Events

Deadline: June 30th 2014 Payment: $5 and a Digital copy Submissions Dates: 3/1/14 - 6/30/14   Publication Date: Late 2014 (November-December)   Rejected Overview     We, at Harren Press, are hosting a REJECTED anthology! Any short story that you have written, submitted, and been rejected with; we are interested in seeing it and the rejection letter. We are accepting any genre, so feel free to submit anything you have.     What we ARE looking for: Stories that have been polished by the writer, but for one reason or another were not accepted by the intended publisher.     What we are NOT looking for: Stories that have obvious reasons for rejection. We do not want stories that are filled with several grammatical and spelling errors. We do not want stories that have no ending, have no plot, and have no character building. Your story should be a complete short story.     Within this anthology, there will be a forward that discusses the various reasons that stories, even perfectly written stories, can sometimes hit the rejection pile at different presses, small and large. The foward will be written by Brian Woods. Stories will be selected by Brian Woods, Jesse Duckworth, and the Harren Press staff.   Rights   We purchase First Electronic, First Print, and Anthology Rights. Please remember that you can only sell your various “First” rights once. You will only be able to market your accepted story as a reprint, once we have published it, which may limit where you can submit it to in the future, and how much you may be paid for it. Only you can make this business decision for yourself.   Submission Requirements 1. We are looking for short stories between 2,500-5,500 words.   2. We pay $5 for your story and a...

Deadline: $0.01 a word and an ebook Payment: June 30th, 2014 We want unique, strange, and compelling horror fiction. The writing style should be unusual but mesmerizing. The characters should be believable. Awe us, make us cry, make us laugh, make us sigh. The ideal story should stay with us for a long time after reading. Expectations: We will not accept reprints, multiple submissions, or simultaneous submissions. To clarify, this means that we will not accept a story that has already been published, you can only submit one story, and you cannot have the story you submit to us also submitted to other publications. Response time: We will back to you as soon as possible, but many things factor into our response time. The goal is to have it back to you within four to six weeks from submission date. Length: The best stories are those written in the right amount of words. There is no word minimum, but the ideal maximum is 10,000 words. The preferred range is 2,500–7,500. Compensation: You will be paid $0.01 a word and an ebook for original work and first-printing, world exclusive rights (text and audio) for 12 (twelve) months after the anthology is released. About Us: Volume 1 released Halloween, 2013. It featured thirteen stories that crossed the genres of surreal horror, dark fantasy, and heart pounding dread. The debut horror anthology lived up to the guarantee to twist the reader's perception, and we can't wait to do that again. From the common, comfortable tropes, to the more taboo, the tales should have a literary aspect designed to expand the readers understanding of what true horror can be. If you would like to get an idea of what we are looking for, please check out the wonderful thirteen stories that made it through...

Deadline: June 30th, 2014 Payment: Even split of net profits between Editor, Authors, and Illustrator. Paid quarterly. This will be a very small project. Many of the stories will be solicited from friends of mine, both IRL and online. That doesn't mean they aren't accomplished authors. So, there aren't many open spots. This idea was born as a reaction to an editor's complaint about the volume of cannibal submissions he received through Apex's slush pile. With large markets, themes and tropes tend to come in waves. Apparently that wave includes cannibals right now. So some of his friends, and mine, started joking about starting a cannibal-themed anthology. Well, here we are. What are we looking for? Cannibals, obviously. But we aren't looking for the same tired stories that feature inbred hillbillies capturing college spring-breakers and serving them up for lunch. You see it in film even more than fiction; The Hills Have Eyes, Dying Breed, Wrong Turn etc... Give us something fresh. Sexy cannibals. Philosophic cannibals. Lawyer cannibals. Quiltbag cannibals. Cannibal angels. Cannibal steampunk. Alt. History with cannibals. A cannibal family drama. What we are not looking for. Rapey cannibals. Hillbilly cannibals. Racist cannibals. Tribal cannibals. There's always exceptions to the rules, but if you use any of these things it better be a damned good story. Poetry - Query, you never know. Word Limit: 8,000 - Query for longer. Format: Standard Manuscript Format http://www.shunn.net/format/story.html Response Time: 2 weeks or less, depending on volume. Pay: Even split of net profits between Editor, Authors, and Illustrator. Paid quarterly. Fewer authors = more money. So I'll be favoring longer stories, though won't rule out shorter ones depending on the quality and other factors. Publisher: Self published in Kindle Format and possibly Createspace depending on interest. Please send submissions to [email protected] using "Submission" in...

