NEW ENGLAND HORROR WRITERS

Wicked Abandoned

We’ve extended the deadline for art & stories, see below!

Wicked Abandoned will be the tenth anthology from the New England Horror Writers! We’re planning for a release at 2024 Necronomicon-Providence in August or at either the Merrimack Valley Halloween Book Fest or Salem Outdoor Market in October, depending on when it’s ready and the state of events and travel.

The subject of the anthology is abandonment; it’s a great open subject matter that can be transformed into a menagerie of topics. What can be abandoned? Let your mind wander. If you have a question about your subject matter, query us (nehwsubs@gmail.com).

Maybe someone has abandoned all emotion (love, joy, hope etc.) How about a place like a mine, a condemned house, or a castle? An old graveyard? An orchard? An entire town? A church? A person can be abandoned: a spouse, a child, a sibling, a grandparent, or maybe a stranger by the side of the road. What about the family pets? Has someone left their favorite toy or stuffed animal behind? Don’t limit yourself. What if it’s not an item, but a ghost that’s abandoned?

Make it interesting, make it original, and don’t forget that horror element.

What don’t we want? We don’t want autobiographical recount reminiscing about what you lost during a move that traumatized you. Or, let’s just condense this to nothing autobiographical. Also, no AI generated stories: If we get one, the story will be removed and you will not be allowed to submit another story.

Let’s talk artwork. We’ll be opening this one up for interior artwork (maybe 3-4 pieces) like we did with Wicked Haunted. We’ll also be opening the doors for the cover! We do NOT expect a completed cover for the submission, but something to give us an idea. Also, if you’re an artist AND author, feel free to enter stories and artwork. Same thing as above, no AI generated images please.

We will be having a special guest editor–Rob Smales! Coediting this one will be Scott T. Goudsward, with layout etc. by Dan Keohane.

All submissions should be original work. We do not want previously published stories. Also, no multiple submissions—one at a time, and wait until you hear from us before pressing that submit button again. Do not send us chapbooks, novellas, or parts of novels. No reprints please. We’re not against simultaneous submissions but let us know.

Also, do not send us a novella, part of a novella or a chapbook. We don’t want to see your screenplays. We don’t want a lead in to your novel or a random chapter.

And though we shouldn’t have to say it, nothing inappropriate with animals or children. No extreme violence. Violence and sex should be for the purpose of moving the plot, and not too graphic. This is not the anthology for extreme horror or gore. Aim for R rated.

Reading period: 10/1/23 – 3/1/24

Please make sure your story is submitted in standard manuscript format. Not familiar with standard manuscript format? Here’s a link: https://www.shunn.net/format/story/1/. And since we’re using Submittable again for blind submissions (to keep it fair), strip all of the personal info out. Clean out that title page and make sure the headers and footers are gone. Even though Shunn formatting has authors’ info in it, take all yours out.

Now you know. No excuses.

Word count should be 3K to 7K. Query for longer or shorter works – within that window will have the best chances. Payment is a flat rate $75 for short stories, $50 for long form poems, $25 for short form poems, plus one physical copy of the anthology and an e-book. We’ll be looking for fifteen stories and likely 3—5 poems. Please note don’t sweat these quantities, we have ALWAYS gone over what we were originally looking for. Payment to be made within ninety days of publication.

We’re looking for FNASR, first E-book/Audio rights and non-exclusive electronic reprint rights. Yes, we’ll notify you if we intend on reprinting your story in the future, and it will ONLY be for promotional purposes.

Please do not query about your story until fourteen days (2 weeks) after the submission window closes.

Any queries should be sent to NEHWSUBS@gmail.com. Send emails for QUESTIONS ONLY. DO NOT IM/DM/PM the editors or NEHW board members. Query first, one of us will get back to you ASAP.

Also, something new: if we pass on your story and you want to know, for a minimal fee ($15) we will send you a 1–2-page critique of the story. We’re not going to edit and redline the story, but we can send you some info on why we passed on it.

One last thing: if we do pass on your story, please do not corner us at conventions or social gatherings to find out why.

Master Tool Box Series 2023-2024

The New England Horror Writers is bringing back our Master Toolbox Series starting THIS SEPTEMBER 2023!

We have six new two-hour workshops—available to NEHW members and non-members—that delve deep into specific craft and business skills for authors of all levels.

We also have some new instructors bringing specific expertise to the table.

Classes will be two-hour Zoom webinars and include pre-class exercises and post-class notes, with a dedicated time for Q&A.

Class materials will be sent to registrants ahead of time via email and are included in the $25 NEHW Member/$35 NON-NEHW Member fees. You can sign up for any combination of classes. Want to buy access to ALL SIX webinars? You can do that too: Member price for all six webinars is $130; Non-member price is $175.

