s / 90s. And it’s still punk! Possible stories might include things like this: a slasher is killing strippers at the club and a gay gang...

Deadline: March 25th, 2020 Payment: $50 Theme: Poetry, Short Essays, Fiction, and Art by those affected by gun violence. Swallow Publishing, in association with Mythic Picnic, is soliciting works for HUMANS IN THE WILD: Reactions to a Gun Loving Country. The anthology features Kathy Fish, author of Collective Nouns for Humans in the Wild, and we will choose approximately 30 additional works from other authors, artists, and people at large. Submissions must be original, but may be previously published works, and should be no more than 2,500 words in length. Selected authors will be paid $50. The anthology will be sold in print and eBook. We will be donating a percentage of net proceeds from sales to charity, and encourage you to donate to a charity of your choice as well. If you choose to donate your $50, please tell us about your chosen charity and why you choose to donate. Though the editors of HUMANS IN THE WILD prefer donations to anti-gun violence charitable organizations, we understand there are many problems in the 21st century that may be nearer to your heart. And if you’ve lost faith in charities, you can tell us about that if you want to as well. An index at the back of the anthology will include a bio on each contributor, including your explanation of where the $50 is going and why, but only if you wish to include that information. Paste your submission into the body of the email, or attach as a PDF/Docx/JPG. Include your contact information in the body of your email, your bio, and remember to tell us about your preferred charity, your reason for donating, or your reason for choosing not to donate. Donation, and explaining your donation, is totally optional and is not a requirement for acceptance. Please send submissions to [email protected]. The last day for...

Deadline: March 28th, 2020 Payment: $3 Theme: Ideas: April Fool's Day, Passover, Easter, Tax Day, Earth Day, World Immunization Week We are looking for some suitable stories for April 2020, including: April Fool's Day Passover Easter Tax Day Earth Day World Immunization Week The deadline for these stories is March 27, 2020, at the end of the day (11:59 PM Pacific Time). Writing Guidelines Every Day Fiction is looking for very short (flash) fiction, of up to  1000 words. There’s no such thing as too short — if you can do the job in 50 words, have at it! — but our readers prefer pieces that tell or at  least hint at a complete story (some sort of action or tension rising  to a moment of climax, and at least a clue toward a resolution, though  it doesn’t have to be all spelled out). All fiction genres are acceptable, and stories that don’t fit neatly into any genre are welcome too. While personal experiences and other  non-fiction can be great sources of inspiration, please turn them into  fiction for us, or send them elsewhere. Our readership is adult, so children’s stories are unlikely to be accepted unless they are relevant to adults as well. On the other hand, we are not impressed by gratuitous sex and violence, or pointlessly foul  language; edgy content should be necessary and appropriate to the plot  and characters. It ought to go without saying that any story submitted to Every Day Fiction must be your own unpublished original creation. If  you publish a story on a blog, even your own personal blog, or any  website accessible to the general public (i.e., if the story can be  found and read online without a password or friend status or other  limitation), it is considered published and therefore inappropriate for...

Deadline: March 28th, 2020 Payment: 6 cents per word for original, 2 cents for reprints Theme: Well written original work in science fiction, fantasy, myth, legend, fairy tales, and eldritch, in written, podcast, video, and/or graphic story form, and from around the world. Note: Reprints welcome Submissions Schedule We have a regular submissions schedule, easy to remember and plan for: four times a year, one week each time, midnight E.S.T. to midnight E.S.T., at the beginning of each season of the year: March 21 - 28, June 21 - 28, September 21 - 28, December 21 - 28 We began <a href="https://cosmicrootsandeldritchshores.com/submissions/the-kepler-award/">The Kepler Award</a> this spring.  The purpose of the award is to recognize and encourage writers of excellent science fiction and fantasy stories that creatively extrapolate on known science in constructive and exciting ways. You can learn about <a href="https://cosmicrootsandeldritchshores.com/submissions/the-kepler-award/">The Kepler Award here.</a> We pay 6¢ per word for new fiction, 2¢ per word for fiction reprints, 2 - 6¢ per word for new fact-based work, 1- 4¢ per word for reprinted fact articles. Reprints must not have been published elsewhere within the past year or be available for sale online. For reading impaired individuals, our submissions manager and 'forget password' have a captcha compatible with screen readers. &nbsp; Writers Guidelines We accept new work as well as reprints, anywhere from 1000 word flash fiction on up, but all else being equal, shorter pieces will be favored. We also accept poetry.  We have tough standards but only care about the quality of the writing, storytelling ability, characters, plot, and ideas, not whether you're new or established.  Submit only work you are proud of -- if you don't love it, neither will our readers!  If in doubt, edit it down further.  And further. For the many writers who valued our...

