July, 2025 Dark Fiction Short Story Markets

HWA L.A.: For July, 2025
New or Reopening Market Listings/ Notes

At Minimum Pro-Paying (5 cents+ per word)

Mmeory (anthology, Air and Nothingness Press)
http://aanpress.com/submissions.html
Payment: 8 cents a word
Story Length: up to 1,500 words
Deadline: Open between July 7–August 15, 2025
Reprints?: No
Response: September 15, 2025
Description: Stories of memory manipulation. Examples include magic spells, cyborg memory edits, very unreliable narrators, time travel gone horribly wrong; open to all genres: Fantasy, Science Fiction, Urban Fantasy, Alternate History, Steampunk, Hopepunk, Solarpunk, and beyond...


Diabolical Plots ezine (ed. David Steffen)
https://www.diabolicalplots.com/guidelines/
Payment: 10 cents a word
Story Length: 3,500 words or less
Deadline: Open between July 7– July 21, 2025
Reprints?: No
Response Time: One month after end of submission window
Description: Speculative fiction–science fiction, fantasy, and horror. Everything should have a speculative element–that includes horror. Feel free to mix in other genres at will–a fantasy mystery or a science fiction romance.


Mysterion (ezine)
https://www.mysteriononline.com/p/submission-guidelines.html
Payment: 8 cents a word (4 cents for reprints)
Story Length: up to 9,000 words
Deadline: Open between July 1–July 31, 2025
Reprints?: Yes
Response: Four months
Description: Christian-themed speculative stories and artwork—science fiction, fantasy, horror—with Christian themes, characters, or cosmology; science fiction and fantasy, good ghost stories, etc.; there's great fiction material hidden in the mysteries of Christian theology—cherubim, leviathan, nephilim, visions, prophecy, and more.


The Orange & Bee
https://theorangebee.substack.com/p/submission-guidelines
Payment: 8 cents a word
Story Length: up to 4,000 words
Deadline: Open between July 1– July 14, 2025
Reprints?: No
Response: Within three weeks
Description: Fairy tale narratives: Original works of fiction, poetry, and non-fiction that engage in a significant way with the long history of fairy tales. We are interested in works that stretch, expand, test, subvert, and challenge the fairy-tale tradition. We are interested in works that are entertaining, but also in works that matter: that is, in works that are both pleasurable to read and thought-provoking.


TWO SEPARATE ANTHOLOGIES: Romantic Fantasy from Flame Tree Publishing
https://blog.flametreepublishing.com/fantasy-gothic/romantic-fantasy-first-submissions-0
Payment: 8 cents a word (6 cents/ word for reprints)
Story Length: 2,000–4,000 words (soft range)
Deadline: July 20, 2025
Reprints?: Yes
Response: within 4 months of the submission deadline

1. A Breath of Time: Lost loves, love discovered, love unreachable unless Time itself is conquered, these and many other time-bending, time traveling, time feasting themes can spark your imagination for stories of alternate history, of ancient forests returning to haunt the present and great adventures through dreams and timeless mountain tops, all with hearts beating to the rhythm of romance.

2. Of Love & Dragons: Dragons may be fierce but they are symbols of great power, and the bond between human and dragon, once forged can never be broken. Or can it? Can romance deal a deathly trail of vows abandoned, or forgotten, can realms beyond our time conjure tales of Dragon Lords and warrior princesses, of great rivalries and oceans yearning with desire and determination, can you tempt the ancient ways into new meanings, and new stories.


Mergnaser Magazine
https://mergansermagazine.com/about.html
Payment: 8 cents a word ($1/line for poetry)
Story Length: up to 2,000 words (soft limit)
Deadline: No closing date listed
Reprints?: No
Response: Within two months
Description: Strong, well-written pieces across a wide range of material, including fiction, creative non-fiction, and poetry.


