Markets and Cool Links

Over at Dark Valentine there's a new photo prompt up for flash writers. The Through a Lens Darkly section of DV is non-paying and takes flash stories up to 1000 words. The quarterly zine itself will be premiering on June 11 with stories from Cormac Brown, Paul Brazill, Elizabeth Zelvin and others. Sure to be a great issue with a lineup like that. They've also opened submissions to the second issue with an August 8 deadline and a September 3 publication date. Stories selected for the zine receive a payment of $10. They're looking for dark stories in any genre. You can check them out here http://darkvalentine.net/

The First Line is seeking submissions for their Fall issue. The deadline is August 1. I think you could have a lot of fun with this sentence! "Three thousand habitable planets in the known universe, and I'm stuck on the only one without ______." (fill in the blank) This is a paying market, you can find all the details at http://www.thefirstline.com/

With a hat tip to Charles Tan, I found this link to an essay about the work of Shirley Jackson. http://bnreview.barnesandnoble.com/t5/Reviews-Essays/Fear-and-Delight-The-Fiction-of-Shirley-Jackson/ba-p/2641 I think it would be so cool to write a short story like "The Lottery", that still affects people long after its first publication. I found it interesting that she and the New Yorker, where the story was published, received hate mail because of that piece of fiction.

And a huge thank you to Michael Bracken for sending this link my way!! http://www.genreality.net/in-praise-of-short-stories This essay about short story writing is excellent, but do be sure to follow the links at the bottom of the page for more essays about shorts and writing in general. There's a lot of good information about writing on this site!