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 subbing to Cast of Wonder’s Halloween special and we’re reading Natalia Theodoridou’s Of Pumpkin Soup and other Demons and Austin H. Gilkeson’s The Ghost of Granny Goneril from Cast of Wonder’s 2014 Halloween special.

Cast of Wonders: Halloween

Eligibility: speculative stories written for a young adult audience up to 6, 000 words, on theme of Halloween.

Take Note: writers can check out the Cast Wonders’ staff wish list by checking #ShortStoryWL on twitter

Submit by: this opening runs from March 1st to March 7th, 2020

Payment Offered: $0.08 per word

Click here to go to the original call for details.

A Story (or two) to Ignite Your Writing Mojo

This week we’re heading back to CoW’s2014 Halloween special, where not one, but two eerie and delightful tales await: Natalia Theodoridou’s Of Pumpkin Soup and other Demons and Austin H. Gilkeson’s The Ghost of Granny Goneril. Click here to go read or listen to those now.

Theodoridou’s story captures the eerie essence of Halloween, the thinned veil and the who-knows-what-may-come-knocking quality to the year’s spookiest night. We don’t get all the answer, either, leaving us to wonder who that boy’s father might be, and how a storm could have a child of it’s own, after all. It’s eeriness, unexplained, stays with the reader like a good ghost story should. Just enough reality to settle into your bones and too much supernatural mystery to probe too deeply for the truth.

Gilkeson’s story, coming second, is lighter fare, capturing the fun of Halloween horrors. That opening line “Dead grandparents give the worst candy” sets the tone right away. This will be more fun than creepy, it promises. And it delivers. This story is cheeky, delightful, and solidly YA. It hits many notes of a teenager’s life and shifting experience of Halloween, while tying in more traditional Halloween tropes and staples in an engaging way.

What kind of Halloween story do you want to write? Will yours be a trick or a treat?

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 getting ready to sub to Unidentified Funny Objects in April, and we’re reading Alex Shvartsman’s You Bet.

Unidentified Funny Objects

Eligibility: humourous speculative fiction stories from 500-5,000 words.

Take Note: as markets go, this one’s tough. UFO has published big names like Neil Gaiman and George R. R. Martin. Keep that in mind when you sub, send your best, and don’t take it personally if your story is rejected. If you are able to read the forewords written by editor Alex Shvartsman of any of the previous UFOs, he happily drops a dozen hints of what he likes and what he’s looking for. Maybe amazon’s ‘look inside’ feature will help you read those if your local library is short on copies.

Submit by: UFO is open from April 1st to April 30th, 2020.  We have time to write and polish and polish again. Let’s do this.

Payment offered: $0.10 per word plus contributor’s copy

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

A Story to Ignite Your Writing Mojo

UFO’s website offers no less than seven free stories to give you a feel for their preferred humour – click here to go directly there. If you’re financially able to obtain a copy of the past volumes or lucky enough to have a library that stocks them, one of my favourite UFO stories is Chad vs the Rebel Alliance by Shane Halbach in UFO7. Yes, I am a Star Wars fan, and yes, this story carefully skirts any copyright infringement, but between us it’s Stormtroopers as dude-bros and it is DELIGHTFUL.

However, since most of us are starving writers and our libraries may not carry UFO7 (but you should ask them to), we’re going to dip inside Alex Shvartsman’s You Bet. Click here to go read that now.

Shvartsman is the editor of the UFO series and wrote this story as a Kickstarter campaign prize. I think it’s a good choice for our purposes because it shows us what the editor himself finds funny. Rather than puns, cleverness is the way to go if you want to get into UFO. In You Bet, Shvartsman introduces us to poker game where the players are tropes. They’re playing for their own relevance, and they only leave the game when they disappear from the larger culture. The story’s humour revolves around the trope characters themselves and how they see the world, so while it makes us chuckle, the jokes also serve to deepen its own themes. That’s impressive.

Now it’s your turn. How do you make your friends and coworkers laugh? Have you tried translating that to paper before? You’ve got nothing to lose but a bit of ink and a little time. Let’s get writing.

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 getting ready to submit to Cast of Wonder‘s Dinovember: intelligent dinosaurs call, and at their behest, we’re reading Ann Leckie’s The Endangered Camp as published by Escape Pod.

Cast of Wonders: Dinovember

Eligibility: stories featuring intelligent dinosaurs up to 6k words

Take Note: Cast of Wonders requires anonymous submissions and will reject your story if your name is found anywhere on your submission. So don’t miss your last name in the header of your standard manuscript format like I did that one time. Ugh.

Submit By: opening is from March 15-31st, 2020, so get plotting!

