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!!)
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.
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.
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”
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.
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.
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!).
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/
The Deadlands
https://thedeadlands.com/guidelines/
Payment: 10 cents a word (1 cent for reprints)
Story Length: up to 5,000 words
(preferably 3,000–4,000 words)
Deadline: Open between April 1–April
30, 2025
Reprints?: Yes
Response: Two weeks
Description: Speculative fiction
stories about death, or what death may involve. EX: A ghost in a shadowed wood.
An afterlife discovered through a rusted door. An abandoned house in the middle
of a haunted field. A skeletal figure moving with intent toward something
unseen. Death personified; stories from a worldwide perspective, different
cultures, different approaches to death.
