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Deadline: August 31st, 2023 Payment: Royalties and a contributors copy Theme: An anthology of new, original weird and strange fiction set between 1938 and 1946 CORE CONCEPT: An anthology of new, original weird and strange fiction set between 1938 and 1946 – from (and including) the Spanish Civil War to the immediate winding down of conflicts after World War Two. Weird fiction is a mode of writing which includes the subversion of many standard tropes, or more imaginative interpretations, and has a strong psychological component, so please bear that in mind. SETTING: Geographically, stories should fall in the zone from Ireland to Russia, the Arctic Circle to the Mediterranean shores. Stories can be set during direct military conflicts or far from battle, where distant wars have local repercussions for society or individuals. We’re not looking for ‘war stories’ so much as stories set DURING the war across Europe and showing some awareness of its impact. This was a bleak time for most. Go inventive with this one, such as (a few throwaway illustrations): Something unnatural walking through the fires of the London Blitz German occupiers learning terror in an isolated Norwegian village Dread and disquiet amongst the Free French in Tunisia US troops lost in the Ardennes Families in Britain sensing a wrongness about returnees Torn loyalties and minds in Ireland Horror in the snows of the Eastern Front An Italian soldier dealing with fear by disassociating from reality Balkan partisans trapped in the mountains Communities trying to pretend that there is no war APPROACH: Submissions could cover themes such as the intrusion of the ab-natural into the natural, the changing nature of society, and psychosocial issues at any level. Cosmic Horror is very relevant — explore the realisation that we are potentially insignificant in the cosmos, and that our understanding of the...

Deadline: August 31st, 2023 Payment: AU$5.00 - under 3.000 words,. AU$10.00 - between 3,000 and 7,000 words, AU$15.00 - between 8,000 and 11,000 words, AU$20.00 - between 11,000 and 20, 000 words Theme: All genres, all themes! Yabblins is our theme-free collection. All themes, all genres, all the time. Deadline: August 31 2023 Word count: 1000 - 20,000 words Payment: AU$5.00 - under 3,000 words AU$10.00 - between 3,000 and 7,000 words AU$15.00 - between7,000 and 11,000 words AU$20.00 - between 11,000 and 20,000 words Please ensure that you read through the general guidelines and format your submission accordingly. If you have any specific questions please contact us using the form on the home page or via the listed social media accounts. To help make sure that your submission gets to the correct place, please include the following in the subject line of your email: Yabblins - Story Title. Via: Gypsum Sound Tales.

Deadline: August 31st, 2023 Prizes: First Place – £20, Second Place – £10, Third Place – £10 Theme: Halloween Short Stories We are currently OPEN for submissions. The winners of the 2023 Halloween competition will be announced in October. We’ll be back with another competition in the new year! Keep an eye out for the next theme. Submit stories to [email protected] – please read the below guidelines before submitting. 2023 Halloween Short Story Competition We want your spookiest horror short stories! Anything goes: from your classic ghosts, vampires and werewolves to something a little stranger. We are looking for short stories of no longer than 2,500 words that include horror elements. This means the overall genre can be non-horror, but there must be something in there that is spooky and gives us a scare. It could be a monster story, a killer on the loose, someone/something unnatural, or somewhere haunted. It’s up to you! If it keeps us up at night, it counts. Closing Date: August 31st 2023, 11:59 PM Winners Announced: October 2023 Prizes: First Place – £20 Second Place – £10 Third Place – £10 The top 15 to 20 stories will be published in our Halloween anthology in October 2023. For this competition, all submissions from young writers (aged 16 and under) will be judged separately for our Young Writer’s Award. The prize for this is £10 and website publication. Submission Guidelines Your story must be no longer than 2,500 words (not including the title) Only one story permitted per person; you can enter again if you entered our previous competitions Stories must be in English All stories should be written in Times New Roman, in 12pt, and double spaced. Stories must be submitted in Microsoft Word Please include your name (or preferred pseudonym), age, story title,...

Deadline: August 31st, 2023 Payment: 2 cents per word and royalties and a paperback for US authors Theme: Bold, imaginative fantasy, horror, and sci-fi sculpted to thrill and entertain readers with the bizarre or delve into the shadows. Finish it off with a twist of betrayal! Our 2024 edition. Submissions open on June 1, 2023. Theme: Hidden Villains: Betrayed– Bold, imaginative fantasy, horror, and sci-fi sculpted to thrill and entertain readers with the bizarre or delve into the shadows. Finish it off with a twist of betrayal! Betrayed- double-cross, fail, deceive, cheat, sell-out, let down, stitch up, rat out, turn traitor, rat on, expose, reveal, lay bare, stab in the back. There is no restriction as to how you incorporate the theme into your story as long as the genre falls within Speculative Fiction, including Sci-Fi or Fantasy. We encourage you to weave the theme into an engaging story with well-developed characters and deep emotion. Suspense and thrillers are encouraged over horror for this anthology, but a great horror story will rise to the top. Stories that contain infanticide, rape, or gratuitous gore will not be accepted. Submission Period: June 1, 2023 to August 31, 2023 Submissions: 1 per author; no reprints, no simultaneous submissions, no AI; Submission Cost: Free Word Limit: 2,000 to 8,000 words Submission Guidelines: Anonymous submission with no author name in document; 12 pt Times or Arial; .Doc or .Docx; double-space; first line indent; no tabs used. Genres: Fantasy, Sci-Fi Anticipated Pay: .02 per word + Royalty share from all Draft 2 Digital sales. A paperback author’s copy will be provided for US authors. Authors outside of the US will receive at least a digital copy, depending on shipping costs on a case by case basis. Each story will receive a share from Draft 2 Digital’s wide...

