Events

Deadline: July 31st, 2014 Payment: Contributor's Copy Autumn Issue Submission Call: Moonstruck Posted by Admin on July 1, 2014 We’ve seen blood moons, blue moons and even a honey moon. This celestial body affects the tides and rouses demons within. It has fascinated man through history and a lucky few have even set foot on it. Massacre 4 seeks to eclipse all that has gone before. We’re on the hunt for tales of lunar terror, lunacy (maybe a little lycanthropy – but twist it!) and drama from the dark side. We’ll even look at Sci-Fi for this issue – but you’d better give it a good set of teeth. The deadline for ‘moonstruck’ themed fiction and dark verse is: July 31st, 2014 (midnight, GMT). Word count for fiction: 500 – 10,000. In the subject line of your email please put: MOONSTRUCK/YOUR NAME/TITLE OF YOUR WORK. For complete guidelines click HERE. Publication We aim to release Massacre 4 with the moonstruck theme September 2014. However, we are looking for great writing and if this means we have to extend that date we will do so. We will provide further information if you are accepted and before you sign a contract. photo credit: h.koppdelaney via photopin cc Via: Massacre Publishing.

Deadline: August 1st, 2014 Payment: $25.00 and 1 trade paperback and electronic copy of the book upon publication A murder has been committed and another about to be. A fortune has gone missing, a letter and map have mysteriously appeared and something is frightening the children at night. Nothing is quite clear and the only thing for certain is that a detective is needed. But the first detective got a glimpse of what the children are afraid of and left without so much as a word… And so a different kind of detective is needed—one who understands or at least accepts that not all answers or threats will be human or even physical. What this situation calls for is the Occult Detective. Van Helsing, Carnacki and Thunstone are classic examples. Harry Dresden and Anita Blake are popular contemporary versions. And now we want to read about yours. Give us your best, most fascinating and eccentric characters, or continue the adventures of a character in the public domain. It’s up to you. Just make certain that they are investigating something, be it murder by monster, death by curse, blackmail, fraud, theft, extortion, kidnapping, child endangerment, alimony payments, or anything that makes up a compelling mystery… And make certain that the mystery is supernatural in nature, or at the very least appears to point in an otherworldly direction, even if it ends with a gang of thieves using hallucinogens, a mastiff covered in phosphorescent paint, or even teenagers pulling off a villain’s mask. Occult Detective fiction reaches back to at least 1855, and now we want to continue the tradition in grand fashion with A Grimoire of Eldritch Inquests! Edited by: Josh Reynolds and Miles Boothe Submission Period: 2/1/14 through 8/1/14 Reading Period: 8/2/14 through 9/7/14 Acceptances will be announced 9/7/14 Tentative Publication Date: December 2014 Payment: $25.00 and 1...

Deadline: August 1, 2014 Payment: $0.02 USD per word Aercastle Narratives: Speculative Fiction Magazine is currently reading submissions for Issue 1. Accepted submissions will be featured in Aercastle Narratives’ debut issue, scheduled for publication in March 2014. We are open to writers and voices of any genre (adventure, fantasy, horror, humor, mystery, occult, psychic, paranormal, supernatural, romance, science fiction, thriller and western stories, and very interested in reading writers who are unafraid of combining any of these genres). We are open to debuting and seasoned writers alike. We’re looking for quality tales that take us away, make us think and make us feel. To be considered, speculative elements must contribute to your story. We’re looking for those tales which have the potential to keep our readers engaged, on a plane, commuter train, library, or in the comfort of their living rooms. MANUSCRIPT FORMAT Submitted manuscripts must be at least 500 words and no longer than 2,000 words in length. Use a professional, easy to read font, 12pt in size. SUBMISSION Please e-mail manuscripts as an attachment, in either *.doc, *.docx, or OpenOffice *.odt files. In the subject of the e-mail, begin your subject line with “Submission” and the title(s) of your submission. We are seeking First Electronic Rights, First Print Rights, or Reprint Rights where applicable. Please include a brief author bio in your e-mail submission, with publication history and/or website with us. We’d love to tell our readers about you. E-mail submissions to: [email protected] PAYMENT Payment for accepted works is $0.02 USD per word (i.e. $10 for 500 words, $40 for 2000 words) Payment in the form of PayPal transfer or money order (contributor’s preference) upon publication. Contributor’s copy. We appreciate your interest, as we bring together an exciting issue of Aercastle Narratives. We hope our publication will continue...

