The Inevitable at One Forty Fiction

Proud to say, One Forty Fiction has published another one of my micro stories, The Inevitable. If you haven't spent any time on their site lately, do so. You can read a dozen stories in about 5 mins.

Submissions are open and guidelines can be found here.

Weather-Plagued at Necon e-Books

I'm happy to report my story, Weather-Plagued, received an honorable mention at Necon e-Books for their monthly flash fiction contest. It will also be included in their year-end anthology. You can read my story, all the other winning and honorable mentions, and view guidelines here.

They are now accepting submissions for their May contest. The theme is "A Recipe for Horror (Food and Drink)." Per their web page, "This is purposefully another very broad topic — your story must simply center somehow around food or drink (eating, cooking, restaurants, vineyards, distilleries, gardens, grocery shopping, etc.). However, a word of warning in advance — much like the culinary arts, our judges are going to favor "gourmet creativity" over "fast food convenience" when it comes to this theme. In other words, if you take an obvious approach to link food to horror (like cannibalism or zombies eating brains), you better knock our socks off! After all, we published a novel about gourmet canibals (THE EPICURE by Holly Newstein & Ralph W. Bieber, available HERE and also as part of our HAUTALA/NEWSTEIN BUNDLE), so the bar's already been set extremely high! Our standard 100 word count limit applies."

Living the Hero Dream at The Story Shack

Devlin was one of thirty-two people who answered the newspaper ad for Superhumans— with REAL powers only— wanted for secret society squadron. My superhero story, Living the Hero Dream, is live at The Story Shack.

My sincere thanks to editor, Martin Hooijmans for publishing it, and to illustrator, James Brown for bringing my characters to life.

The eBook for 10 Days of Madness is now available!

Chris Allinotte has released the 10 Days of Madness anthology.

Book description:

The Madness is Back!

The third annual "Days of Madness" short story anthology is back with twenty new short-short tales that explore the extremes of the human condition, and beyond!

Ride shotgun with a distraught father as he floors it down the highway in pursuit of justice.

Answer the "Babysitters wanted" ad in your local paper, but be ready for the game of your life.

When frogs scream like crickets and mermaids become reality, you've in for a wild ride through ten days of madness.

Features new stories from the pens of Richard Godwin, Benjamin Sobieck, Anthony Cowin, Angel Zapata, J.J. Steinfeld, L.W. Salinas, Matthew Wilson, Jack Horne, Donald J. Uitvlugt, and Chris Allinotte.

Purchase it here.

The Housekeeper reviewed at The 5-2 Crime Poetry Weekly

Another surprise review of my crime poem, The Housekeeper, over at The 5-2 Crime Poetry Weekly. It's always wonderful to hear a reader's perspective on one's work. Read it here.

"The 5-2 John Ricotta reflects on Angel Zapata's "Housekeeper", as performed by our friend, Deshant Paul, on Day 27 of 30 Days of The 5-2." —Gerald So/editor

You can read the first review at Michael Arnzen’s Gorelets here.

Vegas at One Forty Fiction

My tiny story, Vegas, appeared at One Forty Fiction this past Friday. One Forty Fiction publishes work that is “140 characters long or shorter. Just as on Twitter, characters include spaces and punctuation marks. Any story longer than 140 characters (even stories that are 141 characters) will be rejected.”

Submissions are open and guidelines can be found here.

Open Submissions and Accepted Work

I’ve been busy, busy, busy crafting all sorts of poems and fiction these past months and it’s been paying off lately (no, not financially, but my heart is satisfied). There’s been a handful of published work thus far in 2013, and the future is looking bright and pretty. Submissions are still streaming out of my inbox at a steady, weekly rate, and acceptances (and rejections) have been aplenty.

Some new work of mine to look forward to in the coming months:

“Mara, Mara on the Wall” appearing online at Yellow Mama (Issue #38, June 15, 2013)

“Howl” appearing in print in Another 100 Horrors from Cruentus Libri Press

“Tattoo,” “The Robotics of Sex,” and “Cryptozoologist” appearing in a flash fiction print anthology from Leodegraunce

“The Inevitable” and “Vegas” appearing online at One Forty Fiction

“Living the Hero Dream” appearing online at The Story Shack

Submissions are still open for the majority of these publications. Follow the links and submit those masterpieces hiding in folders on your desktops.

