Events

Taking Submissions: Flashpoint Science Fiction 2024 Open Window #1

Flash Point Science Fiction

Submission Window: January 15th – March 31st, 2024 Payment: $0.02 per word Theme: Science fiction, fantasy, slipstream, and everything in between Note: Reprints Welcome We are open to submissions: Jan. 15 – Mar. 31 May 15 – Jul. 31 Sep. 15 – Nov. 30 Before submitting, please read the writer’s guidelines below. Story Guidelines Flash Point Science Fiction wants speculative fiction stories from 100 to 1,000 words in length. Send us your science fiction, fantasy, slipstream, and everything in between, so long as it’s short. We here at FPSF are partial to flash fiction and want to see the flash market grow. So as much as it pains us, please take your 10,000 word tour de force elsewhere. We’re not looking for the next Brandon Sanderson. (Unless you are, in fact, Brandon Sanderson, in which case we’d be delighted!) What we’re looking for: -Fantasy (all kinds—epic, adventure, contemporary, urban, grimdark, fairy tale, magical realism, myths and legends, etc.) -Science Fiction (all kinds—hard, space opera, military, near future, science fantasy, cyberpunk, dystopian, etc.) -Slipstream (make it as weird as you want, so long as it works) -Seasonal (we love stories with holiday and/or seasonal themes, but please submit AT LEAST 3 months in advance of the relevant occasion) -Anything that makes us laugh, cry, think, or smile. What we aren’t looking for: -Horror—it can be spooky or menacing, but we’re not a horror market, so the fright factor should not be the primary appeal. DARK fantasy and sci-fi, however, are welcome. -Literary fiction—this is a genre market, so there needs to be an SF&F element, however slight. -Gratuitous sex or violence—we’re big fans of Love Death + Robots, but don’t be that guy. -Fanfic—original concepts only, please. We know there was a lot going on in Hobbiton while Frodo was away, but that’s not our...

Taking Submissions: The Dragon’s Hoard 2

WolfSinger Publications

Deadline: March 31st, 2024 Payment: $15.00 flat rate plus equal share of 50% of the anthology’s royalties. Theme: Dragons and what they hoard At WolfSinger Publications, we love all kinds of creatures – especially DRAGONS. Dragons love…well…their hoard. Be it a hoard of gold, gems, books, virgins, whatever your dragon loves to collect and hoard. Or maybe your dragon doesn’t have a hoard—well then WHAT’S WRONG WITH YOUR DRAGON? —All dragons have a hoard—don’t they? If he doesn’t—then explain why not. We’re looking for stories about dragons—their hoard or lack thereof must factor into the story in some way. Since dragons are primarily a creature of fantasy I’m sure we’ll get plenty of fantasy stories; but we’ll take science fiction as well as any other speculative fiction genre, but you MUST be creative. A creative twist on the idea of dragons and their hoards is the most important part of the story. 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, a beginner just starting out, or a teenager - please feel free to send the editor a story. In your cover email, please tell the editor a bit about yourself and a quick one-line synopsis of the story. Include genre. If experimental, please explain the type or how so the editor doesn’t edit out the form or reject it out of hand. Thank you. In the Subject line please put Submission: Dragon Hoard: Title of your story: Your name. Attach as a .rft file, please send to: [email protected] Submissions Open:  Nov 1st (DO NOT SUBMIT PRIOR TO THIS DATE) Submissions Close:  Mar 31st Release Date:...

