Welcome to this week’s edition of Submit Your Stories Sunday! Every week I bring you a unique call for submissions to help you find a home for your stories or inspire a new one. Each call will contain a speculative element and will offer payment upon acceptance. Next, I’ll recommend a story to help inspire your submission and finish off with a list of writing industry news and articles I came across this week.

This week we’re looking at a call for paranormal romance novelettes and reading Deborah Harkness’ book A Discovery of Witches.

Once Upon an Enchanted Forest: an Anthology of Romantic Witchcraft Stories

Eligibility: paranormal (witchcraft) romance stories from 7K to 15K on the theme of an enchanted forest. The details in the call strongly suggest the editors prefer the witchcraft element of the story to focus on the magical elements of the Autumn Equinox. Writers are encouraged to look in the lore and history of the Autumn Equinox as research for their story.

Take Note: the editors expect happy or happy-for-now endings

What Makes This Call Stand Out: the terminology suggests the editors are actively seeking out new writers

Payment: $75, 2 paperback copies, and 25 e-copies to distribute. Please note this is a token rate for a novelette.

Submit by: May 15th, 2019

Click here to go to the original call for details.

A story to ignite your creativity:

While I usually try to find a free-to-read short story for Sundays, in this case I’m recommending Deborah Harkness’ A Discovery of Witches, the first book in the All Souls trilogy. Disclaimer: I haven’t seen the television series and my opinions reside solely on the books. The protagonist of the story, Diana Bishop, is a spellbound witch and Oxford scholar who finds herself entangled with chemist/vampire Matthew Clairmont when she calls up a enchanted book in the Bodleian library. Love, intrigue, and time travel soon follow. As it often does.

What I like about this book for Once Upon an Enchanted Forest‘s call is the looming darkness that begins in A Discovery of Witches as demons gather around the book and Diana discovers her magical abilities. The mood is right. If the witchcraft is removed from the story, it will fall apart.

Most of the magical elements of A Discovery fall under the ‘common knowledge’ umbrella.  Here’s where I’d encourage you, as a writer, to do a little research into the Autumn Equinox of pagan religions. Harkness has several original elements in the novel, so she can get away with common magical tropes. You aren’t likely to get away with that for the Enchanted Forest call. There is fascinating lore to Mabon (the Autumnal Equinox), and finding something unexpected and unusual to build into your story will give you an edge. How do cultures outside of the western hemisphere celebrate the harvest and shorter days with longer nights?

The intrigue of A Discovery of Witches is rich and tangled, matching the request of the Enchanted Forest’s editors. A novelette will have less room to build this intrigue than a trilogy, obviously, and that is where depth and focus must take over. Plot heavily and weave in the intrigue with stealthy fingers. Just make sure its there.

Writerly links worth sharing this week:

The Hugo award nominations are up! You can read them all here.

In this article, Arkady Martine suggests that every writer gets one free talent and we can use that to build on the talents we don’t have naturally.. What do you think? What’s yours? Disclaimer: I have no idea what mine would be.

Happy writing!