Deadline: June 30th 2014 Payment: £10 on publication, copy of the paperback and profit share for two years. Darlings! The awesome team of Jen & Jan are doing a Fox Spirit anthology and we are open for submissions! Official blurb type thing - Wicked Women  Edited by Jan Edwards and Jenny Barber Regular readers of Fox Spirit books know that women are pretty bad-ass – be they evil queens, goddesses, super-villains or anti-heroes, warriors, monsters, bad girls, rebels, mavericks or quietly defiant – so with that in mind, we’re looking for stories of women who gleefully write their own rules, women who’ll bend or break the social norms, skate along the edge of the law and generally aim to misbehave. Genres: any variation of fantasy, SF, horror and/or crime. Length: 4000 – 8000 words Format: doc/docx/rtf files – see the Fox Spirit house style guide for formatting requirements Email as an attachment to: [email protected] Please put ‘Submission: Wicked Women/story title’ in the email subject line Deadline: 30th June 2014 Payment: £10 on publication, copy of the paperback and profit share for two years. Odd notes - Yes, we’re accepting stories from men too! Just make sure your lead is a woman. A leading woman can be cisgender or transgender or any person who chooses to self identify or present as a woman in the space of the story. Via: Jenny Barber

Deadline: June 30th, 2014 Payment: An equal percentage royalty split of 50% of sales p.o.d. and e-book. Burnt Offerings Books is planning on publishing a series of anthologies. The theme of the next anthology will be fixed-timeline time-travel. Why fixed-timeline time-travel? Because I love books and films about time travel. And I hate books and films about time travel. I love the idea of time travel but I hate paradoxes. One of the only films I know of that successfully used the concept of fixed-timeline time-travel is 12 Monkeys. With almost every other film that uses time travel as a plot device, the plot holes and paradoxes ruin them for me. The most recent time-travel film I've watched was Looper. If the premise they were using was fixed-timeline time travel, then much of the film would be completely untenable. The plot holes could have been fixed if they had taken the time to work on the screenplay, but they weren't because they didn't. It's things like that which set me to thinking. What is "fixed-timeline time travel"? I think that this infographic explains it fairly well.   What kind of stories are we looking for? A good story trumps genre classification but we are generally looking for stories about time travel. We are going to be very discriminative in our selection process. We are looking for literature.   Not just stories. If you’re going to explore a traditional genre, we expect you to do something new with it. If you send us another textbook genre story, you will receive a polite letter of refusal and suggestions for other markets that may be better suited for your work. What we’re looking for is writing that is evocative and actually effects readers emotionally. If you’re going to go for scary, we want terrifying writing...

Deadline: July 1st 2014 Payment: $10 and digital copy DailyNightmare.com is accepting submissions for its second annual anthology of 100-word prose poems based on any of the 350-plus nightmares currently posted on the site (http://dailynightmare.com/category/nightmares/). Payment will be $10.00 made via PayPal and a .pdf of the final anthology in exchange for First World Serial Rights, electronic rights, and reprint rights for posters and postcards. (After one year, rights can be reassigned to the author.) In addition to professional word-rate, this will be a cool-looking publication since we intend to exploit all the tricks of expressive digital typography. The deadline for submissions is July 1. A couple extremely specific criteria: 1) All submissions must be “inspired by” one of the nightmares posted on the site. (Hint: Want to submit a story based on one of YOUR nightmares? Then submit a non-fictional account of the nightmare along with the art or story that it inspired. We’ll assign it a Nightmare Number.) 2) Written submissions (stories or poems) must contain EXACTLY 100 words including title. Email submissions to: anthology @ dailynightmare.com and include the number of the inspirational nightmare in the SUBJECT line Include a brief bio (~ 25 – 50 words) with the submission so we don’t have to track you with our hellhounds. What are we looking for? We at the DailyNightmare groove on the idea of inhabiting each other’s dreams, even the nasty, ooky ones, and this anthology is one step toward that kind of communal nightmare-scape. 100 words aren’t many, so sharpen at least one point of the narrative pentacle: mood, character, plot, setting, theme, and try to imbue your piece with a “sense of completion.” Poetry or prose, matters not; word count does. DailyNightMare.com celebrates literate terror (or “snob horror” if you will), so heighten the language,...

Deadline: July 6, 2014 Payment: 10 contributor’s copies Our first-ever publication, Spooklights, will feature literary horror and supernatural tales by authors around the country. We’d love to feature a few additional stories by up-and-coming authors in literary genre fiction! Deadline: July 6, 2014 Payment: 10 contributor’s copies Length: 1000 – 5000 words Looking for: horror, supernatural, or generally weird original tales; well-written with a good sense of voice, atmosphere, and originality; unique settings, characters, or perspectives; creative use of horror standbys; stories that are creepy, scary, or just plain fun. Not looking for: tired tropes used in conventional ways (zombies, unless you do something new with them), straight serial killer tales, or cliche-ridden fiction . Gore, violence, sex, etc. okay if used tastefully. The point of a good literary horror story is not death, violence, and dismemberment, but a message that says something about fear, humanity, and evil. The collection will be sold as an e-book through major distributors, and as a print copy in local book stores, conventions, and artist outlets. Publication will occur in August or September. Every submission will receive a personalized response. To submit: Send an email with the story attached as a .pdf, .doc/.docx, .odt, .rtf, or pasted into the body of the email. Use a simple font, 12-point, one inch margins, with your name, phone number, and email address on the title page. Number your pages if sent as an attachment. Colored or wacky fonts will send your story to the recycle bin. In your email, state the name of the story, the basic premise, the word count, and any previous publication information (if you have any; not necessary). Tell us what the story means to you personally, and why you wrote it. Send submissions to: [email protected] Please see our Submission and Guidelines page...