Taking Submissions: Kai’s Recurring Nightmares guidelines

Great Lakes Association of Horror Writers

Submission Window: January 1st, 2024 - March 31st, 2024 Payment: Contributor's Copy (Charity anthology.) Theme: A horror story that must include a character named Kai and must reference Dungeons & Dragons in some way Thank you for choosing to submit to the seventh annual Great Lakes Association of Horror Writers (GLAHW) mini-anthology. We are looking for horror fiction, between 2,000 and 5,000 words, along with the following requirements. 1. A character named Kai. The character can be the protagonist, antagonist, monster, victim, friend, etc. As long as he, she, it, or they play a significant, if not pivotal, role in the story. 2. The story must make a reference to Dungeons & Dragons (including its iconic dice!). Whether it is the setting of the story, part of the backstory for a character, or a passing reference, Dungeons & Dragons and Kai should have some importance to the story. We will be editing the stories, but we will not make any changes without first discussing them with you, the writer. We’re writers, too, and we know what it’s like to have our stories altered without our consent. We won’t do that to you. Having said that, however, we will try our best to make each of the stories in this anthology the best they can be. So, if we give you notes, we’d appreciate it if you’d consider them carefully. We’re not saying you have to agree with us (We’ve had plenty of writers argue with us, and sometimes, we see their point and concede the edit). Just that you listen. The cover art for Kai's Recurring Nightmares will be handled by the talented Steve Bejma Submission Please submit all stories to [email protected]  The subject line should read Submission: Kai’s Recurring Nightmares. Stories should be submitted as an attachment in either MS Word (.doc, .docx) or...

Taking Submissions: Tasteful: Cannibal Stories to End Hunger

Tasteful Anthology

Submission Window: March 1st – March 31st 2024. Marginalized authors are invited to submit for an additional week, though April 7, 2024. Payment: Contributors Copy Theme: Literary cannibalism stories We are looking for literary cannibalism stories to fill out our charity anthology, which is raising money for Philabundance. Philabundance distributes food throughout nine counties in Southeastern Pennsylvania and Southern New Jersey. Learn more about their work here. Submission window March 1st – March 31st 2024. Marginalized authors are invited to submit for an additional week, though April 7, 2024. Wordcount 500 – 5,000 words Preferred word count is in the 2-4k range, but we’ll be considering longer stories and flash fiction if you can sell us on the piece. Payment As this is a charity anthology, we are looking for writers willing to donate their words to support a good cause. Payment will be our eternal gratitude and a contributors copy (softcover and ebook). The Cause Tasteful is being created in the hopes of raising funds and awareness for local food shelters. While we’ll be running promotions to support various local food banks, the profits we make from sales will all be donated to Philabundance. You can read more about their good work here. What we’re seeking Curators Cassandra Daucus, Iseult Murphy, and Cat Voleur are looking for literary tales of cannibalism. We seek stories that have a focus on beautiful prose, unsettling metaphors, and transcendent themes. If you can make us question our morals or keep us up at night craving flesh, we’re interested in your work. Finally, we want stories that “punch up”, not ones that “punch down.” While we appreciate both gore and sex, we are not interested in extremes for the sake of shock value. Please don’t send We will reject any offensive materials such as those containing racism, sexism, or...

Taking Submissions: Moving Across the Landscape in Search of an Idea

Air and Nothingness Press

Submission Window: February 1st, 2024 - March 31st, 2024 Payment: 8 cents per word Theme: Stories that explore "Moving Across the Landscape in Search of an Idea" We are seeking stories for an anthology to be titled Moving Across the Landscape in Search of an Idea. We are looking for stories with long titles (minimum 250 words, maximum 600 words), concise narratives (minimum 250 words, maximum 600 words) and copious footnotes, endnotes, marginalia, indices and glossaries (minimum 250 words, maximum 600 words). Authors are welcome to shift word counts between these three parts of their submission, but they must stay within a range of 1500 words for the total submission (ex. a 500 word title, a 600 word narrative, and 400 words of footnotes.). Stories are welcome to be submitted in any genre. If you have questions we encourage you to email us or DM us on Twitter or Mastodon. Authors may explore any genre with their stories (yes poetry too!) and we encourage a wide variety of ideas and interpretations. Submission Dates Submissions open: February 1st, 2024 Submissions close: March 31st, 2024 Reading/Review begins: April 1, 2024 Reading/Review ends: May 31st, 2024 All authors will be contacted by: June 15, 2024 Download the complete OC submission PDF here. General Submission Information We like to seek out new authors and book ideas ourselves rather than be contacted directly because we are a small, self-funded press, and only publish 4-5 books a year. We usually offer open call submissions on anthologies we decide to do, or we contact authors directly if we have particular needs. We pay $0.08/word for the stories we publish. Most of our books are limited editions of between 100 and 200 copies and we prefer to print physical books over creating ebooks. The Air and Nothingness Press is interested...

