Flash Fiction Contest

1st Prize: $60 plus publication
2nd Prize: $30 plus publication
Theme: Open
Genre: Fiction
Length: 500 words or fewer
Deadline: July 21, 2009 (postmark)
Entry Fee: $2.00 per story

THE RULES

- Write a self-contained short story in 500 words or fewer. No predetermined
theme this year, so let your imaginations run wild!
- Be original. Be concise. Be spelled correctly.
- Send your story in plain text in the body of an e-mail to
contests@inkspotter .com (subject line =
"Annual Contest Submission") or to the address on the website (below). Do
not indent paragraphs. Leave one line space between each paragraph.
- All stories MUST have a title.
- Be sure to include your full name and e-mail address. If your story wins,
we'll contact you for your preferred method of payment.
- Enter as often as you like, but payment must be received for each entry.
- You retain copyright of your story.
- All entries will be acknowledged if an e-mail address is included.
- By entering the contest, you agree to have your name and email address
added to the subscriber list for InkSpotter News, our monthly ezine. Contest
news and winning stories appear in the newsletter. (Our subscriber list will
never be shared with or sold to a third party.)

NOTE: Please, do not submit fan fiction.

FULL DETAILS at http://inkspotter. com/contests. htm

2009 Kathy Fish Fellowship

The winner of the Fellowship will receive $500.00, to be paid as follows: $100.00 on announcement of the winner, and $100.00 upon publication of each of the four issues in 2009.

* * *

It seems that many awards in people's names are established posthumously. We're ecstatic that we can recognize Kathy Fish while she's still very much alive and kicking. As she stepped down as our Fiction Editor, we at SmokeLong wanted to recognize Kathy's enormous contributions to the magazine and to the writing community as a whole. In particular, Kathy has always been a great champion of new writers and has exhibited an uncanny talent for finding previously unpublished writers whose work just shines.

We want to foster that sort of commitment to new writers, and in that vein, we created the Kathy Fish Fellowship. All writers previously unpublished in SmokeLong Quarterly are eligible to apply. Following are the guidelines for application and the terms of the award itself:

Application Guidelines
1. Applications should be emailed to fellowship@smokelong.com.
2. Applications should include five samples of your flash fiction (stories of a thousand words or less). These samples may be unpublished or previously published in venues other than SmokeLong. We'll be reading these to get impressions of each applicant's writing. The writing samples should, as a whole, best reflect your ability, style(s), etc. Show us who you are as a writer through these samples.
3. Applications should include a few paragraphs (under a thousand words total) about what you hope to accomplish in the next year with your flash writing. Are there specific elements you want to improve? A larger story you want to tell through a series of flashes? Help us learn how we can help you realize your goals should you win this award.
4. Samples and paragraphs about goals, etc. should be included in the body of the email, rather than as attachments.
5. There is no application fee.
6. Application deadline is December 20, 2008.

Fellowship Awards
1. The winner of the 2009 Kathy Fish Fellowship will be considered a "writer in residence" at SmokeLong for each of the four issues to be published in 2009. Each issue will include one flash by the Fellowship winner.
2. The winner of the Fellowship will receive $500.00, to be paid as follows: $100.00 on announcement of the winner, and $100.00 upon publication of each of the four issues in 2009.
3. The winner will be announced January 20, 2009.

Again, this award is open to any writer not previously published in SmokeLong Quarterly. It is not restricted to writing program students (as we are all, in some way, students of writing), although we will certainly be distributing this announcement to various writing programs. We also encourage teachers of writing to pass this announcement along to their students.

We're looking forward to reading your applications, and we want to once again extend our deepest gratitude to Kathy for all she's done for SmokeLong and for writers of flash fiction. Thank you, thank you, thank you, Kath.

Previous Fish Fellows
2007: Beth Thomas
2008: Stefanie Freele

Things Aren’t What They Seem:

Things Aren’t What They Seem
by From the Asylum Books and Press
edited by Katherine Sanger

In the grand tradition of SF, we are looking for stories about aliens among us. They can be trying to fit in, take over, or steal away the promotion that you deserve. Does your neighbor drink an awful lot of milk? That guy at work not seem right? Who are they? What are they doing here?

