Weekly Posts from The Horror Tree for 2/03/22
Feb 04, 2022 10:06 pm
Hi there,
Word of the week: Chirk- make a shrill creaking, squeaking, or noise, as of a door, mouse, or bird
Hello, readers! Here at Horror Tree, we are kicking off WiHM with a HUGE collection of articles, stories, and features celebrating women in horror. I hope you’ll join us in the festivities. On Twitter, I asked for stories from female authors, and you all did not disappoint! As I mention below, I’m still working through these stories, and I will feature a few each week for the month of February (and perhaps beyond). Thank you all for the tremendous response. It has been amazing to read and listen to the stories coming in. There are so many wonderful and unique women’s voices featured in the fiction this week, I hope you’ll take the time to give these works a read or a listen. And if you don’t have time now? Bookmark them, and come back later. They’ll be lurking in the corners of the internet, waiting until you’re ready.
As always, you can find me (Holley Cornetto) lurking on Twitter @HLCornetto. Now, onto the latest articles on writing from around the web.
Horror Tree / Trembling With Fear Update (This section updated by your fearless editor and chief, Stuart C.!):
Hi there!
Women in Horror Month has kicked off! While we're pretty set on articles, I'm ALWAYS a fan of featuring more people so, one last time: Authors, reviewers, editors, readers, fans. If you have a topic that you'd like to talk about, we'd love to share it with our readership! Please reach out here at contact@horrortree.com or use our contact form.
I'm still not thrilled with our new newsletter provider. So, I just wanted to mention that we added a new Newsletter Sponsor position on Patreon. This is for someone willing to cover the expense for switching back to Mailchimp. It would come with a permanent ad in the newsletter (such as you can see below this) and I'm open to discussing other perks if you have something in mind! And, THANK YOU to all of our sponsors who support the site through Patreon.
This week's newsletter sponsor:
Generation X-Ed is coming out this month and is inspired by the lives of those who are known only as... Generation X...
Articles:
This week’s articles focus on craft and general writing tips and discussion. Writers in the Storm has an article on villain crafting. Often, we focus much of our time and attention on our protagonist, but having a unique and interesting antagonist is often just as important in adding depth and intrigue to our story. The next article addresses conflict. We’ve all been told our stories should have conflict, but what does that look like, and how do we write it effectively? In our general section, we have an article about doorways into story, and how to use those to engage readers, and LitReactor has a helpful article about naming characters. I hope you find something here helpful!
Craft:
Writers in the Storm: Building a Better Villain
Helping Writers Become Authors: Conflict in Fiction: What it is, and Why It’s Really Important
General:
Writer’s Digest: The Four Doorways Into Story, and How to Use Them to Create a Bestselling Novel
Litreactor: The Quick and Dirty Guide to Coming Up with the Perfect Character Name
Free Fiction Roundup:
Now for something completely different! I asked Twitter for stories by women authors to feature in February, and boy did you all come through! I have enough stories to last for February and beyond, so I’m expanding this section for the month of February. I’m not just going to feature short and flash stories, either! We have novellas, podcasts, and other miscellaneous pieces all submitted by YOU. I am taking my time and reading everything before I share, because that is important to me, so if I didn’t feature your story this week, don’t fret! It only means that I likely haven’t gotten to it yet. Without further delay, here is a collection of fiction from women in horror, all free to read or enjoy online. We have everything from zombies to multi-mouthed starving witches, to retellings of fairytales. No matter what type of fiction you love, as long as you like it dark, there’s something here for you, dear readers.
General content warning: These stories are classified as being a part of the horror genre, and as such may contain disturbing themes and imagery. Please read at your own discretion.
Flash:
“A Scream in the Dark” by Tiffany Michelle Brown (@TiffeBrown). Dose of Dread.
“An Angry Man” by Ali Seay (@AliSeay11) at Cemetery Gates Media.
“My Heart Stopped Beating But I’m Jonesing for a Fix” by Alicia Hilton (@aliciahilton01) at Cemetery Gates Media.
