CALLIHOO Newsletter Market News for Writers of Science Fiction, Fantasy, and Horror Julia West, Editor Vol. 9, No. 7 27 November 2001 Website: http://www.sff.net/people/julia.west/CALLIHOO/index.htm ----------------------------------------------------------------- In This Issue Deadlines Contest Louise Laffin Competition (gls) Market Guidelines Black October Magazine (gls) The Dark Muse E-zine (gls) Horror Garage (gls) Ideomancer.com (gls) Infinity Plus (gls) The Journal of Pulse-Pounding Narratives (gls) The Kenyon Review (gls) NeverWorlds (gls) New Genre (gls) Oceans of the Mind (gls) Strange Horizons (gls) Stillwaters Journal (gls) Dead Markets 15 Minutes (dead) alphaDRIVE E-Magazine (dead) Beyond (dead) Bloodsongs (dead) Dead of Night Magazine (dead) Death Watch (dead) The Dragon's Scroll (dead) E-Scape (dead) Eternity Online (dead) Event Horizon (dead) Fogfire (dead) Infinite Edge (dead) Jackhammer (dead) Lore, the Digest of Maddening Fiction (dead) Mindsparks (dead) Non-Stop (dead) The Oubliette (dead) Papyrus (dead) Peeping Tom (dead) The Reaper (dead) Sapphire Magazine (dead) SpaceWays Weekly (dead) Thirteenth Moon (dead) Virtual Lobotomy (dead) Western Tales (dead) Winedark Sea (dead) Chrysalis Reader Market Lists ----------------------------------------------------------------- DEADLINES Check out the CALLIHOO website, listed above, for more information on these contests, magazine issues, and anthologies. (Where it says "GLs in Vol. X No. Y," these are volume and issue of the CALLIHOO newsletter.) Be Very Afraid Anthology Deadline 30 November 2001 [Print antho, YA real-life horror stories to 4,000 wds, pays 6 cents Canadian/wd. No E-mail subm. (GLs in Vol. 9, No. 4)] ByLine Short-short Story Contest Deadline 5 December 2001 [Short story of any type or subject, up to 2,000 words. Entry fee $5. Prizes: $60, $30, $20. (GLs in Vol. 9, No. 5)] The Best of Soft Science Fiction Contest Deadline 15 December 2001 [Annual contest. "Soft" SF to 7,000 wds, mult subm okay, story pub or offered for sale during year. No entry fee. Prizes 1st $100, 2nd $50, 3rd $25. (GLs in Vol. 9 No. 4)] Space Flash Contest Deadline 21 December 2001 [SF/F/H/mystery (outer space setting) to 500 wds. Prizes 1st $25, 2nd $15 on pub. Deadline 21 Dec 2001. No entry fee. No reprints, sim or mult subm. E-mail subm only. Winner pub on website. (GLs in Vol. 9 No. 4)] Writers of the Future, 1st quarter 2002 Deadline 31 December 2001 [$1000 first, $750 2nd, $500 3rd place. No entry fee. L. Ron Hubbard Writers of the Future Contest, P.O. Box 1630-JBW, Los Angeles, CA 90078. (GLs in Vol. 9 No. 1)] Deathlings.com "Technology Run Amuck" contest Deadline 1 Jan 2002 [Use contests to submit to magazines. H/DF to 4,000 wds. Pays 3 cents/wd. E-mail subs only. (GLs in Vol. 9 No. 6)] High Fantasy Contest Deadline 15 January 2002 [F (high, S&S), 1,000 to 20,000 wds. 1st $100 +pub, 2nd $50 +pub, 3rd $25 +pub. Entry fee $5, plus $2 for each addit'l entry. No reprints. E-mail subm only. (GLs in Vol. 9 No. 6)] ByLine Children's Story or Picture Book Contest Deadline 25 January 2002 [Short story or picture book for kids from 2-12. Pre-school; 5 to 8; or 9 to 12. Entry fee $4. Prizes: $60, $35, $20. (GLs in Vol. 9 No. 5)] ByLine Short Story Contest Deadline 5 February 2002 [General fiction up to 5,000 words. Entry fee $5. Prizes: $70, $40, $25. (Gls in Vol. 9 No. 5)] Beyond the Last Star Open 1 December 2001 to 1 March 2002 [Print anthology, SF/F/H, pays 5-10 cents/wd ($25 min, $300 max) on accept. No sim or mult subm, no reprints, E-mail subm okay but snailmail preferred. (GLs in Vol. 9 No. 2).] Deathlings.com "Family Secrets" contest Deadline 15 March 2002 [Use contests to submit to magazines. H/DF to 4,000 wds. Pays 3 cents/wd. E-mail subs only. (GLs in Vol. 9 No. 6)] ByLine Flash Fiction Contest Deadline 5 April 2002 Flash fiction under 1000 words. Entry fee $5. Prizes: $60, $30, $20. (GLs in Vol. 9 No. 5)] ByLine New-Talent Short Story Contest Deadline 4 May 2002 [Open to any writer who never has won a cash prize in any ByLine fiction category. Maximum 5,000 words. Entry fee $5. Prizes: $50, $35, $25, $15. (GLs in Vol. 9 No. 5)] Deathlings.com "The 70s Were Hell and We Didn't Even Know It" contest Deadline 15 Jun 2002 [Use contests to submit to magazines. H/DF to 4,000 wds. Pays 3 cents/wd. E-mail subs only. (GLs in Vol. 9 No. 6)] Imaginings Deadline 15 June 2002 [Print anthology, SF/F 8,000-15,000 wds, pays $950 per story + 10% royalties. No reprints or E-mail subm. (GLs in Vol. 9 No. 4).] Downstate Story magazine Yearly Deadline 30 June 2002 [Annual literary printzine, genre fiction to 2,000 wds. Pays $50/story on accept. No reprints or E-mail subs. Buys 10 stories/year. (GLs in Vol. 9 No. 6)] ----------------------------------------------------------------- CONTEST LOUISE LAFFIN COMPETITION [Annual competition, 1st prize $300 and pub. in New Genre mag.] See =New Genre= in Market Guidelines ----------------------------------------------------------------- MARKET GUIDELINES BLACK OCTOBER MAGAZINE [Tri-annual print & e-zine. H (gothic/psych) to 4,000 wds. pays 3 cents/wd. and up. No reprints. Prefers E-mail subs.] John DiDomenico, Publisher Monica J. O'Rourke, Senior Editor P.O.Box 332 Port Jefferson Station, NY 11776 U.S.A. E-mail (info only): editor@blackoctobermagazine.com http://www.blackoctobermagazine.com/home.cfm Submission E-mail Addresses: Artwork: artwork@blackoctobermagazine.com Essays: essay@blackoctobermagazine.com Fiction: fiction@blackoctobermagazine.com Poetry: poetry@blackoctobermagazine.com Flash movie: movie@blackoctobermagazine.com =Black October Magazine= is a professional magazine of Gothic and Psychological Horror: including prose fiction and poetry, artwork, and critical essays. We are also taking submission of unusual Flash movies related to the scope of the magazine. The magazine is available in either print or eZine and is published three times a year. Website last updated Oct 1, 2001 All Artists and Writers: When submitting work, please send a short piece on your own background of recent work and the piece being submitted. Artist, tell us the media of your work. Also tell us if you have been shown/are being shown/or will be shown and where and when. Writers, tell us where our readers can find more of your work. First-timers: Don't be discouraged. If your work is good and deserves to be published, we're more than happy to publish you. Please, only previously unpublished works. All rights revert to the Artist\Writer after publication of issue. Fiction: Submissions should be strongly plotted, have good characterization, be thought provoking, and keep within the scope of the magazine. All submissions should be typewritten and double spaced. We accept stories from 100 to 4000 words long. Pay scale starts at $.03 per word. There are three (3) ways you may send your submission. We prefer electronic, attached submissions, but you may also send it to us by snail mail on disk or in print. If sending electronically, by email or snail mail, please send your story saved in either WordPerfect, Works, or Word and stored on a 3.5 diskette. Please Email your Fiction Submission to fiction@blackoctobermagazine.com If you have any questions, contact editor@blackoctobermagazine.com Poetry: Gothic to urban. Only length requirement is that it not be of epic proportion. Any style considered. Payment