We’re looking for flash fiction (up to 1,000 words) and short fiction (1,001 to 5,000 words) that tell the story of aliens in our world. (Please note: No “jar of Tang” endings. No “dream” endings. No elaborate set-ups on aliens planets to make it look like Earth in order to…you get the idea.) Word count is firm. Any pieces above or below the word count will not be read. Please submit only one story. Please do not submit poetry -- this is for fiction only.

Your story can fit anywhere in the speculative rainbow -- SF, fantasy, horror, or just plain strange! Humor is a plus, but is not strictly necessary. (Yes, you can have aliens in your medieval of fantasy-based world…the aliens can be good or evil..or just trying to survive on $6.50 an hour.)

Payment is $15 for flash fiction and $30 for short fiction. All authors accepted will also get one copy of the anthology.

UPDATE - 10/31/08

Things Aren’t What They Seem:
Acceptances and rejections of all submissions have gone out, both mail and email. If you have not heard from us, please send us an email at ksanger@fromtheasylum.com as some of the emails did bounce and I’m sure if it’s my system that is at fault.
We are re-opening the submission period, to last from October 31 until December 31. While we received a number of excellent stories, we have not yet reached our desired length as the anthology will not be heavy enough to assist in beating our alien neighbors.
Guidelines remain the same. We are still looking for both flash fiction (under 1,000 words) and longer works (up to 5,000 words).
There are two important things I would like to emphasize, however.

• Aliens *must be* the main thrust. No tacked on aliens that don’t figure into the plot.
• Humor is preferred over horror (although humorous horror often works for us!).

To enter:

Please send your submission to:

From the Asylum Books and Press

“Things Aren’t What They Seem”

PO Box 1519

Dickinson, TX 77539

Include a cover letter with your name, your pseudonym (if applicable), your email address, your phone number, your mailing address, the name of the piece, the word count of the piece, and a short biography. Include a SASE if you would like to be notified of rejection.

Or email:

fta@fromtheasylum.com

Please cut and paste your file (text, not html) into the email. We do not accept attachments.

Please be sure to use the subject line “Things Aren’t What They Seem Submission” or your piece may be put into the general submissions.

In your email, include your name, your pseudonym (if applicable), your email address, your phone number, your mailing address, the name of the piece, the word count of the piece, and a short biography.

Closing Date: We will be keeping the submissions for the anthology open until May 15. Responses to the first set of submissions will be going out by the end of April.

Publication Date: If closed by April 15, we will be publishing in November.

At this time, we hope to respond to entries within 4 weeks of receipt.

Quantum Genre on the Planet of Arts

Editor V. Ulea seeks submissions of short stories, flash fiction, film and book interpretations for a new print anthology: Quantum Genre on the Planet of Arts. Stories and artworks should meet the requirements of “quantum genre” explained in detail in the manifesto published by Sein & Werden
(http://www.kissthewitch.co.uk/seinundwerden/3_2/page37.html ).

Basically, the Quantum Genre is not theme-based but style-based. In other words, Quantum Works are not about quantum theory but quantum representation of characters and their worlds. The style is distinguished by a high degree of obscurity of both the narrative and characters which are subject to mutability and ambiguity.

V. Ulea requests all submissions begin with briefly describing why you consider your work to be QW

Send no more than TWO stories and FOUR flash fiction. Stories should be no more than 3,000 words each, and flash fiction should be no more than 1,000 words each). Film and book reviews should focus on the “quantum” qualities of quantum genre-movies/books (see the manifesto for more details). They should not exceed 1,000 words. No minimum.

Deadline is May 1, 2009. Scheduled release is September 1, 2009.

Payment is 4 cents per word in the anthology for new work. A friendly tip of the hat for previously published work.

Select stories and articles (not based on quality) will also be featured in a Quantum themed issue of Sein und Werden. The editor may request that certain works be featured in the Sein und Werden issue yet not in the Crossing Chaos anthology (again, not based on quality).

Send written works in doc format; artworks as jpeg to...

V. Ulea - Quantum Editor
v.ulea@crossingchaos.com

Vestal Review

Vestal Review now publishes its print issues twice a year in a perfect-bound edition. Some of the content is available on the Web. We have increased the number of published flashes to 24 a year. We welcome your subscriptions if you want to read them all.