Deadline: July 14th, 2014 Payment: 4% royalties after cost per story published in ebook and paperback form. We all like a good B Movie. Especially those wonderfully cliche films from the 1950s and beyond such as Plan 9 From Outer Space, I Was a Teenage Werewolf or even the most recent additions to the genre such as Sharknado. There is a sort of guilty pleasure and a sense of fun to be found in these films, and we are hoping that the sense of fun can be transferred to the short story form. To be edited by Theresa Derwin and published by KnightWatch Press, Killer Bees from Outer Space will be an anthology of stories playing with the cliches and ideas found in B Movies. But bee-ware, I do not want to be swarmed by stories about killer bees or other forms of insects, after all there are so many fun tropes to be used from the many examples out there. I have already received two bed stories so do not wish to receive anymore. Think outside the box. Escape of the 50ft Gorilla anyone? All submissions should: Be between 2,000 and 6,000 words in Standard Manuscript Format (http://www.shunn.net/format/story.html). Be typed in Courier or Times New Roman 12 Include your full details (name/address/telephone number/email address) Be sent to [email protected] as .doc or .rtf documents with the email subject header “SURNAME/BEES/WORDCOUNT”. Previously published stories WILL be considered for this anthology. Authors will retain copyright. Multiple submissions up to a maximum of two stories per author can be submitted. We will write to you within approximately four weeks of the submission deadline to let you know if you have been successful. We will pay royalties after cost per story published in ebook and paperback form.

Deadline: July 15th, 2014 Payment: free trade paperback copy of the book, plus a $5 advance on royalties An anthology of historical horror stories. What we mean by 'historical': your story should be set in a time at least fifty years ago. You know how they recently celebrated the 50th anniversary of the Beatles playing the Ed Sullivan show? Yeah, your story should be set during that time or before. Please strive for historical accuracy as needed. If you send us a story where a witch is burned in 1600s Massachusetts, it will be a strike against acceptance. If your story seems better qualified for History and Mystery, Oh My! we will consider it for that anthology instead. Horror and mystery overlap sometimes. We're seeking stories that are a maximum of 8000 words in length. Query about reprints. We will accept multiple submissions, but not simultaneous submissions. Open submission period: March 15 - July 15th, 2014. All contributors will receive a free trade paperback copy of the book, plus a $5 advance on royalties. Contributors will also be able to purchase more print copies at a 50% discount on the cover price. We're seeking first world rights in English to publish in print and electronic format for 12 months, beginning on the date of publication. Please see our Guidelines and Payment page for further information on the rights we ask for and the compensation we offer. Publisher's note: Mystery and Horror is a market that welcomes LBGTQ, multiethnic,multinational, nontraditional, and unusual fiction. We are concerned with well-written stories involving well-developed characters. Via: Mystery and Horror LLC.

Deadline: July 15th, 2014 Payment: Exposure and Royalties Flash fiction & Short Stories (1,000 – 6,000 words) Poetry and re-prints will also be considered This anthology is going to be filled with fears, phobias and frightening occurrences of terror. I would like your best story about fear, psychological, mythological, horrific, monsters are good even the boogeyman if it strikes your fancy. Let me know what fear is to the lead in the story, what they feel, what they see, what they hear when they are confronted by the things that go bump in the night, the things that we all take for granted. If your lead is afraid of apples then tell me a frightening story about apples. The choices are yours. I want this to be a frightening experience for the reader, a rollercoaster ride so to speak so shine with your submissions. Submission guidelines: Deadline for submissions – July 15th, 2014 – or until full. Word Count: 1,000 – 6,000 words. FORMAT: Single space with indented paragraphs, no space between paragraphs and standard 12 font. Use centered *** for scene breaks, and please put your bio at the end of the story in the manuscript, 100 words or less. Please make sure your story is how you want it to appear in print, and pay attention to grammar and punctuation! No Headers or footers and use Bold Print for the first two words of your story! *I am accepting poetry, send up to 10 poems!!!!!!!!!!!! *Send your documents as RTFs. *You may send up to Three stories! Upon acceptance into the anthology, you agree that Horrified Press holds exclusive publishing rights for six months from the date of publication; after that date has passed, all intellectual property rights revert to the author with the proviso that Horrified Press...

