Shortwave Publishing: Shortwave Magazine
They publish short horror, dark fantasy, and sci-fi fiction. There is no specific theme for this call. Their guidelines say, “If you browse the fiction section of our magazine, you will get a pretty good idea of what we like: psychological horror, creature features and slashers, quiet or cozy horror, sci-fi featuring retro tech, sci-fi set in the distant future, supernatural, and other weird dark fantasy.” Work sent outside the reading period will not be read.
Reading period: 9-15 September 2023
Length: 1,000-4,000 words (can submit up to 6,000 words, payment capped at 4,000 words)
Pay: $0.05/word
Details here.

Shoreline of Infinity
They accept science fiction stories. They will open for a brief period in September.
Reading period: 21-24 September 2023
Length: Up to 6,000 words
Pay: £20/1,000 words
Details here.

The Ex-Puritan
This Canadian magazine publishes fiction, nonfiction, experimental/hybrid work, interviews, reviews, and poetry. They accept a limited number of fee-free submissions every month. (They also have fee-based submissions and contests.)
Deadline: 25 September 2023, or until filled, for the next issue; reads year-round
Length: Up to 10,000 words for fiction, up to 4 poems; various for nonfiction (see guidelines)
Pay: CAD200 per essay; CAD150 for fiction; CAD100 per interview or review; CAD35 per poem (or page, capped at CAD120); CAD50+ per experimental or hybrid work, at an increasing scale depending on the nature of the piece
Details here and here.

The Paris Review opened for prose submissions on 1^st September, and while they have reached capacity on Submittable, they are accepting postal submissions of prose during their reading period, which is till 30^th September 2023. Pay is unspecified. Details here.

Split Lip Magazine
Split Lip Magazine is a voice-driven literary journal with a pop culture twist. They publish online monthly and in print annually – memoir, flash fiction, short stories, poetry, and art, as well as interviews and reviews (for interviews and reviews, query first via webform – see guidelines). For memoir, they say, “Give us the dirty lowdown. We love memoir that shines a new light on the human condition. There are no limitations on subject matter.” Fee-free submissions for all writers are open during certain months, including September and November; these can close earlier by category, if their Submittable cap is reached and at the time of writing, fee-free general submissions for poetry were no longer available. Fee-free submissions for Black writers are open till mid-December.
Deadline: 30 September 2023, or until filled, for general submissions
Length: Up to 3,000 words for fiction; up to 2,000 words for memoir; one poem
Pay is $75 for web contributions, $5/page for print, $50 for interviews/reviews, and $25 for mini-reviews for their web issues
Details here and here.

Event
This Canadian magazine accepts fee-free submissions of fiction and poetry. For fiction, they want “compelling characters, plots that surprise us, narratives that move  us, stories that have something new to say.” For poetry, “We love poems that are lyrical without being  overwrought, and are profound without being pretentious. We look for  honesty of emotion, and images that arrest us.” They accept non-fiction mostly via a contest, for which there is a submission fee.
Deadline: 30 September 2023 for fiction and poetry
Length: Up to 5,000 words for fiction, up to 8 poems
Pay: $40/page for poetry and $35/page for fiction, up to a maximum of $500
Details here and here.

Bio: S. Kalekar is the pseudonym of a regular contributor to this magazine. She can be reached here.

The Afterpast Review was founded in California, but it’s grown to include contributors from over 21 states and 16 countries. They publish writing on a broad range of topics, but their feminist mission is woven throughout: “We hope to learn from the past, cherish the present, and create a better future where everyone is treated with respect and dignity. We will empower today’s youths to create such a change.”

In keeping with this mission, The Afterpast Review is divided into three sections: The Past, which includes historical fiction, fables, myths, and fantasy writing; The Present, which includes creative nonfiction, narrative writing, poetry, and drama; and The Future, which includes science fiction and dystopian fiction. But submissions don’t need to fit neatly into one of these categories to be considered.

Poets may submit up to 5 poems, 200 lines or fewer. Authors of prose may submit up to three pieces, 5,000 words or fewer total. The Afterpast Review accepts a wide range of prose including flash writing, fantasy, magical realism, science fiction, and creative nonfiction. They also accept scripts of dramas, 10 pages or fewer.

