Events

Deadline: October 31st, 2020 Payment: 8 cents a word Theme: Interesting takes on how science will change our lives, see below for examples! Science fiction often thinks about the technology and science without considering the ways social structures will change as tech changes — or not. What will relationships look like in the future when we have complications like clones, uploaded intelligences, artificial brains, or body augmentation? What happens when emotions like love and friendship span vast distances — in space, in time, and in the heart? And as we acknowledge differences in gender in a way we never have before, what stories are finally given the space in which to emerge? Among the stories I hope to see: Stories that focus on the relationship between an individual and a community or communities, or even on relationships between communities or social groups. Stories that complicate sex and gender by showing how shifting technology may affect social attitudes and practices. Stories with romances that reinvent traditional tropes and recast them for the 21st century. Stories that experiment, astonish, and entertain.   This anthology is open to female and nonbinary writers. Writers of color, QUILTBAG writers, writers with disabilities, and neuro-diverse writers are actively encouraged to apply, as are writers from outside the United States. Open for submissions Oct 1-October 31. Submission portal. Guidelines: Please remove identifying information from the manuscript, but otherwise use standard manuscript format. Length: 500-5000 words (5k is going to be a tough sell) Buying: Original fiction; exclusive rights for 18 months with standard “best of” anthology exceptions. Paying: 8 cents a word (SFWA pro rates) No multiple or simultaneous submissions Timeline: Submissions open Oct 1 and close October 31. The first round of reading will run November 1 through the end of the month. All submissions will be informed...

Deadline: October 31st, 2020 Payment: $100 Theme: Time Travelers and Secret Agents FICTION SUBMISSION AND AUTHOR GUIDELINES The theme of Issue 1 is Time Travelers and Secret Agents. We are currently looking for stories that at least loosely fit into those categories, or concern alternate dimensions. What We Want The absolute best literature possible in the field of fantastic stories. The greatest emphasis of this magazine is the quality of writing. Whether an orthodox narrative tale, a dreamlike vignette, or a poetical prose scene, a story should be comprehensible on some level, stay truthful to the literary world that the author has created, and be pleasing or satisfying. Any type of science fiction or fantasy story is acceptable, such as a subtle metaphysical or surreal modern tale, a dark fantasy thriller, a science fiction mystery, or an imaginary world fantasy adventure. We hope for stories that are either fantastic with at least a hint of eroticism or erotic stories that have at least a hint of the fantastic. In terms of quality, some examples would be stories by Jorge Luis Borges, Fritz Leiber, Catherine Lucille Moore, Harlan Ellison, Ray Bradbury, Michael Moorcock, Jody Scott, Anne Rice, Robert Aickman, Jack Vance, Conrad Aiken, Giovanni Boccaccio, and Shirley Jackson. Comics would be work by creators such Moebius, Manara, or Esteban Maroto.  In TV or film, examples are harder to come by, as the mainstream has little true erotic content, and such non-mainstream work tends toward adult content or horror. A few examples of work that is erotic or contains erotic elements would be TV shows like Aeon Flux: The Animated Series or Lexx, and movies like Lair of the White Worm, Barbarella, The 10th Victim, Logan’s Run, or Danger Diabolik. Erotic Content Sexy Fantastic is looking for stories that deal frankly with...

Deadline: October 31st, 2020 Payment: $8 Theme: Love gone wrong Note: The author submitting MUST BE FEMALE (or identify as female). Deadline: Oct. 31, 2020 Payment: $8 flat fee per story (author must have a valid PayPal address as that will be used for payment) Publisher: Twisted Wing Productions Theme: Love Gone Wrong The theme can explore ANY type of love: romantic or platonic, obsessive, mother/daughter/son relationship, father/daughter/son, bestfriends, siblings, unrequited love, loss of love, falling in love with the wrong person, addiction, love/attachment for a specific place, location or building, student/teacher relationship, etc. The genre is HORROR. Stories MUST have elements of horror in them. The author submitting MUST BE FEMALE (or identify as female). The author must retain full rights to the work intended for our consideration and that the work itself is complete and not published anywhere else (including personal websites or social media). Having been previously published isn’t a requirement, if you have a compelling story, send it to us! Format: Word doc, 12 font, double space Times New Roman. Not a reprint. We are asking for exclusive first worldwide electronic and print rights for 18 months and the right to keep the story in print, and nonexclusive right to continue to publish for the life of the anthology. We do not place any limits on what the author does with the story after the exclusivity period. We are not looking for poetry or screenplays. Bonus: Characters in stories are own voices, POC, or LGBTQ Submission method: Please send story as an attachment (.doc or docx. Only) to azzurranoxyahoo.com Please include the following with your submission: Author (Legal Name) Pen name (if applicable) Email Story Title Word Count Third person biography The anthology will be published both in e-book and print formats with an estimated publication date of February 2021. Via: Azurra Nox.

