Happy Halloween!

I was a little shocked the other day when I asked my nine year old grandson what he was going to be for Halloween and he said he didn't want to dress up this year. The reason? The school had told the kids they couldn't dress up as anything scary.

Hello?!? Halloween is all about getting the crap scared out of you. If you make it through All Hallows Eve without poisoned candy and razor blades in your apples you can survive anything. Even that Vampire lurking in the corner to bite your neck.

Halloween is about fear, about the monsters that hide under your bed and stalk your dreams. Its about walking those evil streets and surviving. Facing your fears gets your heart pumping. It makes you feel alive. It also gives you the knowledge that you can fight evil and win, even if you're wearing a silly costume.

Now, you're probably wondering what this has to do with writing. Well, think about it. As writers we dress up in the guise of our characters and with pen in hand, stalk evil and kill it. Of course, we don't always win but one battle is not the war and so we write on, killing the demons in every guise. From pedophiles to the happy homemaker who kills her husband with a frozen leg of lamb. We're the slayers of evil who make everything right in our little corners of the world.

And for your Halloween treat we have "52 Stitches" http://52stitches.blogspot.com/ They open for submissions today. And what are they looking for? Horror flash in the 750 word range. But hurry, once they have their 52 picks for the year, they close until next Halloween. The pay here is $3 per story and at the end of the year the stories are collected in an anthology. You can find their guidelines here http://52stitches.blogspot.com/2008/10/guidelines.html

May your day be full of treats but please, watch out for the tricks, and that evil zombie lurking in the corner ready to pounce on your pen. Write on, gentle storyteller, and slay the evil dragon today.

Submission Calls

Courtesy of the lovely Michael Bracken we have two anthology calls for submissions.

First up is Press 53. The anthology is "What Doesn't Kill You". They're looking for fiction or non-fiction stories in the 100 to 10,000 word range. There's no pay except for a complimentary copy of the anthology and your writing bio in the book. http://www.press53.com/whatdoesntkillyou.html

The second is "Music For Another World". This is a sci-fi/fantasy anthology with music being an integral part of the stories. They're looking for stories in the 2000 - 6000 word range with payment of 80pounds and one copy of the anthology. You can find the submission details here http://www.music-strange-fiction-submissions.info/

While they don't specify Canadian authors, print magazine, Descant, only accepts snail mail submissions for those who don't like dealing with postage across the boarder. (I know there's a word for that, but it escapes me for the moment) Anyway, this magazine has a theme that might be of interest to some of you, which is "Ghosts and the Uncanny" with a March 1, 2010 deadline. The pay here is $100 on publication but their response time is up to one year and possibly a year before publication. Not a market for those with no patience. Here's your link http://www.descant.ca/submit.html

New Issues and a Contest

If you love flash, the October issue of Apollo's Lyre has gone live. http://apollos-lyre.tripod.com/ You'll find stories by Terri Schultz, Wayne Scheer and Mark Chorna and many others. The editors are also looking for Valentine stories for their February issue. There's a January 15 deadline. You can find the details here http://apollos-lyre.tripod.com/id3.html

The Music Obsession issue of Storyglossia is up with sixteen new stories from writers like Tom Burkett, GL Griffith, James Warner and Christopher Bundy. http://www.storyglossia.com/

Fear and Trembling Magazine updates twice weekly http://fearandtremblingmag.com/contents.html/ And if you think a story can't be scary without spilling a lot of blood and curse words, check out "Shades of Stone" by Adam Colston for some shivery proof that it can be done. http://fearandtremblingmag.com/itemBW.php?sub_id=5212

The October issue of Tales From the MoonLit Path is open for your reading pleasure with seven short stories from such writers as Kyle Baker, Teresa Houle and Thomas McAuley. Besides these seven the winners of the Thirsty Vampire Contest have been published with six honorable mention stories and Michael Kechula's winning entry "Red Dust". http://www.moonlit-path.com/

And courtesy of Cynthia Sterling's new marketing blog we have an ebook Valentine Contest from Breathless Press. There's no cash prizes but the winners get a contract and a month long blog tour to advertise their new ebook. There are five categories accepting flash, shorts, novelettes, novellas and novels. You can find all the details at http://www.breathlesspress.com/valentines

Wednesday Linkage

If you're wondering about the future of short stories here are a couple of links that came in via the SMFS board. A hat tip to Bill Crider and Patti Abbott for supplying the links.

http://tinyurl.com/ygn8p3o and http://www.nytimes.com/2009/10/28/books/28electric.html?_r=2&ref=arts

Speaking of Patti, she's posted a new flash challenge on her blog with November 30 being the day of great flash reading. You can find all the details here http://pattinase.blogspot.com/2009/10/new-flash-fiction-challenge.html Drop on over and let her know if you're going to participate.

