I got into work ridiculously early today and decided to look through some of my old posts while I waited for people to get in the office. I found several posts in September with comments that I never saw or responded to! Whoops. The comments were all made a week or more after I made the initial post, so this means I need to do better about going back and checking old posts for comments. Sorry. It’s part of the learning curve of blogging.

Moving on. I got my copy of Small Press Review/Small Magazine Review this week, so I was expecting to have tons of literary items for you, but not so much. I think this was one of the lightest issues I’ve seen. On the other hand, I also got the latest issue of one of my spec fic guides, and that had a lot of things going on, so we’re heavy on speculative fiction again. Go figure.

Contests

Student Writing Contest. Sponsored by The Atlantic Monthly, full-time students are invited to submit poetry, fiction, and personal or journalistic essays. The prizes are $1,000 for First, $500 for Second, $250 for Third and one-year subscriptions to The Atlantic Monthly for seven runners-up in each category. Submissions should be original, unpublished work (they may have appeared in student periodicals). There’s a max of three poems or 7,500 words of prose, and only one submission per category is allowed. Deadline for submissions is postmarked by December 1, 2007. Winners will be announced in the May 2008 issue. Winners will receive notification in March. Submissions will not be accepted via e-mail or fax.

Georgetown Review Prize. "Contest for short stories, poetry and creative nonfiction." Prize is $1000 and publication; runners-up receive publication. Entries are judged by the editors. Entry fee is $10 for first entry, $5 for each one thereafter. Make checks payable to Georgetown Review. Accepts inquiries by e-mail. Entry deadline is Nov. 15th, 2007. Entries should be unpublished. Contest open to anyone except family, friends of the editors. Theme for the contest is redemption. “We’d be equally interested in stories, poems, and essays about folks who find redemption and those who don’t. If the situation where redemption is pursued is obviously spiritual in nature, that’s fine, but if it’s secular or legal or something else, we’re equally interested. The work can be about families or individuals or criminals or saints or those of us who are probably somewhere in between.  It can be about dogs or cats or cows or fish, for that matter—as long as it involves some situation in which redemption or the pursuit or avoidance of it plays a part.” All submissions are considered for publication, and in the past lots of runners-up have been chosen for publication.

I was reading along and found something familiar; the annual Writer’s Digest Popular Fiction Awards. "You may enter as many manuscripts as you like in each of the following categories: Romance, Mystery/Crime Fiction, Sci-fi/Fantasy, Thriller/Suspense and Horror." Stories should be around 4000. Winner gets $2500 and other stuff; entry Fee is $12.50. Use online form to submit, or snail-mail to WD Popular Fiction Awards, 4700 E. Galbraith Road, Cincinnati, OH 45236. Deadline is coming up fast on November 01, 2007

Conferences

Magna Cum Murder happens Oct 26 - 28, 2007 in Muncie, Indiana. Guest of Honor: Harlan Coben; Forensic Guest of Honor: Shelly Reuben; Banquet Keynote Speaker: Thomas Lynch. Part of Mid America Crime Fiction Festival, this has been an annual conference for scholars, fans & writers since 1994.

Cape Fear Crime Festival happens Oct 26 - 28, 2007 in Cape Fear, North Carolina. This festival includes author readings, book signings, panel discussions, film screenings, mystery dinner theater, evening readings and morning brunches, and other special events. 

Tony Hillerman Writers Conference: Focus on Mystery happens Nov 2 - 4, 2007 in Albuquerque, New Mexico. The annual event includes pre-conference workshop (Nov 1), and panels on writing and forensic procedure, and the option of post-conference tours of Santa Fe. Featured speakers include Hillerman, Margaret Coel, and David Morrell.

Men of Mystery Conference happens Nov 3, 2007 in Irvine, California. Over 50 male mystery authors join fans for lunch and autographing sessions. Keynote speakers: Martin Cruz Smith and Jeffery Deaver. Benefits Literary Guild of Orange County.

New England Crime Bake happens Nov 9 - 11, 2007 in Dedham, Massachusetts. Lee Child will be the guest of honor at the sixth annual writers & readers conference sponsored by New England chapters of MWA & SinC.

Submissions

Fantasy. Tower of Light Fantasy Free Online is a quarterly online magazine established this year. "To publish great fantasy stories, especially the genre-blending kind such as dark fantasy, urban, science, and superhero fantasy. And Tower of Light would very much like to showcase new work by beginning writers." They do not want erotic fantasy, or anything that does not have a mystical or supernatural element. Stories should be 500-4000 words. Sometimes comments on/critiques rejected mss. Writers receive $5. Pays on publication. Acquires one-time rights, electronic rights. Sends galleys to author. Publication is not copyrighted. "Strong, well-developed characters that really elicit an emotional response, good writing, original plots and world-building catch my attention. Send me a good story, and make sure to check your spelling and grammar. I don’t mind a couple of errors, but when there’s more than half a dozen, it gets really irritating. Make sure to study the guidelines thoroughly: I’m looking for character-driven stories, preferably in third person limited point-of-view."

Clarification from editor Michael Southard about the reading periods: "The next reading period begins January 1 and ends March 31, but writers can submit as early as December 1. The following period begins July 1 and ends August 31, and submissions can come in as early as June 1. I plan to keep the reading periods on this schedule each year, if possible." He hadn't set the reading periods when he originally filled out the listing information, so that's where the confusion came from.

Literary. Kaleidoscope, Exploring the Experience of Disability Through Literature and the Fine Arts has a call for submissions. Their next two themes are “The Effects of war: Body, mind and spirit” deadline of March 1 for publication July 15 and “Disability and Childhood” deadline of August 1 for pub Jan 15, 2009. Pays $10-125, and 2 contributor's copies; additional copies $6. Pays on publication for first rights, reprints permitted with credit given to original publication. Rights revert to author upon publication.

Mundane SF. Interzone is having a special issue to explore what might not be. "Today there is no -- Faster than light travel, Psi power, Nanobot technology, Extraterrestrial life, Computer consciousness, Materially profitable space travel, Human immortality, Brain downloading, Teleportation, Time travel -- And maybe there never will be! This is the challenge of the ‘what if not.’ What if none of these familiar SF phenomena that allow us to imagine a quick and easy escape route ever gets invented? What if the known the laws of physics and biology as understood by the leading scientists of today turn out to be more or less correct? What if we're still alone on this planet ten, a hundred, or a hundred thousand years from now, and..." Stories should be around 6000. It pays 5¢ a word.

Black Petals is under new management, has a new editor and has re-opened to submissions. 

The Leading Edge is still open to submissions though the Web site is under construction.

Paradox has re-opened to submissions and features a new web design. They’re looking for historical and spec fiction. 

Dark Energy SF has Wendy Kovak as their new Juinor editor. They’re re-opened to submissions and are for looking for spec fic that is NOT dark.

Crimewave has a new web address, word count guidelines and now has an electronic version to be sold at Fictionwise.

Dred has raised their payscale and lowered word count maximum.