Deadline: October 31st, 2020 Payment: $25.00 Theme: Short horror stories Note: Sorry for the short deadline! Just saw this one There’s nothing better than a short, sharp slice of flash fiction to get the mind working. 99 Tiny Terrors is an anthology that the reader can dip into for something deliciously dangerous in a short amount of time or spend an afternoon trolling through blood soaked stories from all over. There’s nothing better than a short, sharp slice of flash fiction to get the mind working. 99 Tiny Terrors is an anthology that the reader can dip into for something deliciously dangerous in a short amount of time or spend an afternoon trolling through blood soaked stories from all over. Simultaneous and Multiple Submissions: We do not accept simultaneous submissions. We will allow up to two (2) submissions per author. Note: only one can be accepted. Instructions: All fiction must be submitted through our Moksha online submission system. Please do not email your submissions. Manuscript must be in either .RTF, .DOC, or .DOCX format. Submit your manuscript in double-spaced Times New Roman or Courier font. Please include your byline as you’d like it to appear in publication. Keep your cover letter short and sweet. The Editor wants your story to do the talking. Crunchy bits: • Limited time open call: October 1-31. • Flash fiction wordcount: 500-1000 (firm) • Genre: Any flavor of horror. • Payment: $25.00 • Rights: Non-exclusive (story will only be published as part of the anthology as a whole) print, ebook, and audio rights in all languages throughout the world. What the Editor is looking for: • Neat twists or unexpected turns. • Atmospheric or unusual settings. • Stories that stick with the reader. • The Editor favors supernatural elements but you’re not restricted to that....

Deadline: October 31st, 2020 Payment: 3 (Euro) cents per word for original fiction and 1 (Euro) cent per word for translations of fiction into English Theme: Campbellian hard SF There are plenty of amazing print and online journals out there for ‘character-driven’ fiction, and we encourage you to read them. SPJ is not one of them, though. Hence, we are not interested in stories predominantly about the sentiments and subjective experiences of fictional people. We want hard SF that zooms out of the personal and lifts off into the structural, the systemic, the epic. We yearn for carefully crafted philosophical speculation that puzzles over the questions of the future and alternate pasts. And we have a soft spot for stories created as ‘artefacts’ (fictional, ‘in-universe’ non-fiction). So here are SPJ‘s quests: – Campbellian hard SF. Reaching back to the roots of classic sci-fi, these rigorous tales take themselves seriously and push the boundaries of our scientific imagination, scaling from the nano to the meta. The cast, if any, is functional and disposable. It’s the sociological, technological and indeed cosmic developments that sweep the reader up in an expanding sense of wonder. (For a contemporary long-form example that received mainstream attention, see the latter two books of Cixin Liu’s Three-Body Problem trilogy.) – Fictional non-fiction. The purest, most intimate form of world-building. A transcript of the last UN Security Council meeting before an extinction-level event. The dental bills of a cybernetic vampire. Interviews with eyewitnesses of a battle between Martians and archangels. Think ‘World War Z’, not ‘Walking Dead’. – Speculative philosophy. Extrapolating abstract ideas to examine the implications if they were to manifest. (See for instance The End of History, the Beginning of Hers in Vol. V. Issue 1. for a theological example of just what we mean.) (The first author to have a story published in each of the three categories...

Deadline: October 31st, 2020 Payment: $0.10/word up to 3,000 words for fiction. $300 flat rate above that. $5/poem flat rate for poetry. Theme: Speculative fiction that astute readers should be able to see how your story addresses the world we live in right now. What we Publish: Original fiction and poetry, all of which must be broadly “speculative fiction” (science fiction, fantasy, alt-history, magical realism, slipstream, or in some other way altered reality). Length: 12,000 words or less preferred, but you may submit stories up to 20,000 words. 30 lines or fewer for poetry. Rights Purchased: First worldwide English-language rights. Payment: $0.10/word up to 3,000 words for fiction. $300 flat rate above that. $5/poem flat rate for poetry. Simultaneous Submissions: Accepted. Please let us know immediately if your work sells elsewhere. Multiple Submissions: Accepted on a trial basis. Please do not dump your entire trunk on us or this will change. For fiction, we recommend not sending us multiple submissions unless there is a compelling reason to do so (in case we send feedback). Please submit each story separately. For poetry, please submit up to 10 poems in a single file. Reprints: By solicitation only. Query if your work was previously published but obscurely enough that you think it should not count. Translations: Accepted for first worldwide English publication. Response Time: We strive to respond to all submissions in less than 90 days. Query address: departuremirror gmail Departure Mirror Quarterly stories are: Current. Astute readers should be able to see how your story addresses the world we live in right now. Well written. Accessible to a mainstream American audience. Diverse. We mean this not only in terms of the types of stories we publish, but also in terms of the types of authors we publish. Writers from historically underrepresented and oppressed groups are especially encouraged to submit. Anti-violence. We do not publish anything that promotes...