Deadline: August 31t, 2023 Payment: $5 Theme: Weirder Still As Quarter Press continues to grow, we’re adding another coin to our pocketful of change. We want to offer a space for shorter works to mingle with art and other bits of nonsense, so we bring you The Quarter(ly): It just makes cents. 2023’s Themes and Deadlines: Weirder Still (Aug. 31) What’ve you got to show us? Stories and / or Poems For Stories: We’re open to micro works all the way up to 10,000 words. Just keep two things in mind: We want to be engaged and the submission must be completed (no pitches, please!) For Poems: We’d love to see up to five poems from you, but you can always just send one, too. Art As long as it has some tie to the current issue’s theme, we’re open to see any art created in any medium at any time. Just know that it will need to “work in print” and—might—be presented in black and white. For ART ONLY, you may choose to submit via email by sending jpgs, PDFs, or PNGs to chrisatquarterpress(at)gmail(dot)com Graphic Stories Show us your comic strips or complete short works; we’d love to see them all! Please try to keep submissions to 20 pages or less. Feel free to also send a collection of comic strips / one shot comics, as well. (Please note that our publication size / dimensions might change between issues. Our “Norm” is 6x9”). These must be COMPLETE works. For Graphic Work / Comics, you may choose to submit via email by sending jpgs, PDFs, or PNGs to chrisatquarterpress(at)gmail(dot)com Analysis / Interviews / Reviews As long as it is tied to the theme in some way, we’d love to see any and all media analysis (film, music, literature, etc.), interviews...

  Deadline: August 31st, 2023 Payment: $20 + a contributor copy of the magazine. We pay $10 (per piece) for work published in our online venues. Theme: ALL genres of horror, as well as sci-fi and dark fantasy Broken Antler is a literary magazine and publisher of work that is dark, speculative, experimental, unsettling, and absurd. BAM Quarterly, Broken Antler’s online journal, publishes creative work four times a year (during the months of October, January, April, and July). Submissions for Issue 1 open June 1 and close August 31. The Marrow, Broken Antler’s blog and home of our LGBTQIA+ creator series, is updated biweekly and currently accepting pitches for interviews, reviews, and essays, as well as creative submissions of micro fiction, poetry, and art. And Broken Antler Magazine is our annual print publication, featuring creative and critical work from emerging and established writers, artists, creators, and individuals working within the horror space. What We Publish: Broken Antler publishes ALL genres of horror, as well as sci-fi and dark fantasy. The editors are partial to a wide range of subgenres—body, cosmic, folk, gore, etc. (and our EIC likes any writing that screws with her sleep schedule). If your work fits into the horror genre, or is some version of fucked-up, send it our way. For poetry, creative nonfiction, and hybrid submissions, we’re looking for work that is haunting and monstrous, weird and bizarre. Extra points if your work is experimental or doing something unusual with form. Do NOT send us work featuring gratuitous sexual assault, violence against women and/or marginalized groups, or hate speech. Broken Antler is 100% run by women, several members of our editorial staff identify as LGBTQIA+, and we are committed to uplifting these and other previously silenced voices. NOTE: Submitted work should be previously unpublished. We do...

Deadline: August 31st, 2023 Payment: $50, three physical copies of the anthology, and a lifetime subscription to all future Solar Press Horror Anthologies Theme: All forms of horror welcome. A brand new anthology project designed to give new voices in the genre a chance to be heard. Whether you write subtle, gothic ghost stories, or extreme, high-concept body horror, if it's good, we want it! 1. Stories must be provided as a .doc or .docx file, attached to an email. 2. Email subject must be formatted as follows: , , by . 3. The body of the email must only contain a plot synopsis. No other information. 4. 10,000 words maximum, no minimum. 5. Stories must be in English. 6. Stories must be fully edited and ready to print. 7. Stories made (or contributed to) with AI will be immediately rejected and you will be banned from submitting stories to future anthologies. 8. Author must be willing/able to provide exclusive worldwide reprint rights for a period not exceeding 1 year, and non-exclusive worldwide reprint rights for as long as the anthology remains in print. 9. No more than 2 submissions per author. 10. Submissions are international. If you can get your story to us, we'll consider it. Submissions close August 31st. If you have not heard from us by September 30th, please feel free to contact us about the status of your submission. Accepted stories will receive slight formatting edits if required. Outside of obvious typos or spelling errors, the text itself will not be edited. Not a word of your story will be changed. Contributors included in this year's anthology will receive $50, three physical copies of the anthology, and a lifetime subscription to all future Solar Press Horror Anthologies. All profits from this year's anthology will be donated to charity. TIPS: 1. We...

