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Speculative Fiction

GAMUT

Description

Gamut—the magazine that published over 100 speculative stories in 2017—will return as House of Gamut, a global nonprofit featuring an online magazine, a publishing arm, and a teaching academy for writers.

As a home for readers and writers of dark speculative fiction, our team at House of Gamut is dedicated to giving people spellbinding works to read through our publishing house and online magazine, while serving writers during all stages of their careers with courses from professional writers and industry experts.

Our newly launched online magazine—as well as novels, collections, and anthologies—will focus on dark speculative fiction and non-fiction across a wide range of genres including fantasy, science fiction, horror, thrillers, neo-noir, new-weird, transgressive fiction, magical realism, and literary fiction that leans into genre.

Speculative Fiction

apparition lit

Positive Science Fiction & Fantasy

DreamForge

Description

DreamForge is a fantasy and science fiction magazine that looks for positive stories.

We like to see science fiction and fantasy stories with a positive vibe, where the human adventure is just beginning. Solar Punk and Hope Punk themed stories are welcome. We’re open to all genres of science fiction and fantasy, as long as they are not focused on horror and/or dark outcomes. This year, we’re also looking for stories to meet our 2024 double issue theme of “The Grand Uplift.”

Submission Hints

We become what we imagine! So, all DreamForge stories engage readers with strong, empathetic characters and welcoming communities committed to positive outcomes. With our 2024 Mega Issue taking on the theme of “The Grand Uplift,” we hope to encourage stories with:

A dramatic turning point or event that sparks a wave of positive change and growth. A powerful movement or process that brings about positive change on a large scale, such as social, economic, or cultural advancements.

A collective endeavor or initiative that seeks to elevate humanity’s knowledge, understanding, or wisdom.

A period of rapid progress, innovation, and development in various fields, such as science, technology, art, or philosophy. A sense of unity and shared purpose among people working together towards a common goal of betterment and upliftment.

Stories for “The Grand Uplift” will suggest an inspiring and momentous shift that benefits humanity, fostering a sense of hope, progress, and optimism.

Speculative

feisty felines and other fantastical familiars

Description

A collection of fun and thought-provoking stories about magical animal familiars and their humans. Familiars can be feisty felines or other imaginative animals. This is the fifth anthology put together by the Publishing masters degree students at Western Colorado University, taught by bestselling author Kevin J. Anderson and award-winning editor Allyson Longueira, funded by Draft2Digital.

Previous anthologies include Monsters, Movies, and Mayhem; Unmasked; Gilded Glass; and the just-released Merciless Mermaids: Tails from the Deep. See the examples at http://wordfirepress.com/gpcw

Submission Hints

We're familiar with familiars ... or are we? Gifted adventurers across time and space have traveled with an animal familiar—often a cat, but other fuzzy, scaly, or prickly creatures make appearances, too. These magical companions might lead their humans into mischief, help them out of a sticky situation, or provide opinionated commentary along the way.

But when the wizards are away, the familiars will play.

Feisty Felines and Other Fantastical Familiars is an original collection that shines the limelight on the sidekicks, the familiars. Familiars have lives of their own, a sense of humor, and a shadowy underbelly that we totally overlook.

Does the Siamese cat companion develop powers of telekinesis … maybe to knock deadly potions off the counter? What happens when a rat studies to become a familiar in a class full of cats? Is the circus leopard really the puppet master who makes her handler look good?

They don’t all have to be felines. What about unfamiliar familiars? A time-traveling elephant that never forgets a grudge against his warlock? A lowly earthworm horrified to find itself bonded for life to an ungrateful enchanter?

Now it's time for these fantastical familiars to take the main stage. Make your stories humorous, dark, or heartwarming—so long as the familiar is the central figure in the story. We’re looking for writing with all the wit, mischief, and charmingly complex character of cats themselves.

Think outside the litter box and send us something unique that finally gives these familiars the fame and glory they deserve.

