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- VIDEO — Make Your Story Opening Shine in this workshop video excerpt with award-winning author KC Grifant.
- Markets and contests with submissions open or opening soon.
- COMING SOON - Saturday, May 23, award winning author Lavie Tidhar presents, Ready. Set. Go! How To Write Perfect Openings whether it's for a short story or a novel.
- Care to drabble with us? Each week our drabble community writes 100 words (or they don't—their call) to a single-word prompt.
- This Week's Prompt. An interesting item from the news to provide you with fodder for your creativity. This week, scientists find “holy grail” gene that could one day help humans regrow limbs.
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A strong opening is the first step to making it out of the slush pile. In this workshop excerpt, award-winning author KC Grifant share the ingredients—including examples—for an opening that will shine.
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Markets and Contests
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Many thanks to Scribophile for sponsoring this week's open submissions. Scribophile is a free welcoming community of writers where you're guaranteed to get solid critiques on your work. You can also get 20% off your first purchase using coupon code APEX20.
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- 🐦⬛ 100-Foot Crow is open to submissions of speculative drabbles — that’s flash fiction of exactly 100 words — until May 15th. No submissions fee! 💰Paying market!💰
- 🌟 Orion’s Belt is open to submissions of flash fiction, microfiction, and poetry. Send them up to two flash stories, three micro stories, or five poems before May 15th. No submissions fee! 💰Paying market!💰
- 📖 Missed-Fits is a forthcoming anthology of speculative short fiction. Send them work between 1,200 and 2,100 words before May 16th. No submissions fee! 💰Paying market!💰
- 🏦 Don’t Go For the Vault is a forthcoming anthology of “bank robbery horror”. Send them work between 1,500 and 4,500 words before May 20th. An extended submission window for writers from traditionally underrepresented communities will remain open until May 31st. No submissions fee! 💰Paying market!💰
- 🦟 The Stinging Fly is open to submissions of short fiction, creative nonfiction, poetry, and novel excerpts. Send them a single piece of prose writing of any length, or up to three poems, before May 20th. No submissions fee! 💰Paying market!💰
- 📕 Half Mystic Press is open to submissions of full-length novels, memoirs, short story collections, essay collections, and poetry collections. Send them a full manuscript for collections, or the first half of a novel or memoir, along with a query letter. No submissions fee! 💰Paying market!💰
- 📗 Dalkey Archive Press is open to submissions of full-length literary novels. Send them a query letter and full manuscript. No submissions fee! 💰Paying market!💰
- 🍃 wildscape. literary journal is looking for stories, essays, and poems that are “whimsical, ethereal, and indulgent”. Send them prose writing of up to 2,000 words or up to five poems before May 15th. No submissions fee!
- 💦 Oyster River Pages is open to submissions of short fiction, creative nonfiction, and poetry. Send them stories of up to 7,500 words, personal essays of up to 6,000 words, or up to three poems. They also have special categories for new writers. Submit before May 15th. No submissions fee!
- 📝 The Words Faire is open to submissions of short stories and poems. Send them stories of up to 5,000 words, or up to five poems, before May 16th. Note that this call may close early if they reach a maximum number of submissions, so don’t delay. No submissions fee!
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Join award-winning author Lavie Tidhar for an in-depth look at crafting that all-important story opening, whether for a short story or a novel. Learn how to “hook” the reader’s attention and how to best prepare your manuscript for agent or editor submission.
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In this workshop, we will:
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- Study classic openings and what they do, in genre and out
- Explore Lavie’s own successful openings, from short stories to award-winning novels
- Learn the who, why, where, when and how of a successful beginning
- Identify the “telling detail” and the how to make use of effective dialogue, action and description
- Prepare that critical three chapters submission package
- Understand what agents and editors look for
- Become aware of the common pitfalls, traps and clichés of ineffective openings
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DATE: May 23, 2026 – Saturday
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TIME: 1PM ET | 12PM CT | 11AM MT | 10AM PT | 17:00 UTC
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RUNTIME: Approximately 90 minutes
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Each week our drabble community writes 100 words (or they don't—their call) to a single-word prompt. No fame. No fortune. Just fun. Well, maybe a teensy bit of fame if you count the animated adaptations we create and share on social media. Check 'em out on our YouTube channel and Bluesky.
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This Week's Prompt
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A breakthrough gene discovery in salamanders, fish, and mice could someday help humans regrow lost limbs.
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Thank you so much for being a newsletter subscriber. We love our supportive, weird, and wonderful community. Don't hesitate to reply to this email if you have something to tell us. I read every email and will respond.
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