Taking Submissions: Potter’s Field 8

Hiraeth Publishing

Deadline: March 31st, 2024 Payment: Original stories: $25.00, Reprinted stories: $7.00, Original poems: $5.00, Cover illustration: $25.00, Original illustrations: $6.00 per illustration. Theme: Tales from the graveyard. Horror fiction written in the third person stands the best chance for acceptance. Potter’s Field 8 An anthology of tales from unmarked graves ​ Writers and Artists Guidelines Open to submission as of 1 January 2024 until 31 March 2024. Hiraeth Publishing is looking for stories and illustrations for Potter’s Field 8, a print anthology of tales from the graveyard. This volume will be the eighth in the Potter’s Field series. This anthology is scheduled to be published in trade paperback format with a color cover, and black and white interior illustrations. Potter’s Field 8 is edited by Christina Sng. Please note that horror fiction written in the third person stands the best chance for acceptance. “They” say that there are no new plots or stories anywhere. “They” may be right, but you are the only you there is, so send us a story as only you can tell it, one that’s atmospheric and highly entertaining, has fascinating characters, one that takes place in a unique location or time period. A potter’s field is the burial place for the indigent and the unidentified. Just about every city has one. Obviously, we’re looking for works that are themed to graveyards in some way. However, it does not have to be a conventional graveyard. Let me give you one example: back during the days of the Black Death, bodies were crammed–yes, literally crammed–into mass graves underneath churches. Even today, in St. Stephen’s Cathedral in Vienna, you can take a walking tour deep under the church and see walls of skeletons and dirt. Such a place would also qualify as a graveyard for the indigent. We do not want gore, blood,...

Taking Submissions: Silence

Deadline: March 31st, 2024 Payment: $150 and a contributors copy Theme: Stories featuring Algernon Blackwood’s ‘Psychic Doctor’ Silence: An Anthology of new stories featuring Algernon Blackwood’s ‘Psychic Doctor’ Edited by Dave Brzeski PLEASE NOTE: For this project, it is essential that you read or have already read all six of Algernon Blackwood’s John Silence stories from 1908. Five of these were published in John Silence, Physician Extraordinary, and are available to read or download free through Project Gutenberg: https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/49222. A sixth story from 1914, ‘A Victim of Higher Space’, is included in the Algernon Blackwood collection, Day and Night Stories, which is also available to read or download free through Project Gutenberg: https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/45964. All of them can be found in Dover’s The Complete John Silence, edited by S.T. Joshi (this is the recommended option) and in various other collections — do try to avoid the assorted sub-standard POD, or Kindle versions that can be be found on Amazon, as they tend to be somewhat typo-ridden THE CHARACTER Dr John Silence did not consider himself, or describe himself as, an occult detective. He was a ‘psychic doctor’, seeking to alleviate distress, and to free people from unusual and traumatic situations. He operated as an independent consultant, charging no fees, and was helped by various assistants at different times, usually someone who had at least a basic sensitivity to psychic phenomena. Two of these men are mentioned in the original stories, the earliest one — Hubbard — being a sort of ‘Watson’ to his ‘Holmes’. His outlook and his abilities are frequently described by Blackwood, sometimes with specific mentions of his own extensive psychic training (without details), his unusual awareness and abilities, and his view on ‘Higher Planes’, the nature of Good and Evil, and the condition of human soul. Unlike Holmes,...

