The Lost Children

The next time you're loading up your e-readers you might give this new anthology a try. "The Lost Children: A Charity Anthology". Proceeds from the sales go to PROTECT: The National Association to Protect Children and Children 1st Scotland. You can find all the details here http://www.pluckyoutoo.com/2011/10/30-powerful-stories-from-around-world.html

A Pair of Markets

From friend of the blog, Paul Brazill, we have a crime anthology for Indiana writers. They're looking for crime fiction that takes place in Indiana with a preference for Indiana writers. Stories should be 1500 to 5000 words. Only the top picked story will receive a payment of $10. You can find the details here http://indyhorror.wordpress.com/indiana-crime/ This site also mentions two other annual anthologies, one horror and one sci-fi, both closed for this year.

And LuridLit has returned! Due to legal problems this site closed down two years ago, but has now reopened for subs. They're looking for stories in various genres that are the literary equivalent of a good B-movie. Payment for flash of 500 to 1000 words is $10, shorts of 1000 to 3000 words is $25, and articles or reviews of 500 to 1000 words is $10. You can find all the details here http://www.luridlit.com/2011/10/lurid-writers-wanted-looking-for.html

Flash Writing

One of the things I love best about writing flash fiction is the ability to play around with characters you probably couldn't build a short story or novel around. And while most flashers will tell you that description is one of the things you shove to the curb when writing flash, I use flash to learn how to incorporate good visual description into a story. With flash I've learned how to keep it short and sharp without turning it all purpley, something I tend to do. If you go overboard with flash, you learn very fast where to cut out the excess to stay within your word count.

For "The Painter" all I had was the picture of a small man sitting in the woods painting. I wrote a short piece and everyone in my critique group said, yeah, they liked the painter but why was the girl there? Back to the drawing board. After playing around with the piece for a couple of weeks, I found I had a nice little piece of horror. With thanks to Dave Barber you can find "The Painter" as part of The Flash Fiction Offensive's Halloween special.

http://theflashfictionoffensive.blogspot.com/2011/10/halloween-special-painter-by-sandra.html

The Red Dirt Review

The Red Dirt Review is looking for the best in Redneck Fiction, both shorts and poetry. Any genre except erotica. I do love his definition of the difference between erotica and porn though. "Erotica uses a feather. Porn uses the whole chicken." All stories need to contain an element of the American South. This is a non-paying market. http://reddirtreview.com

Over My Dead Body

Holy Crap! Over My Dead Body has new content!! Three month's worth! And they're open for submissions. I'm having a Redd Foxx moment here. Check it out here http://www.overmydeadbody.com/index2.htm

It's Back!

R. Thomas Brown is now writing the Short Thoughts on Short Fiction column for Spinetingler magazine. You can check it out here http://www.spinetinglermag.com/2011/10/26/short-thoughts-on-short-fiction-charlie-coleman-fiona-johnson-anonymous-9/

A Woman's Story

Have you ever had two thoughts collide in your mind? For me it was this piece over at Mulholland Books http://www.mulhollandbooks.com/2011/10/25/disappearing-women/ and the unrelenting horror movies that the month of October brings.

This collision brought to mind a real life horror story that I was privvy to and that has haunted me over the years. Moving to our farm back in the seventies dropped us smack dab in the middle of a Polish/Russian Catholic neighborhood. Many of the older neighbors were first and second generation immigrants. They'd come to work in the coal mines in Scranton until they scraped together enough money to purchase a bit of land to farm. And they brought their old country beliefs and way of life with them.

We met one of the older gentlemen, he was in his eighties, when his heifer came in heat and decided to visit our bull. About a week later we were talking about this "strange" neighbor with another neighbor who dropped by for a visit and he told us about an incident he witnessed years ago.

As a young man he'd gone to visit with the man and his wife only to find the wife tied to the silo, her blouse ripped off, and the man beating her with a leather strap. When I asked him why he didn't stop the man or report the beating. He informed me that you didn't interfere between a husband and wife. Now this had happened back in the fifties and I could well believe the attitude.

I can only imagine the hell that woman lived through during her lifetime and found it oddly satisfying when I'd heard that she'd passed away. Why satisfying? Because her husband was bedridden and she was his sole caretaker. He laid in bed beside her dead body for two days before the visiting nurse came to check on them. I like to think that her ghost remained in that room, taunting him, getting her revenge for all the years of abuse.

