The Horror Tree Recent Markets, Articles, Interviews, and Fiction!

Anthology / Events / Flash / Semipro

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Taking Submissions: Post Roe Alternatives

Deadline: September 8th, 2022
Payment: 3 cents a word.
Theme: This is a look at the consequences of a SCOTUS who reserves rights for the Rich, the Corporation, the Badged and the Powerful.

Roe V. Wade has happened.  The question is what is next?  What happens in our country?  What happens TO our country? what freedoms are next? Do we resist?  How?

There will be consequences.  What are they?  Who stands up?  Who caves?

This is a look at the consequences of a SCOTUS who reserves rights for the Rich, the Corporation, the Badged and the Powerful.

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Articles / Interviews

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Ai Jiang: thoughtful writing & selling stories

Ai Jiang: thoughtful writing & selling stories

By Angelique Fawns

 

Ai Jiang is no stranger to the world of speculative short story writing. Her tales can be found in some of the most respected markets in our industry including: The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction, Uncanny, The Dark Magazine, Pseudopod, The Deadlands, and Dark Matter. She mixes the literary with speculative elements and her writing has a unique, vibrant flavor. Jiang is studying her craft by pursuing a Master’s in Creative Writing at the University of Edinburgh and works as a fiction editor at Orion’s Belt. (A pro-paying market for flash fiction.)  

 I discovered this prolific Canadian-Chinese writer through our very own Horrortree newsletter written by Holley Cornetto. She featured Ai Jiang’s story “For Viporis” at Flashpoint Science Fiction, and I loved it so much I contacted Jiang to find out more about her.

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Anthology / Contributor's Copy / Events / Flat Amount / Poetry

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Taking Submissions: Under Her Eye, a Black Spot Books Women-in-Horror Poetry Showcase

Deadline: September 1st, 2022
Payment: $5 and physical contributor’s copy for those in the United States
Theme: Domestic Horror poetry from those who identify as women

Black Spot Books will publish its second Women in Horror Poetry Collection in November 2023 in recognition of the International Day for the Elimination of Violence Against Women. This collection is open to all poets who identify as women (cis and trans) and non-binary femmes. Submissions open July 2022 and will close August 31, 2022, with decisions made on a rolling basis. All submissions will receive a response.

The theme of the second collection is domestic horror. This is a broad spectrum and poets are welcome to interpret the prompt in their own vision, so long as poems support the theme of domestic horror — the fear that we might not be safe in our own homes. We have partnered with The Pixel Project, a global, volunteer-run non-profit for this showcase, and will be donating a portion of proceeds to support ending violence against women. More information on The Pixel Project can be found at: https://www.thepixelproject.net/

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Articles / Reviews

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Epeolatry Book Review: Mazebook by Jeff Lemire

Disclosure:

Our reviews may contain affiliate links. If you purchase something through the links in this article we may receive a small commission or referral fee. This happens without any additional cost to you.

Title: Mazebook
Editors: Jeff Lemire
Publisher: Dark Horse Books
Genre: Horror
Release Date: 5th July, 2022

Synopsis: From New York Times bestselling and Eisner award-winning Black Hammer creator Jeff Lemire comes this ambitious and haunting graphic novel about family, mourning, and reality.

A lonely building inspector still grieving the loss of his puzzle-loving daughter receives a mysterious phone call one night from a girl claiming it’s her and that she’s trapped in the middle of a labyrinth. Convinced that this child is contacting him from beyond this world, he uses an unfinished maze from one of her journals and a map of the city to trace an intricate path through a different plane of reality on an intense and melancholy adventure to bring his daughter back home.

Collects issues #1-5 of The Mazebook and featuring a sketchbook section and pinups by Andrea Sorrentino, Dustin Nguyen, Dean Ormston, Matt Kindt, and Gabriel Hernández Walta!

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Trembling With Fear

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Trembling With Fear 07/17/2022

Erm… howdy. Yes, yes, I know – you were expecting someone different. And no, I’m not a shapeshifter who’s taken the form of Chris McAuley, nor have aliens kidnapped him (at least, not to the best of my knowledge). Alas, Chris’s life has gotten rather sparkly and busy since he stepped up to be my co-editor as Steph stepped down, and the latest MAHOOSIVE development in his world means he’s had to bow out of ours. Sad times. Rest assured, you have definitely not heard the last of Dr McAuley; for now, you can always head to the StokerVerse if you need a dose of his horribleness.

…which means I’m now riding solo. Hi, my name is Lauren and I’m your new sole (soul?) editor at Trembling With Fear. I said my thanks to Steph last week for all she has done for this zine, and she’s still very much a part of this site. (Remember to check out the indie bookshelf!) 

