Horror Writing Markets May 2022

 

Image by Alexas_Fotos from Pixabay

Today I have a collection of horror writing markets for you.

One has a submission date of 31st May, the rest are longer.

My hope is that they inspire you to activate your creativity and get you writing and submitting.

Successful writers write. So get going.

Open Call for Stranger With Fiction Issue Seven: The Halloween Issue

Issue seven of Stranger with Friction drops on October 1st and we need your scariest, bloodiest, goriest tales. Your story doesn’t have to be all three, but it should be at least one and relate to the autumn if not Halloween specifically.

WHAT WE’RE LOOKING FOR; Creature features, ghost stories, slashers…hell any sub-genre of horror will be considered as long as it relates to the season. We’re also looking for non-fiction articles relating to horror themed punk and metal, Halloween themed movies, and Halloween themed literature.

ARTISTS! Black and white or color pin-ups with that spooky feel are also needed!

WHAT WE’RE NOT LOOKING FOR; No racism, sexism, homophobia, or transphobia. These elements can exist within the context of the story if there’s a purpose for it, but if it feels like the story is simply misogynistic or prejudiced in anyway it will automatically be rejected. I also don’t want any graphic depictions of rape. If you can’t find a way to tell a horror story without relying on rape or racism, don’t bother submitting to St Rooster Books ever, thanks. Also, no reprints.

Word count; 1-5k

Payment: $10 plus contributor copy or three contributor copies. Your choice.

Deadline; August 1st

Release date; October 1st.

Send to Holyrooster76@gmail.com

https://strangerwithfriction.blogspot.com

Hellbound Books Publishing
MADAME GRAY'S POE-POURRI OF TERROR

Lifelong Edgar Allan Poe fan, Madame Gray, is in search of horror tales that pay homage to one of the greats of the genre. Whether you gravitate toward The Raven, The Tell-Tale Heart, Murders in the Rue Morgue, or the Masque of the Red Death, she wants to read your story...  

Compiled and edited by Gerri R. Gray (Madame Gray's Creep Show, Blood & Blasphemy, Vault of Gore) and published by Hellbound Books, this anthology is open to undiscovered writers and established voices alike.

Contributors are invited to send a bio (up to 250 words) with their submission. Multiple and simultaneous submissions are okay.

PLEASE read and adhere to our submission guidelines...  
* Word format saved in .doc, or .docx
* 12 pt times new roman
* Double spaced
* Absolutely NO extra lines between paragraphs!


Word Count: 3K - 8K words 

Write 'MADAME GRAY POE' along with your name and story title in the header of your email
*The body of your submission email will be considered the cover letter. 
* The submission documents are to be separated and Word (.doc or .docx) documents are to be attached to your submission email. 

To submit, email your polished story to madame.gray@hellboundbookspublishing.com

- Make sure that you check your mss for grammar and punctuation. 



Deadline: September 1st, 2022

NO REPRINTS - ORIGINAL UNPUBLISHED WORKS ONLY

Payment: $5.00 for First Rights

http://www.hellboundbookspublishing.com/subs-anthologies.html

Interstallar Flight Magazine

Interstellar Flight Magazine is seeking essays on pop culture, movies, geekery, and scifi/fantasy related topics. ​Submissions are open year-round. (Please note: We close to submissions briefly at the end of each year from 12/15-1/15 to work on our anthology. Submissions sent during this time will be read after the break.) 

We want essays on popular culture, movies, books, video games, SFF culture, conventions, and anything else geeky. We love reviews but believe that the goal of criticism should be to know and understand not to like or dislike. The tone of our essays are conversational and accessible, but we do enjoy a good academic debate. We're always interested in hearing from underrepresented and marginalized voices. How you define that is up to you.

Guidelines: 

Essays should be 250-1500 words.

Please submit in .doc, .docx, or .rtf form.

Essays should be timely, i.e. that movie you just saw and loved/hated, a book that just came out, or a current topic of discussion online. 

Please include links as hyperlinks in your document. Please do not include images (Tweet embeds are fine). 

You may also submit pitches (max 100 words). Send us several ideas at once if you like. 

We prefer not to publish articles that only work as a series (we are not a "monthly" or "quarterly" publication, so series columns don't really work for us.)  Instead focus on one thing and dive deep into it. 

Reprint essays are fine if they are relevant, but we regret that we cannot pay for reprints at this time.