Submission Period: May 1, 2014 and August 1, 2014 Payment: Royalties are 50% of the sales per eBook and Print book divided between the authors, paid every six months and a contributor's copy As part of the State of Horror Anthologies, Charon Coin Press, with editor Jerry E. Benns, will begin accepting stories based in the state of Louisiana on May 1st. State of Horror: Louisiana was previously released under Rymfire Books as a creation of Dying Days author, Armand Rosamilia. This re-release will be revised and expanded to include a total of thirteen stories. State of Horror: Louisiana will also be released with new cover art. Submitted stories meeting the guidelines below will have an opportunity to be included into the upcoming release of this popular anthology series. Before we get to the guidelines, let’s take a look at the featured state for this release. Louisiana could not be a more fertile state for a horror story. Between the various people, geography, and history, Louisiana is the perfect place to set a terrifying story.   Louisiana is a re-release in the State of Horror anthology, but there is plenty of room for new terrifying tales. If enough quality stories are submitted, there is potential for a second volume of this anthology. The culture of Louisiana is unlike anywhere else in the world. Volumes of horror stories can (and have) been set just in the city of New Orleans. Vampires, voodoo, witches, ghosts, and twisted human souls have all been featured in horrific stories set in New Orleans. However the rest of the state also offers up its own inspiration for the macabre. Whether you set your story in a city like Baton Rouge, Lafayette or Shreveport, or even an outlying area, there are many settings across Louisiana ripe for horror. The geography alone lends itself to great stories. Picture deserted...

Submission Period: May 1, 2014 and August 1, 2014 Payment The State of Horror Anthologies are a royalty-only payment schedule plus a contributor paperback copy. The royalties are 50% of the sales per eBook and Print book divided between the authors, paid every six months. Each book will contain 13 stories. As part of the State of Horror Anthologies, Charon Coin Press under editor Jerry E. Benns, will begin accepting stories based in the state of North Carolina. Submitted stories meeting the guidelines below will have the opportunity to be included into the upcoming release of this popular anthology series. Before we get to the guidelines, let’s take a look at the featured state for this release. North Carolina, one of the thirteen original colonies and one of the first states, will be a new release for State of Horror. It is often over shadowed by its neighbors South Carolina and Virginia. However, North Carolina has a rich and varied history of its own, making it the perfect setting for inclusion in the State of Horror Anthologies. The geography of North Carolina inherently lends itself to a variety of haunting locales and potentially scary stories. Whether you want the rolling mountains of the Appalachians with their dense pine forests and miniature deer, or a seafaring story along the coastline of the Atlantic Ocean, North Carolina has the perfect settings. North Carolina’s cities of Charlotte and Raleigh-Durham, hold historical potential and are large enough cities to explore a post-apocalypse tale. The folklore of North Carolina has well-defined legends and tales to draw from for a horror story. Stories can delve back in time to pre-Columbian Native Americans and their legends, or explore colonial times and Revolutionary settings with ghost ships, or maybe a Civil War Era hauntings. The Vanderbilt mansion-Biltmore- would make an...

Deadline: August 1st, 2014 Payment: 5 cents per word There's nothing more suitable for Halloween than a darn good ghost story, and we want yours. Whether you're dealing with a poltergeist or a demonic entity or a residual haunt, there's a lot to explore in the world of the paranormal. While we'd love to hang out with TAPS or the Ghost Adventures crew, we're more interested in the ghost story without the paranormal investigators and their technology. Just give us a bone-chilling, hair-raising tale of a haunting, and we'll leave the light on. CALL BEGINS JUNE 1, 2014 CALL ENDS AUGUST 1, 2014 Penumbra is looking for original, unpublished stories of 3500 words or less. We prefer that writers use Standard Manuscript Format for submissions. (You can read this article by Chuck Rothman on the SFWA site on preparing a manuscript for submission if you are unfamiliar with SMF.) Please send your stories as file attachments in .rtf or .doc formats only. Please include a cover letter in the body of your email, with the manuscript title, you pen name if applicable, the exact word count of the story not including title and byline, and a publication history if applicable. Penumbra is a professional rates paying publisher, paying 5 cents per word. We will evaluate poetry submissions for each issue. We will also consider previously published stories with rights reverted to the author. Penumbra has multiple issue calls open at the same time, therefore it is imperative that you include the issue theme in the subject line of your email. Submissions that do not include this information risk getting lost in our queue and not read before the deadline. Penumbra uses Musa Publishing’s house style guide, which relies upon the Chicago Manual of Style. All accepted stories will be edited to reflect...