Interested?

Registration for NEHW Members

Registration for non-NEHW Members

Take a look at the 2023-2024 schedule:

September 20, 2023

September 27, 2023

Your Personal Handy Editor’s Toolbox

Instructors: Rob Smales and Trisha J. Wooldridge

Description: With a combined twenty-four years of editing experience, Rob and Trisha share the top five editing tools authors can utilize themselves to enhance writing craft, increase chances of acceptance, and make future editors happier.

October 25, 2023

Metaphor & Symbolism: Interior Design That Elevates Any Story

Instructor: Kristi Petersen Schoonover

Description: Founder of the acclaimed 34 Orchard literary journal, editor of Wicked Sick, and author of dozens of short stories, Kristi takes writers step-by-step through the powerful tools that bring your fiction to a new level of mastery.

November 29, 2023

Research: Finding Expert Resources that Get the Job Done

Instructors: Dave Goudsward and Trisha J. Wooldridge

Description: Retired librarian, author of over twenty-four nonfiction books, and frequent guest on such programs as Mysteries at the Museum, David Goudsward joins Trisha J. Wooldridge, a journalist and educator, as well as editor and author, on the ins and outs of research. A good story will survive a mistake, but there’s always the risk of making an error that draws the reader out of it. This session presents resources a writer can use to prevent factual errors and ensure accuracy.

December break.

January 24, 2024

Reading Aloud: Be the Best Sound System for Your Writing

Instructors: Rob Smales and Trisha J. Wooldridge

Description: A professional reading presentation is essential to garnering book sales and followers. Rob and Trisha will use their years of experience reading aloud at everything from bookstore events to podcasts and conventions to teach the secrets of selecting the best reading passage, pacing yourself, and delivering with clarity and power—as well as the conquering of self-consciousness and stage fright.

February 28, 2024

Stage Business and Internal Logic: Everything in Its Place

Instructor: Kristi Petersen Schoonover

Description: Using twenty-five years of experience as a theater actor, company manager, backstage runner and playwright, Kristi will show you how to use stage blocking techniques to keep your scene’s pacing—yes, even in the dreaded “over dinner” conversation—moving. You’ll learn how to keep track of movement and objects in addition to what’s really necessary in “stage dressing” as well as how to maintain logical character response in action and dialogue.

March 27, 2024

The Architecture of Villain Communication and Psychology

Instructors: Mellisa Sherlin

Description: Internationally award-winning author Mellisa Sherlin applies her thirty-seven years of pro publishing experience under her own name (and several pseudonyms) to share the nuances of solid—but cloaked—villainy. Whether you’re writing splatterpunk, slasher horror, cozy mystery, romance novel, or true crime, your villains need to sting the reader every time they appear. This class will show you how to use dialogue techniques to increase tension and cloak your villains until you want their evil to emerge.

*****

Registration for NEHW Members

Registration for non-NEHW Members

Wicked Sick is Here!

In this terrifying and provocative collection, sixteen writers rage against the devastating psychological impact of illness.

A retiree’s decline drives him to a shocking act and a stubborn sculptor’s perception is shattered by her hometown blight. A grief-stricken parent embraces an abhorrent sacrifice, a model son is compelled to seek revenge, and a busy housewife must reconcile that her tasks are suddenly insurmountable. Mysterious creatures atrophy a man’s dreams as well as his muscles, an abandoned vampire must rebuke her cravings, and a pyromaniac’s world burns when his demons come calling.

These stories and poems—fraught with regret, anxiety, and grief—prove that sick damages so much more than just our fragile shells.

Buy the paperback on Amazon.

Buy the ebook on Amazon.

Short Story Master Class series!

Tools of the writing trade need a sharpen? Need to pick up some new

ones? No worries! Beginning in September, 2022 and monthly through

February, 2023, the New England Horror Writers will present two hour Zoom

webinars (which will include exercises and time for Q&A) that delve deep into the

specifics of craft and business skills!

Open to the general public and NEHW members, each class will focus on a

specific topic. Instructors are Kristi Petersen Schoonover and Trisha Wooldridge

If you’re looking to build some new skills, these micro-focused, affordable classes are the way to go—and yes, we have plans to offer subsequent sessions with different topics every fall-winter going forward!

Class materials will be sent to registrants ahead of time via email and are included in the $25 NEHW Member/$35 NON-NEHW Member fees. You can sign

up for any combination of classes. Want to buy access to ALL SIX webinars?

You can do that too: Member price for all six webinars is $130; Non-member

price is $175.

