HOH's Next Anthology STITCHED UP! Submissions Guidelines

Stitched up Submission Guidelines

Well we are back here again, about to read through another great bunch of stories for our next anthology. This time round we are lending our eyes towards the Zombie/Frankenstein theme. It doesn’t just have to stay with these monsters – this is an anthology of stitched up flesh, so think about that when writing your story.

Story Guidelines

We are looking for stories of between 2000-5000 words based on some form of stitched up flesh. Stories can be of a pure horror nature, splatter punk or satirical (comedy) We don’t mind as long as your story has well driven characters and plot.

What we do want:• Horror stories,

• Funny stories
• Long fiction
• Poetry
• Zombies/Frankenstein/re-animation
• Well driven characters and plot
• Good use of grammar and punctuation
• Following of the guidelines

What we don’t want:

• Over use of explicit language. (We understand that it can heighten the suspense in a story, but the use of the F word over and over will not be accepted.
• Blood and Gore just for the sake of it. Let’s face it, blood and gore is what we are about, but if you are shoving it in there just for shock value, it’s just not going to cut it. It must be integral to the story.
• No child abuse – but on the flipside, children can be the one dishing out the abuse as long as there is no written reference to any child being harmed.
• No rape – Children/women or otherwise.
• No sexually explicit scenes that have no reference to your story whatsoever. If it doesn’t need it, don’t write it.

Submission Guidelines

All submissions should be pasted into the body of an email. We do this simply to keep out any computer viruses as the editor’s laptops and computers are most precious to us, and also it makes for an easy transfer from editor to editor without constantly having to download an attachment. Anyone who sends us an attachment will not be read and their submission will automatically be deleted without notification.

Please only send one submission at a time. This means no multiple submissions. By all means, if we reject a story, then send us another – this goes for the poets too –one submission only! Simultaneous submissions are OK as long as you let us know if it has been accepted elsewhere whilst sat in our queue.

Put “Stitched Up Submission” and the title of your story in the subject line and send all submissions to horrorhouse.editor@yahoo.com and please be aware that your submissions may be shipped around for second or third opinions.

Please note that anyone who is a friend of the editor or from another publication/eZine etc, their work will be stripped of identity and sent to another editor for reading. I do not want to be biased when reading for this anthology. Theoretically as Editor in Chief, I will have the final say, but I will take into consideration the comments and notes from the other editors before making my decision.

Please format your submission with the following:

12pt Times New Roman – no other font please. Single spaced with a 2cm paragraph indentation. No returns after paragraphs. Mark scene breaks with three stars with two spaces between each one e.g. * * *

All em dashes must be true hyphens – with no spaces between words. Sentences in Italics should be in italics, not underlined.

In the body of an email before your submission, please introduce yourself, maybe tell us a little about the story – we like to hear about writers that submit to us, not a lot of publications do, but we want to get to know our writers and also include an interesting bio of 100-200 words. Please make your bio’s interesting. We do not want a reel off of publications and websites, pick your favourite three and keep it at that.

Open to submissions now and closed when full. We’re looking for about 30 stories for this fun anthology so get yours in as soon as you can. Expect to be put on a short-list or a rejection. Acceptances will be given out when we have all chosen stories.

Expected Publication date:

Mid to late July 2010

Payment:

Stories - $5

Poems - $3

All payments made by paypal only upon publication.

Have fun writing and I look forward to reading all of your stories!

~ S.E.COX – Editor in Chief, House of Horror