Here are a few venues and contests you may not know about.

1. Horror. Pseudopod is a horror podcast magazine. They post a new story every week, and the stories and readers are pretty good. Ben Phillips is the editor. They will take horror stories of 2000-6000 words, but they prefer 3000-5000 words. They also take flash fiction, with a preferred length of 500-1000 words. They pay $50 for the short stories and $20 for flash fiction. Oh, and they accept previously published material.

2. Fantasy. Launching this month, PodCastle is an audio ezine run by editors Rachel Swirsky & Ann Leckie. They’re asking for fantasy stories of 1000-6000 and will pay $20-100. The editors will have their performers read your story if it’s accepted. It’s a sister site to Pseudopod, so PodCastle is likely to turn out quality material. PodCastle prefers to work with previously published material.

3. Contest. Cream City Review sponsors the A. David Schwartz Fiction Prize. This year's judge is Michael Martone. The deadline for this year's contest is December 1. Prize is $1,000 plus publication. Entries should be less than 30 pages and there is a $15 entry fee.

4. Contest. Dzanc Books is sponsoring the “Inaugural Dzanc Prize – a monetary award to a writer with both a work in progress, and an interest in performing some form of literary community service.” Winner receives $5,000 and no requirement to submit their finished work to Dzanc. To submit, send your current cv, a ten page excerpt from your work in progress and your idea for literary community service. Deadline is November 1st. The winner will be announced in December.