Payment: $15 on publication. We regret that we are only able to make payments via Paypal at this time. Simultaneous submissions are fine, just let us know if you need to withdraw. Articles are published under First North American Rights and may be provided as members-only content on a future Patreon page. (We'll let you know if we'd like to use your essay there). If accepted, writers will be asked to create a Medium profile. Submissions are only accepted through the submission form. Please do not email submissions.

Book Submissions 

Call for Nonfiction Proposals - Open 

Interstellar Flight Press is accepting submissions of book-length nonfiction manuscripts. We invite scholars of science fiction, fantasy, horror, and related genres to submit proposals via our submission form. Our areas of focus are: Books about SFF genres, writing speculative fiction, poetry, film, comics, pop culture, diverse and marginalized voices, feminism, and disability, as long as these topics intersect with speculative genres. We are very interested in books from researchers outside the U.S. We also welcome collections of essays. Authors should be experienced in the field of SFF research. 

Guidelines:

Full-length books 30,000-125,000 words. 

Please use our Proposal Format to prepare your submission. 

Simultaneous submissions are fine, but please let us know if your work is accepted elsewhere. 

Multiple submissions are allowed. 

If your book is in-progress, please include a delivery schedule in your proposal. 

This call will remain open for the foreseeable future. Please query us after 90 days if you have not received a response. 

Call for Horror Novellas- Open 10/1/22 - 12/1/22

Interstellar Flight Press is seeking submissions of Horror Novellas in the speculative genres. For this call, we are also open to translations. Books from this call will be slotted for 2023-2026 publication dates.

We are looking for: 

Novellas 17,500-40,000. (This is a hard word count limit. We will accept manuscripts within 5,000 words of this, but note that authors may be asked to revise to within these word counts.)

Horror genre including but not limited to: Science Fiction Horror, Fantasy Horror, Supernatural, Weird Horror, Mystery/thrillers with horror elements. Hybrids or difficult to categorize works are welcome. Give us your slashers, zombies, witches, vampires, monsters, demons, devils, horror comedies, psychological thrillers, body horror, crime noir, creature features, aliens, ghosts, haunted houses, creepy carnivals, serial killers, possessed children, shapeshifters, disasters, and viruses. 

Translations: We accept translations from authors or translators working on behalf of authors. In the case of collaborative projects, royalties are split based upon agreement between the parties involved.  

Guidelines: 

Please send complete manuscripts (your entire book) in .doc or .docx formats, formatted in Standard Manuscript Format with no identifying information in the document. This means:  

12-point font.

Times New Roman, Courier, or similar font.

Double spaced.

Numbered pages.

Your name should not appear anywhere in the manuscript or in the title of the document. If your name appears in the manuscript, we will remove it before sending it to our readers. 

NEW: Please include content warnings on the first page of the manuscript. For more on this, please read our guide to content warnings.

Please include a synopsis/summary on the first page of your manuscript, max 500 words. 

We require a cover letter with bio in our submission form. Be sure to include links to your website and social media so we can get to know you. 

Simultaneous and multiple submissions are fine, but if you receive an offer from another publisher, please let us know so we can withdraw your manuscript. 

We do not accept previously published manuscripts, including self-published or partially published manuscripts. 

Agented submissions are welcome. If you're an agent, please send us an email (contact (at) interstellarflightpress (dot) com) or submit via the form. 

https://www.interstellarflightpress.com/submissions.html

Fear Forge Open-Calls

For the first edition of the Fear Forge Anthology, I wanted to give a nod to the anthology's name and to the relationships that inspired it. Since the conception of Horrorsmith Editing, I have been focused on forging strong relationships within the author and horror communities. This anthology is a continuation of that, and I thought it only appropriate that it should reflect both in the name and the first edition's theme.  

 

Please submit your unique, unpublished, horror or dark fantasy stories or images involving a forge, such as: items created by a forge—haunted armor, weapons, or cursed objects; demonic crafters or smiths who use the forge; or the forge equipment itself. 

 

Details

All stories and images should involve the forge in any variation of the methods used above. However, the forge must be a prominent feature within the story. Simply adding a forge in the background of an existing story will not make the cut. 

All stories should be between 2000 and 6000 words in length. There may be some wiggle room over 6000 words if the story is exceptional. However, please do not depend on that. Any stories less than 2000 words will not be considered. 

Images can be a figure, scene, or cover image. 

All stories and images should be emailed to horrorsmithsubs@gmail.com beginning Friday, May 13, 2022. 

Stories and images will be accepted until the anthology is full or until August 1, whichever comes first, so it will be to your benefit to submit as early as possible. 

You may submit more than one story or image if you choose; however, only one will be selected for possible publication. 

