It’s seemingly a rather meager pool, but I’m going to dive as deep as I can into the life and work of Indian author S. Mukerji, author of INDIAN GHOST STORIES (1914). If anyone happens to have insights into this (possible pseudonym) author who appears to have only written between 1913–1921, please do contact me.
Saturday, June 15, 2024
Thursday, April 4, 2024
April, 2024 Dark Fiction Short Story Markets
HWA L.A.: For April, 2024
New or Reopening Market Listings/ Notes
At Minimum Pro-Paying (5 cents+ per word)
Solarpunk Magazine
https://solarpunkmagazine.com/submissions/
Payment: 8 cents a word
Story Length: 500–7,500 words (a
preference between 1,500–3,000)
Open From: April 1, 2024–April 14,
2024
Reprints?: No
Response: Generally within 60 days
Description: Stories that strive for
a utopian ideal, that are set in futures where communities are optimistically
struggling to solve or adapt to climate change, to create or maintain a world
in which humanity, technology, and nature coexist in harmony rather than in
conflict, etc. Also open to poetry and non-fiction.
Cursed Cooking: A Horror Community
Cookbook and Food Horror Anthology
https://www.cateyepress.com/submissions
Payment: 5 cents a word (1 cent/word for reprints)
Story Length: up to 4,000 words
Deadline: April 30, 2024
Reprints?: Yes
Response: unknown
Description: cookbook and food
horror anthology, featuring both real-world recipes and food horror fiction; tales
of haunted hamburgers, killer chocolate chip cookies, monstrous manicotti,
world-ending wontons, and everything in between. Cook up a story filled with
genetically modified grossness, fast-food freakiness, or homemade horrors. Get
creative. Get hungry. Think outside the pizza box. But also, send us the
recipes that you love, recipes that make your mouth water and have people
screaming for seconds (and thirds and fourths).
Offshoots: Humanity
Twigged (Third Flatiron)
https://thirdflatiron.com/
Payment: 8 cents a word
Story Length: 1,500–3,000
words
Open From: April 1, 2024–April
21, 2024
Reprints?: No
Response: by June 15, 2024
Description: SF, fantasy, positive futures: The
dictionary defines “twig” as a shoot branching off a tree, the result or
descendant of something, or a style of fashion. How will humanity cultivate the
strongest branches from among myriad potential futures? Please give us your
science fictional and fantasy speculations. Possible subjects might include:
bioengineering, space exploration, future societies, magical futurism, and
extrapolation of trends (think Asimov’s Foundation or Loki’s Sacred Timeline).
Stories about effects of AI and virtual reality are fine, but they must be
written by people. Flash humor is welcome.
Reckoning Vol. 9
https://reckoning.press/reckoning-9-submission-call/
Payment: 10 cents a word
Story Length: up to 20,000 words
Deadline: September 22, 2024
Reprints?: Query first
Response: 1 to 6 months
Description: Creative writing about
environmental justice and social activism; any aspect of environmental justice,
from food sovereignty to ocean plastics to industrial cleanup to Indigenous
rights, we want to see it. Diverse fiction stories (and poetry) including a
speculative element: Searingly personal, visceral, idiosyncratic understanding
of the world and the people in it as it has been, as it is, as it will be, as
it could be.
Dracula Beyond Stoker: Issue 5:
Lucy’s Suitors - Quincey, Jack, and/or Arthur
https://www.dbspress.com/submissions
Payment: 5 cents a word
Story Length: 1,500–5,000 words
Open From: May 1, 2024–June 15, 2024
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: Let’s read
some stories of these men - together, individually, in combination - before,
during, and after the events of the novel?
https://ffo.submittable.com/submit
Payment: $100 flat
Story Length: 500 to 1,000 words
Deadline: Open from the 1st
to 21st of each month (or until reaching the cap of 1,000 submissions)
(only)
Reprints?: Yes (payment at 2 cents/ word)
Response: Within eight weeks
Description: A very short but complete story of flash fiction. Strong,
interesting characters: APRIL’s SUBMISSION IS FOR SPECIAL ISSUE OF WEIRD
HORROR. Stories that engage with the unexplained and the unexpected, often
through an esoteric lens of mysticism and metaphysics.
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1N0nLj70ZKbZLiucLZyvC5ojpjhnE3JC43fip_nNZhSg/edit
Payment: $25 flat
Story Length: 500–4,000 words
Deadline: unclear (until full)
Reprints?: No
Response: 45 days
Description: carefully constructed
Horror stories with a focus on the oft-unclear distinction between a
scary-enough reality and our less-or-more-frightening imagination, both in
personal and social realms.
https://mailchi.mp/2ece83d25ded/children-of-the-blind-owl-submissions-page
Payment: $150 - $250 flat
Story Length: 3,000–6,000 words
Deadline: August 31, 2024
Reprints?: No
Response: unknown
Description: Original weird tales
and essays set in the Middle East that explore the human (and inhuman)
experience through the lens of weird fiction and horror.
