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Word of the week: Doryphore – a pedantic and annoyingly persistent critic of others
Hello, readers! Thank you for all of the wonderful recommendations you’ve been sending in. Whether it is a story for the fiction round up or a regular article, I always take a moment to read each piece that is suggested for inclusion. Receiving messages from you is one of the best parts of writing this newsletter. I’m all about promoting authors, so please keep those suggestions coming!
This week we have a craft article on adversaries in fiction with a breakdown of common types of adversaries found in fiction and the types of conflict each generates. There are also articles on comma use, creating spaces for contemplation, and growing an email list. As always, you can find me (Holley) lurking on Twitter @HLCornetto.
Horror Tree Update:
This week has been a week of optimization trying to get a few things to speed up on the site. At least on the back end. Hopefully, something noticeable on the front end will be available next week!
Trembling With Fear update:
If you're looking to score a free physical copy of Trembling With Fear: Year 4 and a WHOLE ton of other books, we've got a contest you should be checking out!
https://horrorhubmarketplace.com/contests
Articles:
Looking to get some new ideas on how to push your stories forward? Here are the latest articles which have popped up from the last week!
On Craft:
Jane Friedman: Adversaries in Fiction: Who Is Standing in Your Character’s Way?
General:
Writer’s in the Storm: To Comma, or Not to Comma
Writer’s Digest: Creating a Space to Ponder Your Bliss and Relying on Your Inner Compass to Guide Your Writing
The business of writing:
diy MFA: Grow Your Email List (and Your Influence)
Free Fiction Roundup:
This week’s fiction includes “Canyon Village,” written by Christi Nogle. The nontraditional format enhanced the telling of this story, and I admired Nogle’s use of subtext and nuance to produce an unnerving tale. New to me in publications this week is The Fabulist, an online magazine specializing in several forms of speculative fiction. Ericka Lutz’s story, “Tiger, Dog, and Bone Broth” was a creative fairy-tale, playing with traditional tropes of the genre. “Wax Agatha” by KT Wagner appeared in the recently released issue of Starward Shadows Quarterly. In this story, Wagner tackled heavy themes in a unique and interesting way. I can’t recall having read anything quite like this before, making the appeal of this tale (for this reader) the wonderful weirdness the author creates. The last story for this week is “The Promises of Sisters,” which appeared in Electric Spec. This story was touching and relatable with strong characterization. Throughout the tale, I felt a strong connection to the character of Syth.
Now, on to the fiction:
“Canyon Village” by Christi Nogle. Underland Arcana.
“Tiger, Dog, and the Bone Broth” by Ericka Lutz. The Fabulist.
“Wax Agatha” by KT Wagner. Starward Shadows Quarterly.
“The Promises of Sisters” by J.C. Pillard. Electric Spec.
If you post any writing content during the week and think it would be a good fit for us to feature, do reach out and let us know at contact@horrortree.com
Thank you Patreons! As always, the site's lifeblood is in your hands and we truly appreciate your support.
Looking To Help Horror Tree?
Here are the main things we're looking for:
- Advertising and either Site or Contest sponsorships!
- Article writers (articles, interviews, reviews, crowdsource compilations, etc.)
- Sharing guest posts with us or reaching out for us to be a blog tour host.
- The obvious one here is also to become one of our Patreons!