***Non-PRO-Paying Market, but Eric J. Guignard’s “Pick of the Month”

Inner Worlds (magazine)
https://inner-worlds.ghost.io/submission-guidelines/
Payment: £0.02 (about US 3 cents a word)
Story Length: 500–2,500 words
Deadline: Open between July 15–August 31, 2025
Reprints?: Yes (if not available online)
Response: Three weeks
Description: Science fiction, fantasy, or supernatural horror prose with a strong emotional or psychological focus.


Slugger
https://sluggerfiction.com/submit/
Payment: $25 flat
Story Length: 1,000–4,000 words
Deadline: July 15, 2025
Reprints?: No
Response: 45 days after close of submissions
Description: Non-themed horror; all subgenres of horror (dark fantasy, sci-fi, noir all accepted as long as horror plays a central role).

My Website Updates!

I finally added that talismanic “S” to both my websites (the Secure Sockets Layer (SSL) Certificate) and also completed a massive overhaul of content and design!

Check out my sites, what do you think?

Here’s my author’s site: https://www.ericjguignard.com/

Here’s my Indie Press: https://www.darkmoonbooks.com/

(Dark Moon Books will soon be publishing its 30th title!!)

June, 2025 Dark Fiction Short Story Markets

HWA L.A.: For June, 2025
New or Reopening Market Listings/ Notes

At Minimum Pro-Paying (5 cents+ per word)

Deep Anthology (Death's Head Press)
https://thegrinder.diabolicalplots.com/Market/Index/19663
Payment: 5 cents a word
Story Length: 2,500–10,000 words
Deadline: July 31, 2025
Reprints?: No
Response: unknown
Description: Original horror short stories regarding the unexplored depths of our planet and the universe.


SmokeLong Quarterly
https://smokelong.submittable.com/submit/316909/dark-fantasy-and-psychological-thriller-a-smokelong-themed-call-for-submission
Payment: $300 flat
Story Length: up to 1,000 words
Deadline: August 14, 2025
Reprints?: No
Response: Two weeks
Description: Prose that is troubling, that explores our darkest fears. We're not quite sure we're ready for this to be honest, but that's part of the appeal. We are looking for literary prose. We do not want to weather gratuitous violence or cruelty, but we do--or at least we think we do--want to feel fright, unease, a racing heart. If you are a writer of stories that do this, this call is for you. Think Shirley Jackson.


Plott Hound Magazine
https://plotthoundmag.com/submissions/
Payment: 8 cents a word
Story Length: up to 5,000 words (preferred 3,000–4,000); or flash fiction up to 999 words
Deadline: Open between June 1 and June 15, 2025
Reprints?: No
Response: Unknown
Description: Stories with anthropomorphized animals as protagonists; Animal-centric speculative fiction (fantasy, science fiction, horror). (Also open to poetry and non-fiction.)


Anomaly
https://forms.gle/gyYiefg2A2rffr779
Payment: 8 cents a word
Story Length: flash fiction up to 300 words
Deadline: Open between June 1 and June 7, 2025
Reprints?: No
Response: unknown
Description: Dark and disruptive SF stories that have strong emotional resonance.


Haven Speculative
https://www.havenspec.com/submit/
Payment: 8 cents a word
Story Length: up to 6,000 words
Open From: June 1–June 30, 2025
Reprints?: No (with some exceptions)
Response: within 70 days
Description: Fantasy and science fiction stories, poems, and non-fiction, for a modern audience with a sensibility for social consciousness.


Clarkesworld Magazine
https://clarkesworldmagazine.com/submissions/
Payment: 14 cents per word
Story Length: 1,000–22,000 words
Deadline: Intermittent (usually open)
Reprints?: No
Response: Unknown
Description: Science fiction and fantasy. No horror, but dark SF/F is permitted.