Tuesday, April 2, 2024
Fun experience yesterday doing my first Table Read
Fun experience yesterday
in doing a Table Read for my friend Tim Chizmar’s upcoming movie, NAKED ALIEN MASSACRE (of which the plot is exactly as the title implies).
I’ve never done a Table
Read before, in which actors and supporters get together and read the script as
a dramatic presentation, in order to feel for pacing and problematic elements,
or other chances for script improvement.
I read aloud for the
better part of two hours, and my voice was worn for it afterward, but I
thoroughly enjoyed every moment (which reminded me of reading books out loud to
my son every night for bedtime). I never knew this was something to put on my
bucket list, but now it’s marked off.
Plus, simultaneously,
Tim had a documentary crew there filming the process for a segment about the
journey of indie filmmakers, and I got tossed an interview for that.
Anyway, really cool to
be part of someone’s dream project!
Wednesday, March 27, 2024
I'll be speaking and signing books at WonderCon this year
Shout out to those who will be at WonderCon this year! I’ll be speaking on the panel “What’s New in the Weird West”.
This Sat., March 30, 6:30 p.m., Room 208
Paneling with John
Palisano, Kasey Lansdale, Shane Hawk, Richard Carter, Ross Fisher-Davis, and MODERATED
by KC Grifant.
https://wondercon2024.sched.com/event/1azkW?iframe=no
And if that’s not enough…
I’ll have an author signing slot also!
“Western & Horror
Book Signing”
Sat., March 30, 5:30 p.m.,
in the special autographs signing area (corner of main vendor floor).
Signing with: KC Grifant,
John Palisano, and Shane Hawk.
https://wondercon2024.sched.com/event/1azql?iframe=no
Come say howdy, buckaroo!
#WonderCon #Wondercon2024
#WeirdWest #ericjguignard
#ericguignard
Saturday, March 2, 2024
March, 2024 Dark Fiction Short Story Markets
HWA L.A.: For March, 2024
New or Reopening Market Listings/ Notes
At Minimum Pro-Paying (5 cents+ per word)
Orion’s Belt (online
magazine)
https://www.orions-belt.net/submissions
Payment: 8 cents a word
Story Length: up to 1,200 words
Opens: March 1, 2024 and closes
intermittently
Reprints?: No
Response: generally within one week
Description: Bold, experimental
literary science fiction and fantasy stories that blur the line between “genre”
fiction and literary fiction.
https://ghoulish.rip/reopened-for-short-story-submissions-ghoulish-tales/
Payment: 10 cents a word
Story Length: up to 5,000 words
Deadline: March 29, 2024
Reprints?: No
Response: unknown
Description: Short stories that fit
our personal definition of the word GHOULISH, which is “fun horror that aims to
celebrate all things spooky.” Also open to non-fiction articles (up to 3,000
words).
Songs from the Void (publ. by Max
Blood’s Mausoleum)
https://duotrope.com/duosuma/submit/scifi-horror-anthology-songs-from-void-oc9bj
Payment: 5 cents a word
Story Length: 3,500–12,000 words
Deadline: January 1, 2025
Reprints?: No
Response: unknown
Description: short horror tales set
in the bleakness of space; sci-fi terrors, your Lovecraftian leviathans, your
monsters lurking through corridors, your isolation fears. Whatever it is, if
it’s in space and scary, we want to see it.
Book Worms Horror Zine, Issue #5
https://rsaintclaire.com/2024/01/30/call-for-submissions-2/
Payment: 8 cents a word
Story Length: up to 1,500 words
Deadline: April 30, 2024
Reprints?: No
Response: unknown
Description: Short fiction for our
Rock n’ Roll Issue! From hair-raising riffs to head-banging oblivion, horror
and rock n’ roll are a match made in Hell! We generally enjoy “fun”, “80s
style” horror reminiscent of the zine’s old-school vibe, but we’ve also been
blown away by fresh voices that take the genre in a new direction.
Note: This publisher accepts submissions ONLY via postal mail
SpeKulative Stories (anthology series)
https://www.omicronworld.com/anthology-submissions
Payment: 10 cents a word
Story Length: up to 7,500 words
Deadline: November 30, 2024, or
“whenever the anthology is filled.”