Women are the strongest human beings I know. That woman nearly drowned in old country religious beliefs, being unable to divorce the man she had married or even speak up for herself. Even suicide wasn't an option. She had no children, no friends, and no means of escape. And who, in this country, would ever believe the life she was forced to live. Her final revenge only coming with her death.

And coming back around to the Mulholland piece, I really do have to wonder why publishers don't want to read about older women. Women who have over the years developed a strength and courage that most younger women today can't even begin to imagine. They are bold and brave and interesting. We should be able to tell their stories, not some exaggerated fifties sitcom version of their lives.

Around the Web

Back from strolling about the 'net and I have some links!

Over at Spinetingler, author, Jeff Shelby talks about breaking the rules of writing a series. http://www.spinetinglermag.com/2011/10/25/breaking-rules-by-jeff-shelby/

Chris Rhatigan talks about Grift magazine and his conversation with editor, John Kenyon. http://death-by-killing.blogspot.com/2011/10/grift-magazine.html

Louise Ure has a beautiful post over at Murderati today that really makes you stop and think about life. http://murderati.com/blog/2011/10/25/park-bench-conversations.html

And the lovely Brian Lindenmuth always finds the best links! Here's three that he sent me recently. Many thanks, kind sir!

This first one is a four part formula for turning a story into fiction. A short, concise guide for writing those lovely short stories. http://nielsenhayden.com/makinglight/archives/013243.html#013243

Blake Butler lists twenty-two things he learned from submitting his writing. http://htmlgiant.com/behind-the-scenes/22-things-i-learned-from-submitting-writing/

What I found interesting about this last post is not that the author had a story accepted, but that he actually had the balls to submit to a closed market. Which got me thinking, how damn famous do you have to be to just send a publisher a story? I know I couldn't get away with doing something like that. And this guy's name isn't Stephen King. http://nihilistic-kid.livejournal.com/1664478.html

No Plots With Guns

For anyone looking, I've removed the link to the new issue of Plots with Guns because I was informed that the issue wasn't ready for publication yet, and they're not sure how the link became available. So, stay tuned, one of these days it will be ready :) My apologies for jumping the gun, so to speak.

The Odd Sentence Story Cupboard

If you're like me you've got files full of odd-ball sentences and paragraphs, ideas that popped into your head for a story but never made it very far. But...they were too intriguing to throw away. I thought I'd throw out a few of them here today. Maybe you'll get a bit of inspiration from one of them.

1. "This ain't yesterday." I heard this sentence on the TV yesterday and it started to tickle a bit, so I jotted it down.

2. "Give the dwarf his due." Yes, it was devil, but I read it wrong and hey, anyone can use devil, but dwarf?

3. "Old lady smell drifted off her body filling the car with noxious fumes. When did my wife become this vile, smelly piece of flesh?"

4. "We didn't plan on being notorious, it just sort of happened."

5. "There comes a time in every woman's life when she has to jump."

6. "Grams shot him one of those ice-pick-to-the-brain looks."

7. "I might be tempted to rob the cradle, but I won't rob the womb." And no, I have no idea where that came from - can't even begin to imagine where a story might lie in that sentence.

8. "A man is only as good as the control he has over the weapon in his pants."

9. "First kiss. First f**k. First murder. Life is full of firsts."

10. "Weren't none of my business, the going's on in that house. But it sure didn't stop them from dragging me into their feuding mess."

11. "I wasn't too sorry to see him go when he decided to take his lady friend up on her double wide life."

12. "She played June Cleaver on the weekends."

So what about you? Do you look through that file of odds and ends and wonder where your brain was going when you wrote it down?

Crimefactory

Issue #8 of Crimefactory has gone live this morning with new work from Julia Madeleine, Seth Harwood, Heath Lowrence, Matthew C. Funk, and many more. http://www.crimefactoryzine.com/main/Home.html

The Broken City

I thought this Canadian online zine's theme might tickle the fancy of some of our writers. The Broken City is looking for shorts up to 3000 words, poetry, essay, photography, comics, and flash up to 1000 words for the theme - "This is why I drink.". The deadline is November 1, which is right around the corner. This is a non-paying market. http://www.thebrokencitymag.com/submissions.html

Anthology Calls

Publisher, Candlemark and Gleam has placed an anthology call for submissions. They're looking for Alternate History stories for "Substitution Cipher" of 6000 to 20,000 words in any genre. The deadline is January 15, 2012. Payment is $75 plus two copies. http://www.candlemarkandgleam.com/2011/10/17/call-for-submissions-new-anthology/

Angie's Desk has published her monthly list of anthology calls http://angiesdesk.blogspot.com/2011/10/anthology-markets.html The Damnation and Dames call looks good. They want stories with the paranormal and noir worlds colliding.