Deadline: July 15th, 2014 Payment: Exposure and Royalties We Come in Peace Deadline: July 15th, 2014 – or until full Payment: Exposure and Royalties Flash fiction & Short Stories (1,000 – 6,000 words) Poetry and re-prints will also be considered For this anthology I don’t want peaceful little gray aliens who wish us well, I want ravenous creatures from the deepest darkest realms of space! They are here to take us, to enslave us and to kick our butts. Write me your best Science fiction Horror tale about the aliens who wanted to conquer us and devour our women. Be creative in your endeavors and give me the story you want the world to read!!! Submission guidelines: Deadline for submissions – July 15th, 2014 – or until full. Word Count: 1,000 – 6,000 words. FORMAT: Single space with indented paragraphs, no space between paragraphs and standard 12 font. Use centered *** for scene breaks, and please put your bio at the end of the story in the manuscript, 100 words or less. Please make sure your story is how you want it to appear in print, and pay attention to grammar and punctuation! No Headers or footers and use Bold Print for the first two words of your story! *I am accepting poetry, send up to 10 poems!!!!!!!!!!!! *Send your documents as RTFs. *You may send up to Three stories! Upon acceptance into the anthology, you agree that Horrified Press holds exclusive publishing rights for six months from the date of publication; after that date has passed, all intellectual property rights revert to the author with the proviso that Horrified Press retains distribution rights in the format of the contracted anthology. This title will be available as an e-book and trade quality paperback. Ron Koppelberger will be presiding over this...

Deadline: July 15th, 2014 Payment: Exposure and Royalties Flash fiction & Short Stories (1,000 – 6,000 words) Poetry and re-prints will also be considered For this anthology I would like stories about biology gone mad. Stories about the end of the world as we know it are acceptable as long as there is a Bio Hazard, a plague, a monster created by demon spore by a little kid’s chemistry set, by the military or by independent scientists……just give me Bio Hazards as they are in your mind, your perceptions of what the worst Biological disaster might be about. Mutants, strange powers, third eyes or anything you can conceive of will be considered and if you have a poetic bone then send me your poetry on the subject. This anthology is open to humor as well as zombies. Send me your best. Submission guidelines: Deadline for submissions – July 15th, 2014 – or until full. Word Count: 1,000 – 6,000 words. FORMAT: Single space with indented paragraphs, no space between paragraphs and standard 12 font. Use centered *** for scene breaks, and please put your bio at the end of the story in the manuscript, 100 words or less. Please make sure your story is how you want it to appear in print, and pay attention to grammar and punctuation! No Headers or footers and use Bold Print for the first two words of your story! *I am accepting poetry, send up to 10 poems!!!!!!!!!!!! *Send your documents as RTFs. *You may send up to Three stories! Upon acceptance into the anthology, you agree that Horrified Press holds exclusive publishing rights for six months from the date of publication; after that date has passed, all intellectual property rights revert to the author with the proviso that Horrified Press retains distribution rights...

Deadline: July 15th, 2014 Payment: $120 The strange little girl is not like the other little girls. She might look like the other girls and act like the other girls, but be very strange at heart – or she might be just plain weird altogether. Sometimes she is a scary little girl, other times a dreamer, always treading the fine line between reality and imagination – or even madness… We want to meet new strange little girls, and read strong and original stories about them. Why is she strange? How is she strange? Who is she when she grows up? Does she end up like the madwoman in the attic, hidden away from the world – or is she an office clerk? A lawyer? A baker of poisoned goods? Think Wednesday Adams, Merricat Blackwood, Alice, Drusilla, Carrie and Amy Pond, to name a few. Of course, your strange little girl might be nothing like them at all – she might not even be the protagonist of your story, but she has to be there, at the center, in all her strange little glory.   What we want: Originality is treasured, so is strong storytelling, clever plot and a polished and proof read manuscript. Don’t be afraid to experiment – we do like the strange. What we do not want: Pointless gore or splatter horror, plotless adult content (sex is ok – but all in good taste) or poetry. Submissions: We will accept submissions between May 15th and July 15th, e-mail submissions only. Submissions should have a standard manuscript formatting and be attached as .doc, .rtf or .pdf. A few words about you and your writerly career in the body of the e-mail would be nice. We will respond to all submissions within 12 weeks. Length: 2 000 – 8 000 words Language: We will read submissions in English, Norwegian and Swedish Rights: We buy First Worldwide English language...

