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Articles / Reviews

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Epeolatry Book Review: The Vile Thing We Created by Robert P. Ottone

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 Vile Things We Created
Editor: Robert P. Ottone
Genre: Suburban Folk Horror
Publisher: Hydra
Release Date: 18th April, 2023

Synopsis: Lola and Ian had what they thought was the perfect relationship. Vacations. Fine dining. A healthy sex life.

 

But when their childless lifestyle begins impacting their social lives, they decide to take the natural next step.

 

But what happens when that next step cracks the perfect foundation Lola and Ian have built?

 

What happens when that next step is anything but natural?


Robert P. Ottone’s The Vile Thing We Created is a terrifying vision of parenthood in the tradition of Ira Levin and Thomas Tryon.

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Events / Flash / Flat Amount / Magazine

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Taking Submissions: A Coup Of Owls Autumn 2023 Issue (Early Listing)

Submission Window: July 1st – 7th, 2023
Payment: Drabbles and Flash – £5, Short Stories 1001 to 4000 words – £10, Short Stories 4001 to 8000 words – £15
Theme: Stories that are outside the box in their telling. Bonus for fitting the issue’s season but not necessary.
Note: Only publishes creators from under represented and/or marginalized communities.

WE ONLY PUBLISH CREATORS FROM UNDER REPRESENTED AND/OR MARGINALISED BACKGROUNDS AND/OR COMMUNITIES

We don’t ask for any proof, we take this on trust with the expectation that anyone not from a marginalised background or underrepresented community wouldn’t take up the space of someone who is. We ask you to consider this before submitting.

QUARTERLY ONLINE ANTHOLOGY: BRIEF

We’re looking for stories you’ve poured your soul into but haven’t been able to find the right home for. We’re looking for stories that make us feel something.

Warmth, love, melancholy, rage.

We want it all. 

All genres, styles and themes will be considered and we especially love stories that are outside the box in their telling. Ambiguous endings? Non-linear storytelling? Antagonist’s point-of-view? A story told in just one scene?

We love it all.

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Articles / Interviews

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Juliana Rew & The Rhapsody of the Spheres.

Juliana Rew & The Rhapsody of the Spheres.

By Angelique Fawns

Since opening its doors more than a decade ago, Third Flatiron has been producing award-winning anthologies and providing a unique voice in the speculative world. Their last collection, After the Gold Rush had numerous top ten finishers in this year’s Critters Awards, and many stories on the Tangent Online Recommended Reading List. (Including my story, “The Last of the Gen Xers.”)

Juliana Rew, a writer herself, has recently released a new short story collection Twelve All in Dread: The Twelfth Witch and Other Stories. An imaginative group of medieval-inspired tales, you can sample it on Amazon at: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0BQFVDQT9

I’m very excited to hear Third Flatiron is producing another anthology called The Rhapsody of the Spheres, which will be open to subs the latter part of May. Doesn’t the title get your imagination working in overdrive? What does it even mean? 

Hint: Read the interview below to find out more.

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Articles

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Indie Bookshelf Releases 05/19/2023

Got a book to launch, an event to promote, a kickstarter or seeking extra work/support as a result of being hit economically by Covid or life in general?

Get in touch and we’ll promote you here. The post is prepared each Thursday for publication on Friday. Contact us via Horror Tree’s contact address or connect via Twitter or Facebook.

Click on the book covers for more information. Remember to scroll down to the bottom of the page – there’s all sorts lurking in the deep.

 

Before you scroll down through the books however, please could you consider checking out this fundraiser for one of our community members, Cassie Lola Daley who has recently been made homeless due to rent rises beyond her control. Working, but still looking, she and her family need just a little bit more to see them settled. Click on the image to go to her fundraising page. Whilst she’s hit her target, I am leaving this up to help out. I know they haven’t found a place yet and they still need support. Thank you!

 

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Events / Flash / Magazine / Pro

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Taking Submissions: If There’s Anyone Left Volume 4 Window

Submission Window: June 1st, 2023 – July 15th, 2023
Payment: 8 cents per word
Theme: Science fiction and speculative fiction
Note: Open to writers that are marginalized members of the sci-fi/spec community

GENERAL (i.e. non micro-fiction) GUIDELINES

We are currently closed to GENERAL flash submissions. We will open June 1, 2023 for Volume 4 submissions and remain open until July 15, 2023.

We want science fiction and speculative fiction. So long as it falls into one of these categories, we will happily read it. If other elements are present, that is fine, but it must include science or speculative fiction.

  • No more than 1000 words. This is a firm limit. Please no queries about longer pieces.

  • NO AI-GENERATED/ASSISTED STORIES

  • Pay rate is professional – $0.08 US/word

  • This is for marginalized members of the sci-fi/spec community—this includes people of color, the LGBTQ2S+ community, members of marginalized genders, and disabled and neurodiverse people. If you are not a person of color, LGBTQ2S+, neurodiverse, disabled, or of a marginalized gender, please DO NOT send us your work. Authors of all accepted pieces will have the option to include a short bio in the anthology. We understand the sensitive nature of gender identity and sexual orientation, so if you wish this status to remain unwritten and/or if you prefer to be anonymous, we will print only what you wish to be printed. If you would like your piece published under a pseudonym, please indicate this on your submission. If you would like your pronouns included, please indicate those as well.