This KICKSTARTER is LIVE! Plus, I'm buying stories as we hit stretch goals! Ever wish you could write better ad copy? I'm offering a A WORKSHOP on how to craft compelling copy.

Speculative

here there be dragons

Fantasy & Science Fiction

uncanny

Description

Uncanny magazine specializes in stories that make you feel. Classifying itself as an on-line/eBook/podcast SF/F magazine, their cover art is breathtaking. It has won multiple Hugo Awards, a Parsec Award, and a British Fantasy Award. The two Editors-in-Chief; Lynne M. Thomas, and Michael Damian Thomas, have also won several Hugo Awards. It is a SFWA-qualified market.  From the website:  “Uncanny Magazine is an online Science Fiction and Fantasy magazine featuring passionate SF/F fiction and poetry, gorgeous prose, provocative nonfiction, and a deep investment in the diverse SF/F culture. Each issue contains intricate, experimental stories and poems with verve and imagination that elicit strong emotions and challenge beliefs, from writers of every conceivable background. Uncanny believes there’s still plenty of room in the genre for tales that make you feel.”

Speculative

metastellar

Feminist Horror

Last girls club

Submission Hints

I want stories from the female gaze (think Aliens, Resident Evil, Hereditary, Tank Girl). I’m tired of reading what men want to do to us. I want to read what we want to do to them. Bring me smart female protagonists whose first inclinations are not to seduce the guard to get out of situations; they’ve got skills, they can get violent easily. I’m fine with them developing over the course of the story into someone like that, but please don’t revert to clichés unless you have your tongue firmly in your cheek. Please don’t use graphic rape for fridging purposes. If it’s part of a character’s backstory or development, fine, but don’t shoot the damn dog just to piss off your main character. My focus is horror, supernatural, and creeping dread. I’m not averse to extreme/slasher horror. I always love a bit of sci-fi or dystopia, but it’s not our focus, so if it’s your venue, make it scary. If you spackle a layer of women’s issues into it, even better; disenfranchisement, slut-shaming, trans violence, racism, misogyny, sex work exploitation, inequitable emotional work and housework, whatever exists in this world that pisses you off, feel free to put a metaphorical ax between its eyebrows.

Speculative

crepuscular

Submission Hints

Rebecca is the flash fiction editor for Apex magazine and this is her micro fiction brain child.
This is her hint for success:
Surprise me. One thing I noticed with the microfiction themes is that there would be a lot of stories that were fairly similar in theme. The month the theme was VOID, for instance, I read a lot of black hole stories. Some of them were excellent, but the winning story took the theme and used it in an unexpected way. Crepuscular isn’t themed beyond the overarching theme of in- betweenness, but I still want stories that make my jaw drop open, whether because the use of language is so unique or because the story goes somewhere I wasn’t expecting or because it touches my soul in some way. Surprise me!

Literary Adventure Fantasy

beneath ceaseless skies

Submission Hints

“We love traditional adventure fantasy, but we also love how the influence of literary writing on fantasy short fiction has expanded the genre, encouraging writers to use literary devices such as tight points-of-view and discontinuous narratives; to feature conflicts that are internal as well as external. We want stories that combine the best of both these styles—set in vivid fantasy or historical paranormal worlds but written with all the flair and impact of modern literary-influenced fantasy.”  To help understand what kind of world they’re looking for; here is how they describe secondary-world settings:  “We want stories set in what Tolkien called a “secondary world”: some other world that is different from our own primary world in some way. It could be different in terms of zoology (non-human creatures), ecology (climate), or physical laws (the presence of magic).  It could be set on Earth but an Earth different from our modern-day primary world in terms of time (the pre-modern historical past of our real-world Earth) or history (alternate history from our Earth’s history). It could have a “pre-tech” level of technology, or steampunk technology, or magic as technology, or anything else that’s not advanced or modern technology. However, the setting should contain some element that is in some way fantastical, and the qualities of the setting should have some bearing on the rest of the story.  We are NOT interested in urban fantasy or other types of stories set in our modern, contemporary “real world,” even if they contain fantasy elements, or in stories that move between the real world and a fantasy world.”

