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Taking Submissions: Solar Punk Magazine October 2024 Window

Submission Window: October 1st-14th, 2024
Payment: Fiction: 1500-7500 words ($.08 per word, $100 minimum), Poetry: One poem of up to three pages ($40 per poem), Nonfiction: 1000-2000 words ($75 per essay or article), Cover Art: $100 for reprints, $200 for original unpublished, Interior Art: $50 for reprints, $100 for original unpublished
Theme: Speculative fiction works that stir readers with themes of defiance, change, and achievement

Submissions are currently closed. Our next and final submission windows for 2024 will be open from October 1-14, 2024. Our 2025 submission schedule will be released by the end of summer 2024.

(Note: At the moment, our nonfiction department is always open for submissions. If the fiction, poetry, and art portals are closed and you submit those through the open nonfiction portal, your submission will be automatically rejected without being considered.)

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Articles / Guest Post

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September 2024: Tarot Cards for Writing Inspiration

Deck: The Golden Tarot by Kat Black

Here in the Northern hemisphere, I’m still waiting for autumn to arrive, but we still have blazing hot summer temperatures, sadly. Perhaps I was channeling my yearnings for cool dark evenings into this reading (If I did believe in a hell, I would imagine it as a frostbitten, icy place rather than a fiery inferno.) Has autumn began its seasonal change where you are? Either way, I hope you find this reading inspirational for your own writerly “walks on the dark (cool) side”!

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Trembling With Fear

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Unholy Trinity: Glamoury by Deborah Tapper

Our church worships at the altar of the Unholy Trinity. Its gospels are delivered as a trio of dark drabbles, linked so that Three become One. All hail the power of the Three.

 

Hoodwinked

 

It’s midnight and the girl in red keeps screaming.

He races to tackle her assailant and finds he’s grabbing handfuls of unkempt fur, solid muscle. Dense clouds part and moonlight pours down as the hideous thing rips free, whirling to confront him. Howling and snapping, yellow eyes blazing hate.

The girl’s laughing.

Peeling off her scarlet dress, her human skin.

He runs, but she’s faster. A leap brings him down and she wrestles him onto his back, claws slicing. Opens his belly with one ferocious swipe, triumphant smile sprouting razor fangs.

“Don’t get greedy, Grandma,” she snarls. “This one’s mine!”

 

Footloose

 

He wakes strapped to an operating table.

Specimen jars line the walls and two smiling girls lean over him. He recognises one: the tireless salesgirl who insisted on fetching every pair of shoes his size, who said he had perfect feet.

She doesn’t have feet now. Or legs. And neither does her sister. One glimpse of their snake-like lower halves and he’s struggling, yelling for help.

Nobody comes.

The giggling sisters lay out their saws and scalpels as his frantic eyes skim the room, desperately seeking escape. And he finally sees what’s inside the countless glass jars.

Perfect human feet.

 

Reclusive

 

She’s high in an inaccessible tower, singing sweetly as she spins. That beautiful voice is mesmerizing. He spends hopeless hours circling, searching for a way in.

Eventually she lowers a thin silky rope. It’s strangely sticky, but it takes his weight so he climbs up. Squeezes eagerly through the tiny window – into a shadowy room overflowing with tapestries. Attendants hover silently, motionless.

He blinks – and the tapestries turn into thick cobwebs. Countless corpses hang from them, sucked dry.

She scuttles out. Strikes before he can flee.

And once he’s safely bundled in her larder, she starts singing and spinning again.

 

Deborah Tapper

Deborah Tapper has been published in anthologies, magazines and online. She lives in the middle of nowhere with her understanding partner, drinks too much strong tea and writes at an old desk surrounded by five hundred pet bugs.

Articles

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Indie Bookshelf Releases 09/06/2024

Got a book to launch, an event to promote, a kickstarter or seeking extra work/support as a result of being hit economically by 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.

 

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Articles / Reviews

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Epeolatry Book Review: Draw You In, Volume 3 by Jasper Bark

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: Draw You In, Volume 3 – Behind the Mask
Author: Jasper Bark
Genre: horror fiction, horror fantasy, conspiracy thrillers
Publisher: Crystal Lake Publishing
Publication Date: 5th July, 2024

Synopsis: Draw You In Vol.3 – Behind the Mask is the explosive finale to this mind-bending trilogy.