“On the Edge” by K.A. Wiggins (@kaiespace). Enchanted Conversation.
“Fall Into the Water, Become Someone New” by Christi Nogle (@ChristiNogle) at The Antihumanist (pp. 11- 13)
“Applesauce” by Marsheila Rockwell (@MarcyRockwell) at Enchanted Conversations.
“Precipitation” by Merethe Walther (@MeretheWalther) at The Dread Machine.
“The Christmas Zombie” by Marissa James (@MaroftheBooks) at Daily Science Fiction.
“Breaking Bad Habits” by Yvonne Lang at Night Terror Novels.
Shorts:
“The Moor” by Elin Olausson (@elin_writes) at Luna Station Quarterly.
“Bones in It” by Kristina Ten (@kristina_ten) in Lightspeed.
“Good Housekeeping” by Maureen O’Leary (@Maureenow) at Coffin Bell Journal.
Novellas & More:
Domnuill-dhu by Stephanie Ellis (@el_stevie) Free download (scroll to bottom of page for link).
Podcasts:
“A Short, Happy Life” by R.A. Busby (@RABusby1) in Creepy.
“Papa’s Wrench and the Wind Chime” by Marianne Halbert (@HalbertFiction) in Pseudopod.
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!
- Someone to help create videos for social media (we have tools, but not time!)
- 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)
Deadline: June 25th, 2022 Payment: $0.01 per word and royalties Theme: Original monster stories Every culture has stories about those things that go bump in the night.
From Mary Shelley to Stephen King and everything in between, our stories are filled with monsters.
For this submission call, we are asking for your best original monster story.
The monster can be real, in a character’s imagination, or something in between.
The only requirement is that the story falls into the horror genre, and features the idea of a monster....
🗒️ Taking Submissions: Untitled Disabled Authors SFF Anthology
Deadline: March 18th, 2022 Payment: $100 per accepted story and $25 for reprints, and two contributors copies Theme: science fiction, fantasy, and speculative short stories Note: Stories by disabled authors who live in the United States Note: Reprints welcome Forest Avenue is seeking science fiction, fantasy, and speculative short stories by disabled authors who live in the United States.
The anthology will be edited by disabled bookseller Annie Carl and published in paperback and ebook in the fall of 2023.Forest Avenue is distributed to the trade by Publishers Group West.
If you’ve written a literary story with a touch of genre, send it our way.
Horror isn’t our primary focus, but if you’ve written a story that borders on horror, we’d be happy to take a look.
We are seeking stories of 5,000 words or less.
Flash fiction is welcome.
We will consider reprints, but hope to feature at least 80 percent new material....
🗒️ WIHM 2022: Kristina Rienzi: Beyond The Bio
Beyond The Bio If you’ve read my bio, you’ll get a pretty good sense of who I am even if you don’t know me and you’ve never read my books.
However, there’s more to an author than her writing life summed up in one paragraph.
I’m here to let you in on the details I left out.
If you’ve read my thrillers but never met me in real life, you’d likely believe that I’m an introvert.
You’d also probably believe that something dark lurks inside of me.
Then, you’d meet me in person and your head might just spin around.
We’d talk and you’d see that I’m bubbly, outgoing, positive, and intently engaged in our conversation....
🗒️ Taking Submissions: My Dark Library Novella Series
Deadline: April 1st, 2023 Payment: $1,000 advance, with a royalty share at 60% to author Theme: Psychological, folk, quiet, supernatural, paranormal, body, found-footage, coming-of-age, spiritual, demonic, occult, cosmic, slasher horror.
Hello, my name is Sadie Hartmann but I’m also known in certain circles as Mother Horror.
My favorite thing is to find fresh, talented voices in the genre of horror.
It’s difficult to get readers to notice you out there in the wild, so this is your opportunity to come into My Dark Library and share with me the strange, cold, dark well within you from which you draw your stories.
I am editing and presenting a series of novellas through Cemetery Gates Media and will write an introduction for each selection, then we’ll promote your work to a hungry legion of horror fans....