Science Fiction

escape pod

Description

Escape Pod is a science fiction market. We are fairly flexible on what counts as science (superheroes! steampunk! space opera! time travel!) and are interested in exploring the range of the genre. We want stories that center science, technology, future projections, and/or alternate history, and how any or all of these things impact individuals and society.

Escape Pod leans in the direction of escapism, hopepunk and optimism rather than grimdark and gloom. We love to see funny stories, which can include dark humor that doesn’t punch down, and satire that isn’t painfully bleak. Remember that the failure mode of irony is sincerity, so if you’re mocking something, be sure you’re hitting the right target.

Submission Hints

We’re not interested in stories that contain sexual assault, rape, child abuse, animal cruelty, gore, or horror. We also do not want to see stories that treat the hardships of marginalized people or groups as thought experiments. While we may have published stories with that type of content in the past, they are not currently a good fit for Escape Pod. Our primary audience is adult listeners and readers. Strong language and sexual situations are fine, but we are not an erotica market.

Speculative Fiction

translunar TravelLers lounge

Description

Who doesn’t want to submit to a venue that’s looking for fun? Just the name alone of this magazine is absolutely brilliant. Translunar Travelers Lounge is published twice a year and asks for stories that explore the fun side of fantasy and science fiction.  

From the website:  “Put down your bags, take a seat, and relax with our fine selection of short fiction. Broadly defined, the type of fiction we are looking for is “fun”. Yes, that descriptor is highly subjective, and ultimately it comes down to the personal preferences of the editors. However, here are a few road signs to get you started on the path into our hearts."

Submission Hints

A fun story, at its core, is one that works on the premise that things aren’t all bad; that ultimately, good wins out.
This doesn’t necessarily mean that your story has to be silly or lighthearted (though it certainly can be). Joy can be made all the more powerful when juxtaposed against tragedy. In the end, though, there should be hope, and we want stories that are truly fun for as many different kinds of people as possible.

 Swashbuckling adventure, deadly intrigue, and gleeful romance are some of the most obvious examples of what we’re looking for, but we won’t say no to more subtle or complicated topics, as long as they fit under the wider “fun” umbrella.”

Bizarre Science Fiction

Planet Scumm

Submission Hints

“On Planet Scumm, we want to read stories that are different and unexpected. Stories that introduce new ideas, or that look at old ideas with a fresh perspective.  They are looking for: Hard sci-fi, soft sci-fi, sci-fi that melts in your mouth-brain not your hand-brain. Speculative fiction, weird fiction, slipstream Basically anything that pleases Scummy, our megaphone-toting slime buddy, will be considered for entry to the interstellar archive aboard Scummy’s saucer.”

Speculative

amplitudes

Description

During a time of rising threat against queer and trans people's flourishing, this anthology project aims to imagine other, better worlds as an act of literary resistance. Inspired by the words of José Esteban Muñoz, “the future is queerness’s domain," these stories explore what might happen if the oppressive status quo of the here and now is rejected—instead asking, but what if things were different? Whether speculating on new technologies and cultural shifts; imagining community politics through utopias and dystopias; exploring the materiality of how queer and trans people navigate an ever-changing world as well as their own relationships; or something else entirely: the stories Amplitudes seeks will offer engaged, imaginative perspectives on "queer futurity."

Submission Hints

Amplitudes aims to gather together the works of writers from many backgrounds envisioning the dynamic, resilient possibilities of queer and trans futures. The editors welcome fiction that is playful, serious, sexy, experimental, frightening, hopeful—or all of the above, in hopes of revitalizing our queer imaginations and inspiring dreams of new possibilities. Amplitudes is open to any and all forms of speculative fiction, including cross-genre and/or literary works. (In other words, feel free to get weird with it!)