Payment Offered: $0.08 per word

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

A Story to Ignite Your Writing Mojo

Cast of Wonders has made it easy on me this week, offering their own example of a story that meets their call’s criteria. That story is none other than The Endangered Camp by Ann Leckie, and you can read or listen to it at Escape Pod by clicking here.

One of the elements that stands out in Leckie’s story (for our purposes) is the perspective of the dinosaurs. They aren’t human, but dinosaurs filtered through a human gaze. Their worldview, culture, mannerisms, and motivations are (dino)saurian. Often referred to as ‘furry fiction’, the reader is pulled into a strong, non-human point-of-view. This requires a deep understanding of the animal in question and strong world-building skills.

For this call, you need to pick your favorite dino, get into their heads, and take them on an adventure. We really do have the best job, don’t we? Good luck, or rather, GRRRRAAARRRRRR!

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 submitting to Abyss & Apex’s upcoming opening and we’re reading Joy Kennedy-O’Neill’s The Roots That Roam from A&A’s 2019 archives.

Abyss and Apex

Eligibility: speculative, character-driven stories up to 10K words

Take Note: flash submissions must be copied into the submission email, not attached

Submit by: this opening is the first week of February, 2020

Payment: $0.06 per word to a maximum of $75.00 USD

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

A Story to Ignite Your Writing Mojo

This week we’re dipping in Abyss & Apex‘s archives to read The Roots That Roam by Joy Kennedy-O’Neill. This will help give us an idea of what the editors like. Click here to go read The Roots That Roam now.

This is a tiny story that sandwiches it’s own grimness between two slices of wonder. Trees are walking around, but the civilization’s gone and our heroine is trapped by dint of her uterus, but maybe there’s a chance for freedom yet, if she takes it. Imagining her future is left to the reader to fill in after the story closes, which, in cases like this, reads like a gift.

Good luck to everyone submitting next week, and be sure to let us know when one of your stories makes it in.

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 submitting to Third Flatiron‘s Gotta Wear Eclipse Glasses anthology and we’re reading Mary E. Lowd’s story Necessary as a Rose in Kaleidotrope.

Third Flatiron: Gotta Wear Eclipse Glasses

Eligibility: speculative stories of a positive future between 1,500 and 3K words, or humorous pieces around 600-1k words.

Take Note: think along the lines of “my future’s so bright I gotta wear eclipse glasses”

Submission Dates: this call is open from February 15, 2020, to March 15, 2020

Payment Offered: $0.08 per word

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

A Story to Ignite Your Writing Mojo:

This week we’re reading Necessary as a Rose by Mary E. Lowd as published in Kaleidotrope. You can click here to go read that story now.

Lowd takes us on a journey through space with a lonely astronaut and a rose bush they believe is embedded into the workings of the ship. They feed the rose, speak with it, nurture it, and watch it bloom, but as time goes by, the astronaut’s mind grows more and more erratic. They question themself. Why are the rose’s petal purple and orange? What does that mean? Have they flown through dangerous radiation? Why are these new petals pink? Each of these questions deepens the astronaut’s paranoia as they drift, alone, unable to fill in the gaps of their knowledge, through space.

I wouldn’t call the future in this story ‘so bright I gotta wear eclipse glasses’ but I chose Necessary as a Rose because it offers multiple elements that suggest a brighter future. One of the most profound elements, for me, is the inclusion of nature. I was raised by trees, so when I read/see a lot of military-type sci-fi stuff I get an ache for the lack of nature and a weak-but-present sense of claustrophobia without something green and alive nearby. Nature helps ease human stress and strengthen our sense of wonder, which can lead to a happier future.

Another element of a positive future is the astronaut’s journey: they are travelling to a new world to accomplish their dream of being an architect. We find new worlds! We can have satisfying careers again! And finally, we see how much the citizens of this future care for strangers, and that promises much more below the surface of the story.

What’s the brightest future you can imagine? Can you see it? Okay, toss in some conflict and get plotting. We’ve got less than a month until Third Flatiron opens.

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 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!

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 the Atthis Arts Community of Magic Pens anthology and we’re reading Michaele Jordan’s Antique, published in Abyss & Apex.

Community of Magic Pens

Eligibility: stories up to 3 000 words on the theme of ‘magic pen,’ both the magic and the pen aspect up to interpretation. Editors prefer hopeful over grim stories.

Take Note: the editors have tweeted being disappointed that few science fiction entries have been submitted, so if you have an SF idea, run with it!

Submit by: January 15th, 2020 (yes, this is close, but there’s still time if you start right away)

Payment: $0.08 per word

Click here to go to the original call for details.

