Jennifer Shelby

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 looking at a call for Space and Time magazine and reading Aliette de Bodard’s The Dragon that Flew Out of the Sun.

Space and Time

Eligibility: Speculative, crossed genre stories up to 10k words (5-7.5K preferred) that “aren’t quite normal”

Take Note: acceptances are posted on Space and Time’s website and facebook page, suggesting they may not send out rejection/acceptance letters. Be sure to check on your submission.

Submit by: this short opening closes soon – on Saturday, October 5th, 2019 (eek!)

Payment: $0.01 per cent PLUS a complimentary e-subscription, print copy, pdf copy, and an audio clip of your work

Click here to go to original call for more details.

A Story to Ignite Your Writing Mojo

While Space and Time doesn’t offer samples of full stories, they do advise of an admiration for Aliette de Bodard’s work, so today we’re reading a crossed genre story of hers, The Dragon that Flew Out of the Sun, reprinted in Uncanny Magazine and available to read here.

The Dragon that Flew Out of the Sun is the story of intergalactic refugees who lost their home after their sun died and unleashed a dragon. It’s about old enemies and reconciliations and healing. Something the world could use more of these days.

On a Personal Note,

I’d hoped to write up a quick post about our local climate strike in Moncton, NB, Canada, but the event sapped this introvert’s energy more than expected. Instead I’ll leave you with this picture of me and my girls before the crowd got squishy.

Happy writing!

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 looking at a call for submissions from Wizards in Space and reading Ari Koontz’ second star to the right (and straight on till morning) from their second issue.

Wizards in Space

Eligibility: speculative and literary stories up to 5k. Nonfiction, art, and poetry is also accepted, please see the original call for guidelines.

Take Note: for this opening, editors are looking for stories contrasting light and dark, winter and summer, and coming full circle from pain into joy.

Payment: $40 flat fee per story

Submit by: this opening closes October 18th, 2019.

Click here to go to the original call for details.

A story to ignite your writing mojo:

I’m going to switch gears a bit this week and suggest a work of creative non-fiction from this same magazine, second star to the right (and straight on till morning) by Ari Koontz, because it has a story’s soul, it captures the spirit of the full circle journey, and it’s written with the exquisite prose the journal seeks. You can click here to read it on the Wizards In Space website.

I’m always going to have a soft spot for space fantasy, and the fear and wonder in this piece takes my breath away. I don’t feel the claustrophobia Koontz feels when she looks at the Perseids, I don’t feel afraid of the vastness of our universe, but I, too, am “made of stories and science.” This is the story of finding one’s true name on the other side of all this fear, and coming around to joy after pain. This is the emotion we need to capture for this call, that moment in time, as only we can tell it.

Think about it, find your story, write it down, send it in. It’s just that easy, and that easy. Good luck writers, and happy writing.

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 looking Inklings Press’ call for pirate stories and reading Candy Comfort by Eleanor R. Wood and published on Daily Science Fiction.

Inklings Press Pirate Anthology

Eligibility: speculative stories on theme of pirates in or around 5k words. Ghost and space pirates accepted.

Take Note: stories should aim for a PG-13 level audience

Submit by: October 18th, 2019

Payment Offered: $50 (currency unclear)

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

A Story to Ignite Your Writing Mojo

This week we’re reading a pirate flash fiction from Daily Science Fiction, Candy Comfort by Eleanor R. Wood. Click here to go read that now. I like this story because Wood chose to tell the story of a pirate family from the perspective of a little girl who is left behind while the males go raiding, a pack of sweets to comfort her. This perspective is what offers this story it’s freshness in an admittedly tired genre. Finding that unique way to tell your own story is the best way to stand out in your submission for this anthology.

What pirate story hasn’t already been told? I know, this one’s tricky. Give it some thought, brainstorm some possibilities, and get writing.

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!

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 looking at Apparition Lit’s call for stories about euphoria and reading Tina Connelly’s A Sharp Breath of Birds in Uncanny Magazine.

Apparition Lit: Euphoria

Eligibility: original speculative fiction from 1-5K on theme of euphoria

Take note: this magazine has four openings per year, each with a different theme (watch their website for future themes)

Payment: $0.03 per word, minimum $30

Submit by: August 31st, 2019

Click here to go the original call for details.

A story to ignite your writing mojo

This week’s story, Tina Connelly’s A Sharp Breath of Birds, was published in Uncanny magazine. You can click here and go read that now. I must say, finding a story that captures the theme of euphoria is difficult in this timeline of doom, which is probably why Apparition Lit chose it. A Sharp Breath of Birds is not a euphoric tale, not at first. The protagonist struggles with her sense of self, her sense of belonging, her… feathers. In growing up she loses the one person who understands her, who might have feathers too. The euphoria of this story is not found until its ending, and then it is still left up to the reader to imagine.

How can you use euphoria to drive your story rather than ending it? It’s interesting to note that astronauts have been reported to experience a sense of inexplicable euphoria in outer space, how that could that be used to craft a story? Romance, always, has its own levels of euphoria. In researching this post I came across stories of drug use, self-harm, and various vices used to reach a euphoric state. I expected to find more stories of the euphoria of birth than I did and I’m excited to see what this issue of Apparition Lit offers.

Happy writing, and good luck.