starts at $15. Please Email your Poetry Submission to poetry@blackoctobermagazine.com If you have any questions, contact editor@blackoctobermagazine.com Flash Movie: Weird, creepy, bizarre. Anything unusual. Payment starts at $15. Please Email your Movie Submission to movie@blackoctobermagazine.com If you have any questions, contact editor@blackoctobermagazine.com Artwork: Anything abstract, impressionistic, and/or obscure is prefect. We accept any media from photography to pen and ink to oils. We accept any style from Abstract to Biomechanics to Comics style. Pay scale is $15. Please Email your Artwork Submission to artwork@blackoctobermagazine.com Contact Black October Magazine's Art Director at art_director@blackoctobermagazine.com If you have any questions, Contact editor@blackoctobermagazine.com Do Not Send Originals. Send a clear photograph of original. In color or B/W. Essays: Should fit scope of magazine. Essays can deal with theory (What makes Gothic Gothic?), Criticism (Feminism in =Frankenstein=), Biography (The effects of Edgar Allen Poe's life on his work). Other topics will be considered on a case-by-case basis. Submissions should be typewritten and double spaced. A word limit of 4000 words. Submissions on disk O.K.; on 3.5 disc and in WP, Word, or Works format. IBM compatible. Please Email your Essay Submission to essay@blackoctobermagazine.com If you have any questions, contact editor@blackoctobermagazine.com Due to the large amount [sic] of submissions sent to us each week, please be patient if your submission has not come back to you quickly. Most submissions will return to you within two to four weeks from the date you sent it to us. If it is taking longer, that usually is a good sign. Electronic submissions please. Mailing Address: Black October Magazine P.O.Box 332, Port Jefferson Station, NY 11776 If you have any questions, Contact editor@blackoctobermagazine.com http://www.blackoctobermagazine.com/guidelines.cfm THE DARK MUSE E-ZINE [Quarterly webzine. H to 1,000 wds. Pays 3 cents/word to $30 on pub. Buys 3 stories/issue. e-mail subs. only.] Josh Robinson, Editor Dark Muse Publishing 48 W. George Ave. Pearl River NY 10965 E-mail (subs & info): jrobinson@fcc.net URL: www.darkmuse.com Pays 3 cents/word ($30 max.) for First Online Rights (archives only at author's request), up to 1k words, pays on publication. Purchases 3 original stories/issue. "Our only real guideline: write an excellent horror story. Push the envelope. We aren't looking for pornography or mindless dismemberment. Extreme sex and violence must work with the story. Also, no extreme violence or sexuality aimed toward children, please." E-mail subs OK, embedded only. Don't send bio or publishing history (judges on merit only). No reprints. Josh Robinson, Editor; Dark Muse Publishing, 48 W. George Ave., Pearl River NY 10965 SUBMIT: E-mail 1,000 word maximum sub to jrobinson@fcc.net. 3 cents a word $30.00 limit. [http://www.darkmuse.com/home.html] HORROR GARAGE, SEX, DEATH, ROCK'N'ROLL [Printzine, H, pays $100-$200/story.] Paula Guran, Editor Michele Patterson, Asst. Editor Submissions: PMB #116 Horror Garage Michele Patterson, Asst. Editor 8031 Wadsworth Blvd. #B4 Arvada, CO 80003 U.S.A. E-inqueries only: HGarageSubs@yahoo.com Info only: darkecho@darkecho.com Publisher (UTV, Inc.): horrorgarage@aol.com http://www.darkecho.com/horrorgarage/index.html FICTION GUIDELINES: =Horror Garage= wants the best in original dark fiction. Despite the intentional artlessness of its Z-grade zombie flick psychotronic garage format, HG is very serious about the literary quality of its fiction. We don't deal with labels. Horror, dark fantasy, suspense, noir, slipstream, supernatural, non- supernatural, cutting edge, magic realism, contemporary fantasy, whatever -- the magazine is called =Horror Garage=; you can park whatever you want in it as long as the engine will rev. The first three issues published (in alphabetical order): M. Christian, Peter Crowther, Elizabeth Engstrom, Dennis Etchison, Ed Gorman, Brian Hodge, Caitlin R Kiernan, Kathe Koja, Thomas Ligotti, Debbie MacGuffie, Kim Newman, Norman Partridge, Thomas S. Roche, David J Schow. John Shirley, Steve Rasnic Tem, Thomas Tessier, Tia V. Travis, and Don Webb. One story from each of the first two issues made =The Year's Best Horror and Fantasy=, another from HG#1 was selected for =The Year's Best Dark Fantasy: 2002=, and two more stories (one from each of the first two issues) were chosen for =Best New Horror 12=. If your work is of this caliber, then we are interested in seeing it. We pay $100-$200 per story for First English Language Rights. All unsolicited submissions MUST go to assistant editor Michele Patterson; they will NOT be accepted at any other address or eddress. Submissions: Horror Garage, c/o Ms. Michele Patterson, Asst. Editor, 8738 W. 86th Ave., Arvada, CO 80005 Email: HGarageSubs@yahoo.com (inquire as to format) Please include an appropriately sized, self-addressed, stamped envelope (SASE). (Contributors residing outside the United States are encouraged to supply an eddress.) Even if you do not want your manuscript returned, we require a letter-size SASE for our response; manuscripts without an SASE will not be returned. You are quite foolish to submit to this or any other magazine without reading an issue or two. (We've been very generous in giving away FREE copies at conventions for just this reason.) Back and current issues are available for $6.66 from Horror Garage, POB 53, Nesconset, NY 11767. (Make checks to Under the Volcano, Inc.) Subscriptions are now available as well. More info: horrorgarage@aol.com NONFICTION: Please query the editor at darkecho@darkecho.com. [http://www.darkecho.com/horrorgarage/gls.html] IDEOMANCER.COM [Biweekly webzine, SF/F/H 100 to 5,000 wds. Pays to 10 cents/wd. to $20 on accept. No reprints.] Chris Clarke, Managing Editor E-mail (subs & info): submissions@ideomancer.com URL: www.ideomancer.com (but only for Internet Explorer, not Netscape) We have updated our mail links to reflect submissions@ideomancer.com, however we are still receiving stories at mekkare@home.com. Unfortunately, at the end of this month, mekkare@home.com will be inactive, so if you have this email on file, please change it. We'd hate to see your precious tales bounce off into the ether." Amber van Dyk, Managing Editor Annotated Guidelines and Sage Advice =Ideomancer= publishes fiction, or interesting lies. But the stories we publish will also be honest. Which means plausible and affecting. It's only words...unless it's true. But if you wish to reach the highest truths, please begin with the alphabet. And if it takes more than 5000 words to say what you want to say, give it more thought. More specifically, =Ideomancer= publishes speculative fiction of the following kinds: Science Fiction "The universe is not only queerer than we imagine, it's queerer than we CAN imagine" Haldane Editors: Daniel Goss & Chelsea Polk Fantasy "Such stuff as dreams are made on" Shakespeare Editors: Mikal Trimm & Dorian E. Gray Horror "I wants to make your flesh creep" Dickens Editors: Amber van Dyk & Cathy Freeze Slipstream "It takes great cleverness to conceal one's cleverness" Rochefoucauld Editors: Jennifer De Guzman Flash "I strive to be brief, and I become obscure" Horace Editor: Chris Clarke If you are unfamiliar with any of the above terms (or accompanying quotations) you are hopelessly out of touch--and we are especially interested in seeing your work.