If you're interested in contributing and think you have something that would help out PLEASE don't shy away from contacting us! (contact@horrortree.com)
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Excerpts:
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Submission Window: November 15th through November 30th, 2021 Payment: $0.06/word. Payment for reprints is $0.03/word, Poems are paid at the rate of $25 to $100 Theme: All SF and Fantasy genres, but horror is unlikely to find a home here. Ideally stories with a message of hope. Note: Reprints are welcome Our next submission period is going to be November 15th through November 30th, 2021. When we are Open for Submissions, you will be directed to the Submissions Portal from this page Read our announcement about the November Submissions Period – here. Special Notes DreamForge Anvil is about a passionate attention to storytelling as much it is about the stories themselves. This year, most stories will be returned without comment. That will give us time to pick a few “almost there” tales and work with the authors to see if we can collaborate in taking the story over the hurdle to select it for publication. When we find a story we want to work with, we’ll ask first if the author is interested, before we come back at you with a detailed review and suggestions. If you are interested, and if we accept your story after editorial changes, then we’ll publish your story and include a line edit comparison from your original to final so that those interested in story development can learn from the experience. We’ll also give you the opportunity to talk about your story and share insights into its development and the meaning it has for you. If you’d like to work on your writing with us, consider joining us in our DreamCasters discussion group, available to our Patreon supporters at Tier Two an above. All proceeds go to pay for stories in future issues of DreamForge Anvil. Learn more about what we look for in the guidelines below. 1 Story...
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Last month we shared 5 Overused Horror Movie Clichés To Avoid In Your Writing and now, for those of you who missed it or prefer video format we’re revisiting the post! These came in from reader Emily Henry who really gave some solid ideas to share with everyone. I’m sure you can guess a couple of them, though I will let you know ahead of time that these aren’t just rehashing the rules of the ‘Scream’ franchise even though that might be something we think about taking a creative look at in the future! …I’ll be right back! So, the video covers a few topics that really are overdone. Is it always possible to add a creative and original twist to them? Absolutely! Do you have to not use them? We would never tell you to use or not use a piece of advice in your writing. These are simply a few ideas to keep in mind to make sure that your work isn’t retreading the same ground that everyone and their brother has already done to death. If you want to read the full article do be sure to click the following link and read 5 Overused Horror Movie Clichés To Avoid In Your Writing in its entirety!
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Deadline: January 30th, 2022 Payment: Half a cent/word ($0.005/word) Minimum $15.00. Theme: speculative fiction, namely Sci-Fi and Fantasy. Note: Reprints welcome at same pay rate and the main reason that I’m listing this at under a cent per word We are currently open to SHORT STORY submissions for our Summer of Sci-Fi & Fantasy Anthology to be published in Summer of 2022. We ask for the following: 1) We are looking for great speculative fiction, namely Sci-Fi and Fantasy. Don’t overthink it! Just write an incredible story and you will find yourself in this anthology. 2) Submit your work in the Shunn Standard Manuscript Format. We only accept documents in DOC, DOCX and RTF formats. 3) We accept work in the range of 1500-7500 words. Anything outside this range will be automatically rejected. 4) Payment for original fiction is currently $0.005/word up to 7500 words. Minimum of $15. Reprints paid at full rate. We retain no rights to your work. 5) The Author’s Hand encourages submissions from writers of all races, color, religion (creed), gender, gender expression, disability, age, marital status, sexual orientation, etc. We want and value diverse voices. Saying that, we make editorial decisions strictly based on merit, and we do not collect any information that might clue our editors to any of these attributes other than your name, email, address, and cover letter before any decisions are made regarding your submission. 6) Ready to submit? Then send an email directly to contact@authorshand.com. In the subject line, please write “Anthology Submission: “STORY TITLE” or your story will be automatically rejected. 7) No multi-submissions. We try to respond to all submissions within 30 days. Submissions are currently OPEN. DEADLINE: January 31, 2022 **OUR SPECIAL PERK** Regardless of whether or not your submission is accepted, you will receive 15% off...
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Submission Window: November 1st-7th, 2021 Prizes: 1st place: $100, 2nd place: $50, 3rd place: $25 Theme: cosmic horror, dark science fiction, or weird CHM wants to find the very best cosmic horror flash fiction. SHOW US WHAT YOU GOT. Submissions will be ongoing and open the first week of every month for that month’s contest. THREE stories will be chosen per month to be published the month after they were submitted. (If you submit a story on October 3rd and it is chosen, it will be published in November.) Submissions are open monthly from the 1st to the 7th. Submission close at 12 am (midnight) eastern standard time. One entry per writer per month please! No simultaneous submissions. All stories accepted must be currently unpublished. Once a story has been submitted, please no resubmissions! We are looking for flash fiction (500 words or less) that can be classified as cosmic horror, dark science fiction, or weird. If you are unsure if your work qualifies, submit it and let us be the judge! Payment 1st place: $100 2nd place: $50 3rd place: $25 Make all submissions to flashfiction@cosmic-horror.net. Paste a cover letter with your information, publishing history, and word count into the body of the email. Attach the manuscript as a word document (.docx). Thank you and best of luck! Via: Cosmic Horror Monthly.