Is the whole of history a convenient lie?

That’s how it’s beginning to look to Linda, Richard and Agent McPherson as they hunt for Tales That Draw You In, cartoonist R. L. Carver’s legendary lost work. The key to finding it could lie in a memory Linda’s repressed, from when she was a captive of the serial killer Henry McLaughlin.

The sinister cabal known as the Shadows in the Cave is also keen to retrieve Linda’s memory. Their reasons are linked to a military compound in the Chihuahuan desert and a clandestine psychic espionage program. Linda, Richard and McPherson learn that more than their own lives hang in the balance. The program’s terrible purpose could bring about the end of the world as we know it.

Described as “Kavalier and Clay meets Clive Barker,” it contains stories within stories that explore horror in all its subgenres, from quiet to psychological horror, from hardcore to cosmic horror.

Experience the epic conspiracy thriller that redefines the genre for a new generation.

 

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Articles

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Writing Prompt Wednesdays: Abandoned Interview

Writing Prompt Wednesdays: Abandoned Interview

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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Articles / Interviews

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An Interview with Kyle Toucher on ‘The Medusa Psalms’ and More!

An Interview with Kyle Toucher on ‘The Medusa Psalms’ and More!

You may have already read the work of Kyle Toucher, either in his excellent novel Live Wire or a myriad of short stories, and are thus familiar with his Walpurgis County: a place where American folk horror meshes with Lovecraftian terrors. Now he has gathered many of those stories into his first collection, The Medusa Psalms. Or as his publisher describes it:

“Enter Kyle Toucher’s Walpurgis County and discover the history and lore of America’s most benighted landscape, a melting pot of monsters and occultists, the heroes and the maimed, the suffering and the insufferable.”

Which is basically my catnip, and I was all in to deep dive on some of my questions about the Purg, its denizens, and what lies beneath Walpurgis Peak.

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Kyle Toucher (rhymes with voucher) is the author of the novel Live Wire, from Crystal Lake Publishing, the novella Life Returns, and the Black Hare Press Short Read, Southpaw.
He recently appeared in the anthologies Dead Letters: Episodes of Epistolary Horror and To Hell and Back, from Crystal Lake and Hellbound Books respectively.

Through his twenties, he fronted the influential Nardcore crossover band Dr. Know, made records and hit the road. Later, he moved into the Visual Effects field, where he bagged eight Emmy nominations and two awards for Firefly and Battlestar: Galactica.

He lives with a lovely woman, five cats, two dogs, and several guitars in a house built when Nosferatu first ran in theatres.

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Articles / Reviews

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Epeolatry Book Review: Draw You In, Volume 2 by Jasper Bark

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: Draw You In, Volume 2 – Secret Origins
Author: Jasper Bark
Genre: horror fiction, horror fantasy, conspiracy thrillers
Publisher: Crystal Lake Publishing
Publication Date: 21st June, 2024

Synopsis:  Draw You In Vol.2 – Secret Origins is the second in a mind-bending trilogy of novels.
Are there any barriers between fiction and reality?
Linda is beginning to wonder. Once again she puts her comics career on hold to join Richard and Agent McPherson in the hunt for R. L. Carver’s lost masterpiece Tales That Draw You In. Rumored to be cursed, this legendary graphic novel put everyone who tried to publish it out of business. But Tales That Draw You In might unlock more than just their case. It could be the key to the secret history of the United States.
As they move from an Ashram on the West Coast to the hallowed halls of Harvard, Linda, Richard and McPherson begin to piece together the dark secrets of Harvard’s hidden history and the even darker secrets of the nation’s founding fathers. They uncover the existence of a sinister cabal known as the Shadows in the Cave whose deep state machinations threaten the lives of everyone on the planet.
Described as ‘Kavalier and Clay meets Clive Barker’, it contains stories within stories that explore horror in all its subgenres, from quiet to psychological horror, from hardcore to cosmic horror.

 

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