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 inspire your submission and help newer writers understand how to fulfill a call’s thematic elements.

This week we’re submitting stories to Strange Horizons and we’re reading Charles Payseur’s The Sloppy Mathematics of Half-Ghosts from their October issue.

Strange Horizons

Eligibility: speculative stories up to 10K words, though they mention twice they prefer stories under 5K.

Take Note:Unusual narratives welcome. The submissions page links to a series of ideas to avoid, or ones they’ve seen too much of, so be sure to read through them.

Submit By: Strange Horizons offers ongoing submissions, but only between Monday at 16:00 UTC (this means universal, or Greenwich time) and Tuesday at 16:00 UTC.

Payment Offered: $0.08 per word

Click here to go to the original call for full details.

 A Story to Ignite Your Writing Mojo

This week’s story has elements of both strange and horizons, coincidentally, and it easily fall into the category of unusual. Charles Payseur’s The Sloppy Mathematics of Half-Ghosts (gosh, I love that title) was published in the October 2019 issue of Strange Horizons and is available to read on their website by clicking here.

Payseur drops us onto a ship somewhere in the stars, fighting a war far beyond our usual comprehension. Masterful world-building soothes the sharper angles of this strange place, and human emotion eases us into the odd lives of the characters.

Payseur’s beautiful language and poet-like turns of phrase stand out, a compliment I’d give to give to most Strange Horizons stories, and something worth keeping in mind crafting your own story to submit to this market. Writers should keep in mind that this is a top market, nominated for many awards, and not get discouraged if you receive rejections from Strange Horizons. Likewise, a market being one of the best is never a reason not to try. One day, your stories might surprise you.

Happy writing!