If you're looking for some free Halloween reading material Ty Johnston is giving away a collection of five horror stories for your reading devices over at Smashwords. The title is "Sever", details here http://tyjohnston.blogspot.com/2011/10/5-free-short-stories-for-halloween.html

Market Notes

Crossed Genres has announced that they're shutting down their magazine after this final issue to concentrate on the publishing side of their business. You can read all the details here http://crossedgenres.com/announcements/crossed-genres-publications-to-close-magazine-in-order-to-focus-on-novels-anthologies/ The theme for the final issue is "Different" and the deadline is October 31.

And don't forget that the new crime magazine, Grift, is open to submissions for both their online website and their print version. They're also looking for reviews and interviews for both. You can check them out here http://www.griftmagazine.com

Flash Challenge Day

Here's my entry for Patti Abbott's Reginald Marsh flash challenge. For the rest of the links go here http://pattinase.blogspot.com/ The link to the picture I used is in the last post. Loads of great reading on the web today!!

A WHISTLE AND A PRAYER
By Sandra Seamans

Gilli's eyes never ceased scanning the landscape as she chiggered her way through the unfamiliar territory of the East Tenth Street Jungle. Her small, lithe body sliding easily into the shadows and crevices of the old buildings that rested in sagging heaps on the streets. Rusted steel frames pushing against the black sky were the only proof that skyscrapers had once towered over the city.

She tried to remember the person she'd been before the world crumbled around them. Beautiful. Proud. Intelligent. At the top of her game. She'd had it all, and still did. She was a survivor. But without Christine? The wind carried the sound of voices to her and Gilli slipped into an open seam in the rubble, waiting for the mob to pass. Her mind drifted back to that last conversation with Christine.

"I hate this place, hate living in this...this rabbit warren," said Christine, dramatically sweeping her arm in a large arc around their underground home. "I can't stand being buried alive, not being able to breathe fresh air or walk on green grass."

Always the actress, thought Gilli as she watched Christine pace around the room. Gilli loved that their home was hidden deep in the rubble of an old apartment building. She’d been a creeper, an urban explorer, in her before life, a skill that kept the shelves stocked and their bellies full. She’d found the large open space complete with storage lockers while creeping underground scavenging for supplies. Gilli used the contents of the lockers to create a comfortable living area for them. Christine had been thrilled with their new home back then. But the last two years had worn down her spirits. She wanted her dreams back.

"Shall we rearrange the furniture?” asked Gilli, trying to lighten the mood.

Christine threw herself on the couch beside Gilli. She smiled but it didn’t reach her eyes.

"What I want to know is where are the damn zombies and vampires? Now, those are monsters I could deal with."

"God, Christine, get your head out of the movies. We're living in the real world, with real monsters. The government, the cops, the Army, they’re all gone. We live or die on our own. Which reminds me, I need to go scavenging tonight, we're getting low on supplies."

"You're going to leave me alone?"

"You want to eat don't you?"

"Yes, but I'm also afraid that you'll get trapped inside one of those buildings and never come back. Then what would I do?"

Gilli tried to pull Christine into her arms, but she pushed Gilli away and rose from the couch to start pacing again.

"I'll always come back to you, sweetheart," said Gilli. She laughed, then added, "I'm your Princess Charming, here to fulfill your every desire."

"Very funny. I heard the train whistle again last night. They say the engineer is a preacher, someone you can trust. I want out of the city, Gilli.”

“Ah, the infamous "they" said. How do you know the preacher isn’t a monster and his train whistle just a trap? And what if what's beyond the city is worse?”

“And what if it isn't?”

"We know how to survive here, I won‘t risk our lives on a what if proposition."

"And if I want to risk mine?"

“Do what you want," said Gilli as she gathered up her gear. "I'll be back in a few hours. Anything special you'd like? A lipstick, some perfume, a new dress?"

