Flashquake News

Well, Flashquake seems to have made a comeback. They're open to submissions for their Spring issue until February 15. They're looking for flash fiction up to 1000 words. Pay is $5 to $25. They also have a contest open with a $5 fee to enter. You can check them out here http://www.flashquake.org

Answering the E-Pub Questions

For those of you thinking about dipping your toes into the waters of e-publishing, Spinetingler will be posting interviews with the following authors in an attempt to help us understand this new medium. http://www.spinetinglermag.com

Chuck Wendig, author of Irregular Creatures
Chris Holm, author of 8 Pounds
Anthony Neil Smith, author of Choke on Your Lies
Allan Guthrie, author of Bye Bye Baby
Tom Piccirilli, author of Nightjack
Dave Zeltserman, author of Blood Crimes
Lee Goldberg

And One More

Sean Wallace, founder and editor of Prime Books has put out an anthology call for "The Mammoth Book of Steampunk". He's looking for original stories of 2000 to 8000 words with an April 1 deadline. Pay is 5cents a word. http://oldcharliebrown.livejournal.com/347800.html for details. If you have any questions drop them in the comments at the site as he's been answering other questions there.

A Few Markets

Poets and Writers classified ads are a good source for finding all manner of anthology calls from non-fiction to poetry http://www.pw.org/classifieds While looking around on the site I found an anthology call from Bona Fide Books http://www.bonafidebooks.com/tahoe-blues The anthology is called Tahoe Blues and they're looking for submissions of 500 words or less in any genre with a Lake Tahoe theme. The deadline is May 1. I couldn't find any mention of pay so that is something you'll have to find out from the editors.

newpages.com has posted their January call for submissions list. http://www.newpages.com/literary/submissions.htm One that might be of interest here is from Press 53 for the new Surreal South anthology. http://www.press53.com/SubmissionsSurrealSouth.html "Surreal South 2011: Ghost and Monsters" is looking for shorts of 1000 to 7000 words. Authors must be Southern and the work must contain surreal elements. The deadline is March 15. Pay is one copy plus $50 website credit from Press 53.

If you're a native or resident of Singapore. World SF is putting together an anthology of Singapore SF Stories with the theme Hybrid. http://worldsf.wordpress.com/2011/01/26/singapore-sf-stories-anthology-call-for-stories They're looking for spec-fic stories of 2000 to 6500 words with an April 30 deadline. This is a non-paying market, their purpose is to showcase sci-fi from Singapore writers.

And I found a new market source that I will be putting in the column to the right. The site is called Femministas and they showcase women's markets both fiction and non-fiction. http://femministas.blogspot.com/

The Voice of Experience

One of the best things about the community of writers on the Internet is their willingness to share their own experiences in the world of writing. Through them, we newbies can discover some of the pitfalls, learn how to climb the mountains, and realize that our dream of writing isn't necessarily what our reality of writing is going to be. "Alone in a Room" by Kent Harrington is a wonderful essay that every writer, both new and old should take a few minutes to read and absorb. http://www.mulhollandbooks.com/2011/01/28/alone-in-a-room/

Hat tip to Michael Bracken for the link!

A New Market Coming

There's a new quarterly zine getting ready to set up shop on the web. "The Writer and the White Cat" will be edited by Rick Moore and will be opening for submissions on February 15. The genres they'll be looking at are mystery, suspense, horror, western, fantasy, and sci-fi. Top word count will be 2500 and the pay will be 5cents a word. For more details go here http://thewriterandthewhitecat.blogspot.com/2011/01/new-webzine.html Mr. Moore will have the submission guidelines up later this week.

Good luck and much success, Mr. Moore!!

Catching Up

I know, I haven't been posting much this week. My excuse? I've had a very sucky week. But I have been collecting links!

First though, is a reminder to all you zine and anthology editors and publishers out there that the deadline for submitting mystery/crime stories that you have published for the Derringer Awards is January 31. You can find all the details for submitting at http://shortmystery.blogspot.com/

A recent article about branding has spawned all sorts of responses around the 'net but one of the best ones is by Theodora Goss. http://theodoragoss.com/2011/01/26/being-a-brand/

Weird Tales magazine has posted about the changes at their magazine on their blog. http://weirdtalesmagazine.com/2011/01/25/exciting-news-for-weird-tales/ Along with a new online submission form, they've raised their pay rates.

Jeff Vandermeer has posted an interesting look at the life of a short story. http://www.jeffvandermeer.com/2011/01/23/the-third-bear-the-lives-of-short-stories/

Cullen Gallagher has a fun interview up with short story writer, Libby Cudmore. http://www.pulpserenade.com/2011/01/libby-cudmore-interview.html

If you haven't heard already, short story writer, Vicki Hendricks, has started blogging. From the looks, she'll be posting fiction writing tips for beginners and she's looking for questions and topics that you'd like to learn about so drop on over. http://vickihendrickscrime-noir.blogspot.com/

And just because, in the course of this sucky week, Joe R. Lansdale's lovely words brought a little sunshine into my life. http://www.mulhollandbooks.com/2011/01/21/the-day-before-the-day-after/