* Simply pick a genre at random and submit. If your submission excites us, we'll know how to properly label it, since we're much wiser than you. If it doesn't excite us--for one ridiculous reason or another-- we'll at least send along a discerning rejection letter to you as proof that we actually read your story. Do * Attach Submissions to an E-mail in .RTF or .DOC in standard manuscript format. No submissions in the body of the email. Otherwise, we'll call you imaginative names. * Type "Submission" in the Subject Line. If you can't manage that, use the link, we've done it for you. Otherwise, same as above. Only less imaginative. * Cover Letters Including: 1) Author's name. 2) Title. 3) Genre. 4) Word Count. 5) Snailmail Address. 6) Short Bio and Links. 7) Your email address, we don't keep your original email. * For those still curious about what excites =Ideomancer='s editors, consider reading their bios. But consider carefully. Don't * Flash Stories Longer Than 500 Words * Reprints are by invitation. * Simultaneous Submissions. * Copyrighted Characters. * Boring Characters. Unless They're Sexy. * Long Cover Letters. Unless They're Sexy. * Pretentious Quotations. Compensation * For fiction between 500 and 5000 words =Ideomancer= pays US$20 per story. * For Flash fiction we pay professional rates between US3 cents and US10 cents per word * Stories up to 100 words (excluding the title)--US10 cents a word. * Stories between 101 and 200 words--US5 cents a word. * Stories between 201 and 500 words--US3 cents a word. * Payment on acceptance. Rights Much as we'd love to own your soul, we buy First Worldwide Electronic Rights, including no posting of the accepted story anywhere, on the Web or in print, for 3 months after its exclusive appearance in =Ideomancer=. After this period, all rights revert back to the author, but please acknowledge =Ideomancer= in any subsequent publishing of the story. We ask for the right to archive the story until requested to do otherwise by the author. [http://www.ideomancer.com/main/ideoMain.htm] INFINITY PLUS [Webzine/story archive. SF/F/H. Negotiates pay & rights.] Editor and publisher: Keith Brooke Associate editor: Nick Gevers E-mail (queries only): sf@infinityplus.co.uk URL: http://www.infinityplus.co.uk/ Market Guidelines, Infinity Plus, cont. Want to send some of your writing to =infinity plus=? I suggest you think very carefully before you try. Our aim at =infinity plus= is to introduce readers to a range of writers they might not otherwise have encountered. That doesn't necessarily exclude new writers, but it should make you think twice before sending us your original pieces of fiction. If you're a new short story writer, you really need to break into the magazines and anthologies; if you're an unpublished novelist you need to find yourself a publisher. Infinity plus is a collective home page; it's not, as such, a market for new writers. Having said that, we're open to suggestions and persuasion. Contact us if you really think we can be convinced. Wherever you're submitting, you need to follow the established rules of the game (return postage, standard manuscript layout, etc). It might look boring, but a double-spaced, left-justified, Courier manuscript shows an editor that you've taken the trouble to present your work in a form that's easy for them to deal with. It makes you look professional, and that's very important. For comprehensive guidance on manuscript preparation, take a look at how the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America say you should do it . Finally, some words of advice: stick with it! There are lots of fine writers out there who never quite see things through. Professional writers write. And then they write some more. And some more. And ... I'm sure you get the picture by now. Best of luck! http://www.infinityplus.co.uk/misc/guides.htm THE JOURNAL OF PULSE-POUNDING NARRATIVES [Printzine, pulp SF etc. to 5,000 wds, pay unknown. E-mail subs okay.] Small-press zine, little or no money but high production values, will have stories from some names that might surprise you. Looking for submissions through April 1. Email them to the address [below] or send paper to: Alex Irvine and Thom Davidsohn The Journal of Pulse-Pounding Narratives 85 Indian Ridge Road Sudbury MA 01776 E-mail submissions: jppn@mothaxle.com http://mothaxle.com/ And a friendly reminder: This is a magazine dedicated to the best of what we call pulp; it isn't an opportunity for you to blow more postage on stories that weren't quite good enough for anyone else. A probably-one-off-but-possibly-continuing print collection of just plain ripping yarns, solicits stories from those among you who love pulp in all of its warty, non-acid-resistant glory. Think: Lovecraft, Machen, and Derleth Chandler, Woolrich, and Himes L'Amour, Kelton, and Brand Burroughs, Haggard, and van Vogt We'll take SF pulp, Western pulp, crime pulp, romance pulp, horror pulp, boy's- (or girl's-) own-adventure pulp. We'll even take bad pulp, as long as it's bad in the right kind of way. We want lost worlds, cosmic villainy, shiny and inexplicable machinery, roscoes and gams, a squint into the sunset and the smell of coffee and bacon on a sagebrush morning. We're looking for stories that are under 5000 words--longer pieces will be considered, if they are extra pulpy--and we'd like them by April 2, 2002. You can submit via email to jppn@mothaxle.com or you can send a hard copy to: Alex Irvine & Thom Davidsohn, The Journal of Pulse-Pounding Narratives, 85 Indian Ridge Road, Sudbury MA 01776 Submissions will be answered as soon as is humanly possible. [http://mothaxle.com/JPPN.html] THE KENYON REVIEW [Triannual literary printzine. Fic to 7,500 wds. No reprints, sim or E-mail subs. Subs read Sept-Mar.] Editor The Kenyon Review Gambier, OH 43022 http://www.kenyonreview.org/ Submission guidelines Material offered for first publication only is considered. Electronic and simultaneous submissions are not accepted. We consider short fiction and essays (up to 7,500 words), poetry (up to 10 pages), plays (up to 35 pages), excerpts (up to 35 pages) from larger works, and translations of poetry and short prose. The original-language work must accompany the translation and the translator is responsible for author permission. We do not consider unsolicited reviews or interviews. All submissions must be typed and accompanied by a stamped, self-addressed envelope. We do not accept electronic submissions. Unsolicited manuscripts are typically read September through March. Review of submissions takes up to four months. We generally follow =The Chicago Manual of Style= and =Webster's Ninth New Collegiate Dictionary=. Authors planning to use end notes and/or citations should send a stamped, self-addressed envelope for our citation style guide before submitting manuscripts. Send submissions to Editor, The Kenyon Review, Gambier, OH 43022. [http://www.kenyonreview.org/submissions.phtml] NEVERWORLDS [Monthly webzine. Spec fic (SF/DF/H) to novelette length. Pays $15-$30/story (3 cents/wd. for "Pro Guest" story--query) on accept. No sim subs. Reprints by invitation only.] Jonathon M. Sullivan, Editor-In-Chief E-mail (subs & info): editor@neverworlds.com "Pro" query (NO SUBMISSIONS): jsulliva@med.wayne.edu URL: www.neverworlds.com Submission Guidelines Sullydog here, Publisher and Editor at =NeverWorlds=. I thought it would be nice if I could sit down with you writers and have a little chat. You're the most important people in this venture, after all--without your hard work, there wouldn't be a =NeverWorlds=. So we're overdue for a heart-to-heart. It comes down to this: as our slush pile keeps growing, we're getting a lot pickier, and if you want to write for =NeverWorlds= you'd do well to read the following. First and foremost, you need to be professional. What does that mean? It means we won't even consider manuscripts that are improperly formatted, filled with typos, loaded with spelling errors and sloppy grammar. We want manuscripts sent to us as email attachments. The document should be in Word, WordPerfect, RTF or compatible format. The front page header should contain your name, address, email address and a word count. The text should be in Courier or Courier New, 12 pitch, double-spaced, with italics indicated by an underline. No fancy fonts, no copyright notices, no statements of what rights you are or are not offering, or any other little artifacts that scream "I am an amateur! Send me a form reject!" Paragraphs are indicated by an indent, and section breaks are indicated by a double space, with or without a (#) character. Justification left, right ragged. Page numbers start on page 2 in the upper right hand corner. And so on. Want more detail? Go over to the Critters Workshop and check out their Resources . This will lead you to the Critters library, where you'll find a treasure trove of (free!) info, including articles on manuscript formatting . It's best to assume that failure to properly format your manuscript will get you an automatic reject from Asimov's, Analog, Fantasy and Science Fiction, and all the other Big Markets. It will definitely get you an automatic reject from =NeverWorlds=. When submitting material, please be sure to place the word "NeverWorlds" along with the title of your submission somewhere in the subject line of your letter. This is not merely a suggestion or wishful thinking--we get a lot of mail each day, and half of it is unwanted spam. From here on in, if the sender's name is unfamiliar (which is usually the case) and =NeverWorlds= is not written somewhere in the subject line, it'll simply get deleted, no muss no fuss. We cannot accept simultaneous submissions. We've been burned one time too many. The same rules apply to poetry. Art submissions should be sent to us in GIF or JPEG format. Interactive Flash narratives and computer comix are welcome. We are not in the market for non- fiction. Please send all submissions to Editor-In-Chief, Jonathon M. Sullivan. Check that address carefully: editor@neverworlds.com. Subs sent anywhere else will be consigned unto oblivion. We publish speculative fiction. What does that mean? Well, you can get into a hell of a long argument over that one. It's a slippery thing to nail down. But I'm going to be monstrously insolent and paraphrase Dr. Stanley Schmidt's definition of a science fiction story to define a speculative fiction story: if you take out the speculative/science component and the story doesn't collapse, it ain't sf, and we don't want it. If your story is just a Western with a werewolf thrown in for good measure, or a love story set on Mars because you think that'll help you sell it here, don't bother. The speculative component must be integral to the plot. Here's a great way to get a better under-standing of speculative fiction: read some. If you get your sf fix from watching Star Trek Voyager and X-Files, you probably aren't ready to write for =NeverWorlds=. If you aren't reading our magazine, then you definitely aren't ready. How can you write sf if you don't read sf? Go out and get yourself a couple of top-notch mags like Asimov's and Analog. (Better yet, subscribe. Writers should support the markets they hope to exploit.) Check out our archives, and read what we've already published (and note how the stories keep getting better from one issue to the next). Read some Bruce Sterling and some Greg Bear and some Clive Barker and some Tanith Lee. See how it's done. Join the Science Fiction Book Club. Go to the local used bookstore, and clean 'em out. Learn the literature, so you don't re-invent the wheel. Learn how to write. I know, I know--you think you already know how. But listen to Sullydog: he was a U.S. Marine, a biochemist, an ER doc and a neuroscientist before he started to write sf, and he's here to tell you that writing and selling good science fiction is the most difficult thing he ever tried to do. It will be for you, too. As proof of this, go back to the mags or the bookstore. Every now and then you'll find a story by Robert Reed or Isaac Asimov or Harlan Ellison that just sucks. Even the masters have trouble being consistently good, and it took them a long time to get good in the first place. Give yourself a head start: subscribe to Speculations, the magazine for writers of sf. It's worth every damn penny. Go to the Critters library, you can find references on hackneyed plots, on style and substance, on marketing and publishing. Check out the "Turkey City Lexicon", George Scithers and Darryl Schweitzer on Submitting, the "Guide to Grammar and Writing" and the many other articles on crafting sf. Go to the library, and read everything there. Come back when you're done. Finished? Good. Now that you've learned a little about sf and how it's written, you can write us a story. That's right, a story. A tale, a yarn, a fable, a narrative with a beginning, middle and end, in which a protagonist, a real, live, 3-dimensional character, gets his ass stuck in a real, live, nasty situation and has to struggle, sweat, swear and sacrifice to get out, trying and failing and trying again. Maybe he succeeds, and maybe he doesn't, but he struggles. I like to say that a writer is a sadistic eight-year-old boy who drops a lizard (protagonist) into a jar of razor blades so he can watch it try to claw its way out. Don't send us stories in which characters whimper their way into the jaws of death, or in which characters with invincible superpowers defeat the forces of evil without batting an eye, or in which, God forbid, nothing happens at all. You'd be surprised how many writers can put together an 11,000 word "story" that's completely devoid of movement. Please don't be one of them. And please don't try to sell us a story that's been done to death. Haven't caught up on your reading yet? Here's a sample of the hackneyed and the horrible: --It was all in his head! protagonist awakens from his bizarre adventures to find it was just a dream/fantasy/hallucination/VR delusion. --Or was it? Yawn. --Now that we're alone, Eve, you wanna see my space-serpent? A pair of astronauts stranded on a deserted planet must father (and mother) a new race. And his name is Adam, and her name is Eve... This one was old when Abraham whacked his firstborn's foreskin. Every now and then, a master can make this riff resonate (read Zelazny's Lord of Light). But in general, dressing up traditional religious mythologies as science fiction will get your story bounced. --What's a nice ghoul like you doing in a place like this? Protagonist goes into this bar, see, and meets