Submission Window: July 30th to August 31st, 2023 Payment: 5 cents per word Theme: Horror that takes place in shopping malls There’s something amiss at the mall. Elderly mallwalkers are being devoured by an unseen creature. A mad scientist is building a doomsday device out of Radio Shack parts. Post apocalypse, survivors attempt to recreate their 90s memories in a ruined mall. Each day when a boy checks Google Maps, the fancy new mall looks bigger—and closer to his village. Escalators to Hell: Shopping Mall Horrors is a new collection of horror and dark sci-fi stories about shopping malls past, present, and future. Emerging in the United States as a paragon of post-World War II prosperity, the shopping mall was imagined as a cheery, futuristic, well-designed alternative to the messy and hazardous downtowns of old, providing housewives and children with a safe space to shop and entertain themselves. Malls served middle-class suburbanites dependent on cars and eager to spend their disposable income on mass produced goods. The mall has often been a subject of derision as a harbinger of cultural zombification and whitewashing. As the decades have passed, the mall has declined in prestige but also become more accessible to broader groups of people in the US. Shopping malls, too, have spread to most countries around the world. Pop-culture has viewed malls through many lenses: optimist and innovative, symbolic of racist city planning and policing, a source of nostalgia for freer spending and youthful naivety, a place for community, and a signifier of a nation’s wealth and connections to a global consumer network. But in this collection, one thing is universal: something ominous is happening at the local mall. Escalators to Hell: Shopping Mall Horrors is a document of one-stop shopping gone wrong. Kickstarter We’re raising $3500 to help defray the costs of publication—but...

Submissions Window: August 1st - 31st, 2023 Payment: 1 cent per word Theme: Upbeat and/or comedic fantasy, science fiction or horror stories Got an original, unpublished story? We would love to feature your upbeat and/or comedic fantasy, science fiction or horror story. Our next submission window will be 1st August to 31st August. Submissions will be accepted via an email address that will be posted here at that time. Formatting   We accept documents as .doc, .docx or, if you must, .rtf. Please follow Shunn’s modern manuscript format. Multiple Submissions   Please submit one story at a time. Unless otherwise directed, please wait 7 days to submit in the event that your story isn't a good fit. Word Limit   100-6,000 words. We intend to accept an equal number of flash-fiction and short stories. Simultaneous Submissions   Submitting to us and others at the same time is not only accepted, but encouraged! We do ask that you notify us as soon as possible if your submission is accepted elsewhere. Payment and Rights   We pay $0.01 per word for original, unpublished fiction. Payment is via PayPal only. We require First Print and Digital rights with a six-month period of exclusivity from the date of publication. All other rights remain with the author. Time Length   We aim to make our final decisions within a month of the submission window closing. You will often receive a response much sooner. If you haven’t heard from us by that time, please query via e-mail with query in the subject line. What we don’t want: Non-speculative fiction   If there is not an element of fantasy, science fiction or horror then we are not the target market for your story. Reprints   We accept reprints by request only (Although we do intend to change this...

Deadline: August 31st, 2023 Payment: $20 Theme: An LGBTQ+ Alice in Wonderland themed anthology We’re opening the call for our newest anthology, Queens in Wonderland. This is an LGBTQ+ Alice in Wonderland themed anthology, and we want want to see it all. Throw some of those iconic characters into space. Put them in an urban fantasy. We’d love to see a cyberpunk or decopunk (or any punk!) version. A classic Lewis Carroll version would be good too. Feel free to take any of the characters (don’t forget about the White Queen or the Dormouse) or use any of the world-building from the classic Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland or Through the Looking Glass and what Alice Found There you wish. If you need more inspiration, consider these prompts: It’s time for tea, but your main character’s running late The Queen of Hearts has invited your character to a garden ball The Mad Hatter is nowhere to be found The White Knight is talking backwards and you need them to solve a mystery Cheshire has appeared in an urban downtown, and is directing you down an alley Requirements: 1,500-5,000 word count LGBTQ+ Nothing with gratuitous violence, rape, or abuse of animals/children Cursing is fine, within reason Romance and sex is fine within reason, but no erotica Submissions close on Aug 31st Payment: We will be paying $20 USD dollars upon signing of the contract and you’ll receive an e-book once publication is complete. Paperback contributor copies at cost plus $2.00 will be available too. How to submit: Please format according to these standards Double spaced, readable font, aligned to the left 12 Font Times New Roman Please don’t hit “tab” Please don’t put two spaces between sentences This article goes into other details that make a huge difference in the presentation of...