Simultaneous submissions are not allowed.

Reprints are not allowed.

Horrorsmith Publishing will retain exclusive rights to the stories and images for one year from the date of publication. 

Payment is $30 per story or image. 

https://www.horrorsmithediting.com/opencall

Brigids Gate Press

Submissions Open: June 1 st to June 30th

Title: Dangerous Waters: Deadly Women of the Sea

Type: Anthology of short stories, poetry, and drabbles

Editor: Julia C. Lewis

Theme: We’re looking for horror or dark fantasy stories, poems, and drabbles about malevolent

mermaids, sinister sirens, scary selkies, spirits, and other deadly and dangerous women of the

sea. Stories including the ocean or sea are the focus of the anthology, but we will consider stories

involving rivers as well.

No explicit sexual content, no racism or anti-LGBTQIA+, animal cruelty, extreme horror, or violence just for violence’s sake. No reprints.

What: Submissions should be a Word doc or docx. On the first page of your piece, only put the title, word count, and trigger warnings. Do not use headers or footers.

Stories: 500-3,500 words

Poetry: up to 350 words

Drabbles: exactly 100 words

Titles are not included in word counts

Multiple submissions will be accepted (up to 3 pieces per author), but only one piece will be printed. Simultaneous submissions are fine, please let us know if your piece is accepted elsewhere.

This is an open submission call. No slots have been reserved for invitation pieces.

Please include an author bio (including any social media or website links you want displayed) as a separate document.

Where: Email all submissions to submissions@brigidsgatepress.com. In the subject line put DANGEROUS WATERS.

Payment:  Copy of the ebook and paperback of the anthology.

Stories: $0.08 a word

Poems: $50 a poem

Drabbles: $50 a drabble

https://brigidsgatepress.com/submissions

The Dread Machine

Call for submissions (short stories): Darkness Blooms

Deadline: 31 May 2022

Theme: Identity, security, and community are inexorably entwined.

We’re looking for stories touching on at least one of these themes. We want you to explore the boundaries of who we are, what makes us feel safe (and at what cost), with whom we choose to surround ourselves, and our darkest secrets.

Let’s explore how they influence us and our perception of reality.

IDENTITY

Identity is formed by not only things like race, culture, and class but also by the relationships we cultivate, the opinions and moral codes we adopt, and our choices. What secrets lie in the dark expanses between where we came from, who we think we are, and how we want others to perceive us?

SECURITY

Security—stability, order, dependency, structure—is an innate human need. In practice, security tends to be an illusion designed to make us feel more in control over our surroundings. What makes us feel safe, and what are we willing to sacrifice to feel that way? What happens when safety nets aren’t there to catch us when we fall? What dreadful secrets are we willing to keep to preserve the status quo?

COMMUNITY

Humans often seek security through community. We align ourselves with others who share our interests, culture and religion, geographic location, and workplaces. How well do you really know your neighbors, your friends, your coworkers, your family? How do we build these communities? What erodes a community, makes it crumble?

SUBMISSION GUIDELINES

All submissions must inspire dread. Genre definitions tend to be subjective, so we encourage you to become familiar with the stories we’ve published here to get an idea of what sort of content we’re seeking.

All submissions must be original, unpublished, and between 2,000 and 10,000 words. Stories should earn their word count, however. If your story is closer to the maximum, we will expect it to contain a narrative worthy of every word. We are not flexible on the word count, so please don’t request an exception.

Authors are permitted to submit up to three stories, but none may be simultaneously submitted anywhere else, nor may they be resubmissions of stories we have already declined.

Payment: Authors whose stories are accepted for publication will receive payment ($0.08 per word), a free copy of the premium hardcover, and two free copies of the paperback.

RIGHTS

You can review the publication agreement for Darkness Blooms on the website.

Submissions close on May 31st at 11:59 pm, eastern time.

Read the full submission guidelines here.

https://www.thedreadmachine.com/submit/submit-darkness/

Finally Moved, And Back To Writing

Image by Peggy und Marco Lachmann-Anke from Pixabay

Last week I told you I was moving. I was not going far but it was still exhausting.

Somehow I thought I’d still have time to get plenty of writing done, but I didn’t.

For the past week it’s been all so tiring and time-consuming, packing up all our meagre worldly possessions and unpacking them again, but at least it’s over now, so that I can get back to my normal life.

So far I’m loving where we’ve moved to and my desk is in a window nook so I have a view again. I was staring at a blank corner before.