Over at Market Scoops http://marketscoops.blogspot.com/ you'll find an interview with "Through the Eyes of the Undead" anthology editor, Robert Essig. You can find out what he's looking for in a story and link to the anthology guidelines in the post.

Thanks to Stephen Rogers, who stopped by yesterday, we've discovered that Suspense Thriller Zine has bit the dust after only two issues.

And googling your name can have unexpected side benefits. I found a new market source yesterday called NewPages.com http://www.newpages.com/ While this is a site for literary zines, there are a lot of markets listed that take crime fiction also. They have reviews, listings of submission calls, just all sorts of goodies for writers looking for markets.

Paranormal Anyone?

We all love reading and writing ghost stories, don't we? Well, if you're looking to head up a team of paranormal investigators here's a post by Pamela K. Kinney that gives you all the ins and outs of going about this sort of work right down to the equipment you'll need to get started. http://www.innsmouthfreepress.com/?p=2726

Here's an essay by Megan Crewe that ponders the question of why ghosts are so appealing to us http://www.tor.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=blog&id=58133

Since you now have all that tasty information you might give it a whirl at these new publications. There's a new quarterly getting set to launch in January call Inwood Indiana http://inwoodindiana.com/?page_id=13 They pay a token payment via PayPal for poetry and fiction about small towns and subjects of a strange and unusual nature.

Story Fudge is also new and looking to launch in January. They're looking for shorts and poetry for the theme "Contact". There's a December 31 deadline for the first issue. This is a non-paying market. http://www.storyfudge.co.uk/submission-guidelines/

For something a little different we have NVF Magazine http://nvhmag1.webs.com/ They're looking for anything horror but their focus is indie film makers in the horror genre. Submissions include reviews, films and short stories but no pay. It's a pretty cool site and there's a story posted there by Joe R. Lansdale called "The Mule Rustlers" you might want to read http://nvhmag1.webs.com/fictionspotlight.htm

And over at The Drowning Machine, Corey Wilde has posted a review of "The Gift of Murder" http://drowningmachine.blogspot.com/2009/10/review-gift-of-murder.html Many thanks to Corey for the splendid review and helping to spread the word about the Toys for Tots anthology.

The Esquire Winners

The winners of the Esquire Fiction Contest were announced on October 9. I missed it, but better late than never. Congrats to winners, JR Walsh, Christian Moody, and Nick Ripatrazone. You can find the announcement, their bios, and links to their stories here http://www.esquire.com/fiction-contest-authors

This and That

On November 1 NanoWriMo begins. The idea here is to write a complete novel in 30 days. It works for many writers and some have come out of their month of writing with a rough draft that gets polished and sold. If you're interested in this process here's the link http://www.nanowrimo.org/ And over at Alexandra Sokoloff's Dark Salon blog you find "The Plan" to help you get started with your Nano project. http://thedarksalon.blogspot.com/

And if you don't have a novel in you, maybe try for 30 shorts in 30 days. That might be a fun challenge. There are a lot of markets for 1000 - 2000 word stories, not to mention those flash markets for 500 and under. Give it a try. What have you got to lose?

There's been several nice reviews and write-ups for "The Gift of Murder", this year's Toys for Tots Christmas Anthology. Here's the links:

http://weblogs.baltimoresun.com/entertainment/books/blog/2009/10/the_gift_of_murder_a_toys_for.html

Lesa Holstine has written a very nice review on her wonderful Lesa's Book Critiques blog.
http://lesasbookcritiques.blogspot.com/2009/10/gift-of-murder-edited-by-john-m-floyd.html

And Kevin Tipple posted one on his review blog, Kevin Tipple's Corner. http://kevintipplescorner.blogspot.com/2009/10/reviewing-gift-of-murder-compiled-and.html

Earlier this week we were discussing the mixing of genres to create a short story. Well, this week, Charles Gramlich has just such a story published at Beat To A Pulp. His story, "Hunter's Moon" is a mix of sci-fi, horror, mystery, and romance. And what a mix it is. You can go read this great story here http://www.beattoapulp.com/stor/2009/1025_cg_HuntersMoon.cfm