A Story to Ignite Your Imagination:

This week we’re reading Antique by Michaele Jordan and published in Abyss & Apex. You can read it online by clicking here. While this story has no magic pens, it does contain many magical masks, each one with its own ability, which I think will serve to get your imagination thinking in different directions for creating your own magical instrument. Follow Elsa on her global search for the mask she saw in the cabinet of a childhood, around the world, gathering what skills other masks grant her, to her final and important lesson.

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 submitting stories to Flash Fiction Online and we’re reading Ephemera by Catherine George from the November 2019 issue.

Flash Fiction Online

Eligibility: flash stories from 500 to 1 000 words, original or reprint (reprints are paid at a lower rate)

Take note: authors may submit up to three stories at any given time. The editors also link to a list of hard sells on their submissions page.

Submit by: open to ongoing submissions

Payment: $0.08 per word

Click here to go to the original call for details.

A Story to Ignite Your Writing Mojo

Ephemera by Catherine George was published in Flash Fiction Online last November and is available to read here. I chose this story because it made me feel and remember-clearly-the painful details of break-ups. In Ephemera, the souvenirs of a relationship, those small things that are forever linked to that person, get up and leave, off to find that person who abandoned you, choosing them.

That’s a fine premise for a story, but George doesn’t leave it at that, moving us through realizations of the dark side of the relationship that Rose had ignored, made small, and put up with to stay with that person. We journey with Rose in her arc of newly dumped to her re-emerging sense of self, that precious, life-affirming remembering we all get which lets us know we are healing, we can navigate our life without that person after all. This is a lot to pack into a thousand words and George has done this well in so few.

What kind of journey can you pack into a thousand words? Do you know anything inner arc intimately enough? Give it a whirl, take a chance, see where you get.

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 subbing to Cossmass Infinities and we’re reading The Paper-Doll Golems by Gwynne Garfinkle.

Cossmass Infinities

Eligibility: original, speculative stories from 2 000 to 10 000 words

Take Note: while we’re reading a story freely available on their website (linked below), Cossmass Infinities’ ‘about’ section links to the editor’s former podcast of stories which will help give writers an idea of what they like.

Submit by: current opening closes January 12th, 2020

Payment Offered: $0.08 per word for original stories

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

A story to ignite your writing mojo:

Cossmass Infinities offers a single story on their website to give us an idea of what they like. This is story is The Paper-Doll Golems by Gwynne Garfinkle and it’s the kind of story that stays with you, though somewhat uncomfortably. You can read it for yourself at Cossmass Infinities‘ website by clicking here. TW for internalized racism.

The Paper-Doll Golems is the story of an invalid girl fighting against her own helplessness. Ruthie has no power in any corner of her life and slowly watches her idolized older sister drift away from her. Her brothers tell her wild tales of a clay Golem come to life and she uses this concept to bring her paper dolls to life, certain she will have a friend to break her endless loneliness. Instead, Ruthie’s internalized racism and the destructive power of her long-term helplessness threaten to steal what little she has left.

Happy subbing, writers! I wish you a happy holiday and hope that whatever you are celebrating this week, you manage to find some time to write.

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.

It’s been a tough week seeing more than one good market close but we’re still here. We’ll keep reading, we’ll keep writing, and most especially, we’ll remember to support our favourite magazines whenever we can. Sometimes that means a retweet or a share of a story we love, and often it means financial help when we can too. All of it counts.

This week we’re submitting to Cosmic Roots and Eldritch Shores (CRES) and we’re reading The King of Flame by Janie Brunson.

Cosmic Roots and Eldritch Shores

Eligibility: speculative fiction 1 000 words and up, geographical diversity encouraged.

Take Note: anonymous, limited feedback is available

Payment Offered: $0.06 per word for new, original fiction, $0.02 for reprints

Submission Opening: December 21st -28th

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

A story to ignite your writing mojo

This week we’re reading a story that echoes the endless fires in the news, whether it’s Australia, the U.S., or in the Amazon, fires have been raging. In King of Flame by Janie Brunson, the author finds deep, mythological reasons for these fires.

There’s a blur here in the line between psychosis and myth, and if this is something you suspect might trigger you, please read one of the other wonderful stories available on CRES’ website. Otherwise, click here to go read Brunson’s story.

I’ve always been drawn to stories like this, of myths borne of insurmountable foes, that human desire to take something terrible and inconceivable and give it a story and a face we can recognize.  This is where humans first came into stories and this is still one of strengths of our collective imagination. It is the ability to empathize with phenomena and gain the ability to move forward despite a very literal helplessness. We’re screwed, but maybe there’s magic. And that magic – well, that can mean everything, especially in a story.

Happy writing!