"You think you can change my mind with a few trinkets? If you loved me, you'd find that train."

Gilli shrugged. "I would if I could, Christine, but that train isn't real. And all the wishes in the world won't make it so."

A splash of white paint on the crumbling wall across the street caught Gilli's eye. A white cross on a black locomotive. Faint hope. The promise of a preacher and a train ride out of the city. A fucking fairytale trip away from the horror that haunted the streets.

Tears spilled down Gilli's cheeks. "I never should have left you alone."

The voices faded off into the distance and Gilli slipped out of her hiding space to move deeper into the Jungle. The dregs of humanity lived in this area, preying on anyone who wandered into their domain. The wildest of the wild prowled here. She shivered as she thought of Christine making her way alone through the Jungle. Gilli knew there was little hope of finding her, but she had to make the attempt. Christine was the lifeline that anchored her sanity, kept Gilli from turning into one of the monsters they hid from.

As she cleared the Jungle, a sad wailing whistle filled the air. The fabled locomotive. Gilli wanted to hurry towards the sound, but held herself in check. There were hidden traps everywhere and empty bellies that needed filling.

Sliding in and out of the shadows, Gilli worked her way closer to the source of the whistle. A crippled locomotive rested on a side rail. Going nowhere. The preacher stood in the cab pulling the whistle and leading his congregation in song. The smell of roasting meat filled the air, making Gilli's stomach churn.

When the hymn ended the preacher’s voice rose above the murmuring crowd. "Let us pray. Dear God, we give thanks for this food you so thoughtfully provided. Bless the souls of those who provided the meat for our table. Amen."

Gilli's eyes drifted over the crowd, searching for Christine. She found her, hanging by her feet, the rope tossed over a tree branch, blood draining from the cavity where they'd gutted her. Christine's glazed eyes stared at her, void of dreams. Her empty body nothing more than meat for the masses.

Gilli's gaze riveted on the preacher, taking in every inch of the man, memorizing the face of the man who stole her life. “Soon, Mr. Preacher,” she whispered slipping back into the shadows. “Soon you’ll be tasting a fear your God can’t even begin to imagine.”

Prompts

Don't forget that tomorrow is the deadline for Patti Abbott's flash fiction challenge. I've got mine finished except for a bit of spit and polish. I usually know a story is done when I can read through it without changing anything :)

I love prompts when I'm writing because they make me think longer and harder before I put down that first word. When you know that a large group of fantastic writers are going to be using the same prompt you're forced to find an idea that you don't think anyone else will think of, too. Most prompts leave you with two or three great ideas that everyone else will think of, so you have to reach for the fifth or sixth or maybe the eleven-hundredth idea so your story will be original.

My piece for tomorrow is a bit out there. Scrolling through all of Reginald Marsh's paintings on the 'net was a bit overwhelming. Trying to find something that sparked an idea was easy, but when I stumbled across some of his black and white pencil drawings, the muse really kicked in.

First was this sketch called "The Locomotive" http://www.questroyalfineart.com/4855/the-locomotive.html Something about the picture just drew me in. But I couldn't find a story in this wonderful sketch. So, I started scrolling again and found this amazing sketch called "East Tenth Street Jungle" http://harrisschrank.com/east-tenth-street-jungle-1st-state.htm and everything fell into place.

The Jungle sketch is a look at the depression era and is so full of life and hurt and human beings at their worst that the words spilled, even pulling in the locomotive for the final scene. And the odd thing is, I don't feel like the story is finished with me. While the flash is complete in itself, I loved this world I created and hope to someday revisit this story and add in all the back story that filled my head as I was writing.

What about you, do you love or hate prompts? Do they help or just stall out your brain by making you over think an idea?

Another Mothman Anthology Call

Well, last year we had "The Mothman Files", now from the same editor, we have a call for submissions for a new anthology, "The Mothman Chronicles". Up to 4000 words and payment is 5cents a word. Deadline is July 1, 2012 so you have plenty of time to come up with something original. Details here http://michaelknost.blogspot.com/2011/08/new-anthology-guidelines-mothman.html

Beat to a Pulp

If you'd like a sneak peek at the new cover for Beat to a Pulp: Hardboiled, you'll find it here http://davidcranmer.blogspot.com This will be available as an ebook in November with Beat to a Pulp: Round Two out in December.