Deadline: November 1st, 2020 Payment: short story, $25; short-short piece (up to 1000 words), $10; poem, $10 Theme: The Other Virginia The Other Virginia (November 1, 2020) To download a PDF file of the guidelines, click here . ALL SHORT STORIES, ESSAYS, POEMS, PHOTOGRAPHS and ART MUST RELATE TO ONE OF THE PREMISES SPECIFIED ABOVE. NOTE: Previously published pieces are welcome, provided that the submission fits the theme and that the author owns the copyright. The premise (target theme) must be an integral part of the plot, not necessarily the central theme but not merely incidental. Fewer than 20 double-spaced typewritten pages preferred. Indicate premise (target theme) on title page. Be sure to Indicate target theme in cover letter or on first page of manuscript. Include self-addressed, stamped envelope (SASE) with each submission. Rejected manuscripts unaccompanied by an SASE will not be returned. Response time: 3 months after premise deadline.  NO READER'S FEE. Mail to: THEMA, Box 8747, Metairie, LA 70011-8747. Outside the US: email [email protected] On acceptance for publication, we will pay the following amount: short story, $25; short-short piece (up to 1000 words), $10; poem, $10; artwork, $25 for cover, $10 for interior page display. Copyright reverts to author after publication. THEMA isn't for everyone. To find out why, click here. New to submitting manuscripts to journals? Click here to download a PDF file of a few basic guidelines. Unlike many publishers, we prefer works submitted by the authors themselves, without the involvement of an agent. Be sure to indicate premise and include SASE for each submission.  BE SURE to include a separate SASE for each premise. No handwritten manuscripts will be considered. NOTE: We do not accept e-mailed submissions EXCEPT from authors who live outside the U.S. For those living outside the U.S., submit manuscript as an email attachment (readable by MSWord ― either as a DOC file or an RTF file), and include...

Deadline: November 1st, 2020 Payment: $25.00 - $50.00 for fiction, $5.00 - $10.00 for poetry Theme: Story must begin with: Winter: Loud music filled the room, making it hard to hear anything else. Due date: November 1, 2020 We love that writers around the world are inspired by our first lines, and we know that not every story will be sent to us. However, we ask that you do not submit stories starting with our first lines to other journals (or post them online on public sites) until we've notified you as to our decision (usually three to four weeks after the deadline). When the entire premise of the publication revolves around one sentence, we don't want it to look as if we stole that sentence from another writer. If you have questions, feel free to drop us a line. Also, we understand that writers may add our first line to a story they are currently working on or have already completed, and that's cool. But please do not add our first 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 first lines. One more thing while I've got you here: Writers compete against one another for magazine space, so, technically, every literary magazine is running a contest. There are, however, literary magazines that run traditional contests, where they charge entry fees and rank the winners. We do not - nor will we ever - charge a submission fee, nor do we rank our stories in order of importance. Occasionally, we run contests to help come up with new first lines, or we run fun, gimmicky competitions for free stuff, but the actual journal is not a contest in the traditional sense. Fiction: All stories...

Deadline: November 1st, 2020 Payment: $0.01/word + a print copy of the anthology Theme: Adventure horror Off Limits Press is now accepting short fiction submissions for Far From Home, an anthology of adventure horror. Please carefully read the submission guidelines below before submitting. Submission Guidelines: Far From Home is an anthology of adventure horror. We are seeking original, unpublished short horror stories which strongly incorporate adventure. Adventure is intended to be interpreted broadly and may include, but is certainly not limited to, tales involving mountaineering, cave diving, the open sea, parkour, rafting, treasure hunting, arctic expedition, and caving. We are interested in and welcome most horror sub-genres, so long as the theme is strongly incorporated. Stories may include horror steeped in realism and/or the supernatural. Word Count: 2,000 - 8,000 words Deadline: The submission deadline is November 1st, 2020. Notification Deadline: All submissions will receive a decision by December 1st, 2020. Payment: $0.01/word + a print copy of the anthology Formatting: Please send submissions in standard manuscript format as a MS Word or PDF attachment. Please include a brief cover letter in the body of the email, including title, author name, and word count. Please put the title of the submission and the author name in the subject line. Please send submissions to: [email protected]. Please note: Cover art is subject to change. Submissions will not be accepted outside of the posted deadline. Via: Off Limits Press.

Deadline: November 1st, 2020 Payment: $75 Theme: Second chances We are pleased to announce there will be a short story anthology for Bouchercon 2021. Our goal is to raise money for the New Orleans public library, which is desperately in need of funding. All of the proceeds after publishing costs will be deducted and the rest will go to the library, along with the proceeds from our live and silent auctions. In addition to stories published by some of our guests of honor and invited authors, we are asking for blind submissions from our Bouchercon friends. We hope most of the stories in the anthology will come from these blind submissions, and will include emerging voices, new voices, and authors who are in the early years of publication. We are eager to hear from everyone, but if you have never been in a Bouchercon anthology before, we urge you to please submit! Submission guidelines: Short stories must be less than 4000 words. Stories must not have been published anywhere else previously. The theme of this anthology is second chances, redemption, second try, play it again. Since this is the second Bouchercon in New Orleans, we may call it Second Time Around— but that is still in the works.  Any ideas, love to hear them. The story DOES NOT have to be set in New Orleans. Your story should be submitted only to me at the email below. I will blind it and send it on to our staff of reviewers and readers. You will be paid $75.00 for each story we publish so you meet the guidelines for certain awards in our industry.  But you could donate that money back to New Orleans Public Library and get a tax write off and help them in their time of need. If...