We lived in our previous apartment for only a year, but we weren’t really happy there, partly because the whole place was getting progressively filthier because the caretakers refused clean it properly and the committee (who are the only people who can do anything about it) seemed to be slow to do anything about it. Happily though, they are now taking action.

Then construction work began with a new apartment block being built on the complex and so the filth suddenly got much worse.

Luckily, by then, we’d already sold our apartment. Hopefully lack of caretaking situation will resolve itself, but in the meantime I’m glad I’m out so that I can settle down to my writing again. Also our new apartment is brand new so it’s already clean and beautiful and doesn’t have any “inherited” dirt.

Moving also meant that I missed my monthly deadline for publishing another book, plus there were issues with publishing my previous book, but it’s all sorted now.

You can see my latest book, a novel, called, “What Goes Around Comes Around - When karma is a bitch, can love conquer all?” at https://cheritonhousepublishing.com/books/wgaca.html.

It was a fun book to write and it’s a great book to read.

Grab a copy now in print or download the eBook.

Happy reading and writing.

Writing and Moving

Image by Nina Garman from Pixabay 

Last March (2021, over a year ago) I moved from a house up a mountain to an apartment at the coast. Although I liked having a garden at our old place and growing fruit and vegetables, I wanted to live in somewhere with less to do so that I could write more. 

Unfortunately, while I do like living in an apartment (here in Australia, called a unit), I don’t like the complex where I am so I’m moving again next week.

What I don’t like about living here is that for some reason I don’t like sitting in the study. We use the spare bedroom as an office but for some unknown reason I can’t settle in there, so I don’t sit at my desk any more. Even right now I’m sat on the couch in the living room.

I did think I could sit on the balcony and write instead, but it’s East-facing and has the sun on it most of the morning so it’s too hot and burning.

There are also over 150 apartments here with over 90 more currently being built (6 buildings altogether) so it’s noisy here through the day time with so many people around, plus all the construction going on here at the moment (from 6.30am to 6.30pm six days a week) is not conducive to my writing either.

There are also ongoing problems with the caretakers who are not doing their jobs, so the common areas (car parks, pool areas, corridors, etc) are looking pretty icky, in fact it’s getting quite disgusting.

As you can imagine, I’m fed up with everything here and so is Dean, so we’ve sold up and we’re shipping out.

Next week we’ll start moving our possessions box by box over to our new place and then the removalists can move our furniture a few days later.

This is going to be a huge disruption, but it won’t stop me writing. No doubt it will slow me down though.

In the meantime we’re busy sorting out electric and internet accounts, mail redirection, and eating up all the food in the fridge freezer before we switch it off for a couple of days before we move it. If nothing else, it will be entertaining. Though it’s all somewhat stressful.

Also, my book, the 12 Month Writing Challenge, which was only available as a PDF, is now available as a print book and an eBook and both are available from online bookstores.

Grab yourself a copy now.

Happy reading and writing.

https://cheritonhousepublishing.com/books/12MTH.html

Here’s How To Do 12 Months of Non-Stop Writing

Beach in Townsville North QLD

Back in early 2020, my husband Dean and I went on a road trip up North to tropical Townsville. We took a few days to drive up there, stopping overnight here and there and sleeping in the back of the car (we had a utility truck with a fixed canopy over the tray with a fitted mattress inside).

I thought I’d have trouble sleeping during the trip because I often wake up in the early hours of the morning at stupid o’clock and can’t get back to sleep. So I thought it would be worse sleeping in the car at roadside truck stops.

But it turned out to be the opposite. I slept than I had in years. I had no trouble falling asleep in the car and slept straight though til morning every single night. Dean would say, “Didn’t you hear that bus-load of people pull up and use the toilets last night?” And “There were so many trucks pulling out at 4am and I couldn’t believe you were sleeping through it all.” He was disturbed by sounds every night while I slept like a baby.

We talked about it when we got home and I decided that the reason I slept so well was simply because of decision fatigue. Every day was spent making one decision after another, after another, all day long. Where are we going to stay tonight? How are we going to shower? What are we going to eat/ How far do we have to go? Where are we? Where are we going tomorrow? How much fuel to do we have? When can we stop and have a break?

At home there isn’t many decision to make because I’m organised so it’s not tiring. I know what I’m going to be doing each day. Everything is planned. Even if something unexpected comes up, it’s easy to re-organise everything.

Having a plan makes every day so much simpler. I have a plan and I work my plan.

And I’ve set up a 12 month writing plan for you in my book, The 12 Month Writing Challenge.

So there are no decisions you need to make, except how soon are you going to start?

https://cheritonhousepublishing/books/12MTH.html