Stacey Thomas is a contributor to Bad Form Review. She is an alumna of the Curtis Brown Creative novel writing course where she was awarded the Clare Mackintosh Scholarship for Black Writers. In 2021, she was announced as one of the three winners of HarperCollins’s inaugural Killing It Competition for Undiscovered Writers.
The Revels is her debut novel.
Below, you can watch the first part of our interview with Stacey:
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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.
Drawn by an inexplicable allure, Amelia steps into the forbidden room in the crumbling mansion. Her heart pulses to the rhythm of a haunting melody only she hears. Inside, she finds an ornate, dust-covered piano. She plays, tracing the eerie tune that called to her. The air thickens as her fingers dance across the keys. Beautiful figures materialize, circling her. They whisper, their voices both chilling and compelling, urging her to continue playing. Realizing her grave mistake, she jerks her hands away. Still, the figures remain–Amelia’s eyes betray an unnatural glint; the spirits have found a new home.
In a secluded European village, Viktor, the piano maker, crafted a grand piano from wood sourced from a cursed forest. Ignoring warnings, he embellished it with arcane symbols, seeking to harness the forest’s dark energies for unparalleled sound. When he played the first note, the piano’s timbre was surreal, almost otherworldly. But that note also served as an invitation. Spirits from beyond the veil seeped into the piano, infusing it with malevolent sentience. Viktor vanished mysteriously, but the piano was found untouched and sold. A wealthy patron of the arts purchased it–the piano awaited its next opportunity.
We sat dormant, an elegant relic in a forgotten chamber. Then, a curious musician named Oliver arrived, intrigued by whispers of Amelia’s madness. Unlike her, he was not swayed by our haunting melody but by ambition—eager to uncover our arcane secrets for fame. When his fingers touched our keys, we felt the voracity of his intent. He played, and we unleashed not just ethereal figures but twisted reflections of his avarice. Our insatiable greed made Oliver one with us, his essence captured within our wooden form. Now, we sleep, harmonizing in sinister silence for the next curious soul.
Welcome, weavers of the wondrous and the whimsical! 🐉🌌 As our journey through November, from the 13th to the 17th, unfolds, let us immerse ourselves in the fantastical tapestries akin to those spun by Anne McCaffrey, where dragons soar through starlit skies and distant planets harbor tales yet untold. In this week of crafting narratives, you hold the power to meld the mystical with the interstellar, creating worlds that resonate with the heart of exploration and the magic of possibility.
This week’s compendium of opportunities is akin to a Pernese dragon’s hoard, each link a gem with the potential to transport your stories to new heights and unexplored worlds.
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.
Before you scroll down through the books however, please could you consider checking out the ‘Creatives in Crisis’ section. This has been added to help those who need additional support at this time. Thank you!
Deadline: December 16th, 2023
Payment: $35 and royalties
Theme: Noir stories that take place near the beach. Bonus if a surfer or water-related person is a character.
This book’s predecessors, The Silver Waves of Summer, and The Dark Waves of Winter were huge successes, including The Dark Waves of Winter earning a perfect 5 Stars from Indie Reader. They were both well-reviewed in myriad publications, including Kirkus Reviews. “A potent assemblage of briskly paced tales that will satisfy mystery and crime noir fans.” – Kirkus Reviews.
We are looking to build on our previous success.The Amber Waves of Winter is planned for publication in the fall of 2024. Pay is $35.00 dollars per accepted story and a share of royalties. You will be published next to some big names. We are looking for 10-12 short stories that adhere as closely as possible to the following guidelines:
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Title: Avatar: The Last Airbender–Imbalance Omnibus
Author: Faith Erin Hicks, Bryan Konietzko, Michael Dante DiMartino
Artist: Peter Wartman, Adele Matera
Genre: Kids, Fantasy, Action/Adventure
Publisher: Dark Horse
Release Date: August 30, 2023
Synopsis: Aang faces a decision from which there is no return!
When Aang, Katara, Sokka, and Toph return to Earthen Fire Industries–the factory owned by Toph’s father–Aang is surprised when their arrival is met with a cold shoulder. As soon as the team is asked for help at a business council meeting, the reason for the slight becomes clear: a massive bender-versus-non-bender conflict has gripped the town and is threatening to turn violent. In order to heal the divide and save the town, Aang and the team will all face tough decisions about power and identity that could tear them apart.
Join Faith Erin Hicks (The Adventures of Superhero Girl, The Nameless City) and drawn by Peter Wartman (Stonebreaker), in collaboration with Avatar: The Last Airbender creators Michael Dante DiMartino and Bryan Konietzko in this beautiful second edition of Imbalance! With a brand-new cover by Peter Wartman!
Collects Avatar: The Last Airbender–Imbalance volumes 1-3
Deadline: February 1st, 2024
Payment: $25.00 – $50.00 for fiction, $5.00 – $10.00 for poetry
Theme: Story must begin with: Mr. Morton needed a new pair of shoes.
We love that writers around the world are inspired by our first lines, and we know that not every story will be sent to us. However, we ask that you do not submit stories starting with our first lines to other journals (or post them online on public sites) until we’ve notified you as to our decision (usually four weeks after the deadline). When the entire premise of the publication revolves around one sentence, we don’t want it to look as if we stole that sentence from another writer. If you have questions, feel free to drop us a line.
Also, we understand that writers may add our first line to a story they are currently working on or have already completed, and that’s cool. But please do not add our first line to a previously published story and submit it to us. We do not accept previously published stories, even if they have been repurposed for our first lines. And, just to be clear, we do not accept simultaneous submissions.
One more thing while I’ve got you here: Writers compete against one another for magazine space, so, technically, every literary magazine is running a contest. There are, however, literary magazines that run traditional contests, where they charge entry fees and rank the winners. We do not – nor will we ever – charge a submission fee, nor do we rank our stories in order of importance. Occasionally, we run contests to help come up with new first lines, or we run fun, gimmicky competitions for free stuff, but the actual journal is not a contest in the traditional sense.
Deadline: January 1st, 2024
Payment: One cent U.S. per word ($2 minimum)
Theme: Fantastic Fiction You really NEED to read the description below.
The Cafe Irreal is a quarterly webzine that presents a kind of fantastic fiction infrequently published in English. This fiction, which we would describe as irreal, resembles the work of writers such as Franz Kafka, Kobo Abe, Clarice Lispector and Jorge Luis Borges. As a type of fiction it rejects the tendency to portray people and places realistically and the need for a full resolution to the story; instead, it shows us a reality constantly being undermined. Therefore, we’re interested in stories by writers who write about what they don’t know, take us places we couldn’t possibly go, and don’t try to make us care about the characters. We would also suggest you take a look at the current issue, archives, and theory (especially the essay, “What is irrealism?”) pages on this web site.
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