Deadline: April 30th, 2020 Payment: $60 USD for fiction and $30 USD for poetry Theme: Speculative fiction of all types Fiction and Poetry Guidelines Arsenika is looking for previously unpublished original fiction and poetry up to 1,000 words long. Payment is $60 USD for fiction and $30 USD for poetry for first world electronic rights and non-exclusive audio rights. We hope to raise the poetry rate to $60 as well in the future—please support us on Patreon if you’d like to help us reach our goal. Submit no more than two flash fiction pieces and five poems at a time, and please make sure you fill out the form again for each piece you send, unless the pieces are meant to be read together (e.g. a triptych of poems). All work should be in Standard Manuscript Format (fiction format/poetry format). Format poetry exactly as you would like to see it online—use italics for italics, underlines for underlines, boldface for boldface, etc. Send only TXT, RTF, DOC, and DOCX files. Simultaneous submissions are allowed. Multiple submissions are allowed, but please have no more than two flash fiction pieces and five poems in the submissions queue at a time. We try to respond to all submissions within 30 days. If you haven’t heard from us in 90 days, please send us a query at [email protected]. Our secondary email address is [email protected]. Remember: Don’t self-reject. We use Moksha to manage submissions. If you are ready to submit, please use the button below to reach our Moksha page. Do not email submissions. Submit to Arsenika Reprints Arsenika does not accept unsolicited reprints. Payment is $30 upon acceptance. Art Arsenika pays $100 for reprint art. Please feel free to query us at [email protected] with a link to your portfolio. Questions Q. Can I submit multiple times per submissions period? A. Yes. Please have no more than two flash fiction pieces and five poems...

Deadline: March 31st, 2020 Payment: Royalties Organic Ink: Volume Three (Poetry) (Not Rated) Deadline – March 31st, 2020 Publication – June 2020 Word Count – Word count limit has been revoked. Theme – There is no theme for this anthology. Poetry about love, hate, greed, depression, etc. Haikus, epics, etc. * Introduction of yourself should be a short biography in 3rd Person between 100-250 words. Upon acceptance, this will be used within the anthology. Send a bio with every single anthology submission. We work with hundreds of authors and will not take time to retrieve yours from a previous anthology. * Poetry submissions: All poetry needs to be contained within a single e-mail. Each poem should be in a separate document. Haikus may be grouped together. * All e-mails should be addressed to “Dear Editor.” After receiving edits back, the author has two weeks to return the submission for formatting. All submissions will be reviewed within thirty (30) days of the anthology’s submission deadline. This ensures submission calls do not close early and gives everyone a chance to submit. You will know your submission has been received for consideration by receiving a generic response. Whether accepted or rejected, you will always receive a response. View our blog post on the topic of how to submit to a publisher.   Failure to submit following all of the guidelines will result in an immediate refusal. You are able to submit again before the submission call deadline.   Rating – Check each anthologies‘ rating. Word count – Check each anthologies‘ word count requirements. E-mail address to submit to – [email protected]   NOTICE –  Failure to submit correctly will result in refusal of submission. Via: Dragon Soul Press.

Deadline: March 31st, 2020 Payment:  Contributor's copy and possibly another form of payment Deadline for submissions is March 31, 2020. Reading begins after this deadline. Publication date is June 1st, 2020. The Closet It wasn’t right. That’s what they said. It wasn’t right, it wasn’t natural. Well, GX38 thought, if it’s not natural, why do I feel this way? GX loved the feeling of human flesh against its metallic shell. It loved the way humans made sounds for joy, sounds for fun, and even the sounds they made when they “sang”. But the Programmers were against it. That’s not what GX had been designed for. That’s not how things worked. GX stared in awe, sensations thrilling through its circuits as Elizabeth literally danced back into its view, a smile on her face as she laughed and spun. “To hell with what the Programmers say,” GX determined. “I love whom I love.” What We Want We want your stories about what it was like having to be in the closet, or when you came out of the closet, and how your life has been affected by being part of the LGBTQ+ community. Talk about being Ace. Talking about being gender fluid. Talk about how people perceive you, love you, hate you, accept you, or not, but tell it in the way YOU need to tell it. As the above example, a robot loving a human is “unnatural”, but it could easily be the metaphor of any homosexual relationship. So, write your experiences – be they good or bad – and tell them in full honesty, tell them in fantasy, tell them in science fiction, or however else you feel the need to express yourself. We want your stories. We want you to vent, to cheer for friends, to show how awful...

Deadline: March 31st, 2020 Payment: $0.06/word IT’S TIME TO MAKE A DEAL WITH THE DEVIL… With the success of our first MIDNIGHT anthology, MIDNIGHT IN THE GRAVEYARD, it’s time to roll out the 2nd in the series, MIDNIGHT IN THE PENTAGRAM. Silver Shamrock Publishing is now accepting submissions for the MIDNIGHT IN THE PENTAGRAM anthology. We are looking for original Occult/Demons/Possession/Satanism horror stories with an Exorcist/The Omen/Rosemary’s Baby/Hereditary meets EC Comics/ Creepshow/Tales From the Crypt kind of vibe. Specific submission guidelines: Submit by email to: [email protected] Deadline: March 31st, 2020 Length: up to 6000 words Format: Preferred format is Doc or Docx, double-spaced with author email at the top of the first page. - Please use the anthology title, MIDNIGHT IN THE PENTAGRAM, in the subject heading of your email. - A writer's CV with a summary of previous publications, awards, recognition, influences hometown and social media links. - The word count. - Acknowledgement of receipt of your manuscript will be emailed within 3 business days - Successful authors will receive a contract upon acceptance. Once we have a signed contract by the author and Silver Shamrock Publishing, payment will be made within 30 days via PayPal. Payment: Professional rate of $0.06/word. Note: This is an invitation AND open-submission anthology (approx. 75% invitation/25% open-submission). With the All-Star cast of horror writers we assemble, this will prove to be a very competitive open-submission, with us only taking the very best entries. Good luck! Via: Silver Shamrock Publishing.