And a Few More

The second issue of 69 Flavors of Paranoia has gone live and they're open to subs for issue three until November 15. This is a non-paying market but the zine has a well-designed website to showcase your work. http://www.69flavorsofparanoia.com/index.html

Over on SMFS someone asked a question about poisons which put me in mind of a Yahoo group that I belong to called Crime Scene Writers. This is a marvelous group that includes police officers, private investigators, coroners, medical examiners, crime scene investigators, doctors, lawyers, nurses, and the list goes on and on. The point being, if you need some detail to flesh out your story the answer can be found on this list. You can ask your question or do a search of the message archive. There's a wealth of information available through this group. The most recent discussion was about killing a person with a knitting needle. You'd be surprised how many ways this can be accomplished! Here's the group addy if you're interested in joining http://tech.groups.yahoo.com/group/crimescenewriter

Scattered Linkage

Panverse publishing is putting together their second novella anthology and are seeking sci-fi/fantasy (with exceptions found in the guidelines) submissions in the 15,000 - 40,000 word range. The pay is $75 and you can find all the details here http://www.panversepublishing.com

For those of you who entered Jason Evan's Clarity of Night flash contest last time you might remember the name, Jaye Wells. She wrote a novel from one of her contest entries that landed her a publishing contract. Over at her blog she's written some advice for new writers that's pretty sound. Go have a read http://jayewells.com/2009/10/21/big-ass-advice-post/

And we have a new kid on the blog block. Welcome Mike Wilkerson to the crazy world of blogging. http://mike-wilkerson-writes.blogspot.com

Noir Poetry at the Bar

If you're in The Big Apple tonight and in the mood for some kick-ass crime poetry here's your invitation, courtesy of The Lineup Blog:

You are cordially invited to the first reading from The Lineup, tonight (Thursday, October 22) from 7:00-9:00 PM at NYC's KGB Bar (85 East 4th Street). Scheduled readers include Jennifer L. Knox, Richie Narvaez, Carol Novack, Karen Petersen, Anthony Rainone, and Gerald So.

Issues 1 and 2 of The Lineup will be available for signing and sale, as will Carol Novack's CD Inventions II.Join us for this festive night of crime poetry.

Ah, go on, you know you want to!

Charity Anthology Call for Submissions

From Michael Bracken we have the anthology "Forsworn" call for submissions. This is a charity anthology to raise money to fight pancreatic cancer with the Lustgarten Foundation http://www.lustgarten.org the recipient of all profits from the sale of the book. The editors at Sleeping Beagle Books are looking for fantasy stories of 5000-10,000 words to fill this. You can find all the details at http://sleepingbeaglebooks.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=63:forsworn&catid=49:accepting&Itemid=61

Around the Blogs

Over at the BookFox blog http://www.thejohnfox.com/bookfox I found a link to an interview with John Grisham where he talks about his new book "Ford County" which is a collection of short stories. As Mr. Fox says in his post, it will likely draw some much needed attention to the short form. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=woX268iHjBk

There's an interesting essay called "Changing Gears" by Laura Anne Gilman at this link http://varkat.livejournal.com/122095.html I know I'm always afraid when I step into a story I'm not sure about, one that veers from what I know I can write, so it's nice to know that I'm not alone.

Some very interesting thoughts about women and writing over at Poes Deadly Daughters this morning written by Sandra Parshall http://poesdeadlydaughters.blogspot.com/index.html and to quote Forrest Gump, "That's all I've got to say about that."

One blog that I enjoy stopping by every day is Do Some Damage where you'll find some very interesting thoughts on writing. But John McFetridge's piece about cozies back a week or so ago has really stuck with me. http://dosomedamage.blogspot.com/2009/10/why-louise-pennys-cozies-are-creepier.html What he finds scary about them, I find normal, maybe because I live in the country and know the workings of small towns. They're not the picket fence world that everyone believes them to be. Just like the big cities we have drug dealers, meth labs, adultery, murder and mayhem and that's a reality that most people don't seem to believe. If city folks knew the reality, they'd stay in the city rather than moving to the "peace and quiet" of the country. If I were to write about half of what goes on in my county alone people would be pretty quick to say that could never happen, but the reality is, it does. The trick is to write about it and make it seem real for the unbelievers out there.