  • DO NOT send us anything hateful. No gratuitous violence, torture, rape, or any work that promotes an ideology unbecoming of an inclusive society – no stories supporting racism, misogyny, homophobia, transphobia, or any other of the many forms of hate.

Minutiae

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Events / Flash / Flat Amount / Magazine / Poetry

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Taking Submissions: Grimoire Magazine: Medusa Issue

Deadline: August 1st, 2023
Payment: $20
Theme: Icing out your enemies, femme-presenting antiheroes, Medusa, the White Witch, snow queens in general

Icing out your enemies, femme-presenting antiheroes, Medusa, the White Witch, snow queens in general, Nina Maclaughlin’s Wake, Siren, Madeline Miller’s Circe, Spring Breakers, Merricat from Shirley Jackson’s We Have Always Lived in the Castle; Promising Young Woman, Alison Rumfitt’s Tell Me I’m Worthless, burning your ex inside of a bear, Ottessa Moshfegh, murderous kitsunes, Onibaba, Bunny by Mona Awad, Lady Vengeance, Emma Frost, The Low, Low, Woods by Camera Maria Machado, Lady Tremaine, sirens in general, revenge ghosts, Carol Ann Duffy’s “Medusa” and The World’s Wife, Beloved by Toni Morrison, Carrie, Lady Macbeth, fashion bitches, Cathy Earnshaw from Wuthering Heights, Fairuza Balk in The Craft, bell hooks’ killing rage, Bertha in Wide Sargasso Sea, Shakira cursing her ex and mother-in-law from the balcony of her home, Sylvia Plath, femme fatales, Gretchen Felker-Martin’s Manhunt, Cersei Lannister, Fragment of the Head of a Queen by Cate Marvin, blud by Rachel McKibbens,  Judith Beheading Holofernes by Artemisia Gentileschi, spitting on graves, villain equality, Lisbeth Salander, Audre Lorde’s “The Uses of Anger,” PJ Harvey, Beyonce’s Lemonade, Kali, Katherine Faw’s Ultraluminous, coming to your house in the middle of the night to cut up all your wigs.

If you see yourself in the mirror, submit your work to the newest incarnation of Grimoire by AUGUST 1, 2023

B E F O R E   Y O U   S U B M I T
The best way to know what we want is to look in our mirror (see below) and to read past issues of the magazine. You can find our archive here.

D R E A M S
Regardless of issue theme, we’re also always looking for dreams for our resident dream expert, Billy, to interpret. Billy may or may not be a Grimoire coven member with a copy of Billy Bing’s Dream Book. Please don’t use Billy for real life advice; that’s what therapists are for. Please peruse a few examples from the archives before emailing us yours, and include Dear Billy in the subject line.

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Articles

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How to Write a Sonnet

How to Write a Sonnet

 

Does the word ‘Sonnet’ make you flashback to your school days? Does the mere mention make your eyes water as you yawn while your mind wanders to escape? 

 

I was the same. I thought, ‘it’s too difficult’ and ‘I can’t write Shakespeare, so there’s no chance of a sonnet.’ You can imagine my horror when my poetry professor started her module with, you guessed it, sonnets! But she broke it down for me, and from practising and practising, I grew used to the ways of the sonnet. 

 

Rather than bore you with the details of the sonnet’s history and have an in-depth (yawn) look at the main four types (Petrarchan, Shakespearean, Spenserian, and Miltonic; for those who want to look them up), we’ll be focusing on making the sonnet relevant and unique to you.

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Contest / Events / Novel / Novella / Royalties

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Early Details On PitDark May 2023

Pitch Date: May 25th, 2023
Prizes: A book contract from a publisher; contracts vary between publishers. Generally royalties with the possibility of an advance.
Themes: Darker literature (horror, or other forms of fiction that are dark or are mixed genres.

Welcome to #PitDark, the only Twitter pitching contest for dark literature!

#PitDark is the first and only Twitter pitch event to highlight literature of a “darker” nature. Importantly, this is not limited to horror works; however, any pitched manuscript must contain an element of horror or darker writing. Examples of such categories include pure horror novels, dark fantasy, murder mysteries, psychological horror stories, non-fiction works about darker subjects, etc. MG, YA, NA, and adult age categories are welcome.

The next #PitDark will take place on May 25, 2023.

You can find the agents and publishers that participated in previous #PitDark events here.

Please follow the @PitDark_ Twitter account for up-to-date information about the event.

The Basics

The contest will happen on Twitter under a common hashtag (#PitDark). During a 12-hour window on the chosen day, authors with completed manuscripts who are seeking representation or publication can tweet a pitch for their books (at most, once per hour).

Agents and publishers will make requests by marking pitches as a like on Twitter. If your tweet is liked, please follow the agent or publisher’s submission guidelines.

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