Taking Submissions: Frontiers of Fright: A Southwestern Horror Anthology

Denver Horror Collective

Deadline: March 31st, 2024 Payment: ($10) for the first 1,000 words, then a half (1/5) cent per word up to 6,000 words, plus a contributor’s copy. Theme: Short stories and flash fiction with a focus on horror in the American southwest Denver Horror Collective is seeking short stories and flash fiction for its new anthology with a focus on horror in the American southwest, Frontiers of Fright: A Southwestern Horror Anthology. Whether people found themselves in ranches, small frontier towns, saloons, railways, or mines, the American Southwest was a harsh wilderness—a desolate and isolating landscape of deserts and mountains. We want these same people and places with a horror heartbeat, spotlighting the creepy, chilling, and unnerving aspects of when the west was young. For this anthology, we are considering the southwest as places such as Colorado, Utah, New Mexico, western Texas, southern Nevada, California, and northern Mexico. Authors will be paid ten dollars ($10) for the first 1,000 words, then a half (1/5) cent per word up to 6,000 words, plus a contributor’s copy. For inquiries, please contact [email protected]. Submission guidelines Min 1,000 words | Max 6,000 words Deadline to submit is March 31, 2024 Submit to [email protected] Submit stories as a Word Doc – .doc or .docx or .rtf Partial blind submission: Please do not put any identifying information (name, pseudonym, address, email, etc.) on the actual document. This information is okay in the email and subject line. Subject line should be written as: – Submit in Modern Manuscript Format – see here for format details. We accept simultaneous submissions, just let us know if your story is accepted elsewhere. Please, no reprints. Via: Denver Horror Collective.

Taking Submissions: Behind the Shadows II

Inkd Publishing

Deadline: March 31st, 2024 Payment: $20 or Royalties Theme: An form of horror Behind the Shadows II– This is horror. Humor and mystery beats are welcome. Express yourself as the theme moves you. 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. Stories that contain infanticide, rape, or gratuitous gore will not be accepted. Submission Period: January 1, 2024 to March 31, 2024 Submissions: No AI, 1 per author; no simultaneous submissions, no reprints; Submission Cost: Free Word Limit: 2,000 to 7,000 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: Horror Anticipated Pay: Option: Royalty share of D2D sales, or $20.00 If D2D royalty share selected, then each story will receive a share, as will the editor and publisher, from the sales on the D2D platform. This does not include: Kickstarter funds unless detailed in the Stretch goals; wholesale to authors; or non-D2D retail outlets. Links will be available to direct your customers to D2D outlets. Timeline Projections: Submissions close: 3/31/24 Review: April 2024 Acceptance / Rejection: April/May 2024 Edits: June 2024 Production: June 2024 Kickstarter: July 2024 Published: August/September 2024 Upon acceptance, the author is expected to work with the editor on at least one round of revisions in MSWord. Our publication goal will be the summer of 2024; however, the extensive time needed to review and edit submissions may vary depending upon the submitted works and author’s response times. Inkd Publishing LLC will hold first publication rights for four months after publication and the continuing non-exclusive...

Taking Submissions: parABnormal Magazine 2024 – First Call

Hiraeth Publishing

Deadline: March 31st, 2024 Payment: Fiction: $25.00 for original stories, $7.00 for reprints, $6.00 for each poem, $20.00 for original articles, $6.00 for reprints. $7.00 for reviews and interviews. Theme: Paranormal - this includes ghosts, spectres, haunts, various whisperers, and so forth. It also includes shapeshifters and creatures from various folklores. Submissions are accepted Feb 1 – Mar 31, Jun 1 – Jul 31, Oct 1 – Nov 30. Anything submitted outside those periods will be deleted unread. We no longer accept simultaneous or multiple submissions. ​ No matter how far we move forward as humans, we are still bound by the instincts and ancestral memories of our animalistic past. None of these are so strong as the fight or flight response. However, there are times when we seem to be perfectly safe, completely at ease and comfortable, when that urge to run from something sneaks up on us. What causes these sensations? Is there something lurking in the darkness? Why is that man giving you the creeps, he’s not even looking at you? And yet, there is something odd. Something instinctual, something you know without fully understanding. We may have moved on, we may have forgotten and left behind those old stories and legends of beasts, voracious monsters, and dark spirits... But they have not forgotten or left us... What We Want The subject matter of parABnormal Magazine is, yes, the paranormal. For us, this includes ghosts, spectres, haunts, various whisperers, and so forth. It also includes shapeshifters and creatures from various folklores. PLEASE NOTE: CREATURES LIKE VAMPIRES, GHOULS, WEREWOLVES, AND ZOMBIES ARE NOT PARANORMAL. Shapeshifters, for the purpose of this magazine, refer to the spiritual shift, not the physical. Think Native American shaman. Paranormal activity centers around the human, not the creature. We do not want stories that involve excessive...