Crossing Genre Lines

With the launch of The Feral Pages http://www.theferalpages.com/ I have been thinking about cross genre stories. Now I enjoy blurring genre lines when I'm writing but they tend to put a crimp in the number of markets I can submit the work to. But I wonder if that's going to change. Why? you ask. Because with the wondering about this new trend I ran across several links related to this type of writing that I thought I'd share.

First up is Bev Vincents essay, "Genre Bender" http://storytellersunplugged.com/bevvincent/2009/10/17/genre-bender/

The next I found over at the Clockwork Storybook blog and from this link you'll find several others if you care to read on about this subject. http://clockworkstorybook.blogspot.com/2009/10/crossbreeding-genres.html

The last is an essay by Jeff VanderMeer who's new book "Finch" may have set off this abundance of links. Mr. VanderMeer has crossed his newest fantasy book with the tropes of mystery noir. No, I haven't read the book but I expect that if it does well you'll be seeing a lot more of this crossbreeding of genres. Http://crimespree.blogspot.com/2009/10/long-time-mystery-reader-first-time.html

The Fall issue of MystericalE hit the virtual streets this weekend with stories from familiar names like JR Lindermuth, Stephen D. Rogers, and JE Seymour among the roster of authors. And if you're going to jump on the genre bending train, MystericalE is a market that's open to this type of story.

And last, but certainly not least, The Women of Mystery blog has posted links to several writing contests if you'd like to toss your writing hat in the ring. http://www.womenofmystery.net/2009/10/few-more-writing-contests.html

Oh yes, Gemini Magazine has announced the winners of their flash fiction contest. They had over 400 entries, and the winner was Beverly Akerman for her excellent story "Pie" You can read her story and the honorable mentions here http://www.gemini-magazine.com/

And in the comments feel free to discuss the crossing of genres. Do you like your genres mixed and shaken or do you prefer them straight up?

Friday Linkage

This link was passed along by Michael Bracken. Unbranded Press is a brand new venue that's looking to publish ebooks. Right now, they're putting together a Wrestling Anthology with a November 9th deadline. 2500 to 7500 words. Pay is $5 plus royalties if sales are good. You can find the guidelines here http://www.unbrandedpress.com/

And from Cormac Brown we have a new flash zine called Disenthralled http://disenthrallme.wordpress.com/issues/issue-1/ If I understand the guidelines correctly the top word count is 200 and the open submission period is between the 15th and the 22nd of every month. New issues hit the streets on the 15th of each month. This is a non-paying market.

Lastly, a reader after my own heart. http://www.bscreview.com/2009/10/escaping-into-fiction-by-sharon-shinn/

Zine News

First off, is the annual MicroHorror Halloween Contest. I almost missed this one as it started on October 1st but the deadline is October 31 so you still have two weeks to enter. And it's always a fun contest to be a part of. This years theme "The Past!" with history being the impetus for the story. The top word count is 666. You can find more about the contest and a link to the rules here http://www.microhorror.com/microhorror

The first issue of The Feral Pages has launched http://www.theferalpages.com/ Very cool issue and they've got a contest called The Potato Head Challenge so writers can get a feel for combining genres in their stories. This is going to be a bi-monthly zine by the looks.

The October issue of The Dead Mule has gone live http://www.deadmule.com/

As has the October issue of The Collagist which is also having a flash fiction contest. There's a $5 fee to enter but there are cash prizes. http://www.thecollagist.com/

Thieves Jargon is now a monthly instead of a weekly and they've once again changed their guidelines and no longer require a query. http://www.thievesjargon.com/

And Suspense Thriller Zine's home page says the site is currently closed after only two issues. I'll let you know if things change. Their archives are still open if you're looking for something to read in the spy genre. Url to the left.

***Another late addition here. With a hat tip to Paul Brazill we've heard that the latest issue of Yellow Mama has now hit the virtual streets. Url to the left, folks.

Market Sources

I recently ran across DL Snells Market Scoops blog. While he doesn't seem to post a great deal of content on a regular basis, he does have some very interesting interviews with magazine editors on the site. The latest of these is an interview with the editor of Shock Totem http://marketscoops.blogspot.com/2009/10/shock-totem.html If you're considering submitting to this market you'll find a lot of detail on what they're looking for. And if you're not considering them as a market you'll still find a great deal of good advice for making your story the best it can be no matter what market you're submitting to. There are other interviews on the site and well worth your time to scroll through and read them. I find that most editors are after the same things in a short story, something that is well-written and hits the mark for their target audience.