The Afterpast Review also invites authors to submit blog articles. Authors may submit up to two guest blog posts, 3,000 words or fewer each.

Submitting authors can usually expect a response very quickly, within 24 hours, although sometimes it can take up to one week. All authors will receive editorial feedback on their submissions. They are open to submissions year round.

The Afterpast Review does accept previously published writing. Authors should note previously published work in a cover letter and should credit the original publisher.

The Afterpast Review accepts submissions via email, not online or by post. They accept simultaneous submissions but ask that authors withdraw work published elsewhere.

The Afterpast Review only accepts submissions that follow the guidelines they’ve posted online. Please read these guidelines in full before submitting.

If you would like to learn more or submit to The Afterpast Review, please visit their website here.

Bio: Ella Peary is the pen name for an author, editor, creative writing mentor, and submission consultant. Over the past five years, she’s written hundreds of articles for Authors Publish, and she’s also served as a copywriter and copy editor for a wide range of organizations and individuals. She is the author of The Quick Start Guide to Flash Fiction. She occasionally teaches a course on flash fiction. You can contact her at ellapeary@gmail.com.

Gibson House Press is an independent publisher that publishes 1-2 books a year. They have good covers, and a clear easy to navigate website. Although one of my impressions from the website is that they are equally focused on recruiting authors as they are recruiting readers. This is often not a good sign, and is unusual for a publisher that produces so few books a year. But part of why they might do that, is that their focus is rather niche, as they put it, “We publish excellent novels written by working musicians and musicians at heart.”

Many of the authors they work with are musicians like Junior Burke, but some like Amy Casey appear not to be, although music still seems to play a major role in the novel they’ve published by her, which has a playlist to go with it.  They officially state, “We consider adult literary fiction by writers in any genre/subject matter, especially the work of those traditionally underrepresented in literary publishing,” but I probably would hold off submitting if music doesn’t play some sort of role in your fiction, or if you are not a musician. Please spend some time on their website with their catalog before considering submitting to see if your work is a good fit.

Some of their novels have sold well and gathered a fair number of reviews for small press books on Amazon (around 50). They are distributed by Publishers Group West (an imprint of Ingram that represents a number of well known publishers, and is much more focused on distribution than the overarching Ingram brand).

They ask that writers submit complete full-length novels that are between 50,000 and 80,000 words in length. Also submit a cover letter that includes a brief bio and a synopsis of your novel. If they are interested they will contact you in three months, if they have not contacted you within this period of time, assume rejection.

To learn more, visit their submission guidelines here.

Emily Harstone is the author of many popular books, including The Authors Publish Guide to Manuscript Submissions, Submit, Publish, Repeat, and The 2023 Guide to Manuscript Publishers. She regularly teaches three acclaimed courses on writing and publishing at The Writer’s Workshop at Authors Publish. You can follow her on Facebook here.

The blank screen on your laptop is just as painful to look at as a piece of blank paper sitting on a typewriter. The lack of writing ideas has put you in a slump, as it has done for many other writers throughout writing history.

What you need is an idea jar – quite literally. I remember my mother making a job jar for my father, so he always knew what jobs needed doing. It worked: the jobs were taken care of, though the job jar was always full. Find a jar and a notepad, or a stack of post-it notes and start jotting down words that could potentially be great ideas for a story. Stick them in the jar or on an idea board and every time you face this slump again, this writer’s block, pull out an idea.

Okay, so, seriously, this trick only works if you can come up with some story ideas to begin with. What are story ideas? Simply put, story ideas are the reason why writers write. German philosopher, Friedrich Nietzsche is often quoted for his one liner, “Without music, life would be a mistake.” I think these profound words could be said about any creative venture. Certainly, without story ideas, there would be no stories. Without these story ideas, there wouldn’t be a need for a vocabulary to write these ideas. Imagine not needing words – where would that leave us?