And over at BTaP you'll find the second installment of my serial story about Calliope Andrews called "Through the Rainbow Wind" http://www.beattoapulp.com/pulp.htm# Editor, David Cranmer, has a link at the top of the story for the first installment if you missed it back in July.

Yellow Mama

The October issue of Yellow Mama has hit the virtual streets with loads of stories from a great lineup of writers that includes Richard Godwin and AJ Hayes.

http://blackpetalsks.tripod.com/yellowmama/index.html

Cross-eyed

Have you ever looked at a sentence or word and read something that wasn't there? I do it all the time and have to go back and reread. But this one tickled my funny bone "paranoid romance". Yeah, it was paranormal but how much more fun to write paranoid. :)

Midwestern Gothic

For our Midwestern writers, print magazine, Midwestern Gothic, has opened submissions for their fourth issue. Up to 10,000 words, payment is an electronic copy of the magazine. You can find the details here http://midwestgothic.com/submissions/

Snubnose Press

Snubnose Press has closed to new submissions until 2012. http://snubnosepress.wordpress.com

New Pulp Fiction

New Pulp Fiction is looking for a review editor. There's no mention of pay, but I know there's quite a few of you out there who review pulp fiction and might be interested in the opportunity. http://www.newpulpfiction.com/2011/10/review-editor-needed.html

Market News

Thrillers, Killers, and Chillers has put out a call for Halloween stories of 1000 words or less with a October 25 deadline. http://thrillskillsnchills.blogspot.com/2011/10/hellicious-halloween.html

A new humor zine called The Laughter Shack is set to launch soon. This is a non-paying market looking for humorous shorts of 500 words or less. http://thelaughtershack.blogspot.com Friend of the blog Dave Barber is the wizard behind the curtain here.

There's a new epublisher getting set to launch on November 1 called Blasted Heath. They've already got books set to go. You can find the press release and more details here http://wwwshotsmagcouk.blogspot.com/2011/10/new-name-in-digital-publishing-is.html Al Guthrie and Kyle MacRae are the publishers.

Trestle Press has been making a splash with their ebooks since they launched earlier this year. http://www.trestlepresspublishing.com While I can't find their pay rates on the site, they do have a call out for a new anthology series of International Noir/Hardboiled crime stories. Author names connected with this press are ones familiar in the crime community like Nigel Bird, BR Stateham, Paul Brazill, and Richard Godwin. You can find much of the work published by this press reviewed here http://santsrants.blogspot.com

Patti Abbott

Short story writer, Patti Abbott, and I have been sharing the pages of online zines for several years now, and I'm a big fan of her work. So it's with great pleasure that I get to tell you that Snubnose Press has just released her first collection of short stories, "Monkey Justice: Stories". We're Snoopy dancing here at the corner for our friend, Patti!!!

http://www.amazon.com/Monkey-Justice-Stories-ebook/dp/B005UOR9UK/ref=sr_1_1?s=digital-text&ie=UTF8&qid=1318420618&sr=1-1

I Love the Smell of Fresh Print

I'm enjoying the fact that some of the new editors/publishers are putting their zines out in print. There's just something about holding those pages in your hands that you can't quite capture with electronic publishing. That said, the fall issue of Needle mag has hit the streets, you can find it here http://www.lulu.com/product/paperback/needle-magazine---fall-2011/17969572 And if you still want your electronic fix, the very first issue is now available for your ereader at that link.

Another first time print magazine is Pulp Modern and you can find a review by Thomas Pluck here http://www.pluckyoutoo.com/2011/10/review-pulp-modern-autumn-2011.html

We've Got Shorts!

Here a collection, there an anthology. Short stories are out there folks and finding them isn't all that hard anymore. Don't believe me? Well, David Cranmer posted a list of seven books worth your time and all but two are collected short stories. http://davidcranmer.blogspot.com/2011/10/seven-books-worth-your-time.html

Back a year or so ago, Brian Lindenmuth thought the online zines should put together anthologies of their stories so they wouldn't be lost forever. Well, guess what, it's happening! You've got Beat to a Pulp: Round One out there with number two coming out later this year. Crime Factory has issued Crime Factory: The First Shift and Pulp Metal just published Laughing at the Death Grin. All available at Amazon.com in both print and e-reader format.

And reviews! There are more and more sites posting reviews of these anthologies.