this mysterious, sexy Looker. They go back to his/her place, where prospect mutates into vampire/succubus/werewolf/zombie/alien. Forget about it. Is that a rejection slip in your pocket, or are you just glad to see me? --Then a miracle happens. You may have heard this called a Deus ex Machina. Our heroes have tried everything. The engines have been smashed by meteors, and besides there's no fuel. They're spiraling into the neutron star, and will be crushed into two- dimensional goo in a matter of moments. Radiation flux from the stellar corpse has irreparably damaged their cellular structure. There are 40 seconds of oxygen left. Let's face it--they're boned. Then a wormhole opens and mysterious unknown aliens appear to hoist the ship to a safe altitude, replenish the oxygen tanks, cure the radiation sickness, fuel the (good as new) fusion engines, and see our "heroes" safely on their way. Sheesh. Why don't you have 'em check the oil and squeegee the windshield, while you're at it? --Scotty! I need that anti-rejection-slip-ray NOW! The technobabble story. A favorite with writers who get all their sf exposure from Star Trek Voyager. Our heroes have a techno-babble problem: gravo-histrionic flux from the cliche' capacitors has dampened the dramatic modulators, and within twenty minutes the reader will experience catastrophic attention deficit and sleep apnea. To solve the techno-babble problem, you need a technobabble solution: The only chance (and it's a slim one) is to reverse polarity on the conflict-resolution infusers, and hope that somehow the disbelief containment field doesn't rupture. If you can write a story in which your protagonist is confronted by a real dilemma (possibly of her own making), which she solves using her wits, courage, strength and insight (rather than by waving her hands and spouting technobabble or quasi- mystical-magical horseshit) then do it. We want that kind of story. But don't try to sell us gobbledygook. --And the moral of the story is... Choose life. Save the whales. Reclaim your inner warrior through ritual drumming. Women are people too. Genocide is naughty. Crime doesn't pay. Science is bad. Science is good. If only they'd used their powers for niceness, instead of evil... A good story should have a moral center. A great story should have a moral question at its center, and let the characters (and the reader) try to resolve it. A bad story preaches, proselytizes and knocks us over the head with its (usually trite) "message." If you want to preach family values, write for Barney. If you want to preach eco-awareness, join the Sierra club. If you want to give us a refresher in quantum mechanics, teach physics at the local junior college. If you want to write stories that embroil real characters in life-or-death struggles and searing ethical dilemmas that blur the moral landscape, then send your story to us. --We're fucked. Why fight it? The protagonists are confronted by a problem of such overwhelming magnitude that there's just no point in struggling. They order a pizza, light a joint, spout whiney existentialist gunk about how unfair life is, and wait for The End. You might as well have the same attitude about your story's chances of selling. There's more. Many more. Wanna know what they are? Just keep watching TV! There's no place like TV to find all the old, hackneyed, stupid, brain-rotting ideas that sophisticated sf readers (and editors) outgrew generations ago. On the other hand, sf, like science, builds on itself, emanating an ever-expanding frontier of ideas. If you go out and read some Greg Bear or some William Gibson, your head will be spinning with new concepts, new images and new futures to build on. SF lives on the cutting edge of the future, not in Twilight Zone reruns. Okay, now that you've written your heart-pounding, envelope- pushing story, you send it in, right? Well...maybe. But are you sure you wouldn't like somebody to look at it first, to critique it and make potentially valuable suggestions? How about your mom? She loves your stuff, right? Right. Which is why you shouldn't let her anywhere near it. Or anybody else who likes you. Trust me--the opinions of your family and friends are utterly worthless. You need a stranger or six to look at your stuff and give you the straight dope on how well it works (or not). You need a workshop. But where? Have we mentioned Critters yet? Ah, yes, I thought so. Now that you've cleaned out their library, why don't you just join the Critters and run your stories through the queue? Then you can return the favor, and read the stories of other hopefuls just like yourself. You'll see their strengths and weaknesses, which will open your eyes to the what works and doesn't work in your own fiction. You'll get insightful and incisive dissections of your own work, forcing you to do better with each new effort. You'll take your licks when you drop the ball--which is good, because you'll need a thick skin when the rejection slips start rolling in (and they will). And you'll make a lot of new friends. It's hard to say which part of this process will benefit you more--giving critiques or getting them. But one thing's for sure: Dr. Andrew Burt's Critters is the workshop that will produce many of tomorrow's sf writers. You should be one of them. Kevin, Marilyn and I would love to publish your work in =Neverworlds= and get you on your way. But you have to do your part. Be a professional. Read the literature. Join a workshop. Write every day, for two hours or a thousand words, whichever comes first. Strive for excellence. Don't let the rejection slips kill your muse. Keep sending those stories out. Just don't give up. Write hard. We'll see you in the slushpile. --Sullydog PAYMENT =NeverWorlds= pays On Acceptance. Contracts are in electronic format. $15 for short fiction $20-$30 for novellas and novelettes $10 for drawings $20 for paintings $5 for selected poetry Special Guest Artists are paid at the rate of 3 cents per word. Special Guest Features are now purchased by invitation only. If you're a Big Name, you're welcome to send a query, with bibliography, to Sullydog (jsulliva@med.wayne.edu). (Do not use that addie for subs!) We're looking for immediate name recognition and quality, with emphasis on the latter, so no promises. We will publish reprints from Special Guests or by invitation only. Some people think our Special Guest feature is somehow intrinsically unfair or wicked. Too bad. Payment covers our right to publish your work on our website and maintain the work in our archives. It also includes our right to illustrate the piece (including animated illustrations), to convert your work into a sound file for easy listening, and also into a PDF format that can be downloaded and printed by our readers. Artists will have the opportunity to have a biography- bibliography and picture published with their work and, upon request, links to their homepages and email. =NeverWorlds= does NOT contract for any other rights whatsoever, except by special arrangement. Once you've sent in a submission you should receive a confirmation of receipt within a week. If two weeks pass and you still haven't heard anything, write again--chances are your original e-mail was somehow overlooked (it happens). In order to keep up with the growing number of submissions, a system of tracking receipt dates and