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Articles

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Writing Prompt Wednesdays: Let’s Play

Writing Prompt Wednesdays: Let’s Play

Welcome to “Writing Prompt Wednesdays,” a haven where your imagination can roam free in the realms of speculative fiction. As we embark on this weekly journey, it’s thrilling to think about the untold stories waiting to be penned in the domains of horror, science fiction, and fantasy. Whether you’re a seasoned author or a budding wordsmith, these prompts are your gateway to unexplored worlds and untapped potentials.

Every Wednesday, we’ll serve up a fresh, thought-provoking prompt designed to ignite your creative spark and challenge your storytelling prowess. Think of these prompts as a key, unlocking the doors to uncharted territories where your creativity is the only limit. From eerie, shadow-laden corridors of Gothic horror to the farthest reaches of interstellar space, and the mystical depths of high fantasy, our prompts are a kaleidoscope of possibilities.

Remember, there’s no right or wrong way to approach these prompts. They are mere stepping stones, guiding you towards the vast landscapes of your imagination. Use them to break free from writer’s block, to experiment with new ideas, or simply as a fun exercise to keep your writing skills sharp.

This week’s writing prompt:

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Anthology / Novel / Novella / Ongoing Submissions / Royalties

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Ongoing Submissions: GRADEside Middle Grade & Young Adult Horror

Payment: 50% royalties
Theme: Short stories, novels, and novellas – Horror stories for younger readers (middle school to YA)

Beware the children…

We’re asking for your tales again, this time not for Graveside Press, but for GRADEside Stories!

Gradeside is your haunted carnival for the tales geared toward younger readers—still spooky, but with a little restraint. Both middle grade and young adult titles are considered, however, if we feel your YA title skews to an upper YA older audience, we may ask to publish it as a standard Graveside title.

Requirements:

  • wordcount: 2,000-6,000 (short story) / 20,000+ (novella or novel length)
  • aimed at a middle grade to young adult audience (10+)
  • have a PG to PG-13 rating

The standard horror elements are allowed, but keep in mind who you’re writing for. Topics such as extreme body horror, assault, torture, etc., will not be considered. MG stories should maintain a PG rating, and YA should stick to PG-13.

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Anthology / Events / Pro / Reprints Allowed

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Taking Submissions: A Breath of Time

Deadline: July 20th, 2025
Payment: 8 cents/6 pence per word for original stories, 6 cents/4 pence for reprints.
Theme: Love where time itself is conquered (time travel, time bending, etc)

We’re seeking short stories for our brand-new Romantic Fantasy series, a paid market for new and established writers. We’re looking for tales featuring strong-willed, independent women who are resilient, perhaps flawed or possess hidden powers, secrets or royal bloodlines. Such protagonists would not be defined solely by their love interests but grow through emotionally charged journeys. Friendships and love interests might be brooding, mysterious or dangerously alluring. Relationships might emphasize deep emotional connections, with lyrical, romantic scenes central to each character’s arc.

Ideal submissions will weave emotional tension such as longing, betrayal and love into epic fantasy worlds depicting prophecies, injustice and conflict. We welcome stories that explore moral dilemmas or sacrifices tied to love and duty, and will look out for richly imagined settings, from fae realms and alternate worlds to magical kingdoms, complete with unique magic systems, mythical creatures, royal courts and epic quests. Romance should be integral to the plot, with other elements such as slow-burn attraction, enemies who become lovers, forbidden love or fated matches. If you’re ready to immerse readers in unforgettable adventures where love and fantasy collide, we’d love to read your story. Read on for more tips on the specific titles…

A Breath of Time

Lost loves, love discovered, love unreachable unless Time itself is conquered, these and many other time-bending, time traveling, time feasting themes can spark your imagination for stories of alternate history, of ancient forests returning to haunt the present and great adventures through dreams and timeless mountain tops, all with hearts beating to the rhythm of romance. Let’s see where your stories take us!

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Events

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Epeolatry Book Review: Thin Slices by Melody E. McIntyre

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: Thin Slices
Author: Melody E. McIntyre
Genre: Horror Literature
Publisher: Independent
Publication date: 12th January, 2025

Synopsis: Welcome to Thin Slices, the debut collection from Melody E. McIntyre, writer of short, dark fiction. With over 90 stories, all less than 1000 words apiece, this little book is bursting with scares. Melody drew her inspiration from history, mythology, science fiction, monsters, ghosts, and secret places only accessible by night.

These stories may be tiny, but the terrors they invoke are anything but.

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Events / Flash / Magazine / Pro

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Taking Submissions: Diabolical Plots 2025 Window

Submission Window: July 7th-21st, 2025
Payment: 10 cents per word
Theme: Science fiction, fantasy, horror (everything must have a speculative element, even horror).

Submissions will be open from July 7-21, 2025!

Please do not query about when our next submission window will be. When we know when our next submission window will be, the first place we mark it is here. So if it is not noted here, then we do not know yet.

David Steffen is the editor, who you may also know from reading The Long List Anthology series or from the Submission Grinder, which you can use to find markets for your writing and track your submissions.  Diabolical Plots is a SFWA-qualifying market, so if you have a personal goal to join SFWA, making a sale here would help you toward that goal.