Open Submissions at Haunted Waters Press and Treehouse Magazine

Haunted Waters Press is currently open for submissions for their From the Depths, Summer 2013 issue. The theme: Conversations. Per their website, “The Summer 2013 issue of From the Depths will feature works whose stories revolve around conversations and the sharing of words and ideas. We are looking for elegantly written fiction and poetry where the heart of the story lies within words shared in conversations between lovers, friends, strangers or even enemies. Submissions need not be dialogue driven. Stretch the limits with conversations of unspoken words and thoughts conveyed through actions.  As always, we seek writing that comes from the heart creating an emotional connection with our readers and poetry that is clear, meaningful and accessible. We look forward to reading your work!”

They are also taking submissions for the Penny Fiction: Flash Fiction section of the magazine. These are stories of exactly 42 words. “The King of Hearts proclaims that Rule Forty-two is the oldest rule in “the book.” The book, Lewis Carroll’s Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland, contains forty-two illustrations and the copyright expired forty-two years after publication. Haunted Waters Press editor, Penny Dreadful, is selecting exceptionally small works of flash fiction to be showcased in Penny Fiction, a regular feature of the literary journal, From the Depths.  Extra points will be awarded for entries with a connection to the Summer 2013 theme, and for those writers who adhere to the rules. Not really. There are no points. Just read the contest rules below and impress Penny with your ability to follow instructions.”

Read all the guidelines here.

 

Treehouse Magazine is hosting its First Annual Treehouse Literary Loot Contest for Unusual Prose! They are “interested in prose that does unusual stuff. In the past we’ve published stories in the form of to-do lists, invisible text with footnotes, survival guides, landlord-tenant correspondence, recipes, and also all kinds of inventive work that was linguistically, but not necessarily structurally, experimental. So if you think your story, essay, prose poem, or genrebender fits the bill, send it our way.”

 

Prizes include:

1.      A one-year subscription to Barrelhouse

2.      A one-year subscription to Booth

3.      A one-year subscription to Carolina Quarterly

4.      A one-year subscription to Ecotone

5.      Two latest issues from Gigantic

6.      A one-year subscription to Gulf Coast

7.      A one-year subscription to [PANK]

8.      A one-year subscription to REAL: Regarding Arts and Letters

 

There are many more prizes and incentives offered. You have until April 30th. Read all about it here.

Good luck, writer friends!

National Poetry Month, The 5-2 Crime Poetry Weekly, and Michael Arnzen

As April is National Poetry Month, many online journals and e-zines are celebrating poets of old and new. One poetry site, Gerald So’s The 5-2 Crime Poetry Weekly, is utilizing a blog tour to spotlight small press authors/poets all month long. Get on over to the 5-2 because there are some amazing poets whose work you need to read and support.

It was a privilege to have my work, “The Housekeeper,” originally published last November, chosen for the April 4^th feature (which also has an audio presentation recorded by Deshant Paul). What I didn’t expect was to have four-time Bram Stoker award winner, Michael Arnzen take time out of his busy schedule to talk about my work on his website, Gorelets.

Along with discussing my poem and a winning short story I wrote for MicroHorror, he acquaints us with the fascinating concept of Treffpunkt— “the rendezvous point or gathering place” for writers, editors, and readers to all come together. You can read all about it here.

An absolutely sincere thank you to The 5-2 Crime Poetry Weekly editor, Gerald So for the publication and to author Michael Arnzen for the much-needed encouragement.

10 Days of Madness: Days 3 thru 7

I’ve fallen behind this week, but I’m trying to catch up on all the astounding fiction published thus far at Chris Allinotte's The Leaky Pencil for its 10 Days of Madness marathon.

Support all these hard-working, talented writers by reading and letting them know you appreciate their words.

Day 3: Donald Jacob Uitvlugt and J.J. Steinfeld

Day 4: L.W. Salinas and Matthew Wilson

Day 5: Donald Jacob Uitvlugt, J.J. Steinfeld, and Anthony Cowin

Day 6: L.W. Salinas and Donald Jacob Uitvlugt

Day 7: J.J. Steinfeld and Benjamin Sobieck