response times seems like a good idea. Therefore, a regularly updated section shall be set up to help facilitate authors wishing to check on the status of their manuscripts. If you don't want your manuscript to appear in this listing, please simply include a request with your submission. Please refer to the status page for further details. Please send all submissions and inquiries to the Editor-In-Chief, Jonathon M. Sullivan (editor@neverworlds.com). [http://www.neverworlds.com/] NEW GENRE [Biannual printzine, SF/H/DF to 14,000 wds. Pays 1 cent/wd. No reprints. E-mail subs okay. All subs entered in annual competition: 1st place $300 + pub in New Genre.] Jeff Paris, Science Fiction Editor Adam Golaski, Horror Fiction Editor New Genre 25 Cutter Avenue Somerville, MA 02144 Submissions to: submissions@ngenre.com http://www.ngenre.com/about.html =New Genre=, a biannual publication featuring unpublished fiction that promotes craftsmanship and innovation in the fields of science and horror fiction. Mission statement: A review of science and horror fiction with the goal of breaking genre stereotypes by: publishing highly crafted and compelling stories, maintaining high production values and expanding the traditional genre audience. [http://www.ngenre.com/about/miss.html] Accepting all variants of science and horror fiction, with the following conditions: gore, super-violent, or excessively explicit subject matter needs to be justified by the quality of the story. Most variants of fantasy will not be published; dark fantasy will be considered. Stories set in role-playing or pre- generated universes will not be accepted. No art or poetry please. Each issue will feature an average of four to six stories. Story length should not exceed 14,000 words; excerpts from larger works are fine. Unpublished works only. Send submissions to: New Genre, 25 Cutter Avenue, Somerville, MA 02144. Jeff Paris, Science Fiction Editor; Adam Golaski, Horror Fiction Editor. In order to receive a response enclose SASE with all submissions. We accept E-mail submissions sent to submissions@ngenre.com. Must be an attached Microsoft Word document. A hard copy may be required before a final decision is made. Writers will receive a response within a few weeks. Payscale is 1 cent/word plus two contributors copies. All submissions are automatically entered in the Louise Laffin Competition. [http://www.ngenre.com/about/sub.html] =New Genre= is proud to announce the winner of the first Louise Laffin Competition... "The Line I Walk," by M J Murphy. Louise Laffin Competition for the best original piece of Science or Horror Fiction honors the memory of Louise Laffin, whose appreciation of things--in life and literature--was not determined by preconceived ideas, but rather by their intrinsic value. The competition will be an annual event. The prize is $300, and publication in =New Genre=. Look for the winning story, and the following other pieces of excellent genre fiction in issue #2: "Wonderfreaks," by Jan Wildt "The Star in the Stone," by Zohar Goodman" Lot 12A: Feast of the Dead Manuscript," by Barth Anderson "Restoration Man," by Jon-Michael Emory Note to submitters: thanks to everyone who submitted! We have completed the reading period for issue #2. We are still reading for issues three and beyond. Contact info@ngenre.com with any questions. [http://www.ngenre.com/about/loui.html] OCEANS OF THE MIND [Quarterly e-mailzine in .pdf format. SF to 8,000 words. Pays 5 cents/word & up. Themed. Prefers E-mail subs.] Richard Freeborn, Publisher Trantor Publications 9838 Old Baymeadows Road #283 Jacksonville, FL 32256 U.S.A. Info only: editors@trantorpublications.com E-subs: oceansubs@trantorpublications.com URL: http://www.trantorpublications.com/oceans.htm What is =Oceans of the Mind=? =Oceans of the Mind= is a science fiction magazine published in the Winter, Spring, Summer and Fall of each year. It is distributed in PDF format via e-mail and concentrates on the best science fiction we can find. Each issue has a consistent theme as shown below and contains between seven and ten stories and a science article by Professor Gregory Benford. Submission deadlines and themes for the upcoming issues are detailed below. The theme descriptions are suggestions only. We don't have a monopoly on ideas, so if your industrial solar system doesn't match the description below, send it to us anyway. Winter 2002 -- British Writers, published in December 2001, Editorial by Paul Kincaid and fiction from Brian Stableford Spring 2002 -- Nanotechnology, published in March 2002, Fiction from John Alfred Taylor Summer 2002 -- The Industrial Solar System, published in June 2002 Fall 2002 -- Mysteries, published in September 2002 Submission Guidelines Fiction =Oceans of the Mind= publishes all forms of Science Fiction. The science is up to you. The point is to tell a story whether your characters are making first contact on an unexplored planet or solving a mystery here on Earth. We welcome manuscripts from unpublished authors and aim to publish a first story in every issue. Some of the 'don'ts': We are not interested in gratuitous or explicit sex and violence. The occasional use of swearing is acceptable if it matches the character but the story should not depend on it. Please don't send us Fantasy or Sword and Sorcery stories, that's not our market niche. Format Manuscripts should be double spaced and single sided and up to 8,000 words. The first page should be similar to the Example Page and should include your name, address and number of words. The right margin should not be justified. Each page should be numbered and have the title in the footer. Payment and Rights Purchased We pay from five cents a word. We purchase First North American Serial Rights and the rights of first offer on anthology rights, first foreign serial rights, non-exclusive reprint rights and electronic rights. Submissions We prefer to receive manuscripts by e-mail, sent as an attachment to oceansubs@trantorpublications.com. The manuscript must be in a format readable by Microsoft Word or Adobe Acrobat or it will be returned unread. Traditional mail submissions can be made to our editorial address below and should include a 9" x 12" stamped, self addressed envelope with enough postage to return the manuscript to you. We do accept simultaneous submissions, but please note this in your covering e-mail or letter. If you are making traditional mail submissions from outside the United States, please include International Reply Coupons for return postage if you want the manuscript returned, or an e-mail address where we can contact you. Response E-mail submissions should expect a response by e-mail within three to four weeks. If we want to publish your story, we will follow up with a contract by traditional mail. Traditional mail submissions should expect a response within six to eight weeks. If you have not heard from us within twelve weeks, please contact our editorial address above. Guidelines last updated on 30 October 2001 [http://www.trantorpublications.com/guidelines.htm] STRANGE HORIZONS [Weekly webzine, F/SF to 9,000 wds. (prefer to 5,000). Pays 4 cents/wd. E-mail subs only. No sim subs or reprints.] Editors: Jed Hartman, Senior Editor Susan Marie Groppi Chris Heinemann E-mail for submissions: fiction@strangehorizons.com URL: http://www.strangehorizons.com/ What We Want and What We Don't Want We're looking for high-quality stories that explore both the possible and the impossible: stories about human and nonhuman experience, about reality and dreams, about the here-and-now and otherwhere-and-elsewhen. We want stories from imaginative and unconventional writers; we want voices from diverse perspectives and backgrounds. We want stories that have some literary depth but aren't boring; styles that are unusual yet readable; structures that balance inventiveness with traditional narrative. We like characters we can care about. We like settings and cultures that we don't see all the time in speculative fiction. We like fantasy (especially urban fantasy). Dark fantasy is fine, but we're not looking for outright horror. We like magic realism, "slipstream," and even a dash of the surreal now and then, as long as it's readable. We also like science fiction, as long as it involves three- dimensional characters and interesting stories, not just science puzzles. If half your story explains a scientific or technological phenomenon, this is probably not the right venue for it. Any sex and violence in the story should be artistically justified; no excessive gore. Here are some of our favorite short-fiction writers: Joan Aiken, Eleanor Arnason, Greg Bear, Ray Bradbury, Orson Scott Card, Ted Chiang, Tony Daniel, Samuel R. Delany, Greg Egan, Harlan Ellison, Nicola Griffith, Zenna Henderson, Nancy Kress, Raphael Aloysius Lafferty, Tanith Lee, Ursula K. LeGuin, Gabriel Garcia Marquez, Cordwainer Smith, Theodore Sturgeon, James Tiptree, Jr., Connie Willis. Consider those names as signposts mapping out some of the literary landscape we'd like to cover. This is by no means a complete list, and of course your work should be in your own style, not the styles of any of these writers. Pay Rates and Lengths We will consider submissions up to 9000 words, but we strongly prefer stories under 5000 words. We pay 4 cents/word. We buy first-printing world exclusive rights for two months. After that period, you are free to republish the story elsewhere. We hope (but do not require) that you'll allow us to post the story in our archives indefinitely after it's rotated off the main table of contents. You have the right to remove your story from the archives at any time. How to Submit Email stories to fiction@strangehorizons.com. Type "FICTION SUB: Your story title" in the subject line. Please don't leave out either the "FICTION SUB:" part or the story-title part. Stories should be in plain text (also known as ASCII) format in the body of your email message, not sent as attachments. Stories submitted as attachments will be deleted unread. (One way to insert the story into the body of a message: use your word processor's Save As Text command to save the story, then copy the resulting text and paste it into an email message. Be sure to format the story as described below before sending it.) If your Internet Service Provider (such as AOL or CompuServe) won't let you send the story in the body of the mail, drop us a note and inquire about alternatives, but note that the 32K limit that some ISPs impose is generally plenty for a 5000-word story. Formatting: Use plain black text. Do not use boldface. Do not use blue, or red, or any other color. Plain black is what we want. Use two line breaks (double spacing) to indicate paragraph breaks. (In Microsoft Word, you can insert double line breaks between paragraphs by doing a search-and-replace, replacing ^p with ^p^p.) Do not use two line breaks between lines within a paragraph. You don't need to turn on line wrap (which inserts a line break at the end of every line of text). However, if you do use line wrap (or if your emailer automatically wraps lines), be sure to set wrapping to 75 characters/columns or fewer; otherwise we receive the story as a series of alternating long and short lines. Be sure to use plain (ASCII) text; don't use curly quotation marks or apostrophes. Don't use the ellipsis character -- use three periods instead. (And beware: by default, Microsoft Word changes "..." to the ellipsis character, which comes out looking like a capital sigma on our computers. So make sure that your dot-dot-dots are three characters, not just one.) Don't use an em dash (a wide dash) -- use two hyphens instead. If you send us something full of curly quotes and em dashes and ellipsis characters, it will be hard for us to read. Place _underscores_ at the beginning and end of a word or phrase to indicate italics; use *asterisks* to indicate boldface. For any other special formatting, please include an explanatory note. We strongly recommend that you email the story to yourself before you email it to us. When you receive it, does it look okay? If possible, if you have a Windows computer, try emailing it to a friend with a Macintosh; a lot of Windows characters are unreadable on the Mac, and vice versa. Submissions which are not properly formatted may not be read. For information about cover letters and an example of how to format your submission, we strongly recommend that you see our additional guidelines page. We strongly prefer email submissions. If that's not feasible, we may be able to accommodate alternatives; write and ask. Don't send us your story until you have thoroughly proofread it. Accepted submissions may be edited for clarity or to correct minor errors, but submissions which do not meet minimum standards for correct spelling and grammar will be rejected, except in cases of obvious artistic license. Spellcheckers can be useful, but in many cases they merely compound spelling errors; if you're uncertain about your spelling, ask a human to proofread your story. To help us keep our response time down, please wait until we accept or reject each story before sending us another story. Sorry, no simultaneous submissions or reprints. Material other than fiction should be submitted to the appropriate editor. Additional guidelines and recommendations This page provides some additional hints about how we like to receive submissions. Cover letter If you wish, you may optionally provide a "cover letter" -- a paragraph or two of relevant information preceding the story itself. For example, you may provide information about yourself, including a brief list of your publications. The =Strange Horizons= fiction editors are Susan Marie Groppi, Jed Hartman, and Chris Heinemann. Please do not address your cover letter, or your submission, to Mary Anne Mohanraj, who is the editor-in-chief of the magazine. Submissions should be sent to fiction@strangehorizons.com, not to the editor-at- strangehorizons address. "Dear Editors" is a reasonable salutation to use. There are plenty of other reasonable salutations, but we recommend avoiding "Dear Sirs." Things you should not put in your cover letter: * Do not provide advance information about the contents of the story -- plot summaries, explanations of the premise, discussion of themes. Your story should stand on its own merits. * Do not tell us how many other editors have rejected the story and why. * Do not tell us how many years ago you wrote the story. * Do not provide explanations of why you wrote the story or what you were thinking about when you wrote it. Other things that are unnecessary to include in your cover letter: * No need to send us the URL of your Web page containing