Darren Sant reviews Pulp Ink here http://santsrants.blogspot.com/2011/10/pulp-ink-anthology-edited-by-nigel-bird.html

Nigel Bird reviews Keith Rawson's The Chaos We Know http://nigelpbird.blogspot.com/2011/10/one-mans-opinion-chaos-we-know-by-keith.html

Chris Rhatigan reviews Toxic Reality by Katherine Tomlinson http://death-by-killing.blogspot.com/2011/10/toxic-reality-katherine-tomlinson.html

And that, folks, is just the tip of the iceberg. Word of mouth about all these great stories is avalanching across the Internet faster than they're being published. Oh yeah, it's a great and wonderful time to be a short story writer!!

Learning from Reviews

Being a writer, means learning to keep your mind open so you can learn how to do your job better. And reviews are a part of that learning process. I love reading reviews that take a story apart to show you both the good and the bad. Good reviews are similar to writing critiques but at least with a crit, the writer is expecting you to find fault. Once a story is published, well, what's to criticize? Sometimes a great deal.

Over at Spinetingler, Nick Mamatas did a review of "Three Theories of the Murder of John Wiley" by J. David Osborne. He picked the story apart, told what didn't work for him and what did. A commenter told him to "go fuck himself". But the part of the story he picked apart is something that writers need to watch out for in their stories. Making sure the story is believable and that the story flows properly from scene to scene. I got what Nick was saying because it's a problem I have in my own work and something that I have to check for in the editing and rewriting.

You know what I'm talking about, those moments in a story when a reader scratches his head and wonders how they got there. A good example? You have two men sitting at the dinner table arguing. Next scene they're standing toe to toe and throwing punches. Okay, when exactly did they stand up? It's those little things that trip up a story. And Nick made a valid point of calling the writer on it. And it's something a good editor should have caught.

Writing for online publications, I discovered that not all editors are created equal, some will go the distance to make your story great and others will just publish whatever you send them. So, I learned early on that I needed to be both writer and editor if I wanted my stories to be good. A good writer doesn't depend on an editor to find the flaws, but a good editor should catch what the writer doesn't.

So you writers out there. Don't just write great scenes, make sure they flow one into the next with a believable continuity. It's in your own best interest. And editors will love you for it.

Oh, and Nick's review is here if you'd like to read it. http://www.spinetinglermag.com/tag/warmed-and-bound

KHP Books

KHP Books is an e-book publisher that's been in operation since 2002. They have opened up three of their imprints for submissions through the end of October. They're looking for dark/horror across the genres of 30,000 to 100,000 words. This is a royalty paying publisher with a 50% of net payment to the authors. The imprints that are open are:

Black Death Books
Skullvines Press
Blasphemous Books

You can find the details here http://khpbooks.com/submissions

For the Ladies

The Glass Woman Prize is sponsoring a ghost story contest. The deadline is November 18 for short stories of 1,000 to 3,000 words. The contest is open to all women writing in English. The definition of "ghost story" is left up to the author. The prize is $100 for the winning story. Details at http://www.sigriddaughter.com/GlassWomanPrize.htm

Magnolia: A Journal of Women's Literature is open for subs to their second issue. The deadline is December 31 for shorts up to 5000 words of socially engaged literature. Payment is two copies of the anthology. Details at http://www.theiase.org/publications/magnolia-journal

The Bone Daddy Story Cupboard

Every once in a while I come across a news story that just begs to be turned into a short story. Yesterday I found this one http://www.timesleader.com/news/Man-to-face-skull-theft-charges-in-court-.html (On my computer, I had to scroll down the page for the story)

Yep, a man broke into a mausoleum and stole a skull. Odd thing was, he threw it into the river after he stole it. After the floods this summer, there's no telling where that skull might wash up! But the best thing about the story was he likes to be called "Bone Daddy" or "L" for Lucifer. Makes you wonder how tightly he's wrapped.

The woman whose skull he stole passed away in 1926, and they've added her picture to the article since yesterday. It also adds another layer to a possible short story. Why her skull? Just random or did he have a specific purpose?

As a straight robbery story, this has possiblities, but with Halloween coming up, putting a horror spin on this could give you an entirely different way to spin your story. How you ask? Well, you could put a "Sleepy Hollow" twist on it. You could bring in a cult (coven?) of warlocks or witches. Perhaps the woman was a fabled witch or a murderess. Then again, maybe when the police find the skull, they discover that the woman had been murdered. You're only limited by your imagination skills here in the story cupboard.