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The Horror Tree Presents- an Interview with Alexandrea Weis By Ruschelle Dillon Ruschelle: Alexandrea, welcome to the Horror Tree, where you will find all sorts of fruit, nuts and meat sacks hanging for you to snack on. Watch out for the disgustingly bloody ones. They’re not quite ripe yet. It’s great to have you here. You have a fantastic selection of books out there for your newfound fans to feast from. Many take place in your hometown of New Orleans which has seen more than its fair share of destruction from hurricanes, Ida being the most recent. At the penning of these questions, there are still swaths of Louisiana that are still without electricity and are digging out of Ida’s wrath. Has the devastating weather played a part in inspiring your books? Horrors can beget horrors. Alexandrea: Honestly, the response in the aftermath has been fantastic compared to what we went through with Katrina. Then we had weeks without running water, power, gasoline, or food. It was a nightmare and very horror worthy. We’ve been fortunate this time. I got my power back in six days. A big THANK YOU to the line men and women who came to restore our electricity. They are a godsend! Ruschelle: New Orleans has such a rich history. What are some aspects of NOLA that you must include when writing your stories? Conversely, are there nibblets that you find trite or just flat out wrong that you refuse to put in black and white? (I liked the word nibblets. I am also hungry for corn right now…) Alexandrea: Whenever I write about my hometown, I always include the quirkiness of the people, the architecture, our rich traditions, and our religious zeal for food. I try to be true to how we speak,...
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Submission Window: November 1st-2nd, 2021 Payment: 8 cents per word for original, 2 cents for reprints Theme: Well written original work in science fiction, fantasy, myth, legend, fairy tales, and eldritch, in written, podcast, video, and/or graphic story form, and from around the world. Note: Reprints welcome Submissions Schedule We have a new submissions schedule as of June 1, 2020: The first and second day of every month, 12 am of the 1st to 12 am of the 3rd, E.S.T. Only one submission per person. For reading impaired individuals, our submissions manager and ‘forget password’ have a captcha compatible with screen readers. We pay 6¢ per word for new fiction, 2¢ per word for fiction reprints, 2 – 6¢ per word for new fact-based work, 1- 4¢ per word for reprinted fact articles. For new poetry, we pay $1 a line, reprints would be 50¢ a line, up to 40 lines. We’ll look at longer poems but that would be a hard sell, and words over 40 lines would be paid at 6¢ per word. We began The Kepler Award to recognize and encourage writers of excellent science fiction and fantasy stories that creatively extrapolate on known science in constructive and exciting ways. You can learn about The Kepler Award here. You can read a copy of our standard contract here. It can be varied as needed to include the rights of translators, voice actors, etc. Writers Guidelines We accept new work as well as reprints, prose and poetry, anywhere from 1000 word flash fiction on up, but all else being equal, shorter pieces will be favored. We have tough standards but only care about the quality of the writing, storytelling ability, characters, plot, and ideas, not whether you’re new or established. Submit only work you are proud of...
