Thursday 24 April 2008

Halloween Contest

I thought the following may be of interest to many of you. Darwin's Evolutions magazine, or as they put it 'Journal of Speculative Fiction' is running a Halloween short story contest with a difference. That is, it's not for HORROR stories. Interesting. The following is a direct quote from their guidelines:

This is not a "Horror" genre contest. Rather, we are looking for the most creative stories that brush the established tropes of science fiction and fantasy against the "creepy" side of the questions of the spirit realm and life after death. Horrific aspects may or may not be present but the key is to tell tales that carry the "feel" of Halloween with them.

The word limit is 7,500 words and you (and I) have until July 1st to get something to them. First prize is $100.

7 comments:

K.C. Shaw said...

Hmm, if the Harvest Hill anthology doesn't work out, I can file the serial numbers off my story and send it here. Thanks for the tip!

Cate Gardner said...

Fingers crossed that you make it into Harvest Hill and have to write something else :)

J.C. Tabler said...

You know, I was reading back through your old posts and realized one thing...we both submitted our Bits of the Dead rejections to ASIM afterwards.

I think, and this is just my opinion now, that they may have a lot of those coming across their desk. I wonder if there's a guy there going "What is with all these short Zombie pieces?"

Cate Gardner said...

I'm probably over-exaggerating but I think I read on a thread somewhere that Bits has had over 400 submissions and are accepting only about 35 - that's one hell of a lot of short zombie tales in circulation.

J.C. Tabler said...

See, now I'm also wondering if that "cheeky" rejection letter was just form. I'll be crushed if it was. I've been showing people that since I got it just to be able to say I'm a "cheeky" fellow. Needless to say, in the U.S., it sounds as if it has a much more insulting meaning.

Cate Gardner said...

I think the editor used the word 'cheeky' a few times, but I'm guessing it was for stories that were a wee bit, well, cheeky. I also got a 'we're looking for stories that hit harder than this' for another submission.

For the record, my cheeky story was of two 'dead' aunts fighting over a scalp, puckering up their lips and chasing their poor nephew for a kiss.

J.C. Tabler said...

Mine was two English professors arguing over the correct terminology for a zombie while their administrative offices were being invaded. I sorta liked that idea...