So, we agree that writers need to have these story ideas, but where are they? Simply put: all around you. Life is the greatest of story ideas. Just living your life will help you find your story ideas. All you need to do is listen, absorb, and observe. Read the news, read magazines and books, watch television and movies, listen to conversations around you and pay attention to conversations that you are involved in, listen to music of all genres and let the words and the sounds inspire you. The list goes on. Sometimes the best ideas just pop into a writer’s head, or in a dream or a nightmare. I remember my father sharing stories each morning about the bizarre dreams he had the previous night. He was a lively communicator and storyteller, and his dreams came alive as he wove them into an oral story.

Since stories reflect you, write what you know. How many times have you heard that catch phrase? Well, it’s true, to a point. You can’t write about something you know nothing about, unless you do some intense research and make sure you learn the topic inside out. Writing what you know, however, is always a good place to start. If you’re a hobbyist, or a gardener, or a biker, or a hiker, you have a passion for certain topics and you know what you’re talking about. So, write about your hobby, your garden, your latest biking or hiking adventure. Write about you!

Do you like to read? Silly question, I know. All writers like to read. If they don’t, they shouldn’t be writers. But reading cannot only give you ideas, they can teach you new things to include in your writing, like witchcraft and magic, for those who haven’t written about either before. And you can write about the books you read, or even write book reviews. Book reviewing is another good place to start with your writing.

Take a look at other writers and how they find their ideas. Kathy Reich is a best-selling author of murder mysteries based on her experience working as a forensic anthropologist. Her ideas evolve from cases she’s solved or is working on solving. You would think a lawyer like John Grisham would get most of his ideas from cases he’s worked on. Certainly, his experience as a lawyer helps him navigate the fine art of investigation and standing up in court. But a lot of his ideas come from newspaper articles. Regarding his novel The Guardians, for instance, he acknowledged Austin-based investigative reporter, Pamela Colloff, whose work he came across, and whose research has unraveled some startling truths about the judicial system.

Not all authors stick to familiar topics. Some authors like to bite the bullet and explore the unknown, the controversial and the troubling news that plagues are communities. Jodi Picoult is one of the most controversial fiction writers today. And, yet her work is stellar, popular and challenges the simplest of minds to ask the most troubling questions facing society today. She writes about stem cell research, mercy killing, the death penalty, the right to die and many other ‘big’ questions. She challenges readers to think and find their own answers to what plagues the human race of the twenty-first century. She claims to enjoy writing about the unanswerable questions.

There are also writers who allow the story to pull them along, one page at a time, with no initial idea to set the plot in motion. David Rosenfelt is one of these authors. His dogs infiltrate the plots and add a touch of compassion and humor, but his stories evolve along with the writing process. The dogs are not the theme, but rather the lead into the plot.

So, what style works for you? Try different processes and experiment. And, basically, be observant at all times. Story ideas surround you. Here are some prompts to help you generate some fantastic ideas for future stories and articles:

Tips:

• Always have a notebook (paper or electronic) handy and jot down ideas as you think of them.
• Make it a daily routine to read and listen to the news – multiple times during the day. Take notes on key news items, or anything that might spark your interest. Even a small news item can develop into a big idea in a story.
• Take a daily walk through the neighborhood and observe what’s happening around you. A neighbor taking out the trash can develop into a serial killer getting rid of the evidence. The deer munching on a neighbor’s vegetable patch can develop into a garden story on how to protect your gardens from wildlife invasion.
• Get together with family or friends and listen to the conversation around you. Listen to conversations around you at work. It’s amazing what ideas will evolve from one simple statement, like “you don’t think she’d get rid of him, do you?” It might evolve into a complex murder mystery.

Or write like the Rosenfelt authors of this world and see where it’ll lead you. The ideas are out there and within you. All you need to do is write.

Emily-Jane Hills Orford is a country writer, living just outside the tiny community of North Gower, Ontario, near the nation’s capital. With degrees in art history, music and Canadian studies, the retired music teacher enjoys the quiet nature of her country home and the inspiration of working at her antique Jane Austen-style spinet desk, feeling quite complete as she writes and stares out the large picture window at the birds and the forest. She writes in several genres, including creative nonfiction, memoir, fantasy, and historical fiction. http://emilyjanebooks.ca