Speculative

khoreo

Submission Hints

khōréō is dedicated to diversity and amplifying the voices of immigrant and diaspora authors and artists. We welcome, but do not require, a brief description of the author’s/artist’s identity in their cover letter. We invite you to submit if you identify as an immigrant or member of a diaspora in the broadest definitions of the terms. This includes, but is not limited to, first- and second-generation immigrants, refugees, asylum seekers, undocumented migrants, persons who identify with one or more diaspora communities, persons who have been displaced or whose heritage has been erased due to colonialism/imperialism, transnational/transracial adoptees, and anyone whose heritage and history includes ‘here and elsewhere’.

Science Fiction & Fantasy

zombies need brains

Description

FAMILIARS: Animals have been our companions since the dawn of time, but in science fiction and fantasy, often that bond is taken one magical—or technological—step further. From the ubiquitous black cats in witchcraft to the treecats in David Weber’s Honor Harrington universe, Anne McCaffery’s dragons of Pern to Mercedes Lackey’s horse-like Companions in her Valdemar universe, familiars have played a part in stories since paper met pen. In FAMILIARS, we ask writers to stretch their imagination and give us their most inventive furry, feathered, or scaly companions in tales of fantasy, science fiction, mystery, or horror. Edited by Patricia Bray & Joshua Palmatier,

LAST-DITCH: In the heart-pounding world of espionage, it’s the spy that gets the dirty work done. From a longshot gamble to reverse the tides of war to a secret operation escaping with stolen plans, the task is often left to the double agent. Whether it’s for King and country or a private backer, the lone operative gets in and gets out…if only it was that easy. Edited by Troy Carrol Bucher and Gerald Brandt, this anthology will explore Science Fiction or Fantasy stories of back-against-the-wall, desperate purpose--Hail Marys launched when hope seems lost. The actions of the secret agent can change the tides for good or evil; it all depends on which side you are on.

AMPYRIUM: Welcome to Ampyrium, a city of a thousand wonders! May the trading be always in your favor. Powerful magicians called the Magnum have created a massive city contained within eight walls, each with its own portal to another world. Here, eight different magical lands collide. In these streets, all of the races from those worlds come to trade, to politic, to carouse, and to murder. Merchants and royalty, thieves and assassins; caravans and envoys, armies and entourages. Everyone…and everything…can be found in Ampyrium. Every dream can be made real. Every vice is available. Every wish can be fulfilled. All you have to do is stay clear of the Magnum…and their Eyes are everywhere.

AMPYRIUM will contain approximately seven stories all set within the shared world of Ampyria with an average length of 12,000 words each.

Sci Fi, Fantasy or Horror

inked in gray & Write Hive

Literary

the deadlands

Description

The Deadlands exists in liminal spaces between life, death, and elsewhere. We are looking for speculative fiction that concerns itself with death–but also everything death may involve. A ghost in a shadowed wood. An afterlife discovered through a rusted door. An abandoned house in the middle of a haunted field. A skeletal figure moving with intent toward something unseen. Death personified. Burials in troubled lands. A raised scythe against a clouded sky. Memento mori. The rivers of the dead. The sprawling underworlds beneath our feet.

The Deadlands would love to see stories from a worldwide perspective, different cultures, different approaches to death. We welcome stories from everyone, everywhere. Stories that feature characters impacted by someone passing away and processing the event of death, are fair game, but will likely be a hard sell. Stories about related subjects—zombies, demons, vampires, apocalypses, and the various undead—are not for us. An apocalypse may be your setting, but it isn’t your story. We are absolutely not interested in seeing weird West stories, steampunk tales, or military fiction. We are not interested in stories involving Lovecraft’s mythos. Humor will be a harder sell than heartbreaking. If your story begins with someone waking up, it is not for us.

