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

Todd Sanders – ‘Saving the Future’ Fiction

Todd Sanders – ‘Saving the Future’ Fiction

by Angelique Fawns

 

Air and Nothingness Press isn’t afraid to tackle some tough subjects. What happens when our world loses a critical resource? Todd Sanders’ latest anthology “We Are All Thieves of Somebody’s Future” asks that very question. The call allowed for some wild imaginings, looking into the loss of food, trees, oil, dragons, breathable air, or even intangibles like love, happiness or time.

I’m thrilled to be a part of this project with my story, “The Last Drop of Diesel.” The book is now available for pre-order at http://aanpress.com/aanorder.html#thieves.

Other included authors are Matthew Bettelheim, Sonya Carlin, Eric A. Clayton, Rodrigo Culagovski, Storm Humbert, Timothy Johnson, Julia LaFond, Roxane Llanque, Fiona Mossman, M.P. Rosalia, and Rose Skye.

Let’s find out more about this project. 

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Taking Submissions: Children of the Blind Owl

Deadline: August 31st, 2024
Payment: $150 – $250
Theme: Original weird tales and essays set in the Middle East that explore the human (and inhuman) experience through the lens of weird fiction and horror

Sentinel Creatives has opened up for submissions for our anthology of Middle Eastern Horror: “Children of the Blind Owl”.

Deadline for Submissions: 31 August 2024
Wordcount: 3,000 – 6,000
Remuneration: $150 – $250
Simultaneous Submissions: Yes

WHAT WE’RE LOOKING FOR

We’re looking for original weird tales and essays set in the Middle East that explore the human (and inhuman) experience through the lens of weird fiction and horror.

We are looking to secure 11-13 tales of weird fiction and 1-3 essays (any length). Submissions should delve into the history, folklore, ideas, experiences, identities, religion, and philosophies of the region in some way.

Time Period: We are looking for stories in both historical and contemporary settings.

As the title of this anthology suggests, one of the inspirations behind this project is Sadegh Hedayat’s “The Blind Owl,” a surrealist, horror, weird fiction, novella completed in the 1930s. Though we hope the stories in this anthology take inspiration from Hedayat’s work, we are not looking for stories set in or derived from his novella or other works. Rather, we are hoping writers will take cues from the themes Hedayat grappled with: alienation, futility, despair, rage, transgression, to name a few.

Ahmed Saadawi’s “Frankenstein in Baghdad” is another work that serves as a good example of what we’d like to see from the stories in this anthology. Saadawi uses, to great effect, some of the vocabulary and motifs from horror to illustrate the problems facing modern-day Iraq, with the corpse itself representing, in some ways, the various ethnic and religious groups and ideologies sewn together as Iraqi pluralism.

Give us your tales of the uncanny, of the monstrous and surreal!

Contributing editors, voice artists, and artists will be announced for this project at a later date.

While this is by no means an exclusive call, we hope to attract writers who are either from the region or have some relationship with it.

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Taking Submissions: Untitled Anthology About Dogs

Deadline: July 1st, 2024
Payment: $20 USD
Theme: A story about dogs in any of the following genres: Literary, Romance, Sci-Fi & Spec Fic, Mystery, Fantasy, Fairy Tale Retellings, Historical Fiction, Humor/Satire, Paranormal, Magical Realism, and others. (NOT Horror.)

  • Theme: Dogs (A dog or dogs should figure prominently in the story in some way.)
  • Deadline: July 1, 2024. Submissions are considered on a rolling basis, meaning that acceptance/rejection decisions are made as submissions come in. Authors can generally expect an initial response to their submission within 72 hours.
  • Anthology Release Date: Fall 2024 (exact date TBD)
  • Genres and categories accepted:
    Literary, Romance, Sci-Fi & Spec Fic, Mystery, Fantasy, Fairy Tale Retellings, Historical Fiction, Humor/Satire, Paranormal, Magical Realism, and others.
    No horror (spooky is okay), gratuitous violence, or erotica, please. No essays, CNF, poetry, or anything that isn’t fiction.
    No AI-generated or AI-assisted stories. All submissions should be original stories that have never been published elsewhere (including, but not limited to, social media, a personal blog or website, etc.).
  • Reader Demographic: YA to adult
  • Word count: Between 1,500-2,000 words
  • Payment for accepted submissions: $20 USD (via PayPal, Zelle, or another, mutually agreed upon electronic payment method)