For those of you who write spec-fiction, I found SpecFic World. http://www.specficworld.com/ is full of market news and information about writing in this genre.

I'll be putting the links to these two sites in the Market Sources column to the left.

*** A late addition that I forgot to include. The Cynthia Sterling Newsletter is now going to be a blog instead a newsletters coming through her Yahoo group. http://cindimyersmarketnews.wordpress.com/ is the new url.

The Evolution of a Blog

If you're here reading today, you're probably a short story writer in search of a market or writing tips, or maybe just a reader in search of a zine to read. Either way, welcome to my blog.

It was a year ago today that I signed into Blogger to create My Little Corner, mostly so I'd have a place to post my stories for Patti Abbott's flash challenges. The first month or so of posts were pretty scattered, with posts about writing, a few of my stories, just anything I could think of. A few people like Clair Dickson, Patti, and David Cranmer stopped by and welcomed me to the blogging community so I had a few comments. But mostly I figured I was just another writer taking up space in the ether and nobody would be paying any attention to my scattered thoughts about my writing journey.

But a funny thing happened as the weeks passed and I realized that I could post every possible market I might like to submit to over there on the left. No more searching through scraps of paper and old emails or trying to remember where I heard about that new market. While looking for things to put in the links I ran across a bunch of market sources posted to SMFS by Jack Ewing and posted the ones that were still active. What a treasure trove that was. And as the links on the left grew, so did the number of people who stopped by. I wasn't the only one searching for places to send my short stories.

I've always been a big supporter of the online zines and the amazing short stories they publish, so I started posting about new issues and linking to some of the great stories I've found. And even more people began stopping by. Slowly but surely, I was building the blog into something that was useful not just to me, but to any short story writer who happened by.

Over the past year there have been visitors here from all over the world, I've written over three hundred blog posts and linked to God knows how many sites that might be of interest to those who stopped by.

So I'd like to take a minute of your time to thank you, each and every one of you who has stopped by and dropped a comment, or found a tip that helped with your writing, or got that story published because of a link over there on the left. Because the truth is, if you hadn't stopped by, I probably would have given up on this blog long ago. You've been the source of my pleasure in finding links and sharing thoughts. Knowing that you're there, makes this all worth while. Thank You!!

And of course it wouldn't be a proper post without a great link, so here you go http://www.alanrinzler.com/blog/2009/10/12/why-book-publishers-love-short-stories/ It's a great and wonderful time to be a short story writer.

Markets, Contests, and an Interview

Pill Hill Press has announced another anthology called Fire and Ice: Short Gasps of Romantic Suspense with a December 31, 2010 deadline. http://www.pillhillpress.com/ for all the details and a long list of anthologies they're seeking submissions for.

They're also having a contest called Love Kills: My Bloody Valentine with a January 15, 2010 deadline. They're looking for scary stories written in third person with a Valentine theme. The word count is 2000 to 6000 with their sweet spot being 3000 to 5000 words. First prize is $125, second $50 and third $25. You can find all the details at http://www.pillhillpress.com/love-kills-contest.html

Northern Frights Publishing is a Canadian publisher but accepts stories from "across the border" according to their site. They're seeking submissions to a new science fiction anthology entitled "War of the Worlds: Frontlines". They want stories influenced by HG Wells classic War of the Worlds. The deadline is December 31, 2009 for stories up to 8000 words. The pay is a penny a word with a $50 cap. http://northernfrightspublishing.webs.com/guidelines.htm

There's a new flash market looking to launch in January called Eclectic Flash. This is a non-paying market with a top word count of 1000. http://www.eclecticflash.com/submit.html

Westerns Online editor, Matthew Pizzolato, has announced a change in the zines guidelines. They'll now be accepting ghosts stories set in the old west. You can check them out at http://www.thewesternonline.com/

The lovely Women of Mystery are running another contest. This time they're giving away 5 copies of Marcia Muller's new book "Locked In". All you have to do to enter is drop them a comment by midnight tomorrow. The winners will be announced on Thursday October 15. http://www.womenofmystery.net/2009/10/tuesday-twosome-free-marcia-muller.html