Reprints?: Yes
Response: T
Description: Quality short stories
or poetry in any form of speculative fiction genre: fantasy, horror, science
fiction, etc. that meet the current theme. Two current themes are: Train
Stories, and Aliens Among Us.
http://aanpress.com/submissions.html
Payment: 8 cents a word
Story Length: up to 1,500 words
Deadline: March 31, 2024
Reprints?: No
Response: June 15, 2024
Description: Authors may explore any
genre with their stories (yes poetry too!) and we encourage a wide variety of
ideas and interpretation as to the anthology title. Stories with 1500 words should
be divided as follows: long titles (minimum 250 words [though we know this
might be difficult so, as long as it is an obnoxiously long title, we'll be
ok]), concise narratives (minimum 250 words, maximum 800 words) and copious
footnotes, endnotes, marginalia, indices and glossaries (minimum 250 words,
maximum 800 words).
***Non-PRO-Paying Market, but Eric J. Guignard’s “Pick of
the Month”
https://twitter.com/andrewcull/status/1725801214523085039
Payment: 3 cents a word
Story Length: 2,000–4,000 words
Deadline: March 31, 2024
Reprints?: No
Response: unknown
Description: Original, found footage
tales. Stories can be written in first person, third person, as a transcript,
journal, radio play, poetry, as a script. Think stories that shouldn’t be read.
Videos found in flooded basements. Broadcasts heard in your dreams.
https://www.rockandahardplacemag.com/stones-throw-submissions
Payment: $25 flat
Story Length: 1,000–2,000 words
Opens: the first week of the month
Reprints?: No
Response: unknown
Description: A great story based on the
contest theme.
APRIL SUBMISSIONS (opens March 1 - 7, 2024): stories that involve water. Lakes.
Rivers. Oceans. Boats, commercial or personal.
MAY SUBMISSIONS (opens April 1 - 7, 2024): stories that feature workers and
their bosses, the power imbalance between them, and the desperation or demands
that can cause people on either side of that divide to make some very poor
decisions.
etc., etc.
Monday, February 26, 2024
A Reminisce to My Early Writing: FRIGHTMARES: A FISTFUL OF FLASH FICTION HORROR in 2011
I was chatting with an up-and-coming writer, and my Horror Writers Association mentoree, Kristal Shanahan about how it was when I started out writing horror fiction. I randomly pulled up one of my earliest acceptances and the anthology it was published in.
A 500-word story called “$2 Bust From an Estate Sale”
Here is an archive link to the Contest I submitted it to:
https://web.archive.org/web/20110714183745/http://horrorwritingcontest.com/Frightmares%20Flash%20Fiction.htm
I submitted it 3/11/2011. It was accepted 10/4/2011 and published six weeks
later on 11/22/2011 (i.e. it sat in the submission queue over four times longer
than the time it raced from acceptance to publication, haha)
Unless you were one of the 5 “winners,” authors were not paid anything, which
was fine with me back then.
It ended up publishing in the anthology FRIGHTMARES: A FISTFUL OF FLASH
FICTION HORROR.
https://www.amazon.com/Frightmares-Fistful-Flash-Fiction-Horror/dp/0983433550/ref=tmm_pap_swatch_0?_encoding=UTF8&qid=&sr=
129 stories all crammed together in this book (I think they accepted pretty
much everything!)
Anyway, the subject of my reminisce: If I look through the Table of Contents, I
can say that hardly any of those authors involved are still writing/publishing
genre fiction now. BUT! It is incredibly fun and significant to recognize those
writers who are still working at it today, writers I’ve become friends with or
whose work I admire. At time of this book’s publication in late 2011, I’d not
known a single person in the Table of Contents (except James S. Dorr, who I recognized
from BORDERLANDS 2 anthology). But now I look through it and exclaim: “Hey,
wow, there’s:
James S. Dorr
Max Booth III
Lori Michelle
Cynthia Pelayo
Kevin David Anderson
Joe Mynhardt
Greg Chapman
Stan Swanson
and a couple others…
But again of the 129 writers, most, I believe, through lack of interest, other
life obligations, perhaps death, are no longer involved in the craft (though I
could be wrong, as I spent zero time actually researching unfamiliar names).
12-1/2 years later = time is fleeting, indeed!
Personally, what came of that tiny, insignificant sale for me was
1) It was a confidence booster, and
2) I became friends with the editor and publisher, Stan Swanson. The press was
Dark Moon Books, and I started doing more work with them, and eventually that
was where I was able to print my first anthology as editor. Later the press
went out of business, and I bought it, and rebranded it to my own purposes (and
released all former titles back to the authors).
Anyway, nice to reminisce on these things once in a while! 😊
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)