Submission Hints

We are never far from death—Dante reminds us. It is always there, just out of sight, around the bend in the road. The faraway nearby, Rebecca Solnit says. We could step past a tree in that wild forest and be there. Where? The Deadlands.

The Deadlands is a monthly speculative fiction magazine. We publish short stories, poems, and essays about the other realms, of the ends we face here, and the beginnings we find elsewhere. It is an adventure into the unknown, to meet those who live there still, even though they may be dead. Death is a journey we all will take, but we’d like to peek at the map before we go.

We are generally open to fiction and nonfiction submissions, except for a year-end holiday closure. Poetry submissions are open the first two weeks of every month, resuming in February 2022. Explore our guidelines and read our issues to see what we’re publishing and if your work might fit.

Mystery & Speculative

black beacon

Description

For this anthology, we're looking for pirate tales, prefereably about pirates and buccaneers from the 16th to 18th centuries. Stories set in completely fictional/fantasy worlds will be considered but are likely to be a hard sell. That said, we're interested in stories belonging to various genres just so long as the central characters and setting are pirates or centred on the theme of piracy, even if the story is set in the present. For example, a ghost story featuring a legendary pirate or a mystery about a lost treasure. We're not looking for sci-fi or futuristic stories. As usual, if you have any questions, just get in touch.

Speculative

grendel press

Submission Hints

This anthology is an exploration of PLACE and FANTASY, so the MC in the story needs to actually find themselves in a new world/city/place that they’ve either never been before or haven’t been for a long time. (I’m leaving this vague so you have room for nostalgia along with the weird and unexpected, not so you can make any story fit in two seconds.) Also, please don’t shove the anthology requirements at the beginning of your story all at once. That does not endear you to the editors, nor is it in good spirit of the anthology.

Horror

northern Nights

Description

“Deep silence fell about the little camp, planted there so audaciously in the jaws of the wilderness. The lake gleamed like a sheet of black glass beneath the stars. The cold air pricked. In the draughts of night that poured their silent tide from the depths of the forest, with messages from distant ridges and from lakes just beginning to freeze, there lay already the faint, bleak odors of coming winter.” — Algernon Blackwood, The Wendigo

“Canadians are fond of a good disaster, especially if it has ice, water, or snow in it. You thought the national flag was about a leaf, didn’t you? Look harder. It’s where someone got axed in the snow.” — Margaret Atwood, Strange Things: The Malevolent North in Canadian Literature

Northern Nights is a proposed horror/dark fiction anthology in the vein of previous anthologies of Canadian speculative fiction — Northern Stars (Hartwell & Grant, eds.); Northern Suns (Hartwell & Grant, eds.) — and the 5 volume Northern Frights series (Don Hutchison, ed).

Black glassy lakes. Dark woods. Ancient pines and maples. Abandoned highways. Ghost towns. Preternatural light. The Midnight Sun. Uncanny valleys. An indigo sky spiked with bright white stars. The darkening garden. The sting of the whooshing north wind. The killing cold. A cry in the dark. It’s another night in the Canadian north. Night and all its torments.

Cozy Horror

Spooky magazine

Description

Cozy horror. Fun horror. Classy horror. Dare we say, wholesome horror?

Oxymoron? We don’t think so. One place you can start your exploration of this idea is an article from Nightmare Magazine penned by one of our co-founders.

But perhaps the easiest way to understand what we mean is to read stories by some of the old masters we love: Ray Bradbury, Charles Beaumont, Richard Matheson, Robert Bloch, Roald Dahl. Watch classic episodes of Thriller, The Twilight Zone, and Night Gallery. Read old horror comics. Listen to radio dramas like Suspense, Quiet, Please, and Inner Sanctum Mysteries. Consume enough vintage horror, and you’ll probably begin to get an idea of the type of thing that’s likely to appeal to us.

In short, we’re looking to provide a space for a type of storytelling that has largely gone out of style – dark and scary, but playful and approachable with an emphasis on plot. To clarify further, here’s a list of things we want and things we don’t, which may help you hit the sweet spot.