And last but not least, Charles Tan has an interview with fantasy short story writer, Genevieve Valentine on his fabulous blog, Bibliophile Stalker. http://charles-tan.blogspot.com/2009/10/interview-genevieve-valentine.html

The Fear Factor

"The Death of Emily Dickinson" by Bill Lindbald. http://storytellersunplugged.com/blog/2009/10/11/the-death-of-emily-dickinson/

I read this essay just a few minutes ago and it's one of those posts that smacks you upside the head. I believe that fear of rejection is the biggest stumbling block for beginning writers. We're afraid that our story will be rejected. We're afraid that we haven't used the proper words or sentences or comma groupings. We're afraid that an editor is going to ask us why we're writing such crap. We're afraid that we're...well, you get the idea. We ride the rails of rejection fear until we're paralyzed by it.

But the truth is, all the editor said is no. No, by itself, can't hurt you. And there are just as many reasons for that simple no as there are fears for sending out your story. No, the story isn't a fit. No, I just bought a story like this. No, all the slots are filled. No...you see, it isn't just about the quality of your story, it's about a hundred different variables that you have absolutely no control over.

Write the best story you can, then send it out. The worst that can happen is that some editor somewhere will say no. Rejection won't stab you in the heart. It might bruise your ego, but it won't kill you. Submission and rejection are part of the process, so suck it up and send out those stories. What have you got to lose?

Sunday Links

Over at The Kill Zone blog, James Scott Bell has an excellent essay entitled "Will Arrogance Get You Published?" http://killzoneauthors.blogspot.com/2009/10/will-arrogance-get-you-published.html He makes some excellent points about the difference between confidence in what you do and the air of arrogance that won't get you anywhere.

In the markets section to the left you'll find a site called darkmarkets.com. I was on the verge of deleting this link because there had been no new content added since last December. Checking in yesterday, I discovered that they're revamping the site and updating the available markets. Be sure to check out the site, maybe you'll find just the right spot for the new story you've written. http://www.darkmarkets.com

Over at Duotrope I always check out the new markets section. While some of the markets are new, others have been around a while. Such was the case with Nefarious Muse. Yesterday when I checked out their site, I discovered that there had been no new content since January and I thought dead market. Today there's a new story, so apparently they weren't receiving any new submissions. Shows what a little advertising does for a site. This is a non-paying blogzine looking for dark, violent stories. There's no word count constraints. You can check them out at http://nefariousmuse.com

Chasing the Story

Sometimes opportunity knocks when you least expect it. I had this happen to me recently in the form of a request for a possible novel submission. Yeah, cool, but I write short stories. Well, do you have a short story that could be a novel? Of course, they could all be novels.

What I forgot in my pursuit of chasing opportunity was that not all shorts can be novels, they are, after all, short stories and padding them out from the 2,000 to 5,000 word range to 100,000 is not always feasible. I also forgot that exploring the possibilities of a story is the fun part of the process and immediately set out to pad a short story into something marketable. Uh-huh, reaching for the dollars has never, ever worked for me. Writing for dollars always takes the focus off the story for me, and what I wound up writing and submitting was utter trash. Now, the door wasn't slammed in my face, but damn close. So I went back to work on the story I'd proposed.

While I pounded away at turning the beginnings I had into the possibility of dollar bills filling my pockets, I stumbled across this essay by Matt Mikalatos called "Embracing Your Inner Weird" http://cba-ramblings.blogspot.com/2009/10/guest-blogger-matt-mikalatos.html and I was stopped dead in my tracks.

I realized I wasn't having fun, that I was trying too hard to turn the story into something that it wasn't because I thought that was what I should do. So, I freed my "weird" dumped most of what I'd written and started over again. Will it work? I have absolutely no idea, but I'm having fun again. I'm actually enjoying the work, the words I'm writing and the story that's unfolding on the page. Will it be a novel? I don't know, but if not, it'll be damn sweet short story.

At the end of the day, the writing should be about the story. Sometimes it only needs a thousand words to be complete and other times 150 pages. A story is what it is, a living breathing collection of words that speaks to your readers.

Will I be sorry if the opportunity slips away? Probably. But maybe this opportunity was only meant to be a wake-up call, a chance to see where a story can go if I allow myself to chase the unexpected threads of a story instead of the path that's already been worn down by the writers who have gone before me.