***Non-PRO-Paying Market, but Eric J. Guignard’s “Pick of the Month”
Saturday Mourning Television (anthology)
https://sliceduppress.com/submissions/
Payment: $35 flat
Story Length: 1,000–4,000 words
Deadline: June 30, 2025
Reprints?: No
Response: July 31, 2025
Description: Horror fiction inspired by early morning kids TV; the educational/bizarre 1960’s & 70’s, the advert-packed 80’s, the radical 90’s, the wayward & wacky 2000’s or anything beyond. Even web-based entertainment is fair game. And don’t limit yourself to tales involving kids, what about parents, or performers & hosts, workers behind the scenes, even animated creations.


Fearmoji: Queer Emoji Horror
https://www.slashichorrorpress.com/submissions
Payment: $25 flat
Story Length: 4,000–7,500 words
Deadline: August 1, 2025
Reprints?: No
Response: Presumably within three months
Description: Adult queer body horror that somehow strongly incorporates the use of emoji…. sentient emojis, cursed emojis, a secret combination of emojis that unlocks a demon, a serial killer whose signature is the love heart reaction, disaffected youths whose use of the shrug emoji comes back to haunt them, a coder with an emoji axe to grind… The potential here is limitless. Include believable, authentic characters, and crazy fucking scenarios!


Kozy Krampus: The Cosmic Horror of the Holiday Sweater
https://www.underlandpress.com/the-cosmic-horror-of-the-holiday-sweater/
Payment: 1 cent a word
Story Length: up to 5,000 words (also open to poetry)
Deadline: June 15–June 30, 2025
Reprints?: No
Response: unknown
Description: Cosmic horror inherent in the holiday season with Kozy Krampus, a collection of stories merry and monstrous, cozy and cosmic. The gothic nightmares and horrific haunts of our forebears persist in our fever-fueled dreams. Some monsters are never vanquished; they merely find new shapes. Slip into the dark shadows behind the million flickering holiday lights. Stare down the prehistoric fruit log in which lurks something truly eldritch and batrachian. Hark to the songs sung after midnight by carolers with extra-long tongues and extra-sharp teeth. This is the holiday season with the masks ripped off.

May, 2025 Dark Fiction Short Story Markets

HWA L.A.: For May, 2025
New or Reopening Market Listings/ Notes
At Minimum Pro-Paying (5 cents+ per word)

Skull X Bones (Zombies Need Brains, LLC)
https://zombiesneedbrains.moksha.io/publication/skull-x-bones/guidelines
Payment: 8 cents a word
Story Length: up to 7,500 words
Deadline: June 30, 2025
Reprints?: No
Response: by July 31
Description: Original stories of science fiction or fantasy pirates, whether they be on the sailing ships of the deep wide ocean or the spaceships of the black void.

The Daily Tomorrow
https://www.thedailytomorrow.com/submissions
Payment: 10 cents a word
Story Length: 2,100–3,500 words
Deadline: ongoing
Reprints?: No
Response: unknown (reports within a month)
Description: High concept science fiction stories. (A preference for stories that bring a new idea to the genre and explore it efficiently in a story with compelling characters.)


Dracula Beyond Stoker: Issue 7: Mina Harker
https://www.dbspress.com/submissions
Payment: 5 cents a word
Story Length: 1,500–5,000 words
Open From: Open between May 1–June 30, 2025
Reprints?: Yes (if older than 10 years) (and paid flat rate of $55)
Response: Unknown, but reported as generally between 30 and 60 days.
Description: The best new fiction based on Stoker’s characters, locations, and themes. This issue: Mina is teacher, a wife, and the heart and the hero of the novel. Her spirit and intelligence keep her resilient even when darkness closes in. But who is Mina beneath the surface? Did her experiences leave her haunted? How did her connection to Dracula affect her view of the world or her family? Whether it’s before, during, or after the events of the novel, let’s explore her strength, her struggles, and her secrets.