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Submission Window: November 1st-15th, 2021 Payment: 1 winner each month will win $10 Canadian Theme: A story at exactly 50-words If you’d like to have a 50-word story that you wrote featured on FiftyWordStories.com, first make sure that you understand exactly what a 50-word story is, and then read the submission requirements below closely. Submissions System Each month, submissions will be open between days 1 and 15 of that month. Any stories received on days 16 to 31 of a month will be deleted, but can be resubmitted the following month. You may only submit one story per month. From the stories received in those 15 days, the best stories will be selected to be published that same month. Only enough stories will be selected to publish two stories per weekday. There is no payment associated with stories. However, each month a “Story of the Month” is selected, and receives a prize of $10 Canadian. Stories that were not selected will not be published, will not roll over into the following month, and cannot be resubmitted in following months. Authors will be notified whether their story has been selected or not once all stories from the month’s submissions have been reviewed. How to Submit Please email your submission to Tim@FiftyWordStories.com. Paste the story into the body of the email. Please include a title, your name, and a brief third-person bio. Feel free to include a link to your website! If you are submitting a story related to a specific date or holiday, please include that information in the Subject line of your submission. You can also send your story in using the form at the bottom of this page. Tips and Guides Looking for help with writing microfiction? Check out Bob Thurber’s Anatomy of a Microfiction page. Terms and Conditions Please keep the content of your submissions appropriate for...
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Submission Window: November 1st-3rd 2021 Payment: $50 Theme: Healers, Midwives and Cunning Folk. Hi there! We’ll no doubt write more about this later in the next year, but for now, what follows below will tell you all you need to know. And the theme? It’s “Healers, Midwives and Cunning Folk.” (No more submissions are being accepted for publication in December of 2020–but we will be publishing stories that have already been accepted.) The following is relevant to all submissions for 2021, and the first submission window opens Jan. 1. More below. Writing opportunities for 2021 include: New Fairy Tales: Fairy tales that are almost or entirely new or are just new takes on old tales are all welcome. Mashups of existing fairy tales are welcome as well. Submissions must follow the theme below to be considered. Essays: Nonfiction articles about any aspect fairy tales and folklore are being sought. The term “essay” just means you’ll be writing about fairy-tale related matters in a nonfiction article. Creative nonfiction is welcome. You do not have to stick to the theme, but you can. Poetry: Poetry inspired by fairy tales and that follows the theme is also welcome. Please read the following in its entirety before submitting. Want to know what is likely to get published here? There are well over 10 years of stories, essays and art on this current site. It’s the best place to start if you want to be published here. HERE IS HOW YOU SUBMIT AND FORMAT Only the kind of submissions outlined below will be accepted at EC in 2021. * Writers will have a chance to submit fairy-tale inspired stories/essays/poems 11 times this year. Since we will be choosing four works per publishing month, there are 44...
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Payment: $35 Theme: Your story must be about or connected to or associated with a specific, physical place that someone could visit Scrawl Place is part visitor’s guide, part literary journal. The audience for this online publication is the guest, the visitor, the traveler, the day-tripper, the out-of-towner, and the in-towners eager to wander. I’m looking for submissions about “places in the places” where you live or where you’ve visited. My only fixed criteria is that your submission be about or connected to or associated with a specific, physical place that someone could visit. The more specific the place, the better. How that manifests in terms of content, style and form is up to you. The place you write about could be a Wonder of the World, a random street corner that means something to you, or anything in between. My aspirational hope is that readers will think of you and your words if they ever happen to visit the places you write about, then maybe write some words of their own and start a dialogue across time and space. What to Submit CNF, Fiction, Poetry, Hybrids Length Under 900 words per piece Submit one to three pieces at a time Payment $35 per piece Paid within 30 days of acceptance (PayPal, Venmo, CashApp, ApplePay or Zelle) Where to Submit + Response Times Send your submission through Submittable (link at bottom of the page). The average response time is four weeks. Cover Letters + Bio Cover letters are optional, but please provide a third-person bio. Rights Writers retain all rights to their work. Scrawl Place requests a nonexclusive license to 1) Publish your work in an e-newsletter; 2) Archive your work on the website so long as the site exists; 3) Excerpt your work for use in promotion. Simultaneous Subs + Previously Published Work Scrawl Place...