Deadline: August 1st, 2014 Payment: Payment is author share divided equally among the authors. We pay twice a year. Submission Deadline: August 1st, 2014 Content Rating: up to PG-13 Genres: Bizarro, Fantasy, Historical, Historical Fantasy, Dark Fantasy, Historical Romance, Magical Realism, Paranormal Romance, Romance, Science Fiction, Space Fantasy, Steampunk, Urban Fantasy. (No Erotica, no Fan Fiction, no Horror.) Word Count: maximum 6,000 words Payment Payment is author share divided equally among the authors. We pay twice a year. Submissions Guidelines In the SUBJECT line of your email submission, put NO HORNS ON THESE HELMETS: submission title. Simultaneous submissions? No. Standard manuscript format. (Double spaced, contact info including email at the top of manuscript) Reprints? Yes, as long as the author has the reprint rights. File format: rtf Email submissions at skywarrior3 AT gmail DOT com Additional information: The complete anthology will be between 75,000 - 85,000 words. I will be turning it over to the publisher no later than November 1st. I will be doing the actual editing in addition to acquiring the stories for publication. Sky Warrior Books is issuing an open call for submissions, but I am also inviting specific authors to contribute a story. I’m not holding a slot for each genre listed, I’m just taking the best quality stories up to the length of the book, so if the top 15 stories include 3 historicals and 0 bizarro, then there will be 3 historicals and 0 bizarro in the finished anthology. I will try to balance the anthology if there are too many quality submissions in one genre, though. The general concept for this anthology is authentic stories based on heathen, Viking, northern culture, Norse / Germanic mythology, and related material. VIa: Sky Warrior Books.

Deadline: August 1st, 2014 Payment: $25 All Due Respect is a quarterly digital and hard copy magazine featuring fiction and non-fiction. We work with publisher Full Dark City Press. If you want in, here's what we're looking for: FICTION: Pay is $25. We are seeking to become an approved publisher with the Mystery Writers of America, which would mean that published stories would be eligible for the Edgar Awards. Every issue is sent for consideration in the annual Best American Mystery Stories series, the O. Henry Awards, and the Spinetingler Awards. The editors will also select individual stories to be nominated for the storySouth Million Writers Award, the Pushcart Prize, the Derringers, and any other relevant contests. We want fully developed stories about crime, so minimum 2,000 words. (There's no maximum.) We do not accept simultaneous submissions. Submit one story at a time. No reprints. If we reject your story, wait at least a month before sending another one. We will respond to your submission within a week. If your story is accepted, the story should not be published anywhere else until six months after publication. You must format your story as follows: 1) First line of paragraphs indented .25 inches (NOT using the tab key or the space bar! If you do this, then we have to manually reformat the entire story. This is the most important direction--if you don't do this, we will reject your story automatically.) Here's a web site that shows you how to do indent the first line of a paragraph in MS Word. 2) Double-spaced. 3) One space after periods. 4) Three asterisks *** centered to indicate scene breaks. 5) File titled: Last name_title of story.doc (or .docx, .rtf). 6) Do NOT send Open Office files (.odt). If this is all you have, cut...

Deadline: August 1st, 2014 Payment: five cents a word to eight cents a word   I'm now taking original submissions for The Mammoth Book of Dieselpunk, to be published by Constable & Robinson in the UK and Running Press in the US in 2015. Stories can be emailed here. The deadline is August 1st, 2014. You will be notified soon after the deadline if your work is accepted or rejected. Pay rate is five cents a word to eight cents a word. If you need to know what dieselpunk is, it's a subcategory of steampunk, essentially, covering the 1920s through the 1950s, including the Roaring Twenties, the Depression, World War II, and even a little beyond that, but here's the thing: I want material from all over the world, I don't want a white-washed representation of this theme. Spread the word. PS. if you have any reprints that you'd like to recommend, please feel free to help us out here. Via: Old Charlie Brown.

Deadline: August 1, 2014 Payment: $25.00 - $50.00 for fiction, $5.00 - $10.00 for poetry, and $25.00 for nonfiction (all U.S. dollars). We also send you a copy of the issue in which your piece appears. You'll receive your money and issue at the same time. We love the fact 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 two to three 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. 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 must be written with the first 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...