One year subscription is $20 postpaid (add $6 for postage for foreign subscription). A sample copy is $10 (add $2 for postage, $4 for foreign address).

Because of the great number of submissions, we are accepting only two submissions per author in a reading period. Our new reading periods are:

1. January-May
2. July-November

We would regretfully delete any submissions after the initial two. All stories submitted during June and December will be returned unread.

All submissions should be sent electronically to the address listed below. We do not accept any other forms of submissions.

Send to this address.

If you want to control spam, please approve our submission address beforehand. We will not go through the approval process for you.

Vestal Review accepts only original material. No reprints, please. Even if it has been displayed on your own Web page, we consider it published. Yet if John Updike sends his previously published story, who are we to say no?

If the story has been posted and reviewed at a password-protected e-workshop with a controlled list of participants, we consider this a plus.

Vestal Review is a magazine for flash (short-shorts) fiction. We realize that there are different definitions of what a flash story is and all of them have merit. In our definition, a flash story is no longer than 500 words and it has a plot. If it's longer than 500 words and/or has no plot, we are not interested. We are also not interested in porn, racial slurs, excessive gore, or obscenity. On the other end of the spectrum, no children's or preachy stories either, please. Our target audience is people over 18, so R-rated content is OK, but not X-rated. Most genres, other than children's, syrupy romance or hard science fiction, are accepted, and we love humor.

Don't forget that the title is an important part of the story. Make it pertinent but don't tell too much. We generally don't favor one-word titles.

The cash payments:

Stories up to 100 words (excluding the title)--10 cents a word.
Stories between 101 and 200 words--5 cents a word.
Stories between 201 and 500 words--3 cents a word.
Stories of great merit receive up to $25 flat fee; 3 cents a word is a minimum pay in any case.

In addition, every contributor will get one free copy.

Foreign writers will be paid via PayPal.

In exchange for these fees, we ask for first North American serial rights and First Electronic Rights. In addition, we ask for no posting of the accepted story anywhere on the Web, or in print in the United States or Canada, for 30 days after its exclusive appearance on the Vestal Review Web site. After this period, all rights revert back to the writer but we ask that you acknowledge Vestal Review in any subsequent printing of the material published here, be that on the Web or in hard copy. We are also asking for one year archiving rights and anthology rights. Anthology rights are secondary, meaning that the author may sell his or her story to any other anthology market providing that 30 days passed after the Vestal Review publication.

If your story is accepted for publication, you will be expected to sign the following contract. Please don't send a contract before your story is accepted.

Being writers, we understand the frustration of waiting for months and months for an editor's reply. Our target is to reply within three months, and we do allow simultaneous submissions. Please inform us immediately if your story is accepted elsewhere. If your story is accepted for Vestal Review, please withdraw it from other markets immediately. We usually do not keep a submission on file after the reading period is over, so if you do not get an acceptance letter prior to the publication on an issue, your story probably has been rejected.

Multiple submissions are OK but please limit them to two per reading period (the time between two consecutive issues). Each multiple has to be submitted in a separate e-mail. As stated above, we will only take two submissions per author for each reading period. All submissions should be send electronically to this address:

address.

We do not accept US Mail (snail-mail) submissions. Those will be discarded or returned. Snail-mail submission without SASE will be discarded.

The submissions should be saved as a PLAIN TEXT file and pasted into the body of your e-mail. Please make sure that you do not have curly quotes in your pasted file. No attachments of any kind, please. This means no HTML either. Please indicate italics with asterisks (*). Write single-spaced, don't indent paragraphs and do insert a blank line between paragraphs.

Because of spam, please have the subject line of your e-mail begin with the words "query" or "submission." No quotes. Otherwise, we may not receive your correspondence.

For all submissions, the word "Submission" has to be the first one in the subject, followed by a colon and the title of your story. Please indicate the word count.

We will not consider any submissions above 500 words.

These guidelines are created to make the editors' lives easier and our replies faster. If you won't follow them, we will have to return your submission unread!

A cover letter is great. Please enclose a 2-3 line third-person bio. We would like to know whom we are dealing with. Don't forget your legal name and the postal address so we can mail you the check. We will not consider an anonymous submission.

So, please send us your best and let's work together.

The Editors