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What Horror Writers Can Learn from Horror Films B.A. Kockaya As the weather gets colder and Halloween gets closer, what better way to prepare for the season than catching up on new horror films and rewatching old favorites? Watching horror films is not only a relaxing way to spend a Friday evening in fall, but also a useful way for horror writers to hone their craft. Here are three things horror writers can learn from horror movies. Let your protagonist run upstairs. Then do something different. What if the pretty blonde cheerleader runs upstairs to escape the killer who interrupted her popcorn-making, only to turn around at the top and confront them? What if the wife whose husband snaps, in a season of isolation, snaps back? What if all the diverse characters didn’t die at the beginning, but brought their untold stories and unique points-of-view to the story to defeat evil and become the heroes? Many of the classic horror films are full of stereotypes and cliches that often cause people to dismiss the genre (see next point). It’s true that many films (and books!) portray characters and situations in racist and misogynistic ways. Watch your favorite films through a critical lens to see how you can undermine these stereotypes, cliches, and overused tropes to bring fresh perspectives and richer meaning to your work. You can still give diehard fans what they love about horror while creating more nuanced characters, emotionally resonant scenes, and engaging, insightful themes. You may even appeal to new readers who don’t know how profound works of horror can be. Many non-horror readers think all horror is blood or cheese. A cursory look through the horror section on Netflix makes it easy enough to see how people could equate the entire genre with...
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Deadline: November 15th, 2021 Payment: $25 US Theme: 80’s slasher heavy in nostalgia. Please read carefully. Submissions that don’t meet the guidelines may be rejected. Submissions will be accepted until November 15th, 2021. Please submit to Horroroasis@gmail.com, ensuring ’Hex on the Beach’ is in the subject line. What we are looking for: Horrifying short stories, interviews and editorials matching the theme as it relates to all mediums of the horror genre including books, comics, music, movies, art and television 1,000 to 10,000 words in length. We also encourage writers to include good representation of POC, LGBTQ+, and women. If you run a small press, podcast, blog, YouTube channel or any other platform that is focused on amplifying underrepresented voices in the horror community, WE WANT TO HEAR FROM YOU! We will have several placeholders to advertise at no cost. Space will be limited so take a moment to let us know what you do to lift other’s up in the community. Please include submitter’s name, pen name (if different), word count, and author email address. Submissions must be written in 12 pt. Times New Roman and double spaced. We do not require exclusivity. You hold copyright, licensing us just for this publication. If your story is a reprint, please include its original publication details in your submission email. Simultaneous submissions are accepted, but you must have the right to license your story in a publication. Notify us by email at horroroasis@gmail.com if you need to withdraw your submission. The deadline for submissions is November 15th, 2021.
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Deadline: December 1st, 2021 Payment: $15.00 for 500-1999 words, $20.00 for 2000-4999 words, $25.00 for 5000+ words Theme: Speculative, horror preferred but not needed, Stories can be in any format except traditional prose A home for the strange, the uncanny, and the odd. Open Submissions Issue #1 (Oct 1- Dec 1 2021) Rules Prose: for the most part, the rules are simple. There is, however, a lot of them. Stories can be in any format except traditional prose. Stories told in forum messages? Great! Police blotters? Excellent! Receipts? If you can swing that, we want to see it! More weight will be given to new and unusual formats. Part of that is the sake of novelty, part of that is just because we don’t want five epistolary stories in one issue. Submissions do not have to rely entirely on text! If you would like to submit something in the form of a webpage that has considerable html/CSS going on, just make sure it’s in pdf form when you submit it. We still pay by word, but mixed media pieces are wholly welcome. All work must be speculative, horror being preferred. We’d like a variety of time periods but won’t judge against you for being set in the present or near present. Story lengths between 500-7500 words are accepted. You can haggle a bit on either end, but drabbles and novellas aren’t an option. (However, if you have a story you want to serialize, please query at archiveoftheodd@gmail.com.) Payments for writing are as follows: $15.00 for 500-1999 words $20.00 for 2000-4999 words $25.00 for 5000+ words After initial funds are recouped, contributors receive an equal split of 50% of royalties- the rest will be used to improve the zine for future issues, including increasing payment rates for authors. We understand that this isn’t...
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