Weekly Posts from The Horror Tree for 4/1/22
Apr 01, 2022 8:31 pm
Hi there,
Word of the week: chawbacon – a person who is not very intelligent or interested in culture
Hello readers, and happy April Fool’s Day, as you’ll likely be reading this on April 1st. I’ve been seeing some really excellent open submission calls through various indie presses and other venues. I hope you are all having success in your writing endeavors, but remember not to panic if you don’t have time to write for every single call that appeals to you. I see too many writers expressing anxiety that they aren’t able to write for all of the calls they’d like to. I sympathize, but also remember that there will be other open calls in the future. Don’t burn yourself out by setting up unrealistic expectations.
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 is generally updated by your fearless editor and chief, Stuart C.!):
Happy April Fool's Day! We're not doing anything wacky today. (I know, I know, that is EXACTLY what someone who is pulling a prank would say.) To be honest, I've been sick almost all week so didn't have time to come up with anything! Also, it was a plague but not THE plague so nothing to worry about there. I got tested a couple of times to be on the safe side as I just couldn't shake it. (Also, the few ideas I did come up with weren't great like fake pro-markets or a new membership like HWA or SFWA. So, I didn't want to go down either of those routes!)
For progress on the site, we're knee-deep in Trembling With Fear anthologies and a couple of ideas Holley and I are working on. Some new video coverage, and more. I'm so excited to share all of this with you but we're still a bit too early in the process to do so. The new layout is also temporarily on hold. (See: having a cold for the last week.)
Articles:
We have articles this week on writing business, craft, and general writing advice. The first business article was written by Sadie Hartmann, also known as Mother Horror. She breaks down what transactional networking is, and why you shouldn’t do it. She also provides tips and techniques for building lasting relationships with people. “World Building Without Losing Your Mind (or Your Reader)” was featured on diy MFA, and covers the needs and must haves of world building. Lastly, we are including an article on identifying and targeting your reader base. I hope you find something here that is useful to you!
Business:
LitReactor: Transactional Networking is Trash Networking
Craft:
diy MFA: World Building Without Losing Your Mind (or Your Reader)
General:
The NaNoWriMo Blog: 3 Unconventional Ways to Make More Time to Write
Craft Your Content: How to Write for Your Target Readers: Four Important Steps for Success
Free Fiction Roundup:
This week I’m including stories from Metaphorosis, Three-Lobed Burning Eye, and Luna Station Quarterly. Felix Taylor demonstrates masterful use of language in “The Year of the Bright Lands.” Reading this story was a delight for the language lover in me. “Becomes the Color” by E. Catherine Tobler is a master class in tension. The suspense in this story is palpable. It is one of the rare instances where I felt anxiety while reading. Virginia M. Mohlere’s “Small Offerings for a Small God” rounds out this week’s selections. Luna Station Quarterly continues to put out some of the best speculative fiction on the market today. I hope you enjoy, readers.
“The Year of the Bright Lands” by Felix Taylor at Metaphorosis.
“Becomes the Color” by E. Catherine Tobler at Three-Lobed Burning Eye.
“Small Offerings for a Small God” by Virginia M. Mohlere at Luna Station Quarterly.
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 or help out on Ko-Fi!
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)
🗒️ Taking Submissions: In Celebration of Splatterpunk
Deadline: July 31st, 2022 Payment: $5 Theme: Splatterpunk Another venture into new genre territory for HBB!
We know just how much our readers just love their horror stories gushing with blood and spattered with buckets of gore, severed limbs, and disembodied viscera, so here’s your opportunity to scare them rigid and knot their stomachs with your most horrifying tales of death and destruction.
PLEASE read and adhere to our submission guidelines… * Word format saved in .
doc, or .
docx * 12 pt times new roman * Double spaced * Absolutely NO extra lines between paragraphs!
* 4K-10K word count * Write ‘SPLATTERPUNK’ along with your name and story title in the header of your email *The body of your submission email will be considered the cover letter.
* The submission documents are to be separated and Word (.
doc or .
docx) documents are to be attached to your submission email.
To submit, email your polished story to submissions@hellboundbookspublishing.com – Make sure that you check your mss for grammar and punctuation, use our guidelines to help you: DOWNLOAD YOUR HBB GUIDE TO GRAMMAR HERE (PDF) Deadline: 31 July 2022 NO REPRINTS – ORIGINAL UNPUBLISHED WORKS ONLY Payment – $5.00 for first rights.
Capped at 120K words in total.
🗒️ Taking Submissions: Planet Scumm #15
Deadline: May 2nd, 2022 Payment: 5 cents per word and a contributor’s copy Theme: Hard sci-fi, soft sci-fi, sci-fi, Speculative fiction, weird fiction, slipstream Planet Scumm accepts submissions from writers across the world.
(Our HQ is a roving meteor-sized space station—Earth’s borders mean nothing to us.
We want to hear from writers of every race, nationality, and gender identity.
WHAT TO SUBMIT Hard sci-fi, soft sci-fi, sci-fi that melts in your mouth-brain not your hand-brain Speculative fiction, weird fiction, slipstream Basically anything that pleases Scummy, our megaphone-toting slime buddy, will be considered for entry to the interstellar archive aboard Scummy’s saucer HOW TO SUBMIT Include submissions as a .
doc or .
docx attachment to PlanetScummSubmissions@gmail.com along with a brief cover letter in the email body.
