Terrific Tuesday to You: Writing Updates, Shout-Outs, and Some Markets

And to think: I actually dimmed this somewhat to take down the brightness.

Well, hello there! I shall have been returning and I have returned. (?)

But seriously, welcome (back)! I’m glad to have you visiting me.

On top of the busted ankle, so to speak, I’ve been doing copywriting out of my ears. Not titillating writing, but it certainly helps with the bills. And the Randys, Adams, Jakes, Simons, etc. (Or should I say with the GEs, Maytags, and fine furniture everywhere on the Internetz and on this great little dot we call a planet?)

Anyway, since I love doing the writing market posts, I figured what the heck. I’m behind in weekly posting once again. This is a good way to go, methinks.

Perhaps these will help you? I do hope so.

NOVELLAS

• The Fantasist, which bills
  

  Unlike the northeastern U.S., we got only a dusting of snow.

  itself as a magazine of fantasy novels, is open for submissions for a space-opera novella of up t0 50,000 words max, 15K minimum. This is a newer market, but also a paying one, $100 per novella on publication. Their submissions cycle will close at Midnight CST on 13 May 2017. They also say, “In Issue 4, we want you to take us into space and to other planets and remind us that there’s magic there too. Think of the Darkover books and the works of Jack Vance, Stanislaw Lem, Celia S. Friedman, Yoon Ha Lee, or Ann Leckie. Think of comic books like Saga, Ursula K. Le Guin’s planet Winter, Dune, or, let’s be honest, Star Wars and Babylon 5. We believe that fantasy is fantasy first because it feels like fantasy.” When they have open submissions, it looks like they’re still very interested in urban fantasy. Check ’em out sometime! You can support them on Patreon as well.

FICTION (and such)

Ah, the bread-and-butter of my heart’s warmed cockles. Does that sound right? Well, no matter. Here are some potential markets with a variety of themes and foci.

1. Pounce on this one right away, folks . . . due by 15 March, Three Drops from a Cauldron is on the lookout for fiction and poetry surrounding the subject/holiday/tradition of Beltane. Specifically, they say, “[it’s] time to submit your poetry and flash fiction of myths, folklore, legends, fables, and fairytales with a spring and summer, green and growing feel. . . . But please keep in mind we are a journal of mythology, folklore, fairytales, and legends. If you send poetry or fiction that is only about nature, with no mythical or folkloric element to it, it will be declined.” Look at their guidelines and familiarize yourself with their publication (if you’re not already); this is a UK publication. Much luck to you if you give them a go!
2. Split Lip magazine seeks your flash fiction under 1K (but state 750 is better), memoir, poetry, and prose of up to 3,500 words (although shorter is better). They are an unpaying market but seem to publicize the hell out of their writers, at least on Twitter and Facebook. This open-themed submission cycle ends 31 March (and it’s free to submit), so get to work! You can also pay into their tip jar for submissions at other times.
3. Tupelo Quarterly*, well into their 12th submission cycle, is on the hunt for submissions of creative nonfiction (CNF), traditional short stories (no more than 15 double-spaced pages), lyric essays, short stories, hybrid texts, flash fiction, and excerpts from longer manuscripts. There doesn’t seem to be a reading fee here,  but act quickly: by the dreaded (among some Americans) 15 April. They elaborate about what they want from prose submissions: “Send us work that surprises us, that expands our sense of what is possible within a literary text.” *Note that Tupelo Press (TP) also sponsors the yearly Kundiman Prize in poetry, with submissions open right now. The good news is: TP supports poetry and poets; for this prize, they specifically seek Asian-American poets. The potentially not-so-good news: you’ve got to get a 50- to 70-page manuscript to them by 15 March. Yikes! (Oh, and there’s a $28 reading fee, but a top prize of publication and $1,000).  As ever, good luck!
4. The Jerry Jazz Musician swings hard into its next cycle of short fiction awards (top prize $100 and publication in an anthology; no entry fee either). With a focus on middle 20th-century America, particularly the counterculture with regard to jazz music, literature, politics, theater and so on, this looks to be an exciting market. From 3,000 to 5,000 words (but 3,000 and under preferred; check their guidelines), due by 31 May. Bop on over to their site for the low-down, y’all.
5. Near and dear to me, the Linda Flowers Award resumes after a 2-year hiatus. Yay, funding for the arts and humanities! Imagine that. North Carolina-based writers or those with a deep appreciation for its culture/traditions, arts, people, scenic beauty, and, yes, its weaknesses are invited to submit fiction or poetry pieces under 10 pages (minimum of three) from now through June 16, 2017. Ample time to craft something special, methinks (mehopes? medreams? meimagines?), so get going those of you who are interested. And good luck.

OTHER SUCH STUFF

• Speaking of novellas, friend and fellow WordPresser and writer Ali Abbas has just had his steampunk novella, Like Clockwork, released from Transmundane Press. It’s even got a god’s-honest book trailer and a giveaway. Sweet! And even better, it’s available in so many different forms (and very inexpensively, I might add): Createspace, Amazon, pdf, and so on. I can’t wait to get mine—romance, British naval history, steampunk. What’s not to love?

• Danger Will Robinson, danger! Just kidding. A new-ish pulp-fiction style magazine based around positive views of the future but with an eye toward the past, called Retro Future, is seeking patrons, readers, and (in the future, I hope) contributors. They’ve just gone through a three-issue cycle, and I hope to see more from them. If you can and it catches your fancy, spare a few dollars for the little indies out there, like this one. Because robots. That’s why. 🙂

• I was going to include another item, but it’s in May, so there’s time still and this seems like plenty. Here’s a tiny item, though:

PERSONAL SUBMISSION STATS

January 2017: 5 submissions; 4 rejections, 1 waiting/unknown

February 2017: 5 submissions; 2 rejections, 3 waiting/unknown

And two outstanding submissions from 2016 (October and December, respectively). Oh, and two stories slated to be published (science fiction); one in the spring, one approximately Augustish 2017. So that’s happening. I’ll let you know the full thrills in excruciating detail as soon as I have them.

I encourage you to keep records surrounding your submissions/commissions and publications or showings, if you are a working writer, musician, or other artist. It doesn’t just help with taxes; it can be an encouragement tool and dispel the notion of imposter syndrome.

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