Taking Submissions: Zombies in the New Normal

Deadline: August 1st, 2024
Payment: $100
Theme: Real World Based Zombie Horror

WORKING TITLE:

Zombies in the New Normal

STORY QUANTITY  – 12 TO 15

WORD COUNT – 3000 TO 12,000

PAY – $100/Story

GENRE – Real World Based Zombie Horror

SUBMISSION DEADLINE – 1/August/2024

RELEASE DATE 1/October/2024

FORMAT – Word document. Un-indented. Single space with double spaces between paragraphs.

Stories from editor’s prompts have the best chance of acceptance.

SUBMIT TO – [email protected]

The stories in this anthology will be by individual writers, but each story will share a common thread of parameters as background.

ANTHOLOGY PARAMETERS

* No Zombie is just a Zombie. They were all once human and deep inside they still have aspects of their general and personal humanity. They know they have become Zombies, but that doesn’t mean they all have to like it. They can’t help what they have become.

* All Zombies must eat human brains. There is something within human brain tissue that Zombies ingest in order to stay in their undead state. If they don’t consume enough of this tissue, they will die-die. There is no coming back from this state of dead.

* Zombies can’t speak in the way humans do but they can communicate with other of their kind telepathically. This is a learned skill and the better one becomes, the more Zombies they can reach out to and communicate with at once. Most Zombies can only communicate with those they know, and for many there must be a direct line-of-site between them. When a Zombie tries to speak using their mouth, the only sounds they can make are monster-like gibberish, full of snarls and growls.

* Just like Humans, any Zombie with a physical or mental handicap will have limitations based on that handicap. A Zombie with a damaged or missing leg will not be able to catch a human running with two good legs, for example. And a Zombie with ADHD as a Human would still be hampered by such a diagnosis. Bad teeth and any other illness could impact how effective a Zombie is at surviving. Zombies also do not have eyes rotting out, limbs randomly falling off or teeth falling out.

*Stories CANNOT take place near the time of the initial outbreak. Stories should be well established beyond the 5th year of the beginning of the Zombie Apocalypse timeline.

* At its heart, this anthology is about America and the sometimes blind resilience to carry on. These stories hint at that resilience and acceptance of this “New Normal.”

Via: D. L. Russell.