If you have already read our guidelines and are ready to submit, you can SUBMIT HERE.

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Events / Flat Amount / Magazine / Token Payment

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Taking Submissions: Carnage House Issue 8

Deadline: July 14, 2025
Payment: $5
Theme: Splatterpunk and extreme horror stories

This is your last chance to get into “The Best of Carnage House Year Two!” But to have a shot at making our second Best of… anthology, you first need to get into Issue #8 of the Carnage House e-zine, which is open for submissions through July 14.

We are looking for splatterpunk and extreme horror stories that run the gamut from humorous to gore to smut. Be creative, be wild, be plot-driven with solid character, but most of all, DO NOT be boring—save that for your English Lit survey class. If you can do all this stuff, you can make a whole $5.00 USD and don’t spend it all in one place.

We want solid, entertaining writing that evokes feelings. Carnage House is a splatter friendly web ’zine—so nothing against cozy, but cozy, we’re not.

We invite LGBTQIA and BIPOC themes, and we encourage authors from diverse backgrounds to submit to us.
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Events

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Epeolatry Book Review: The Midnight Muse by Jo Kaplan

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: The Midnight Muse

Author: Jo Kaplan

Genre: Horror; Mystery and Thrillers

Publisher: CLASH Books 

Publication Date: March 10th, 2026

 

Synopsis:

When a metal band’s lead singer vanishes in the woods, the mushrooms in the forest might know more than they’re letting on in this mycelium-metal horror novel from Shirley Jackson Award-nominated author Jo Kaplan.

The dead collect in low places. That’s what Brynn Werner, lead singer of metal band Queen Carrion, wrote in her notebook before she vanished while staying at a cabin in Oregon’s Umpqua National Forest.

A year later, on the anniversary of her disappearance, the rest of her bandmates visit the cabin to remember her and find a way to move on. But tensions arise over who should be their new singer and who is responsible for Brynn’s disappearance—tensions that boil over as they realize not all is as it seems at Trail Creek Cabin.

Strange entries in the guestbook write about visions of a pale form that moves through the trees, figures wearing gas masks lurk in the distance, and there’s a strange fungus growing from the wall of a tunnel in the cabin’s basement. Then they hear Brynn’s voice echo impossibly through the forest—and the pale form that emerges from the trees is her perfect likeness. Is it her ghost…or something else?

Brynn knew there was a secret in these woods. It’s why she chased her muse here to finish her masterpiece. The Midnight Muse is an alluring and grotesque dissection of self and fungus. Kaplan delivers an ominous spiral of psychological torment as the members of Queen Carrion slip into a more natural skin.

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Trembling With Fear

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Trembling With Fear 6-22-25

Greetings, children of the dark. I’m currently melting here in south London, mid-way through a heatwave forecast to last through to next week. And I’m not happy about it. So, to save you my grumping all over the internet, I’m going to hand over briefly to the editor of our summer special, John Nugent—because, yes, it’s almost that time. Some of you have already been sending in your dark tales for the summer season, but it’s time to do the official big call-out. John would like your best and darkest ASAP; submissions officially close in mid-July. Here’s what will get him to stand up and take notice (aside from a hockey mask and a machete by the lake, of course):

“Game changers for me include strong prose, weird elements, and scares that feel earned,” says John. “I also like twists on the classic tropes!”

Get your sun-drenched darkness to us, and see if John feels that scare is earned… And remember, you can meet the whole TWF team over here, in case you’ve ever wondered who’s behind the emails.

OK, back to the reason you’re here: the dark and speculative stuff. For our main course, JH Tomen takes us into a world where ghosts are very real—and very unwelcome. That’s followed by the short, sharp speculations of:

  • Santiago Exemino’s maternal needs,
  • Yanina Sanchez’s hungry entity, and
  • Alejandro Gonzales’s password issues.

Over to you, Stuart

Lauren McMenemy

Editor, Trembling With Fear

Hi all.

Wow, what a busy week. I’ve been working quite a bit on a new section that we’re adding to the site and preparing for the new layout, as well as working on the pieces of the new layout that we haven’t quite completed yet. While most of this isn’t visible quite yet, one thing that you will notice is that our menu has slightly changed at the top of the site. Previously, it was a bit fractured, but now all writing opportunities can be found under ‘Opportunities,’ and a couple of outdated links have been removed. We’ll be making a couple of other changes here as well in the near future!

As previously stated, our next goals are to get the newsletter swapover done, the new layout put in place live, and finish Trembling With Fear: Year 8, which is this year’s release. Fun fact, that last one we’ve got a digital copy to start proofing. Hopefully, that’ll begin soon! 

Just a reminder that Trembling With Fear: Year 7 and More Tales From The Tree: Volume 5 are now available for order! Again, a huge shout out and a big thank you to all of the authors who contributed to it and all of our editing staff for helping push this one live!

Now, for the standards:

  • Thank you so much to everyone who has become a Patreon for Horror Tree. We honestly couldn’t make it without you all!

Offhand, if you’ve ordered Trembling With Fear Volume 6, we’d appreciate a review!

For those who are looking to connect with Horror Tree as we’re not really active on Twitter anymore, we’re also in BlueSky and Threads. *I* am also now on BlueSky and Threads.

Stuart Conover

Editor, Horror Tree

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