Deadline: July 15th, 2014 Payment: Exposure and Royalties Flash fiction & Short Stories (1,000 – 6,000 words) Poetry and re-prints will also be considered For this anthology I would like your ideas on what a shape shifter is, is it a monster or are the changes just subtle tricks of light, smoke and mirrors or demons from the darkest pits of hell. You may begin your story in the country, in the city or in suburbia, whatever you prefer. Tell me what they are about, describe the changes a shape shifter goes through when they change, what are they like, emotional beings or dark spirits seeking revenge, relationships or just looking to blend in with our human society. I prefer the stories for this anthology to be longer ones but I am not placing a restriction on the length. Be creative and send me the story you want to shine with. In addition you may send me your best Vampire and Wolf Stories……Poetry as well. Submission guidelines: Deadline for submissions – July 15th, 2014 – or until full. Word Count: 1,000 – 6,000 words. FORMAT: Single space with indented paragraphs, no space between paragraphs and standard 12 font. Use centered *** for scene breaks, and please put your bio at the end of the story in the manuscript, 100 words or less. Please make sure your story is how you want it to appear in print, and pay attention to grammar and punctuation! No Headers or footers and use Bold Print for the first two words of your story! *I am accepting poetry, send up to 10 poems!!!!!!!!!!!! *Send your documents as RTFs. *You may send up to Three stories! Upon acceptance into the anthology, you agree that Horrified Press holds exclusive publishing rights for six months from the date...

Deadline: July 15th, 2014 Payment: Exposure and Royalties Flash fiction & Short Stories (1,000 – 6,000 words) Poetry and re-prints will also be considered For this anthology I would like stories set in the big city. Monsters and demons in the midst of the crowd, the busy streets of a bustling city. You may use any sort of monster you like just as long as it is frightening. Elements of modern society are welcome, leather, studs tattoos etc…..not required but encouraged. Use your imagination and show me what fear in the big city is! Please put “Neon And Blood” in the subject line! Please submit your story or poem as an RTF! Submission guidelines: Deadline for submissions – July 15th, 2014 – or until full. Word Count: 1,000 – 6,000 words. FORMAT: Single space with indented paragraphs, no space between paragraphs and standard 12 font. Use centered *** for scene breaks, and please put your bio at the end of the story in the manuscript, 100 words or less. Please make sure your story is how you want it to appear in print, and pay attention to grammar and punctuation! No Headers or footers and use Bold Print for the first two words of your story! *I am accepting poetry, send up to 10 poems!!!!!!!!!!!! *Send your documents as RTFs. *You may send up to Three stories! Upon acceptance into the anthology, you agree that Horrified Press holds exclusive publishing rights for six months from the date of publication; after that date has passed, all intellectual property rights revert to the author with the proviso that Horrified Press retains distribution rights in the format of the contracted anthology. This title will be available as an e-book and trade quality paperback. Ron Koppelberger will be presiding over this anthology. Email your...

Deadline: July 28th, 2014 Payment: Exposure and Royalties. $5 per story Flash fiction & Short Stories (1,000 – 1,600 words). Poetry and re-prints will also be considered. Miskatonic Press is launching its first magazine. Feel free to submit your horror short stories for consideration. This will mainly be to get you exposure, we can’t pay much for a monthly magazine. Dark fairy tales, bizarre, horror, surrealism, dark science-fiction and steam punk. Submission guidelines: Deadline for submissions –July 28th, 2014 – or until full. Word Count: 1,000 – 1,600 words. Please submit your manuscript as a *.rtf, *.doc or *.docx file (all other formats will automatically be rejected. Contact me prior to submitting if this presents an issue for you.) No headers, footers or page numbers. Please check grammar. PLEASE!!! Upon acceptance into the anthology, you agree that Miskatonic Press holds exclusive publishing rights for six months from the date of publication; after that date has passed, all intellectual property rights revert to the author with the proviso that Miskatonic Press retains distribution rights in the format of the contracted anthology. This title will be available as an e-book and eventually trade quality paperback. Michael Porter will be presiding over this anthology. Email your submission as an attachment to: [email protected] The email subject line must read “SUBMISSION – DREAMING – ‘your story title’” or your submission will not be considered for this anthology. Successful applicants will be notified before the deadline has expired. Via: Miskatonic Press.

