Posted on by JenniferShelby

Submission Sundays: falling into fantasy

Welcome to this week’s edition of Submission Sundays. Every week, I bring you a unique call for submissions to help you find a home for your stories or maybe inspire a new one. Each call contains a speculative element and offers payment upon acceptance.

This week, we’re looking at:

Fall Into Fantasy 2018

Eligibility: fantasy tales of all sub-genres, 2000-7500 words. Diversity welcomed, but sexual content, violence, and gore should be avoided.

What makes this call stand out: Fall Into Fantasy is a great chance for new writers to mingle with experienced ones, build their CV, and see their work in print.

Payment: $10 U.S. funds, and a print copy of the book. A 3% royalty will be added after sixty copies are sold.

Submit by: July 1st, 2018

Click here to hear over to the original call for complete details and submission guidelines.

Happy writing!

Posted on by JenniferShelby · 2 Comments

Submission Sundays: Fairy Rings and Changelings

Welcome to this week’s edition of Submission Sundays. Every week I bring you a new call for submissions. Each call will contain a speculative element and will offer payment upon acceptance.

Here is this week’s featured call …

Fairy Rings and Changelings Anthology

Eligibility: Poetry 40 lines or less, or 1-3 pieces of flash fiction (less than 500 words) featuring fairies, elementals, or nature spirits.

What makes this call stand out: this collection of fairy stories will be published in a pocket book around the summer solstice. The Wee Folk are gonna love that.

Payment: $5.00 (American), pdf copy, and 50% discount on print copies.

Submit by: June 1st, 2018

Click here to go to the original call for details.

Happy writing!

Posted on by JenniferShelby · 2 Comments

lines on an old garage

There is a ramshackle garage, not far from here, tucked into a fortress of overgrown weeds. Its roof is slanted, the paint crumbling. The garage door is painted with an artist’s imaginary car. It waits like an old friend, cheering passerby. Lines bisect it, the slats of its canvas, but the effect is unchanged. It could rumble to life at a moment’s notice with the tiniest dusting of magic.

Posted on by JenniferShelby · 2 Comments

Submission Sundays: Tor novellas

Welcome to this week’s edition of Submission Sundays. Every week I bring you a new call for submissions. Each call will contain a speculative element and will offer payment upon acceptance.

Where ever you are on your writing journey, calls can inspire creativity and lead you to new markets. If you’re starting out, getting used to submissions – and rejections – is important. Every established writer has a stack of rejections behind them. It takes guts and a willingness to fail.

Ready?

Tor Novellas

Eligibility: polished, original science fiction and fantasy novellas between 20 000 and 40 000 words.

Caveat: they are open to submissions for two weeks, May 1 to May 15th. Not ready? They plan to open again in July, so watch their site.

What makes this call stand out: Tor has published some exceptional novellas, such as Seanan McGuire’s award-winning Wayward Children series.

Submit by: May 15th.

Payment: advance (to be determined) and royalties

Click here to go to the original call.

Happy writing!

Posted on by JenniferShelby · 7 Comments

the short story that could

Once upon a time …

a girl entered her favorite story into a contest. She wished her characters luck and took a deep breath. After all, she’d entered dozens of contests before, why should this one be any different?

But something was different. Maybe there was a splash of magic in the ink she wrote that first draft with. Maybe lightning struck her computer as she typed it up and brought her characters to life. Maybe the memory stick she backed it up with had a trace of fairy dust inside it.

Perhaps the story made its own magic.

All I know for sure is Dragon Crossings won first place in the contest. Wahoo!!!

… and the story lived happily ever after

On a more serious note, after years of entering and not winning, this does feel good. The judge gave me wonderful feedback that went straight into my anti-discouragement file. I have been invited to accept my award and read my story at the Writer’s Federation of New Brunswick’s Wordspring event in a few weeks, which I’m both thrilled and nervous about. I love reading my stories aloud to an audience … they just aren’t usually adults. *deep breath*

This win also means I met my writing goal for 2018: to win an award. And it’s only April! So now I’m on the hunt for a new goal. Any suggestions?

