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

Events / Flash / Magazine / Semipro

 by 

Taking Submissions: Mythaxis July 2025 Submission Period

Submission Window: July 23rd – 30th, 2025
Payment: €0.01 per word, with a €20 minimum.
Theme: Diverse sci-fi and fantasy fiction.

When open, we seek and offer the following:

  • Length: 1,000-5,000 words. These are firm limits. Shorter or longer works will be considered, but the further a story goes outside these bounds the more it will need to impress.
  • Compensation: €0.01 per word, with a €20 minimum. Please be aware that payment is via PayPal only.

If you do not receive an acknowledgment within 24 hours of submission, please get in touch. We aim to accept or reject within 14 days of acknowledgment, but rl (real life) and rl (reading load) can get in the way. If you do not hear from us after 30 days, feel free to query.

REQUIREMENTS

Mythaxis seeks speculative fiction (sf/f/h) of all stripes for our first three issues each year. We are also interested in submissions of crime fiction for our end-of-year “all crime” issue. All these genres are equally welcome in each submission window.

(more…)

Articles

 by 

Be Brave Under Threat: Wise Words from Margaret Atwood, 2025 Winner of the British Book Awards’ Freedom to Publish Award

Be Brave Under Threat: Wise Words from Margaret Atwood, 2025 Winner of the British Book Awards’ Freedom to Publish Award

 

By Melody E. McIntyre

 

As someone who grew up in Canada, I am, of course, familiar with Margaret Atwood. As one of Canada’s most prominent, well-known writers, Atwood has published 18 novels, 18 books of poetry, 11 works of non-fiction, plus multiple children’s books, short story collections, and other works. Her best known work is The Handmaid’s Tale, which has been adapted into a movie and a television show that just wrapped its final season in May 2025. Its sequel, The Testaments, released in 2019, won the Booker Prize. Throughout her career, Atwood has won many awards, including the Arthur C. Clarke Award, the Governor General’s Award, and, most recently, the Freedom to Publish Award during the 2025 British Book Awards on May 12, 2025. The British Book Awards are administered by the British trade magazine, The Bookseller, and have been handed out since 1990.

(more…)

Events / Flash / Flat Amount / Magazine / Poetry / Semipro

 by 

Taking Submissions: Last Girls Club Fall Issue 2025 (Early)

Submission Window: July 1st – 15th, 2025
Payment: Short Story-2,500 words or less. $0.015 USD per word/$37.50 USD max, Poems-less than 200 words $10, Flash Fiction-less than a 1,000 words $0.015 USD per word/$15 USD max
Theme: Monkey’s Paw/Answered Prayers

The Last Girls Club Magazine is a quarterly feminist horror magazine that publishes international short stories and poems from the female gaze. It is an homage to the scary comics and zines of the late 20th century.

This season’s theme is Monkey’s Paw/Answered Prayers. You’ve got everything you ever wanted and it’s awful. More tears have been shed over answered prayers than unanswered ones. Show us the folly of wishes. Terrify us with consequences. Keep us up at night dreading a knock on the door or an envelope in the mail.
(more…)

Contest / Events / Flat Amount

 by 

Taking Submissions: Sundog Literature 2025 Collaboration Contest

Deadline: July 15th – August 31st, 2025
Prizes: Winners will receive a $300 prize
Theme: Your wildest, most inventive work of any or mixed genre

A Note on Our Aesthetic

We believe there is beauty in scars on smooth skin, in the small fissures where things begin to break apart. Sundogs are not the sun itself but phantom stars appearing on the horizon, illusions produced by the play of the sun’s heat with crystals of ice. They shed their light all the same. Many are tinged with color.

We look for this same quality in poetry, fiction, and nonfiction. We want writing that attempts to salvage something pure from the collision of warmth and cold, that says what it can about the world it finds itself in. We seek a diversity of voices speaking from visceral, lived experience. We like truth we can stare at until our eyes water, words so carefully chosen we want to reread them as soon as we have finished.

(more…)

Articles

 by 

Writing Prompt Wednesdays: When Clowns Laugh

Writing Prompt Wednesdays: When Clowns Laugh

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:

(more…)

Anthology / Artwork / Events / Flash / Poetry / Semipro

 by 

Taking Submissions: Sapphic Horror Anthology

Deadline: June 30th, 2025
Payment: 2 cents per word
Theme: Dark sapphic horror tales

You asked for it, and we’re doing it…

Graveside Press’s next themed anthology will be SAPPHIC HORROR!

What are we looking for?

WLW stories don’t get enough attention, and we’re fixing to change that. In time for Pride month next year, we’re going to have a kick-ass collection of dark sapphic horror tales to share with the world.

Please remember, this is still a horror anthology. Happy endings and sweet romances aren’t a requirement!

(more…)

Events

 by 

Epeolatry Book Review: Demon Drink by Kris Ashton

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: Demon Drink
Author: Kris Ashton
Genre: Occult Horror
Publisher: Crystal Lake Publishing
Publication date: 25th April, 2025

Synopsis: A night out becomes a nightmare in this dark supernatural novel that blends demonic possession, occult rituals, and the chilling consequences of temptation.

Times are tough in Black Wattle. Drought and forest fires have ravaged the town and its lifeblood, tourism, is on the wane. Nobody is feeling the pinch more than divorcee Shirley Goodsall, who is trying to keep the historic Ironstone Hotel afloat while quelling animosity between her ex-husband and their teenage daughter. So when the business manager for a microbrewery, Damon Prince, offers her a promotional deal that includes free kegs of beer, it’s a deal that seems too good to be true.

And it is. Shirley’s elation soon turns to horror as she discovers she has unwittingly helped Prince unleash dark forces in her town. Black Wattle’s residents are plunged into a nightmare of infection and blood-curdling transformations. Shirley and a handful of survivors band together to try to foil Prince’s fiendish plot, but Prince is no ordinary man. He will stare into their souls and turn their most shameful personal demons against them…

Fans of King’s earlier novels such as ’Salem’s Lot and Needful Things will revel in every ghastly, page-turning detail of Demon Drink, a master class in small-town horror from Australian Shadows Award Winner, Kris Ashton.

Can you handle your drink? 

(more…)