Deadline: July 30th, 2014 Payment: 4% royalties after cost per story published in ebook and paperback form Currently seeking stories for a nature-run-amok anthology! Think Hitchcock’s The Birds or Herbert’s The Rats. Think plagues of locusts, and those stories on the news where it rains spiders. Night of the Lepus. Willard. While we love giant monsters as much as anybody, this time it’s not about size, but sheer NUMBERS. Why have one huge mad killer thing when you could have hundreds of smaller mad killer things? Send us otherwise ordinary critters, but send them in multitudes. Send us swarms, hordes, flocks, droves, schools, what-have-you. Just make it a LOT of them. Make it creative. Make it different. Put some less-likely species in the spotlight, unusual settings, bizarre twists. Maybe they’re on a vengeful, deadly rampage. Maybe they’re simply on the move and woe to whoever gets in the way. Maybe they’re being directed, or maybe they’re acting on their own instinct. From the creepy-crawly to the cute-and-cuddly, from wildlife to livestock and from household pests to household pets, let’s see what horrors can happen when animals attack! Email submissions as a .doc or .rtf to [email protected] with Teeming Terrors in the subject line. Standard manuscript format, Times New Roman 12-point preferred. Deadline – July 30th Word Count – 1500 to 6000 All submissions should: Be in Standard Manuscript Format (http://www.shunn.net/format/story.html). Be written in British English only. Be typed in Courier or Times New Roman 12 Include your full details (name/address/telephone number/email address) Be sent to [email protected] as .doc or .rtf documents with the email subject header “SURNAME/TERROR/WORDCOUNT”. Previously published stories WILL NOT be considered for this anthology. Authors will retain copyright. Multiple submissions up to a maximum of two stories per author can be submitted. We will write to you...

Deadline: July 31st 2014 Payment: Charity Anthology - Exposure Only Payment: Exposure & discounted copies ALL profits received will go to THE AUTISM TRUST   Flash fiction & Short Stories (3,000 – 6,000 words)   Poetry and re-prints will also be considered The world is never quite as it seems; full of infinite contradictions and things just beyond the realm of understanding for many of us. Often, we try to disregard what we cannot comprehend, choosing ignorance over clarity as we turn a blind eye to that which may cause us discomfort. The world is a broken place defined by endless shards of cracked reality, but in the jagged crevices light seeps through…a light that sometimes shines so bright, its magnificence is impossible to ignore. For too long a time, a shroud of darkness was thrown over those who’ve had boundless potential to transcend greatness – shunned and cast out – often put down and made to feel ‘less than’. But a brilliant mind can’t be caged away forever; instantaneous flickers in time will reveal the magnitude and depth of the human spirit. Extraordinary people marked ‘not normal’ come from all different walks of life, and at times the rest of us can consider ourselves fortunate to have witnessed moments when they have broken through the shell of misjudgment forced upon them. People like Susan Boyle, from ‘Britain’s Got Talent’, who took a bus ride one day that changed her life forever, or Dan Aykroyd, a writer and actor who brought laughter to many on Saturday Night Live. As Alexis Wineman, Miss Montana, who competed in the Miss America pageant, said, “Normal is just a dryer setting”. We couldn’t agree more—this is a very personal project for Suzie Lockhart & Bruce Lockhart 2nd. There is a common thread that links these inspirational figures,...

Deadline: July 31st 2014 Payment: AU$20 And 1 Digital Contributors Copy Our history has plenty to write about — the Roman Empire, the plague, Ancient Egyptians, dinosaurs and cavemen, civil wars, space travel; just to name a few. But what if you throw magic in or perhaps aliens, how would that change history? The title of this anthology is yet to be determined, but it will be an anthology featuring speculative fiction short stories, with a strong connection to our history. As always, we want stories with a difference. We do not want long descriptions and weather reports. “Speculative fiction” includes fantasy, science fiction and horror elements. The stories can mix these genres and should be aimed at the adult market, but only stories with a connection to our history will be accepted. The anthology is due for release in various digital formats only in late 2014/early 2015. You can submit through Kayelle Press's Submittable.

Deadline: July 31st 2014 Payment: royalties after cost per story published in ebook and paperback form. The takeaway, the staple of British cuisine and a sign of our multi-culturalism. Yet what lurks beneath the Saturday night doner dripping with fat, the curry with 'lamb' and what exactly is Cod Roe anyway? To be edited by Stewart Hotston and published by KnightWatch Press, Chip Shop Horrors will be an anthology of new stories about the nightmares faced in creating, cooking, delivering and eating fast food. We are looking for stories about takeaway food and everything that could imply. Not the typical horror or mystery story but something from that really forces the reader to consider their next pizza with discomfort and despair. Stories can be Horror, Psychological, Crime or any other genre as long as it’s fresher than tonight's sweet and sour sauce! In the end we're looking for exciting stories about the horrors of takeaways. All submissions should: Be between 4,000 and 6,000 words in Standard Manuscript Format (http://www.shunn.net/format/story.html). Be written in British English only. Be typed in Courier or Times New Roman 12 Include your full details (name/address/telephone number/email address) Be sent to [email protected] as .doc or .rtf documents with the email subject header “SURNAME/CHIPSHOP/WORDCOUNT”. Previously published stories WILL NOT be considered for this anthology. Authors will retain copyright. Multiple submissions up to a maximum of two stories per author can be submitted. We will write to you within approximately four weeks of the submission deadline to let you know if you have been successful. We will pay royalties after cost per story published in ebook and paperback form.