Story Unlikely
https://www.storyunlikely.com/#submit
Payment: 8 cents a word (up to $200 cap; no longer minimum “pro” pay after 4,000 words)
Story Length: up to 10,000 words
Deadline: September 29, 2024
Reprints?: Yes (paid at 1 cent/ word up to $75)
Response: 90 days
Description: Good stories that elicit emotion. Any genre. NOTE: Submissions require (free) subscription to monthly e-mag publication.


Utopia SF Magazine (Flash Fiction issue)
https://www.utopiasciencefiction.com/submit
Payment: 8 cents a word
Story Length: up to 1,000 words for flash fiction issue (normally up to 4,000 words)
Deadline: June 1, 2024
Reprints?: No
Response: Up to four months
Description: See site for quarterly themes. Current issue is non-themed. Mag is also interested in art and non-fiction, all science-fiction related.


The DARK (monthly online e-magazine)
http://thedarkmagazine.com/submission-guidelines
Payment: 5 cents a word (1 cent a word for reprints)
Story Length: 2,000–6,000 words
Deadline: Currently open, but intermittent
Reprints?: Yes
Response: between 1 day to 1 week
Description: Unique Horror and Dark Fantasy (No graphic/ violent content); fiction that may fall out of “regular” categories (Tons of great authors publish here).



***Non-PRO-Paying Market, but Eric J. Guignard’s “Pick of the Month”

Goblins & Galaxies Magazine
https://goblinsandgalaxies.com/submissions/
Payment: 3 cents a word
Story Length: up to 6,000 words
Deadline: Open between May 7–May 14, 2025
Reprints?: No
Response: unknown
Description: Sword & sorcery, dark fantasy, and science fiction stories. A sense of adventure in the story is important. Action should take center stage.


The Necronomicon of Sherlock Holmes
https://belangerbooks-sherlockholmes.blogspot.com/2025/02/call-for-submissions-for-new-sherock.html
Payment: $125 flat
Story Length: 5,000–10,000 words
Deadline: June 15, 2025
Reprints?: No
Response: unknown
Description: Stories must feel like traditional Holmes and Lovecraft stories. The stories should have the traditional Holmes and Watson working with the traditional characters, creatures, and/or gods of H.P. Lovecraft. Remember, there was a logic to the writing of Lovecraft, a rationale behind the otherworldly beings even if humans couldn’t conceive it, that should blend well with the deductive skills of Sherlock Holmes.


Self (S)care: Best of 2026 Self Published Horror (Edited by Candace Nola and Paul Carro)
https://www.uncomfortablydark.com/uncomfortablydarkdozen
Payment: 2 cents a word 
Story Length: 1,000–8,500 words
Deadline: Opens mid-May for work previously self-published Jan–April 2025
Reprints?: Exclusively
Response: By end of 2025
Description: Seeking unique voices in horror and unique stories that were originally self-published.

2025 Festival of Books

I had a great time over the weekend at the 30th annual L.A. Times Festival of Books!

Worked as an Author Escort volunteer on Saturday (April 26) and signed books at Mystery Writers of America booth on Sunday (April 27), and saw panels, friends, and authors I admire all throughout. Poured rain early on, and was cold, and crowded (a good thing, that), but always a fun time, and something I’m continually happy to be part of (having volunteered there each year since 2011!).

On campus at USC

with friend Kate Maruyama (Photo courtesy Kate Maruyama)

With Kate Maruyama and Toni Ann Johnson (Photo courtesy Kate Maruyama)

So lovely to have met NYT Bestselling  Liz Moore, whose novel THE GOD OF THE WOODS
I'd just recently read and absolutely adored!

Panel: "Page to Screen: How BookTok Builds Global Screen Sensations"

with: Author Mercedes Ron; Morgann Book; Vanessa Craft; Meg James;
Fernando Lindez; and Eva Ruiz

Discussion with actor Wilmer Valderrama

Signing at MWA (Mystery Writers of America) booth with
authors Adam Sikes and S. J. Rozan (Photo by Mystery Ink Bookstore)

With NYT bestselling, Afrofuturist and sci-fi author Nnedi Okorafor

Release Day for: A GRAVESIDE GALLERY: TALES OF GHOSTS AND DARK MATTERS

 New release today: My second fiction collection!!