🗒️ Taking Submissions: Their Ghoulish Reputation
Deadline: March 28th, 2022 Payment: $25 and a contributor’s copy Theme: Folk Horror Submissions Open January 20 – March 28th, 2022 Night is falling, amplifying the stillness of the woods.
There are several whispers calling your name, and whoever is watching you doesn’t want you to leave.
The looming threat is quite common in one of the most chilling subgenres of horror: folk horror.
The genre blends the themes of horror and folklore to explore terror, alienation, displacement, and a sense of the other.
Folk horror invokes fear using the elements of folklore....
🗒️ WIHM 2022: An Interview With Cassandra L. Thompson
The Horror Tree Presents An Interview With Cassandra L.
Thompson As you are in the middle of publishing The Ancient Ones trilogy, how has the world you’ve created evolved over time?
I actually came up with the idea for The Ancient Ones when I was sixteen, and it took until I was thirty to finally sit down and write it out.
I finished it within a year, then I finished the next two the following year.
So from the completion of one to three, nothing changed very much, but from sixteen to thirty, incredibly so.
As an undergrad, I majored in History with a concentration in mythology, so the more I learned, the more I wanted to include in my stories.
How is your aesthetic an extension of who you are creatively?
I love to use visuals to tell as story, almost as much as I love words....
🗒️ Taking Submissions: Triangulation: Energy
Deadline: February 28th, 2022 Payment: 3¢ per word Theme: Stories that explore the possibility of creating sustainable energy with alternative technologies and/or social change.
Triangulation: Energy – Call for Submissions and Guidelines Beginning December 1, 2021, the annual Triangulation anthology will accept submissions for Triangulation: Energy.
We continue to tackle environmental issues as we did with Triangulation: Dark Skies (light pollution), Triangulation: Extinction (loss of biodiversity), and Triangulation: Habitats (sustainable habitation).
The theme this year will be energy, sustainable energy.
We’re looking for outstanding fantasy, science fiction, weird fiction, and speculative horror–from both new and established writers....
🗒️ Taking Submissions: Moonflowers and Nightshade
Deadline: April 1st, 2022 Payment: 4 cents per word Theme: sapphic horror – short fiction by a diverse group of authors Moonflowers and Nightshade is an anthology of sapphic horror short fiction by a diverse group of authors.
Chilling horror stories ranging from psychological character studies to terrifying tales of body horror, from supernatural nightmares to Gothic ghost stories–and everything in between, but all with prominent sapphic themes and content.
There is currently so much room and need for more sapphic content in the horror literary genre.
Moonflowers and Nightshade will include a diverse group of stories, including but not limited to stories involving genderqueer, non-binary, BIPOC, genderfluid, lesbian, trans, bisexual, and pansexual characters.
Submission Specs: ~ 2,000 – 5,000 words ~ MS Word or Google Docs file ~ Times New Roman, pt.
12 font, double-spaced ~ Please include your name, your story title, word count, and a brief bio in your email cover letter.
~ Stories must prominently include sapphic themes, characters, and/or content, and be in the horror genre.
All subgenres of horror welcome.
~ Submission deadline: April 1st, 2022 ~ Simultaneous submissions welcome.
Payment: Payment will be $0.04/word upon publication, via Paypal.
Contract will be for 6 months exclusive ebook and paperback English language rights, non-exclusive thereafter.
Please send submissions to moonflowersandnightshade@gmail.com. Notifications will be sent by June 1st, 2022 at the latest.
Tentative publication date is October, 2022. Please note: This submission call is running concurrently with a Kickstarter campaign for the anthology to offset publication costs.
Donating and/or contributing to the Kickstarter will NOT influence or hold any bearing on submission status.
Support on Kickstarter Via: Samantha Kolesnik.
🗒️ Taking Submissions: Madam President
Deadline: March 30th, 2022 Payment: 3 cents per word Theme: Female leadership B Cubed Press is pleased to announce an open call for Madam President.
An anthology about leadership.
President of what you say?
A country?
The universe?
The local PTA?...
Enjoy,
Horror Tree