Deadline: July 31st, 2014 Payment: $25.00 per story and a contributor copy Great Old Ones Publishing is proud to open a call for petri“PERNICIOUS INVADERS.” Disease. Dimples in flesh move of their own volition. Our bodies aren’t our own. We’ve become host to PERNICIOUS INVADERS. In a land of pestilence, the infected wander a barren landscape…not in search of salvation, but for a darker truth. On a newly discovered world, parasites treat a colony as edible transportation. Beneath the cloud-capped mountains of Washington spiders place more than just eggs in an unsuspecting camper. On the streets of Rome, a demon legion rides within a Trojan woman to finally breach the gates of the Vatican. From microscopic organisms bringing the power of man to its knees to the vile creatures using us as walking incubators, they are all PERNICIOUS INVADERS. cellsGreat Old Ones Publishing is looking for well-written stories ranging from 3,000 – 8,000 words themed with having our bodies overtaken. Possession? Yes. Infestation? Sure. Subjugation? Absolutely. We must insist that the story be horror. It doesn’t mean you can’t have humor or even romance, but it should not dominate your story. Our readers expect to be scared and so do we. Other genres are acceptable such as thriller, techno-thriller, mystery, sci-fi, fantasy, and exploitation, however they all must have horror as the main theme. MECHANICS: –———————————— * – DEADLINE: July 31st, 2014 * – WORD COUNT: 3,000–8,000 words (query for shorter / longer) * – PAYMENT: $25.00 per story and a contributor copy * – REPRINTS: No * – MULTIPLE SUBMISSIONS: Limit of two with a maximum of one accepted * – SIMULTANEOUS SUBMISSIONS: No * – POETRY: No * – FORMAT: JUSTIFICATION: Left-justify only * – FONT: 12 point Times New Roman or 12 point Courier New * –...

Deadline: July 31st. Payment: Flash Fiction - a half cent a word paid on publication as well as one E-book and 1 share of royalties, Short Fiction - One cent a word paid on publication as well as one E-book and 2 shares of royalties. Strange Musings Press is looking for short funny fiction about fantasy worlds of all types for our new Anthology, Alternate Hilarities 3: Hysterical Realms I don't want to lock anyone down as to what I am looking for, but you need to have two things for sure, fantasy elements and humor.   It needs to be funny all the way through. If it is just a lead up to a punch line, make it short (500 words).   I will consider science fiction and horror for this anthology as well but I'm going to give more emphasis to fantasy for this one.   Also, if anyone has any funny vampire stories lying around, there is still a little room in Vampire Suck.       We are looking for:   Flash Fiction between 500 and 1500 words.   Short Fiction between 1501 and 6000 words.   We are paying:   Flash Fiction - a half cent a word paid on publication as well as one E-book and 1 share of royalties   Short Fiction - One cent a word paid on publication as well as one E-book and 2 shares of royalties.   We will be running a Kickstarter to fund a print edition and our first set of stretch goals will be to increased payments for the contributors. Between 2 and 8 cents, depending on backers support. All contributors will get a copy of the print edition upon successful funding of the Kickstarter.   Alternate Hilarities 3 is slated for release in the first quarter of 2015.  ...

Deadline: July 31, 2014 Payment: $0.05 per word up to $500 Since 2008 we have been reading, commenting on, and sharing our thoughts about stories. After the amazing experience of curating Speculative Fiction 2013, we Book Smugglers want to continue to find and publish the best and brightest voices in SFF. This time, we’re looking for original short stories from all around the world. Our goal is to publish at least three short stories every year, unified by a central theme (that will change each year). Each short story will be accompanied by one original piece of artwork from an artist commissioned by us separately. In 2014, we are looking for subversive fairy tale retellings. These retellings need not be reimaginings of Hans Christian Andersen, the Brothers Grimm, or Charles Perrault (although we love these fables and are happy to read and consider any retellings); we want a broader pool of stories, traditions, and canons to choose from. What We’re Looking For: DIVERSITY. We want to read and publish short stories that reflect the diverse world we live in, about and from traditionally underrepresented perspectives. Middle Grade, Young Adult, and Adult audience submissions are welcome. Good speculative fiction is ageless! Creativity & Subversion. We love subversive stories. We want you to challenge the status quo with your characters, story telling technique, and themes. Guidelines for Submission: We are looking for original speculative fiction, between 1,500 and 17,500 words long. These SFF offerings must be previously unpublished; we do not accept simultaneous submissions. Profanity, sex, and other explicit situations are fine as long as they fit within the context of the story. Submissions are open now, and will be open through July 31, 2014. Payment and Terms: We are funding this ourselves because we are passionate about finding new and diverse voices in SFF. We will be paying $0.05...