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Pressing Skin: Publishing Horror With a Small Press

Pressing Skin: Publishing Horror With a Small Press

by Lee Rozelle

I’m the type of writer who rolls body horror over my tongue until it makes me concerned about myself. I like to handle and manipulate words—flip them, control them— long after they become the property of other people. I squeeze myself between editors, get in the comfort zones of layout designers, stalk cover artists, and expose myself to bloggers. Craving validation for my literary efforts, I invite myself to online interviews, doll up to charm reviewers, and brand myself until it hurts.

Does that mean I need help?

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UK Readers, Win One Of Two Copies Of Adrian Tchaikovsky’s ‘Alien Clay’!

UK Readers! We have a special treat to offer you today, as we’ve got two copies of Adrian Tchaikovsky’s latest novel ‘Alien Clay’ to give away! As always, the giveaway rules are simple and are just a quick sign up with bonuses for social sharing and just be sure to enter before March 29th, 2024! To see if you’re really digging the idea of Tchaikovsky’s newest work coming from Tor, the synopsis for his latest work is as follows:

The planet of Kiln is where the tyrannical Mandate keeps its prison colony, and for inmates the journey there is always a one-way trip. One such prisoner is Professor Arton Daghdev, xeno-ecologist and political dissident. Soon after arrival he discovers that Kiln has a secret. Humanity is not the first intelligent life to set foot there. In the midst a ravenous, chaotic ecosystem are the ruins of a civilization, but who were the vanished builders and where did they go? If he can survive both the harsh rule of the camp commandant and the alien horrors of the world around him, then Arton has a chance at making a discovery that might just transform not only Kiln but distant Earth as well.

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Ongoing Submissions: Frontier Tales

Payment: 1 cent per word
Theme: Stories of action and conflict. Open to some mixed genres, so it can include horror, etc, if it captures the theme and time period of a Western.

Short stories up to 10,000 words in length. Finished and edited.

Our top priority stories are what we like to call “strait shooters”. These are stories of action and conflict. We want gunslingers dueling in saloons, cowboys taking on bandits, Lawmen bringing order to the chaos of the West, bounty hunters going to the ends of the continent to catch their man, a Comanche warrior making his last stand on the open plains, Settlers defending their home from raiders, etc.

While these sorts of yarns are our preference we are still open to other varieties. Romantic western tales of love triumphing or dying on the frontier, ghost stories of the lost souls doomed to wander the among western winds, or weird westerns featuring deep ancient horrors revealing themselves to unsuspecting victims.

What are we not looking for

Smut/pornographic stories

Space/science fiction with western themes

Neo-westerns taking place in a contemporary setting

Stories set outside of America, in the future we may open up this to include other locales but for now it will be exclusively stories set in the US

Serialized stories, we may open this up in the future but for the time being we strictly want stand alone tales

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Taking Submissions: Do You Really Want to Hurt Me?

Deadline: March 31st, 2024
Payment: $25
Theme: Crime Fiction Inspired by the Music of Boy George and Culture Club
Note: Apologies about the short deadline, just found out about this one today.

In the 1980s, the world had never seen anything quite like Boy George and Culture Club. English pop met fashion and androgyny to usher in the New Romantic era of music. With dozens of nominations and award wins, Culture Club secured a spot in music history and produced a music legacy still loved today. And, what better way to celebrate them than with outstanding crime fiction inspired by their music?

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Taking Submissions: Short Story Substack April 2024 Window (Early Listing)

Submission Window: April 1st – 30th, 2024
Payment: $100 for the chosen story + 50% of subscription revenue
Theme: Any genre, short story

Mission = Revive the art of the short story, support artists, and produce something wonderful.

Payout = Base Pay of $100 for the chosen story + 50% of subscription revenue to be sent by Paypal, Zelle, or check.

Wait, you mean if this substack gets thousands of subscribers, the winner would get thousands of dollars?

Yes! The New Yorker pays roughly $7,500 per story and I sincerely hope to go way past that.

What does the timeline look like?

Submit stories by the end of the month, winner to be announced on the 15th. There is ONE story that wins and receives the full payout.

Where do I send submissions?
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