this & that

I have to get up in about six and a half hours to go to work, so this is gonna be a quick post. Just a few mentions:

The new issue of bear creek haiku is out, full of great poems as always. A couple of gems by Mark Arvid White and Christopher E. Ellington.

There's a new horror anthology opening for submissions August 1st. Catastrophia will be a collection of catastrophe/disaster stories, 2000-6000 words, to be published summer of 2010. It is a paying market, but the guidelines don't specify how much.

Twisted Tongue is also open to submissions, this time for its Christmas-themed winter issue. I believe non-themed submissions will still be accepted, but check the guidelines for details.

Barnes & Noble is having a clearance sale, online and in stores. Find all the clearance books here, for 50-80% off. The sale ends August 3rd.

Last thing to mention... I just finished two good but very different books: Cold in the Light by Charles Gramlich, and Dusk Lingers, a collection of haiku by Issa, translated by Dennis Maloney. Both were superb books. Cold in the Light is available at any large bookstore; Dusk Lingers is available from Modern Proposal Chapbooks (an imprint of Lilliput Review). I hope to post reviews of both books some time soon.

New issue of Twisted Tongue out

The new issue of Twisted Tongue is out now, available for free download from Lulu.com (or, if you're like me and you get most of your reading done in the bathroom, you can buy the paper copy instead). It's got stories by Michael A. Kechula, Peter Tennant, and P.S. Gifford. If that's not enough, there's a whole slew of poems by Paul Weightman (and a few scifaiku by yours truly).

Twisted Tongue will be reopening to subs soon, and editor Claire Nixon is especially looking for Christmas-themed items. Check the website for updates.

Also reopening soon is Star*Line... can you believe it's July already?

Non-paying markets

A lot of writers overlook the value of publishing in magazines or journals (online or in print) that don't pay contributors. Many great magazines have started off as non-paying, simply because they could not afford it. But as a writer, having your work appear in magazines can be reward enough -- either as the almighty ego boost, or just exposure to get your name out there. Also, many online venues will post a link to your blog or website and let you promote your books or other merchandise.

Here are a few non-paying speculative markets that I have found to be reputable and easy to work with:

- Black Petals
- Cemetery Moon - pays 1 copy
- Sinister Tales - pays leading story $125 and leading poem $25
- The Ashen Eye
- Twisted Dreams Magazine
- Twisted Tongue Magazine - pays for Editor's Choice award, all others free PDF and link
- Visionary Tongue - pays 1 copy

If you're looking for a great online repository of short horror stories, check out MicroHorror.com. The site is loaded with stories short enough to read in one sitting. Editor Nathan Rosen just added my story, "Shelter," to the site this month.

And if you're in the mood for a good poem, read "A Tan Dog Standing" by Julie Jordan Hanson, found online at the Michigan Quarterly Review archives. This is one of the finest poems I've read in a long time, and although it's not speculative, I think you'll enjoy it.

Spec House Distro shut down

Yep, it's true... the online genre store Spec House Distro was raided by federal agents last week and shut down. Well, I'm actually not sure about the raided part, but I know it was definitely shut down. Just for now, hopefully. But you can still buy all the Spec House products here, on the blog page.

Also on the same page, check out the call for submissions on the right hand side. Spec House editor J. Bruce Fuller is looking for some special poems, and yours could be one of them.

In more Spec House of Poetry news, the deluxe edition of Kendall Evans' chapbook, "Poetry Red-Shifted in the Eyes of a Dragon," is SOLD OUT. It's a great collection of some of Evans' best poems, and if you haven't gotten a copy yet, you can still buy the "regular" chapbook (until that one sells out, too).

Here's a haiku contest you may or may not have heard of... the Haiku Calendar ompetition put on by Snapshot Press. Entries are $5 per haiku, or 3 for $10, and they're due in by April 30th.

Just found out Twisted Tongue Magazine is gonna publish a collection of four of my scifaiku in the upcoming issue, which is pretty cool. It's a great magazine if you've never read it, and it's a great magazine if you have read it, too.

Two Forums, One Market, and... that's it

Since Whispers of Wickedness will be closing down in the near future, all of its forum members (including me) will need to find a new place to share ideas*, communicate with others in the speculative genre*, and find new markets*.

* translation, "not do housework"

To that end, I would like to bring two other online forums to everyone's attention. The first one is rather new, but is also based in the UK and is hosted by a genre magazine. It is the Twisted Tongue forums, and while it doesn't have many members yet, it is still growing. One of the neat things about this forum is that it encourages poets to post poems for discussion or criticism.

The second forum I would like to mention is called Spatial Distortion, and it's hosted by the fine folks who bring you Aberrant Dreams. It's been around a little longer and has more participation, and (like Whispers) it provides a channel to give feedback on poems and stories published in the magazine, which is great for both the authors and the readers to compare and discuss.

Both forums are free (otherwise I wouldn't be mentioning them!) and neither one will be mad at you if you cheat on them and go to the other one too.

I'd also like to mention a new dark fiction and poetry magazine that's putting together its first issue -- The Ashen Eye. It's still taking submissions, and while it doesn't pay contributors (yet), it does offer a $10 prize to the best poem and story (and $5 for the best artwork) in each issue. The only way small magazines like this one can afford to pay contributors is by support from readers and writers, so think of a submission now as an investment in the future.