Posted on by JenniferShelby

Submission Sundays: the Pirate Anthology

Welcome to this week’s edition of Submission Sundays. Every week I bring you a fresh call for submissions. Each call will contain a speculative element and will offer payment upon acceptance.

Where ever you are on your writing journey, calls can inspire creativity and lead you to new markets. If you’re starting out, getting used to submissions – and rejections – is important. Every established writer has a stack of rejections behind them. It takes guts and a willingness to fail.

Ready? Arrrr!

Scourge of the Seas of Time (and Space): a Pirate Anthology

Eligibility: Historical, fantastic, or space pirate stories of 5000-6000 words. Sexual and gender diversity welcome. Reprints and original tales welcome.

Caveat: Reprints must not have been published in the past year.

What makes this call stand out: it has pirates!

Payment: $100 for original tales, $50 for reprints

Submit by: May 15th, 2018

Click here to go to the original call for details.

Speaking of anthologies, check out Tired Tykes, a children’s bedtime story anthology currently crowdfunding. My story “Leif the Story Hunter” waits inside, ready to teach you how to catch wild stories with nothing more than blank notebook. You might even end up with a sentence for a pet. Click here for details!

Posted on by JenniferShelby · 8 Comments

fairy willows

“Look, pussy willows.” I point out to my small person.

“What if they’re fairy eggs, and they’re going to hatch and make everything turn green soon?”

“Good one.” This is our game. Who can come up with the wildest ‘what if?’. The winner is our imagination. I consider my answer, sipping from my coffee. “What if the tree is a fairy nursery and the pussy willows are fairy babies swaddled up to stay warm? Shh. We don’t want to wake them up.”

“Wake up fairies!” My small person hollers. “It’s time to make everything grow again!”

There’s a rustle. A robin chirps. A crocus pokes through the leaf litter. Yellow coltsfoot blossoms dot the ditches. A rotten snowbank collapses and trickles into the water. My small person’s eyes grow wide.

Posted on by JenniferShelby · 1 Comment

Submission Sundays: The Never Beyond

Welcome to this week’s edition of Submission Sundays. Every week I bring you a new call for submissions, and this week it’s a brand new magazine! Each call will contain a speculative element and will offer payment upon acceptance.

Where ever you are on your writing journey, calls can inspire creativity and lead you to new markets. If you’re starting out, getting used to submissions – and rejections – is important. Every established writer has a stack of rejections behind them. It takes guts and a willingness to fail.

Ready? Allons-y!

The Never Beyond

Eligibility: accepting horror, fantasy, science fiction, and magical realism stories up to 3500 words, including flash, which have not been previously published. Query anything over 3500 words.

Caveat: you must have a PayPal account to receive payment (note: if you’re new to submissions, this isn’t unusual).

What makes this call stand out: while there are no back issues to get a feel for The Never Beyond (I love this title), there is a unique thrill to being published in the inaugural issue of a magazine which has the potential to become quite successful.

Payment: $0.01 per word (currency unknown).

Submit by: no dates given, but as this is a magazine rather than an anthology, temporary closures and re-openings should be expected.

Click here to go to the original call for details.

Happy writing!

Posted on by JenniferShelby · 7 Comments

the ghosts of old summers

The ghosts of old summers linger within the slumbering trees as they hold their naked vigil against the frigid length of winter. They haunt me from my window, whispering of a riot of green and a lullaby of peepers. Fireflies. Flowers. A slick of sweat above my lip. The scent of soil as I pull a carrot from the garden. The buzz of a bee. The shriek of cicada. The scurry of some small creature in the undergrowth.

A rush of bracing wind scatters my ghosts. The cold austerity of a winter morning holding fast. For now. But not for long.