Warmed and Bound

Spinetingler is posting reviews today of the stories contained in the Velvet Press anthology, "Warmed and Bound". Up already are reviews from Patti Abbott, Jed Ayres, and Chris Rhatigan. There will be more posted throughout the day. You'll find them all at this link http://www.spinetinglermag.com/tag/warmed-and-bound

Market Notes

I almost missed this contest from Esquire, but there's still two days left to enter and they're only looking for 78 words! Deadline is October 7 and prizes are scholarships for writing workshops in NY and Aspen. You can find all the details here http://www.esquire.com/fiction/short-short-fiction-contest-2011 Open to American writers only.

From friend of the blog, Paul Brazill, we have FolioFirst a new UK based zine looking for short stories of less than 10,000 words. The issues are themed and Octobers theme is transgression. This is a non-paying market. http://FolioFirst.wordpress.com/news/

Liars' League is also a non-paying market but I love the idea. Writers supply the stories and actors read them to a live audience in London! They accept shorts of 800 to 2000 words and there are themes. Payment is an ipod copy of the reading. http://liarsleague.typepad.com/liars_league/writers.html

Duotrope has declared Thieves Jargon a dead market. I've been checking regularly and there have been no new issues since March. If you haven't checked out TJ, you should. There's some really great short stories on the site. http://www.thievesjargon.com

Epubbing Links

It's been a good week for finding thoughtful and informative posts about epubbing.

Allan Guthrie started out the week with 10 things he learned (and yes, a couple aren't about epubbing) http://criminal-e.blogspot.com/2011/10/ten-things-i-learned-this-week.html

Brian Lindenmuth takes a look at ebook covers over at Do Some Damage http://dosomedamage.blogspot.com/2011/10/will-ebooks-change-rules-for-cover.html

And Chuch Wendig thinks it's time to move the epubbing discussion from selling to writing. http://terribleminds.com/ramble/2011/10/05/the-publishing-cart-before-the-storytelling-horse/

Dave Boyer Update

Brian Keene has issued a call to arms for all those writers who have been plagiarized by Dave Boyer. You can read about it here http://www.briankeene.com/?p=9232

A Pair of Interviews

Chris Rhatigan has an interview up on his blog with short story writer and reviewer R. Thomas Brown. http://death-by-killing.blogspot.com/2011/10/interview-with-r-thomas-brown.html

And Needle editor, Steve Weddle is interviewed here http://thegingernutcase.blogspot.com/2011/10/interview-with-steve-weddle.html

Murder Slim Press

Murder Slim Press is a UK based publishing company that publishes crime novels. But they also have a once yearly print magazine called "The Savage Kick" and they're looking for short stories for issue 6. Word count is 1000 to 8000 words and according to the editors they're a hard market to crack since they only publish three or four stories a year. Pay is 20pounds for British writers and $35 for international. Click on The Savage Kick button at the top of the page for the magazine guidelines.

http://murderslim.com/?page=press_home&nav=nav_press&poster=poster_press_home

New Issues

Comets and Criminals hit their first issue date. You can read it here http://www.cometsandcriminals.com The stories will be spread out over the month or you can purchase the entire issue at once for your readers.

Frontier Tales has posted their October issue http://www.frontiertales.com

And Duotrope has declared Well Told Tales a dead market though you can still download stories for your listening pleasure. http://welltoldtales.com

Demolition

Well, it's final. Demolition is a dead market. Below is a statement by editor, Bryon Quartermous, as reported by J. Kingston Pierce over at The Rap Sheet. http://therapsheet.blogspot.com

"Finally meeting editor-writer Bryon Quartermous, who told me that he’s called off plans to resurrect his once-popular Webzine, Demolition. There are just too many competing and successful products already available on the ’Net, he explained, and a call for submissions to the first edition of the revitalized Demolition proved disappointing. Bryon said, though, that he hasn’t given up on the notion of rebuilding his e-zine--he’ll watch for a better opportunity sometime in the near future."

Need a Prompt?

I knew I was forgetting something when I posted the new issues (smacks herself in the head). 10Flash went live with their 10th quarterly issue. http://www.10flashmagazine.com They've also opened to submissions for their January issue with the theme "It's the end of the world as we know it." Be sure to check out their guidelines. This is a paying market.