Submission Hints

THINGS WE LOVE:

Stories with a moral core. It need not happen in every tale, but we like to see good prevail (or at least evil punished). Ironic justice, in which cleverly nasty things happen to bad people, as in old EC comics, makes us chuckle with ghoulish delight.

Well-earned twist endings. There’s nothing we love more than a really good surprise or a clever way to subvert our expectations. Pull the rug out from under us and leave us gasping.

High concept settings and situations reminiscent of the pulps. Androids, ghosts, aliens, old castles, vampires, dinosaurs, deals with the devil, mad scientists, Wild West gunslingers, and so on. All are welcome. Give us thrilling adventures dipped in the macabre. Remember – old tropes are great, so long as your story is doing something new with them.

Tales of the fantastic invading ordinary settings. Bring terrible and unpredictable horrors into the suburbs, into our workplaces, into our homes.

Magical realism. Don’t worry too much about explaining how or why strange things happen. We are perfectly willing to accept that they do and move on to the good stuff in the story.

Playfulness and dark humor. We’re not looking for blatant comedy, but a certain level of mischief and glee will go a long way in making your story a fit for SPOOKY.

Classic Americana. Halloweeny hijinks. Campfire stories. Stuff that makes us feel like kids.

Personal Insights

I love the concept of this! Especially as I am going to try my first kickstarter with my own collections of Cozy Horror. Josh Strnad contacted me on Facebook when he saw this post! (people actually read my blog?!? Excellent.) Here is the extra advice I got from him.

"Fun" will probably be the most unifying feature, though that can look like a lot of things. Imagine going through a really good haunted house, in which the shocks make your pulse race, but don't leave you sad afterward. We're not likely to want anything terribly heavy thematically.
A healthy dose of irony will probably go a long way with us as well, although we're not looking for parodies or jokes.

Speculative

necropolis

Description

The death spiral of a great metropolis.

What happens when cities are stripped of their purpose?

We’re looking for stories of the monsters that lurk in the skeletons of brutalist structures. The strange rituals of those who found ways of surviving. Labyrinths of crumbling stone. Spirits inhabiting a dilapidated ballroom. Plants flourishing in abandoned train stations. Chimaeras stalking the ruins of a long forgotten urban landscape.

The cities can be real or imaginary. The editor has a fondness for strange stories which embrace ambiguity. Think weird for this call.

Speculative

air & Nothingness press

Description

We Are All Thieves of Somebody's Future which will collect stories with the theme: Resource Scarcity - using up the last of a critical resource and dealing with the aftermath. While stories could be dystopic (ex. the last tree), authors could also explore hopepunk (losing a resource leads to something unforeseen and positive), solarpunk (a pollution laden resource leads to a better solution), fantasy (the last dragon). We are open to all genres. All stories are requested to be between 1000 and 3000 words in length.

Authors may explore any genre with their stories and we encourage a wide variety of ideas and interpretations.

HINT - Click on picture to be taken to submission guidelines

Speculative Fiction

GAMUT

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Insight

Speculative Fiction

apparition lit

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Insight

Positive Science Fiction & Fantasy

DreamForge

Description

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My Insights

Speculative

feisty felines and other fantastical familiars

Description

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Insights

Speculative

here there be dragons

Details

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My Insights

Fantasy & Science Fiction

uncanny

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Sample Rejection

Speculative

metastellar

Description

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My Insights

Feminist Horror

Last girls club

Description

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My Insights

Speculative

crepuscular

Description

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My Insights

Literary Adventure Fantasy

beneath ceaseless skies

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Personal Insights

Science Fiction

escape pod

Description

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My Insights

Speculative Fiction

translunar TravelLers lounge

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Sample Rejection

Bizarre Science Fiction

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My Experience with Them

Speculative

amplitudes

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Personal Insights

Speculative

khoreo

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