Well who else has been busy writing this week? I have been eyebrow deep in magic and world building, which is fun, but is also a lot of maths! It’s also led to me looking up a lot of interesting game mechanics to try and work out a way for my brain to make sense of it all. So it’s been tricky. But on the plus side I have enjoyed learning all about the different ways games and authors use magic in their plots and I am sure it will make me a better writer for this subject.
I have also been on the look out for good opportunities for writers and have found some places that are looking for submissions from writers. Most of these are for the end of this month, so it might be a bit too close if you don’t have anything done already, but who knows, maybe you’re a much faster writer or you have a tonne of stories ready and waiting.
First up. Gallery of Curiosities is a podcast and eBook company who are looking for short stories. The pay 4 cents per word and their maximum story length is 7500 words. They are particularly on the look out for stories that would adapt well being made into podcasts. The genres they want are “retropunk” which in their own words means, “steampunk, dieselpunk, dreadpunk, bronzepunk, others that haven’t even been invented yet punk … but not atompunk. Sorry, space fans, we draw our line at Sputnik.” I don’t write a lot in these genres, though maybe I should, I did study history, after all. But if you do, why don’t you see if you can get a story accepted?
Here is a link to their website.
Secondly, Twelfth Planet Press is looking for submissions to their anthology, “Rebuilding Tomorrow.” They recently had an anthology out that focused on the immediate aftermath of apocalypses and the lives of chronically ill and disabled people who live in those times, this anthology is meant to be a next step on from that. People are moving on from the trauma of the apocalypse and are figuring out how to live in the new world that is open before them. They want stories to feature people with chronic illnesses and disabilities, and the story should be between 2000 and 6000 words. Payment will be 8 cents per word.
This is the link.
Finally, World Weaver Press are looking for short stories between 500 and 5000 words. These stories should involve cities where non-human creatures are seen as a priority in how the architecture and culture of the city works, not just humans. As they put it, “We’re looking for stories that acknowledge humans as part of a larger ecosystem, for characters who strive for balance with (rather than dominance over) the creatures surrounding them, for settings that depict an optimistic balance of nature and technology.” The anthology has been inspired by the Solar Punk movement, so it should end on a positive note. And they “encourage authors to set their stories in the Asia-Pacific region, or at least include some thematic tie to that part of the world.”
Here is the link.
These three opportunities each have a very specific theme and are certain to catch your attention. Though if you haven’t got anything that would work for them right now, then you might have to write pretty quickly to get finished in time. But let me know if you send anything to these places, it’s always fun to hear about what you guys are up to!