And The First Line is open to subs for their Winter issue with this first sentence "It had been a long year." Deadline is November 1. This is a paying market also. http://www.thefirstline.com/

LitReactor

Speaking of helpful - LitReactor went live yesterday. http://litreactor.com Lots of interesting posts that are free to the public. You can also become a paying member of the site which will make you eligible for their writing workshops.

There's an interview here http://thelitcoach.blogspot.com/2011/09/supporting-online-workshop-education.html with Mark Vanderpool, one of LitReactor's founding members.

Helpful Blogs

Through a series of clicks across the Internet I found the blog of author, Ty Johnston, who is running a series of posts called 100 sites for fiction writers. Lots of good stuff to be found out there on ether. http://tyjohnston.blogspot.com

Veronica mentioned that she had signed up Nanowrimo, which reminded me that Alexandra Sokoloff does a wonderful set of posts to help writers get ready for Nano on her blog, The Dark Salon. http://thedarksalon.blogspot.com Alexandra has a lot of good information on her blog and it's a great place to learn.

New Issues

The October issue of All Due Respect is up with "Mantra" by Jodi MacArthur. http://www.all-due-respect.blogspot.com

The Fall issue of MystericalE has gone live with short stories from Anita page, John Floyd, Jim Winter, and Jack Bates, just to name a very few. http://www.mystericale.com

And Spinetingler has been posting shorts every Monday. The latest are "Where You Are" by Stephen D. Rogers and "Veronica" by Doree Weller. http://www.spinetinglermag.com

Oh, The Horror!

Cafe Doom and One Buck Horror are sponsoring a no-fee contest. The theme is horror and the deadline is October 30 for stories up to 3000 words. First prize is pro rate payment and publication, second is $100 Amazon voucher and third is a $50 Amazon voucher. You can check out all the rules here.
http://www.cafedoom.com/forum/index.php?PHPSESSID=c4489b1866d26b24a47677246cf6afdd&topic=4455.0

And the 11th annual MicroHorror Halloween contest is open. This year's theme is Water. Your horror stories can be no more than 666 words. Deadline is October 31. No fee, prizes to be announced. You can find the details here http://www.microhorror.com/microhorror

Anthology Update

There's one month left to get a submission in for "Dark Tales of Lost Civilizations". I mentioned this anthology back in June. At that time there was no publisher attached. Since then the editor has contracted with Dark Moon Books to be the publisher and he's managed to snag a story from Joe R. Lansdale that will be included. Payment is 1cent a word plus a copy of the anthology. You can find all the details here http://ericjguignard.blogspot.com

New Markets

Finding Humor markets isn't always easy and I happened to come across two of them over at Duotrope this morning.

First up is a brand new market called "The Yellow Ham" which is looking to launch in January. They're looking for humor shorts of up to 1000 words. Guidelines are clear but I couldn't find an editor page. This is a non-paying market. http://www.theyellowham.com/

The second one is "Stalking Elk" which is open for subs to their fourth issue with the theme Dream. Word limit is 450 but if the story is great they'll stretch to 700. Guidelines for this issue can be found here http://www.stalkingelk.co.uk/issue4/Overview.htm deadline is middle of October. Also a non-paying market. One interesting note here, they're using Twitter to post their calls, themes, and deadlines. http://twitter.com/stalkingelk Home page is http://stalkingelk.co.uk/ Just out of curiosity, are there actual elks in the UK or am I missing the joke?

And it's the first of the month and Duotrope has 60 markets listed that have opened for subs today http://www.duotrope.com/recentupdates.aspx

A Twist of Noir

Editor Christopher Grant has posted up more of the 600 to 700 flash series. You'll find work from Cormac Brown, Patti Abbott, Michael A. Gonzales, Laurie Powers, and Chris Deal waiting for your reading pleasure. And if you scroll down you'll find a new Diana story from friend of the blog Albert Tucher called "The Full May Alice". It's always a pleasure to sit for a few minutes and visit with Diana. You can find all the stories here http://a-twist-of-noir.blogspot.com

2012 Micro Awards

The 2012 Micro Awards has opened for submissions of flash stories of under 1000 words that were published in 2011. Deadline is December 31, 2011. Authors can submit one story and senior editors of a zine or anthology can submit two. You can find all the rules and submission details here http://www.microaward.org/ The winner receives $500.