Deadline: July 31st, 2014 Payment: £15/$20 Amazon voucher and have their story published in the autumn issue of Massacre Take a good look at the image above and write a story in no more than 250 words, drawing inspiration from the photo. Let your mind wander… Remember, we are looking for horror, the strange, the weird and worrisome, the macabre and mysterious. When done, paste your story directly into the CONTACT form in the top menu. Please add AUTUMN CONTEST to the ‘Subject’ line. Closing date is 31st July 2014. We will pick one winner who will receive a £15/$20 Amazon voucher and have their story published in the autumn issue of Massacre. Our decision is final, any complainers will be crucified. Via: Massacre Publishing.

Deadline: July 31st, 2014 Payment: Contributor's Copy JEA anthology for the stories that are so wicked, so gory, nasty, icky, vomitrocious, and slimy that anyone normal would reject them(and bonus stars if they have been rejected already!). These are the ones we want to show off in this disgusting book. * Send a letter of intent by June 30 and let us know you have a rejected story (and who rejected it) or one that should be rejected. LETTER OF INTENT * Send 5K-10K to above by JULY 31. * Tell us who you are and give us a short synopsis and attach the story. * We will pick the "worst of the best" or the "best of the worst" (?????) and contract for the work. * It's for branding and to give those icky stories a home (because no one else will touch your disgusting story with damned good reason, you freakin' perv!) so we ain't gonna pay. We'll give you a copy, and hope you get nauseated and disturbed by the whole mess of stories. * The cover says it all. * Include a rejection letter (real or hee hee...we ARE writers) and move to top of the stack! * Creatures, slime, gore, bloody fluids, Grind House,Machete, gross out, freaky, Devil's Rejects, Planet Terror,  House of the Dead, Rob Zombie,  disturbing, and anything that seriously was or should be rejected. Language ok by us. Sex rated R fine. Gore fine. Slime desired. * Please edit for grammar and all. Have a reader catch screw ups and see if it's bizarre enough. * We aren't gonna be nice...you need to be REJECTED! Via: J Ellington Ashton Press.

Deadline: July 31st, 2014 Payment: 1 cent a word US, plus one copy Dark Opus Press is proud to present All That's Left of Yesterday, our fourth annual anthology. We will be looking for stroies of the apocalypse, whether it be caused by disease, natural disaster, economic collapse or something else entirely, it 's up to you. However, we won't be looking for zombie stories. Zombies will be saved for another anthology. As usual, we will not be accepting poetry, reprints or artwork for this anthology. Our guidelines are simple. All stories must have a dark bent to them and be between 2,000 and 5,000 words. This word count is firm and stories outside this word range will not be considered. MUST be in proper manuscript format. This means: Courier New or Times New Roman fonts, doubled spaced, no extra space between paragraphs, indent paragraphs. Words meant to be italicised or bolded in the final print, please make sure it is that way in your manuscript. Please read our magazine guidelines to see what we do not want. If you don't review our magazine guidelines, we will know. Send your submissions to: [email protected] In the subject line please put: submission - Your story title/title of Grimm's tale Payment for accepted works will be a 1 cent a word US, plus one copy. The reading period for this anthology will start July 1st and end July 31st or until filled. Stories sent before July 1st will be deleted unread. All submissions must be in either .doc, .docx, or .rtf Please be advised: If you require a form to be filled out by us in order for you to get our emails, we will NOT fill them out. We are too busy to take the time to do this. Please approve our...

Deadline: July 31st 2014 Payment: 100 dollars for best story, two 50 dollar honorable mentions, and 25 for everyone else. Submissions Dates: 6/1/14 - 7/31/14 Publication Date: October 2014 Horror Anthology Overview We, at Harren Press, are hosting a horror anthology featuring an original Dan Shamble story by New York Times Best Selling author Kevin J Anderson! Two of you will be lucky enough to have your name on the same cover! But before that, your story must make the cut. Acceptances will be tough to come by. Send us your best, a story worth including next to a piece from an author famous for Dune, Star Wars, and the Saga of Seven Suns Series. We wish you much luck. Rights We purchase First Electronic, First Print, and Anthology Rights. Please remember that you can only sell your various “First” rights once. You will only be able to market your accepted story as a reprint, once we have published it, which may limit where you can submit it to in the future, and how much you may be paid for it. Only you can make this business decision for yourself. Submission Requirements 1. We are looking for short stories between 2,500 - 7,500 words. 2. 100 dollars for best story, two 50 dollar honorable mentions, and 25 for everyone else. 3. Stories are to be submitted to [email protected] in .doc, standard manuscript format. 4. Send a 200 word (max) bio with your publication history (if feasible). 5. Limit of 7,500 words per author. Via: Harren Press.

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...