Friday, December 15, 2017

December, 2017 Dark Fiction Short Story Markets

December, 2017
New or Reopening Market Listings/ Notes
At Pro-Paying (5 cents+ per word)


The Twisted Book of Shadows (edited by Christopher Golden and James A. Moore)
Payment: 6 cents a word
Story Length: Not yet given. Assume soft range of up to 5,000 words
Deadline: February 1, 2018—February 28, 2018
Reprints?: No
Response: unknown
Description: Non-themed “unique” horror in the vein of stories from previous anthology series such as BORDERLANDS; WHISPERS; WOMEN OF DARKNESS, or anthologies edited by Charles L. Grant, etc.
NOTE: THIS IS A GOFUNDME campaign, but nearly guaranteed to meet its goals.


If This Goes On (edited by Cat Rambo)
Payment: 8 cents a word
Story Length: up to 5,000 words
Deadline: March 1, 2018
Reprints?: No
Response: 3 months
Description: Unique stories that offer insights into the shared future of our planet. Tell us how our climate will change if we don’t better protect our planet. Show us how the racial divide in this country is only growing wider. Warn us of a coming era of neo-colonialism if we don’t develop conscientious trade practices. Scare us into taking digital security more seriously as we hand over the keys to our digital lives to governments and non-state powers; Stories must be set at least one generation in the future.


Gorgon: Stories of Emergence (by Pantheon Magazine)
Payment: 6 cents a word (3 cents a word for reprints)
Story Length: up to 1,000 words
Deadline: Jan. 31, 2018–“When Filled” (probably at least until Feb. 28, 2018)
Reprints?: Yes
Response: 1 month
Description: Weird, dark fiction; slipstream; magical realism; horror. Fiction with a touch of mythic quality. We want themes based around transformations—things that are shapeshifting, things that are emerging. Make Ovid’s Metamorphoses contemporary and weird and scary. Flash Fiction.


Alfred Hitchcock's Mystery Magazine
Payment: 8 cents a word
Story Length: up to 12,000 (but the shorter, the better)
Deadline: Intermittent
Reprints?: No
Response: Up to a year (though tracking status is utilized)
Description: Fiction Mystery: stories of detection of the classic kind, police procedurals, private eye tales, suspense, courtroom dramas, stories of espionage, and so on. Story must be about a crime (or the threat or fear of one). Sometimes accept ghost stories or supernatural tales, but those also should involve a crime (fresh, well told, and absorbing).


Factor Four Magazine (Online Mag ** New Market)
Payment: 8 cents a word
Story Length: up to 2,000 words
Deadline: Continually open
Reprints?: No
Response: 3 months or less
Description: Short fiction in the genres of speculative fiction, specifically science fiction, fantasy, supernatural, super hero, or any combination of these.  We are looking for stories that are engaging to our readers in such a short word count.



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

Tales From the Crust: An Anthology of Pizza Horror (Dark Moon Digest)
Payment: 3 cents a word
Story Length: 1,000 – 5,000 words
Deadline: June 1, 2018
Reprints?: Query First
Response: Not given, probably less than 6 weeks
Description: Pizza Horror. Not so much the goofy Goosebumps thing you might imagine with a pizza horror story, but we’re taking it kind of seriously. Like we take our pizza seriously. The humor is inherent in the pizza theme already, so we’re playing this kind of straight. And if you think you’ve got what it takes, like a healthy love of the cheesy cuisine, send us your best work.


Nightscript, Volume 4 (anthology edited by C.M. Muller; publ. by Chthonic Matter)
Payment: Token $25
Story Length: 2,000 – 7,000 words
Deadline: January
1, 2018—January 31, 2018
Reprints?: No
Response: Generally 2 weeks or less
Description: Strange tales: Fictions supernatural, uncanny, weird, and so forth; subtle and darksome literary horror. Though pay is low, editor is very easy to speak with, and he sends out all published work for favorable reviews and best of lists; i.e. good promotions and reputation.

Wednesday, December 6, 2017

Release day for BEAUTY OF DEATH 2 anthology I'm in!

Received my contributor’s copy yesterday for the latest anthology I’m in THE BEAUTY OF DEATH - Vol. 2: Death by Water: The Gargantuan Book of Horror Tales (November, 2017 by Independent Legions Publishing)! Edited by Alessandro Manzetti & Jodi Renée Lester, I’m thrilled to be included in another anthology this year in which I get to see my name alongside so many friends and inspirations of horror writing! My story, “A Journey of Great Waves,” is about an orphaned Japanese girl gone to live with family in Hawaii who ruminates upon the shore wreckage of hurricanes, and what it means to her.


Table of Contents includes:

THE DEEPEST PART OF THE OCEAN by Joanna Parypinski
YOU WILL COME TO NO HARM IN WATER by Lucy Taylor
WALKING ON WATER by Dona Fox
A JOURNEY OF GREAT WAVES by Eric J. Guignard
ANTUMBRA by Lucy A. Snyder
THE DROWNING OF COLIN HENDERSON by Stephen Gregory
THE FOURTH BELL by Daniel Braum
THE TARN by Simon Bestwick
THE BALLAD OF BALLARD AND SANDRINE by Peter Straub, Peter Straub
THE DOUBLE LENS by Lisa Mannetti
THE GORGE OF CHILDREN by Daniele Bonfanti
RAISED BY THE MOON by Ramsey Campbell
DROWNING by Gregory Norris
UNDERWATER FERRIS WHEEL by Michael Bailey
THE OLD WOMAN AND THE SEA by Marge Simon
IN THE DREAMTIME OF LADY RESURRECTION by Caitlín Rebekah Kiernan, Caitlín R. Kiernan
TO TAKE THE WATER DOWN AND GO TO SLEEP by Frazer Lee
PERISCOPE OF THE DEAD by Paolo Di Orazio
WET SEASON by Dennis Etchison, Dennis Etchison, Dennis Etchison
WINGS MADE FROM WATER by John Palisano
COME UP by Brian Evenson
BORN OF DARK WATERS by Michael H. Hanson
SEA SLUG by Edward Lee
EVERY BEAST OF THE EARTH by Tim Waggoner
NIGHTHAWK AND LONE WOLF by Gene O'Neill
SIREN by Jonah Buck
GILLS by David J. Schow, David J. Schow
THE EVERLASTING by Anthony Watson
RIVER WATCH by Bruce Boston
FRESH CATCH by Michael Arnzen - Gorelets.com, Michael Arnzen
HIPPOCAMPUS by Adam Nevill
A SONG ONLY PARTIALLY HEARD by John Langan
BY THE SEA by Alessandro Manzetti
SCAPE-GOATS by Clive Barker
THE WASH by Lisa Morton
JUST WATCH ME NOW by Jodi Renée Lester
THE HIKER by Jeremy Megargee
EVEN THE STARS FALL by Nicola Lombardi
ORI by Adam Millard