It’s been damn, devilishly hot here in London Town this week, which has made focus and motivation incredibly difficult. At least my native Australia is built for handling heat; this country just has no idea what it’s doing once the temperature goes about 25C/75F. I remember being amazed, my first summer here, when the rails seriously melted and stopped the trains. The houses? They’re made to trap the heat inside, and nothing is air conditioned. And it’s only going to get worse next week; I might have to set aside some time to write that climate crisis-driven dystopian horror I’ve been thinking about.

For now, though, it’s about YOU and what you’ve been thinking about. We’d love to hear more from you, so please do send in your short stories and drabbles. Go dark, go beyond, and let us have it!

This week we have a short from Dave Musson with a distinctive style and traumatic technology.

For the quick bites, we have three delicious offerings:

  • Critic, by Chris Chapman, does what many artists have wanted to do, I’m sure
  • Monkey King, by Mike Radar, enters the simian mind
  • And finally, Self-Help, by LJ McMenemy – aka yours truly – asks how far you’ll go for self-fulfilment 

Next week I hand the reins over to… Oh no, wait. It’s me again. All that’s left to say then is: Over to you, Stuart….

Lauren McMenemy

Editor, Trembling With Fear

FIRST – A quick note from one of our TWF editors, Amanda Headlee: Who wants summer to last longer? We do at the Horror Tree! This year, we’ve extended our Summer Specials submission period by an extra month so that we can collect even more hellishly hot and campfire creepy stories. Send us your tales of horror about backpacking, road trips, glamping, beach adventures, summer camp… anything summer-related goes! You may even want to write a drabble as a summer vacation postcard as a “wish you were here” [insert evil grin].

The submission window is open until August 31st to submit drabbles of 100 words and short stories up to 2500 words. 

Now, onto our other editing news; Lauren pretty much covered it above! Steph and Amanda will be providing any support she might need though, I’ll be honest, I’m pretty sure Lauren is more organized than I am so I am not too concerned. 

As to site news this week, we’re slowly planning on starting up on working on the new layout in the last week of July and first couple weeks of August. More news to come!

Just a reminder: the new editions of ‘Trembling With Fear Year 5‘ And ‘More Tales From The Tree 4‘ are both fully available at this time. Also, last month we lost 3 Patreons recently. Thankfully, one new one has stepped up to really help out! We’re still behind, though, thankfully, are much closer to where we were at. I will say that, if you’ve been thinking about becoming a Patreon, now would be the perfect time!

As mentioned the last couple of weeks, we’re a bit low on drabbles at the moment so if you have 100 words of speculative fiction that you’d like to send our way, we’re very open to it! 🙂

We’re under 15 subscribers away from hitting our current goal for the Horror Tree’s YouTube channel! Once we hit 500, I promise that I’ll stop plugging it for at least a month! 😉

For those looking to support the site, we’ve recently launched a Ko-Fi and always have our Patreon going.

As always, I hope you had a great weekend.

Stuart Conover

Editor, Horror Tree

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Articles / Guest Post

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If you could create a new holiday, what would it be?

If you could create a new holiday, what would it be?

by: S. R. Cronin

Speculative fiction writers love to make things up. It’s one of the many reasons we do what we do. Yet, most creations are twists on things that already exist. For instance, I made up eight new holidays in the Seven Troublesome Sisters books, along with a complete calendar system, but it all relates to seasons of the year and resembles Wiccan and Druid holidays in our world.

When I saw this question about creating a new holiday, however, I smiled. An original holiday may be my only original creation and it had nothing to do with writing speculative fiction. It had to do with writing poetry.
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Articles

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Enjoy our featured open calls for the second week of July, 2022!

Hello to all of our #author and #writer friends!
What a week! There are some great new calls here for you to enjoy. Thank you for continuing to follow us on YouTube; we’re striving to get our follower count to even 10% of our other social media outlets in the next couple of months and are really grateful for your support.

Just as a reminder, the latest two iterations of Trembling With Fear are out! We’ll likely be including these until the end of July and you can check them out at the two links below:

You can find Trembling With Fear: Year 5 here: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0B3GK87LQ.
and
Trembling With Fear: More Tales From The Tree: Volume 4 right here: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0B3GL25YJ.

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Artwork / Events / Flash / Flat Amount / Magazine

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Taking Submissions: Electric Spec Winter Issue 2022

Deadline: October 15th, 2022
Payment: $20 per story or artwork
Theme: Electric Spec prefers science fiction, fantasy, and the macabre, but we’re willing to push the limits of traditional forms of these genres.

submissions at electricspec (dot) com
Please don’t query us about your story submission. We don’t have the manpower to answer such queries. An editor will email you back as soon as possible with the decision about your story. This can take a few days, or, up to three months. We make every effort to get back to authors in a timely manner but we get a lot of submissions so sometimes it’s not possible.

A note on our editorial policy: before publication we may work with the author to edit the story for length or readability. However, we always remain true to the spirit of the story and the author has final approval.

Issues are published at the end of February, May, August, and November. We reserve the right to shift publication date slightly, as necessary.

We have reading periods for each issue, though we never close to submissions.

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