A GRAVESIDE GALLERY: TALES OF GHOSTS AND DARK MATTERS

A Graveside Gallery: Tales of Ghosts and Dark Matters includes nineteen strange and masterful short fiction stories in this second collection by award-winning author Eric J. Guignard. From hauntings and oblivion to monsters, murder, and anthropomorphism, A Graveside Gallery explores the literary odd and macabre that reside in the vast shadows of our existence.

Discover why Eric J. Guignard’s beautifully-voiced and disquieting work has been praised by sites such as Library Journal (“Guignard captures the depth of emotion underlying fictional terrors”) and Publishers Weekly (“high-concept and brilliant”) as well as the NY Times, CNBC News, Booklist, and more, for stories such as these:

• In “A Kingdom of Sugar Skulls and Marigolds,” a gay Hispanic teen in 1950s Los Angeles, mourning the loss of a friend, has a chance to make amends during Day of the Dead.
• In “Incident at the Red Hawk Road Stop,” the owner of a roadside trading post has a deadly secret, but so too does the customer he kills.
• In “Penny’s Diner,” a long haul trucker, coming home after an accident, stops at a curious diner.
• In “The Ascending Lights of Yu Lan,” an embittered sailor in 1917’s San Francisco Wharf encounters an immigrant from China who offers peace from ghosts.
• In “Bummin’ to the Beat of the Road,” a Beat-era youth leaves home to travel the land, only to find madness, murder, and the teeth of a new generation.
• In “Perchance to Dream in Voices of a Fiend: A Fanciful Epilogue to Frankenstein,” an intimate epilogue is suggested to the famous novel Frankenstein, offering a more hopeful closure to characters’ lives.

Those and thirteen other tales explore the fearful and nebulous boundaries of reality. Visit A Graveside Gallery by Eric J. Guignard and behold that which is captivating, startling, and darkly enriching.

More here: https://ericjguignard.com/a_graveside_gallery.html

###

Table of Contents:

• Penny’s Diner
• A Kingdom of Sugar Skulls and Marigolds
• If I Drive Before I Wake
• Bummin’ to the Beat of the Road
• The Telephone Game
• The Tale of Samuel Whiskers Continued; or, A London Digression
• Drink, Drink From the Fountain of Death
• Ritual Sacrifice to the Great God of Skates
• The Moon Over Andersonville
• A Stroke of Death
• The Shimmer of Trees
• Ommetaphobia
• The Ascending Lights of Yu Lan
• Two Hearts Make a Half; or, Ghosts of a Rodeo Clown
• Perchance to Dream in Voices of a Fiend: A Fanciful Epilogue to Frankenstein
• Incident at the Red Hawk Road Stop
• O Shades, My Woe
• Carmine Lips and a Fade into Oblivion
• The First Order of Whaleyville’s Divine Basilisk Handlers

###

Title: A Graveside Gallery: Tales of Ghosts and Dark Matters
Author: Eric J. Guignard
Price: $34.95 hardback; $19.99 trade paperback; $4.99 ebook
Publisher: Cemetery Dance Publications (Forest Hill, MD)
Format: Available in Hardback, Trade Paperback and Electronic Media
Number of pages: 264 pgs at 6” x 9” trim (80,500 words)
13-digit ISBN (hardback with dust jacket): 978-1-949491-61-6
13-digit ISBN (paperback): 978-1-964780-16-0
13-digit ISBN (e-book): 978-1-964780-17-7
ASIN (ebook): B0DVJ2XDXH
Library of Congress Control Number: 2024952840
Date of publication: April 22, 2025
Available for sale here: https://www.amazon.com/Graveside-Gallery-Tales-Ghosts-Matters/dp/1949491617/

***

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