Welcome to this week’s edition of Submit Your Stories Sunday (on Wednesday, thanks to Hurricane Dorian knocking out my electricity for a few days). 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 inspire your submission and help newer writers understand how to fulfill a call’s thematic elements.

This week we’re looking into Translunar Traveler’s Lounge upcoming opening and reading Wings by Vanessa Fogg from the inaugural issue.

Translunar Traveler’s Lounge

Eligibility: fun speculative stories up to 5k.

Take Note: “fun” is defined by the editors as joyful and while lighthearted fiction is welcome, stories need not be exempt from a tragedy which may highlight this joy

Submit by: this opening is from September 15th to October 15th, 2019

Payment: $0.03 per word, USD, minimum $20

Click here to go to the original call for details.

A story to ignite your writing mojo:

Vanessa Fogg’s story Wings appeared in Translunar Traveler’s Lounge‘s inaugural issue and follows a story where joy is intertwined with tragedy. Click here to go read Wings now. The narrator princess has cast off her duties to love a common poet, only to find their marriage burdened by a cruel curse which turns the poet into a rotating series of wild animals where he has no memory of himself. The princess finds him again and again, but the queen who laid this curse grows impatient with her daughter’s loyalty and threatens to destroy him forever. The princess is forced to find the only way she can be with her love before the queen finds them.

This is a classic story, which harkens to my favorite movie, Ladyhawke, but Fogg finds freshness in her retelling and an ending which appeals and leaves the reader with a warm and thoughtful joy.

Now it’s up to you, writers, get those pens/keyboards ready and write yourself something fun. Good luck and happy writing!