Please attach only your story (no images, do not put your story in the body text of the email).
Stories, or collections of flash fiction, should be no more than 5,000 words in length, and submitted in standard manuscript format....
🗒️ Taking Submissions: Tomorrow’s Hope
Deadline: December 1st, 2022 Payment: Royalties Theme: Near Future Hard Science Fiction.
Mankind’s expansion into the universe sometimes comes at great costs.
Riddled with hardships in our exploration of the unknown, our humanity shines through, even in the deepest of darkness.
Join us in this anthology of exploration and hope.
Genre: Near Future Hard Science Fiction....
🗒️ Taking Submissions: The Other Stories #82: Octopuses
Deadline: April 15th, 2022 Payment: 15GBP Theme: Octopuses If you think you’ve got what it takes to terrify, scar and haunt our audience of 10,000 daily listeners, then we want your stories!
If accepted, we’ll get our fantastic narration team to lend their voices, our editor will sprinkle some magic pixie dust on the track, and you could have your story heard by thousands of listeners each week.
(Vol 82.) Octopuses; deadline 15th April 2022 !
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NEW SUBMISSION PROCESS!
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SUBMIT YOUR STORIES USING THIS FORM If, this form isn’t working, then please email your submission to keztheeditor@gmail.com as a last resort.
But please let us know why as we’re hoping to use the form going forward.
Title your email with the following syntax: SUBMISSION |...
🗒️ Queer Sci Fi 2022 Flash Fiction Contest
Deadline: May 1st, 2022 Prizes: The top three winners will receive cash prizes of $75, $50, and $25 respectively Theme: A sci fi, fantasy, paranormal or horror LGBTIQA story that has no more than 300 words with the theme of: Clarity Every year, QSF holds a flash fiction contest to create an amazing new anthology of queer speculative fiction stories.
We ask authors to do the nearly-impossible – to submit a sci fi, fantasy, paranormal or horror LGBTIQA story that has no more than 300 words.
Our 2022 contest launches on March 1st, and closes on May 1st, but we do accept early entries.
The theme for 2022 is “Clarity”: 1) Coherent and intelligible 2) Transparent or pure 3) Attaining certainty about something 4) Easy to see or hear The whole world is murky right now.
Covid waves, climate change, and right-wing pollution of our airwaves have made even truth suspect and subject to dispute....
🗒️ Manta Press Is Open To Novels, Novellas, And Author Collections
Payment: Royalties Themes: Horror, Science Fiction, Fantasy, Mystery/ Suspense, Crime Thriller, YA (Dystopian, Fantasy, Horror) MANTA PRESS, LTD.
is currently open for submissions and looking to publish exciting and original genre fiction.
The genres that get us the most excited about unleashing upon the public are: Horror, Science Fiction, Fantasy, Mystery/ Suspense, Crime Thriller, YA (Dystopian, Fantasy, Horror) The types of works we’d prefer to let others put out there (at this time, at least) are: Contemporary/Literary Fiction, Poetry, Romance, Erotica, True Crime, Torture Porn, Bizarro MANTA PRESS, LTD.
is open to publishing novels (50k – 120k words), novellas (30k – 50k words), and single-author short story collections (30k – 100k words).
If you’ve read our ABOUT page, your work checks all of the above boxes, and you’re excited about a relationship with a publisher that’ll be in your corner, then what are you waiting for?
Drop us a line using the submission form below....
🗒️ Taking Submissions: Eye to the Telescope #45
Deadline: June 15th, 2022 Payment: US 3¢/word rounded up to nearest dollar; minimum US $3, maximum $25 Theme: Veterans of Alien Wars Eye to the Telescope 45, Veterans of Alien Wars, will be edited by Deborah L.
Davitt.
Conflict’s unlikely to vanish, even in the most utopian of futures.
How will veterans of future wars have to adapt and adjust to civilian life once their cybernetics have been stripped from their bodies and they have no more access to their power armor?
What memories will haunt them as they learn to live in a reality in which the aliens they fought are no longer their enemies?...
🗒️ Taking Submissions: Rites of Passage: An Anthology of Queer Pagan Fiction
Deadline: June 30th, 2022 Payment: A flat payment of $25-$75 Theme: The theme of coming of age as a queer pagan Rites of Passage: An Anthology of Queer Pagan Fiction Coming of age as a queer person can be a difficult but exciting time.
Queer people know that they’re different growing up but it’s during this coming of age that they finally connect the dots and understand what is so different about themselves.
Previous generations identified heavily with labels such as gay, bi or lesbian and with various queer subcultures.
The current generation has largely eschewed these labels and allowed their identities to be more fluid in terms of both sexuality and gender.
Along similar lines, the current generation of Pagan have had ample resources available such as books and the internet....
🗒️ Cynthia (Cina) Pelayo on ‘Children of Chicago’ and Life as a Writer!
I’d like to send a personal welcome to Cynthia (Cina) Pelayo for today’s interview.
Not only is she an awesome author in her own right, but I’m biased from both her being a Chicago resident and a past contributor on Horror Tree.
On top of this, she received two Bram Stoker Award nominations for her work released in 2020.So, I’m thrilled that Cynthia is joining us today to talk about her crime noir tale ‘Children of Chicago.
’ Horror Tree: Cynthia, welcome, Thank you for taking the time to join us for an interview.
I’d like to also offer an apology for how long it took me to get you these questions....
Enjoy,
Horror Tree
