• Video - Author and RYA instructor KC Grifant on how Weird West fiction is an opportunity to reexamine the myths we've been told about the Old West.
• Markets and contests with submissions open or opening soon.
• November 14 - Sellable Short Stories: What Editors Want (And What To Avoid) led by award-winning author, KC Grifant. Discount code!
• Congratulations to Apex Magazine on fully funding their Kickstarter! The video they created for their Kickstarter page is worth a visit.
• NEW newsletter segment: This Week's Prompt. An interesting item from the news to provide you with fodder for your creativity. This week, scientists have created cell-sized micro-machines powered by light.

Write Weird West Fiction By Reexamining Old West Mythos

Markets and Contests

• 👩🏻‍⚖️Crimeucopia is an anthology series looking for courtroom drama. Send them your stories of legal shenanigans between 2,000 and 10,000 words before November 8th. No submissions fee 💰Paying market!💰
• 📚 Ornithopter Press is open to submissions of full-length poetry collections between 70 and 100 pages. Send them a cover letter and full manuscript before November 12th. No submissions fee 💰Paying market!💰
• 🏙️ White City Press is open to submissions of full-length mystery novels. Unusually, they don’t like comp titles. Send them a query letter, full manuscript, and marketing plan. No submissions fee! 💰Paying market!💰
• 📖 Aunt Lute is open to submissions of full-length novels, memoirs, and short story collections. Send them a completed query form and a sample of 20 to 40 pages. No submissions fee! 💰Paying market!💰
• 📝 Skummel is open to submissions of experimental stories and poems. Send them stories of up to 5,000 words or up to 10 pages of poetry. Note that poetry and stories of up to 3,000 words have no submission fee; there is a fee for submitting longer work.
• ❤️‍🩹 Sunday Mornings at the River is looking for poetry that explores despair and hope. Send them up to three poems in any style. Note that their editor works “with her energy, not deadlines”, so… this call will close once they get a manageable amount of submissions. No submissions fee!
• 🏡 January House Literary Journal is open to submissions of poems, stories, and personal essays. Send them up to 1,500 words of prose writing or up to five poems. No submissions fee!
• 🌹 Belladonna’s Garden is open to submissions of short fiction, creative nonfiction, and poetry on the theme “Through the Frosted Glass — Winter Horror”. They’re particularly interested in work that is “uncanny, the eerie, or quietly unsettling”. Send them up to 5,000 words of prose writing or up to three poems before November 15th. Note that they may close early if they receive a maximum number of submissions, so don’t delay. No submissions fee!
• 💐 Four Tulips is open to submissions of short fiction, creative nonfiction, and poetry. Though they list no genres in their guidelines, their issues seem to lean speculative. Send them up to 2,000 words of prose writing or up to three poems. No submissions fee!
• 🦆 Rainbird Magazine is open to submissions of short stories, essays, and poems. They have “no word count and no censored subjects”, so politically incite to your heart’s content. No submissions fee!
• 🌿 Willows Wept Review is open to submissions of short stories, essays, and poems that explore humanity’s relationship with the natural world. They have no hard word counts listed, but prefer no more than six poems in a submission. No submissions fee
• 🧂 Mouthful of Salt is open to submissions of short fiction, creative nonfiction, and poetry. Send them up to 2,500 words of prose writing or up to five poems before November 7th. No submissions fee
• 🧛🏻‍♀️ Malefic Magazine is a new journal of “Literary Horror & Elegant Speculative Fiction” — think magic realism but make it kind of unnerving. Send them short stories of up to 5,000 words, personal essays of up to 3,000 words, or up to five poems before November 15th No submissions fee!

Sellable Short Stories: What Editors Want (And What To Avoid)

• A behind-the-scenes, detailed look at the selection process from slush pile to publication from an editor’s point of view
• Common and not-so-common pitfalls in openings and endings, and how to fix them
• How to use—and subvert—familiar genre tropes to make your work stand out
• Efficient techniques for self-editing
• A deep dive into trending markets and industry best practices

Congratulations to Apex Magazine on fully funding their Kickstarter!

This Week's Prompt