Market Monday: Speculative Coffee Reprints

Listing: COFFEE: 20 Speculative tales of the fantastic

Each story must somehow involve coffee as a major plot element. It’s not enough if an unrelated story is set in a coffee shop. I will also consider a few TEA stories as well. These stories must feature an element of the fantastic (fantasy, SF, light horror). No literary fiction please.

For the moment, I will only consider reprints. If you published a story that you feel might fit the theme, please e-mail it to me at ufopublishing at gmail dot com. Please include information as to where and when it was first published, and confirm that the rights have reverted to you.

Market Monday: Love Free or Die

Yearning for Your Submissions: Love Free or Die anthology

Writers with romantic intentions, come hither. The fourth volume of New Hampshire Pulp Fiction is lounging languidly on a velvet divan, making eyes at you. It’s time to make your move. Submit your stories of love lost, passion fulfilled and unrequited devotion — all deeply embedded in New Hampshire places and culture — to Elaine Isaak at nhpulpromance@gmail.com and perhaps you too can be a part of this local publishing phenomenon.

Story length: 8,000 words or less
Deadline for submissions: July 31, 2013
Planned for release: before Valentine’s Day, 2014

Got a market notice you want listed in future Market Mondays on Speak Coffee to Me? Send along the link with the words "Market Monday Plz" to @EileenWiedbrauk on Twitter.

Themed calls for submissions

Three interesting markets to make note of on this Thursday. Three markets that are riddles to me -- ones I hope you can solve by finding work to send them even if I can't.

Mistress of the Macabre, to be published by Dark Moon Books, is looking for horror stories -- the kind that actually scare you -- written by women for an all-female authored anthology. 1500-6000 words. Pays $20 + contributor's copy. Deadline: June 30. More info. 

I absolutely love the title Mistress of the Macabre -- say it aloud a few times and I'm sure you'll soon be agreeing with me. You just can't say it more than once without an attitude. So much fun.

While I write a lot of creepy little stories, I can't say I've got anything that I'd call truly scary -- mostly scary how bad the writing is. . . . But then again, how scary can I be if I'm quoting Love Actually to prove my chill factor?

Bibliotheca Fantastica, themed anthology from Dagan Books wants "stories having to do with lost, rare, weird, or imaginary books, or any aspect of book history or book culture, past, present, future, or uchronic. Any genre. Although the fantastical is not essential per se, stories should evoke a sense of the fantastic, the unknown, the weird, wonder, terror, mystery, pulp, and/or adventure, etc." Under 10,000 words. Pays $0.02/word. Deadline: March 31. More info.

Every time I look at the Bibliotheca Fantastica call for submissions I kick myself; I have a fabulous premise that fits in these guidelines but no plot with which to make it a story!

Fairy Tale Review, Yellow Issue. Fairy Tale Review is a magazine producing one issue per year featuring work which entangles itself in the folkloric. Of recent, they've been working with guest editors who shape the issue and theme of the single issue that they work on. The last issue's theme was "lost children. This year the theme and the issue title are the same thing: yellow. Poetry, fiction, essays, drama, creative nonfiction, comics, illustration. I believe this market is non-paying but I could be wrong. Deadline: May 31. More info and the editor's take on how "yellow" is a theme.

I'm completely stumped on how to take that from the abstract to fiction or poetry that relates to the folkloric. The editor's description that she's interested in writing that worships and dements yellow. We would like you to knock on yellow’s door and invite her out to play, somehow did not make a light bulb or even a pen light go on over my head.

Market Monday

The following markets are looking for themed speculative material with a romantic twist or romantic elements. The first is looking for novella length stories -- and if that's not to your liking, the second market only takes work 7,500 words and under!