Market News

On the heels of Eastern Standard Crime closing its doors, there's news that print magazine, "Necrography", is closing shop due to lack of funds. There's an interesting post here http://nithska.blogspot.com/2009/10/necrography-is-dead.html about the closing and what we as readers/writers can do to keep our markets growing. While not everyone can afford subscriptions, spreading the word about a market or pointing to great stories in a zine is great advertising for publications and can drive readers to the sites.

Also closed is Orchard Press Mysteries, no reason here, just disappeared into the ether.

And Flash Fire 500 closed early in the summer with a promise to reopen in the fall. I've been dropping by their site since September and yesterday found a note that they're still closed with no hint of when they might reopen.

All very depressing news but I really hate leaving you on that sad note, so here's a new market, and a paying one. "Strangetastic" has one and a half issues up so you can get an idea of the type of story they're looking for. According to the guidelines they want supernatural fiction in the 1000 to 6000 word range with a flat pay rate of $25. You can check them out here http://strangetastic.com/

New Issues

I missed this one earlier. There's a new issue of 10Flash out in the ether. Eleven new flash stories from writers like Stephen D. Rogers, Robert Swartwood and Angel Zapata. Hey, what are you hanging around here for? Go. Read! http://10flash.wordpress.com/

And this one. The first issue of Jersey Devil Press' new zine is up with seven shorts stories from writers like Christopher Woods, Kate Delany, and Robert Levin. Lots of free reading today, folks! http://www.jerseydevilpress.com/current_issue/

The Best Laid Plans

Often go awry. Its been a slow week for the blog, but then life doesn't always care if you have other things you'd rather be doing. Hopefully, I'll be back on a more even keel this next week. I always feel like I'm letting you folks down when I don't post everyday or so.

I heard about this market from two sources, the lovely Paul Brazill and from Pam Castro's Flash Newsletter. I was aware of the Gumshoe Review but since they were a book review site I didn't list them as a market. But as of October, they've decided to publish one short story and one non-fiction essay a month. The word count limit is 1000 and the pay is 5cents a word with a $50 cap. They're also looking for reviewers if anyone is interested. This was mentioned in the "Just the Facts." section by the editor. You can find all the details here http://www.gumshoereview.com/php/Review-id.php?id=1852 The main site is at http://www.gumshoereview.com/

Pill Hill Press http://www.pillhillpress.com/index.html has listed four new anthology calls.

Bucket 'O' Guts Press has an open call for submissions to their new anthology "Foetus Fatale: Fubar'd Noir. They're looking for crime noir stories set in a Lovecraft type world. They opened October 1 and will be open until all the slots are filled. 1000 to 4000 words with a payday of $50 and a copy of the anthology. They'll dicker on the price if you're famous. http://bucketoguts.wordpress.com/foetus-fatale-fubard-noir/

Weirdyear is a brand new market for flash fiction. They're looking to publish daily. The maximum word count is 1000 but their sweet spot is 500 - 800 words. They want off-beat and weird fiction in any genre, no pay. There are no stories up, so this is a very new enterprise. http://www.weirdyear.com/

And Issue 33 of Thuglit has hits the streets with eight new short stories from writers like Trey R. Barker, Jimmy Calloway, and Johnny Zephyr, to name just a few. Happy? reading, folks! http://www.thuglit.com

A Contest and a New Zine

I don't usually post paying contests but this one may be of interest to many of the writers who stop by here. The contest is sponsored by Shots Magazine and ABCTales out of the UK. They're looking for serial thrillers, that would be 10 episodes of 1800 words each. Lee Child will be judging. The cost is $20. You can find more information here http://wwwshotsmagcouk.blogspot.com/2009/10/serial-thriller-competition-launched.html or you can go directly to the submission page at ABCTales at this url http://www.abctales.com/node/587321

I've ran across a couple of blog posts this past week that spoke about this new ezine, but the site hadn't been set up yet. Today Michael Bracken was kind enough to send me the link. Michael really keeps his ear to ground when there's a new market popping up.

The new zine, "Feral", is the brainchild of editor, Lyman Feero. The idea behind this new zine is to free writers so they can cross as many genre lines as their stories need. But he also wants the stories dark. You can find the guidelines at http://october365.com/feral/?page_id=15 There are already two stories up on the site which you can find by clicking on fiction at the bottom of the page. The stories? First is "The Cove" by Patrick Shawn Bagley, and the second is "A Better Life" by Chris F. Holm.