other stories you've written. We won't look at those other stories. * No need to tell us that you have followed our guidelines. We assume that. For example, no need to tell us that the story is not a simultaneous submission. * No need to put a copyright notice on your stories. We won't steal your stories. And putting a copyright date of, for example, 1995 on a story suggests that you've been shopping the story around for years without selling it. * No need to tell us that the story is disposable, or give us permission to delete it if we reject it. We assume that you kept a copy of your email to us; we don't return copies of stories. Any "cover letter" information should be brief and to the point; if you can't think of anything to say in a cover letter, don't include a cover letter. No cover letter at all is preferable to a cover letter that says too much. Story formatting Please provide an approximate word count (to the nearest 100 words) at the top of the story. Do not put your story title in ALL CAPS or in "quotation marks" (unless it is a quotation). (Some writers and editors recommend using all caps; that may be preferred for some other magazines, but not for us.) Please do not use word-processor formatting commands on your text story. For example, do not use boldface, or italics. Also, use straight quotation marks (") and apostrophes ('), rather than the slanted or curled kind; the latter do not transfer well from one kind of computer to another, which makes stories hard to read. Use # on a line by itself for a scene break. Do not send your story in HTML format. If your mail software normally sends HTML or other formatted text, turn off that option be-fore sending. Try emailing the story to yourself before you email it to us. When you receive it, look it over: is it readable? Are there blank lines between paragraphs? Is there any formatted text (such as italic or bold) in it? Story content note It's generally a bad idea to use quotations from songs in your story; permission to reprint lyrics, even brief phrases from lyrics, is usually very expensive. An annotated example of preferred manuscript format To: fiction@strangehorizons.com [Fiction should be submitted to the fiction@ address. The editor@ address does not go to the fiction department.] Subject: FICTION SUB: The Zlotys of Harrisburg [Using the correct Subject line format is important: it allows our automatic system to send you a response and correctly file your story.] Dear Editors: Please consider the following story. My fiction has appeared in _Asimov's_, _F&SF_, _Realms of Fantasy_, _Amazing_, _New Squid Review_, and the Zloty Press anthology _The Zloty Chronicles_. [If you have fiction publications, feel free to mention them, but keep it to the best ten or twelve. You may also mention organizational affiliations, such as SFWA membership or being a Clarion alum. If you have no publications and no affiliations, that's fine; just leave out this paragraph. Don't worry about your cover letter being too short.] Sincerely, Jane Zloty [Your real name here.] Jane Zloty [Your real name here too.] janez@zloty.com 4200 words [Papermail address is entirely optional here, but your preferred email address and a word count are required.] The Zlotys of Harrisburg [use standard title capitalization, not all-caps] by J. Q. Zloty [The name you want to appear on the story if it's published.] Once upon a time there was a family named Zloty. They lived in the town of Harrisburg, where it was always dark. Mr. Zloty was originally from Zlotyland, and he was frequently heard to remark that things here in Harrisburg were not at _all_ like things back in the Old Country. [Note the "double spacing" line breaks between paragraphs, and the underscores to indicate emphasis.] Mrs. Zloty -- the fourth Mrs. Zloty -- had grown up in Harrisburg, and was used to the incessant darkness. She had gone to college in far-off Pottstown, where the inhabitants could afford light now and then (for holidays), but she had never liked it much there. In response to Mr. Zloty's carping, she would always say, "Give me good old-fashioned darkness." Market Guidelines, Strange Horizons, cont. [. . . and so on.] [http://www.strangehorizons.com/] STILLWATERS JOURNAL [Webzine. Dark fiction (SF/F/DF/H) 1,500 to 8,000 words (pref 3,000-4,000 wds). Pays $40/story for new writers; established writers negot.] http://www.stillwatersjournal.com/ Submission Guidelines Rather than give you a long list of things we don't want to see, we'll tell you what we do want: well-written dark fiction between 1,500 and 8,000 words long. About 3-4,000 words is optimal. We pay a flat rate of $40.00 for new writers; payment is negotiable for established writers. We'll take science fiction, fantasy, horror, dark fantasy, slipstream, whatever you want to call it. Even pulpy stuff is okay, if it's good pulpy stuff. Make it gripping, intelligent and weird. Write a unique story in your own voice. We will credit you with enough smarts and good taste to know what's been done to death in the field of dark fiction. As a starting point, give us one or more of the following: 1. Really great prose; 2. Lots of good, unsettling atmosphere; 3. A neat, innovative plot; 4. Excellent characterization. We're not going to bother telling you to "send us only your best work." We assume you wouldn't waste postage sending us a story you think sucks. Check out the fiction on our site to get an idea of the type of stuff we're looking for. Then try to write something even better. [http://www.stillwatersjournal.com/] ----------------------------------------------------------------- DEAD MARKETS R=Ralan.com dead markets list S=Speculations dead markets list 15 Minutes (monthly webzine) (website gone) alphaDRIVE E-Magazine (Quarterly webzine) (website gone) Beyond (British printzine) (RS) Bloodsongs (printzine) (R) Dead of Night Magazine (quarterly printzine) (RS) Death Watch (printzine) (RS) The Dragon's Scroll (webzine) (R says died 21 Feb 01) E-Scape (bimonthly E-mag) (website gone) Eternity Online (webzine) (website gone) Event Horizon (webzine) Fogfire (webzine) (S, R says died 11 Mar 00) Infinite Edge (webzine) (RS) Jackhammer (weekly webzine) (editor's letter) Lore, the Digest of Maddening Fiction (biannual printzine) (S, R says died 6 Jul 00) Mindsparks (bimonthly printzine) Non-Stop (quarterly printzine) (R) The Oubliette (printzine) (website gone; became antho?) Papyrus (webzine) (website gone) Peeping Tom (British printzine) (RS) The Reaper (Bimonthly printzine) (S) Sapphire Magazine (quarterly webzine) (website now a porn site!) SpaceWays Weekly (E-mail mag) (ceased pub in Jan 01 but website still up) Thirteenth Moon (Quarterly printzine) (S) Virtual Lobotomy (webzine/antho) never published Western Tales (quarterly printzine) (S) Winedark Sea (Australian printzine) (R says died 15 Feb 01) Chrysalis Reader (has become book) ----------------------------------------------------------------- MARKET LISTS SF/F/H MARKETS Paula Fleming's SF/F market list is at http://home.att.net/~p.fleming/Sfmarket.html CHILDRENS' WRITERS INFO ONLINE http://www.signaleader.com/childrens-writers/ has a list of children's publishers' submission guidelines online http://www.childrenswritersink.com/ has all kinds of resources online for childrens' writers. ==End of the CALLIHOO Newsletter for 27 November 2001==