Entangled Publishing, Steampunk Anthology: (royalties only) Entangled Publishing is an internet startup company. They publish both print and ebooks and have a strong leaning toward paranormal romance novels (adult and YA) from what I can tell. Right now they're putting together an anthology of short steampunk fiction with romantic elements, deadline December 1.  They write:

Will Smith, Jude Law, Robert Downey Jr., Hugh Jackman, and Sean Connery have done fabulous things for the sexiness of steampunk. Even when quirky technology is merely hinted at in alternate, historical-feeling world, moviegoers have clamored for more. Whether they’re donning brass goggles, lacing up steel corsets, or hopping onto the nearest airship, the heroes and heroines in steampunk fiction have captured the minds of readers.
Entangled Publishing is seeking submissions for a Summer 2012 Steampunk anthology. Submissions must:

• Be 20,000 to 30,000 words in length
• Contain strong romantic elements
• Heavily feature steampunk technology and the alternate world it exists in
• All heat levels will be accepted, but erotic elements must not be the main focus of the story.

Direct link to steampunk anthology guidelines.

Escape Collective Publishing: Orbital Hearts Anthology (royalties only) is looking for stories that revolve around relationships (romantic and dysfunctional, preferably) and also contain speculative elements (aka "fantastic" elements).  Up to 7,500 words. Deadline December 1.  They're also running a cover art contest if that's up your alley. They write:

We’re looking for tragic romances, hopeless relationships, unrequited love and (of course) broken hearts. Don’t misread this! Although we want stories that revolve around dysfunctional romantic couplings, we are only interested in stories that also contain “elements of the fantastic.” This anthology is open to submissions from just about ANY genre you can imagine that fits the theme – and we hope to get many submissions that cross over genre boundaries. Try to avoid cliches that rely on weird pairings as their primary theme; we want tragedy, drama, and originality. Surprise us, entice us and woo us into a destructive angst-inspired spiral with your words!

Direct link to anthology guidelines.

Market Monday

Looking for places to submit short fiction? Particularly if you're working in the vein of fantasy, science fiction, horror and that unclassifiable "weird fiction" realm? Then check out the following markets and calls for submissions.

Mirror Dance (nonpaying market) is a free online magazine of fantasy in all its sub-genres, including magic realism, urban fantasy or contemporary fantasy, sword & sorcery, fantasy-of-manners, and stories with mythological or folkloric themes. They're looking for poetry ASAP to fill their next issue, but are set on fiction. They write:

All the fiction slots for our Winter 2011 all-flash issue are full, but we are still looking for poetry, especially narrative poems and pieces that blur the lines between poetry and prose. All non-theme submissions will be considered for Spring 2012. Please mention in your cover letter for which issue you’d like us to consider your story or poem, if you have a preference.

Mslexia publishes only female writers. They're seeking submissions for Issue 53 on the theme "In the year 2212…" Deadline: 28 November. They write:

Two hundred years hence, will we be teleporting or living in caves? In peaceful eco-cities or war-scarred refugee colonies on a distant planet? Cast your imaginative spotlight into the future and tell us what you see. Please send up to 4 poems (of up to 40 lines each) or up to 2 short stories (of up to 2,200 words each).

Dagan Books: Bibliotheca Fantastica Anthology seeks submissions for a themed anthology sent between December 15 and March 31. Stories up to 10,000 words--I'm excited that they're willing to look at longer shorts(!) What they want:

Stories having to do with lost, rare, weird, or imaginary books, or any aspect of book history or book culture, past, present, future, or uchronic. Any genre. Although the fantastical is not essential per se, stories should evoke a sense of the fantastic, the unknown, the weird, wonder, terror, mystery, pulp, and/or adventure, etc.

Wicked East Press: Witch's Brew ($5 flat rate payment) seeking stories of witches by December 31 for anthology. (They do lots of anthologies, check out this page to see what those themes are.) Ideally in the 3,500- 7,000 word range. What they're looking for:

Creepy, crawly stories that celebrate the various aspects of witch’s and their livelihoods. Most all genres acceptable, as long as the story fits the anthology theme. This is a collection of stories to be enjoyed by everyone, please keep excessive cussing and sex out unless integral to your character.