Here’s the full schedule:

Wednesday, September 28, 2022 – 7—9 pm

Story Openings Blueprint

We’ve only got one sentence to hammer that “you must keep reading me!” message home—and many writers don’t realize that sometimes, a piece getting moved out of slush is dependent on the strength of that one sentence. From do’s and don’ts to mining and can’t-miss criteria, this class gives the blueprint for great openers.

Wednesday, October 12, 2022 – 7—9 pm

Excess Hardware: Wordiness and Filter Phrases

We build stories from words and phrases—but sometimes we use more hardware than necessary to get the job done! This course teaches how to thoroughly inspect the piece to identify extra words and filter phrases and how to remove them for a cleaner reading experience.

Wednesday, November 16, 2022 – 7—9 pm

EnTITLEment: Top-Notch Titles

A title isn’t just a label in My Documents. A good one should tell the editor or reader something about the story—right down to its tone. EnTITLEment provides the tools to nail a top-notch title every time, so that it not only stands out in an editor’s inbox—it pops in a ToC!

Wednesday, December 14 – 7—9pm

The Architecture of the Submissions Process

There’s more to the submissions process than just clicking send. We’ll offer plenty of insider tips on everything from formatting, market searching and close reading of guidelines to cover letters and bios to ensure pieces get considered. We’ll also cover other mechanics like tracking and how to develop

structured—but easy—processes that guarantee we don’t inadvertently screwourselves.

Wednesday, January 25 – 7—9pm

Dampproofing Dialogue

At best, dialogue can say a lot about characters, make them leap off the page, and be incredibly memorable; at worst, it can waterlog the pacing, tell instead of show, turn the story into a boring lecture and quite literally, say nothing. We’ll not

only study how to write effective dialogue that makes characters feel organic,we’ll look at formatting, dos and don’ts, and how to make choices about whatcomes out of people’s mouths.

Wednesday, February 22 – 7—9pm

Nailing Theme

When it comes to theme, many of us probably didn’t feel like the sharpest tool inthe shed that was high school English—but as writers, understanding theme iscrucial: it’s the support beam of the story. We’ve got a fool-proof, easy way toidentify theme and thematic statement, and we’ll teach its use in building a storythat will stand the test of time.

Send a query to NEHWNEWS@Gmail.com for more info.

Conventions

Next Week marks our return to the convention scene since Covid hot. Join us next week at Rising Phoenix! https://risingphoenixgamecon.com/

Writing, Submitting, and Marketing Short Stories / Making Anthologies

Writing, Submitting, and Marketing Short Stories / Making Anthologies

The New England Horror Writers are putting out our ninth anthology,

so we’re having a massive anthology event!

Join us for full day of events at Atelier Pro-Kreative in the C.C. Sargent’s & Sons 1877 mill building on 69 Broadway Street, Westford, MA, beginning at 9:30 AM and going until 6:00 PM

After some networking time with morning refreshments, instructors Kristi Petersen Schoonover, Scott T. Goudsward, and Trisha J. Wooldridge will lead a three-hour workshop on writing, submitting, and marketing short stories, with the option of additional critiques for submitted writing samples. In the afternoon, authors and editors from NEHW’sWicked Women and Wicked Creaturesanthologies will be signing, selling their own work, and taking part in a giant Q&A. Opportunities to network, purchase anthologies and authors’ publications, and socialize will happen before the workshops, during lunch, and at the end of the event.

Included in the price of the full-day event will be light morning refreshments and lunch options. Those who want to just attend the afternoon signing, Q&A, and networking will have access to lunch offerings.

Attending authors and editors from Wicked Women and Wicked Creatures may bring their own books to display, sign, and sell. Individual sellers are responsible for reporting and handling their own sales tax and paying 15% of their total sales to the venue. NEHW will also have available their other anthologies and pre-sale information for brand new NEHW swag with the new logo!

Costs for the event are tiered and a la carte:

Full day of 3-hour workshop, breakfast, lunch, networking, signing, author Q & A:

NEHW members: $50 Non-NEHW members: $60

Afternoon only, including lunch:

NEHW members: $25 Non-NEHW members: $30

Critique by all 3 instructors (only with Full-day admission):

NEHW members: $15 Non-NEHW members: $20

Critique is for 1500 words or up to 5 pages in Standard Manuscript Format.

For those purchasing full day or afternoon admission:

Wicked Women and Wicked Creatures (regularly $15 each),

signed by all attending authors and editors: $25

Pre-purchase the 2022 anthology Wicked Sick,

signed by editors and available authors,

including postage anywhere in the continental U.S.: $17

or pick-up at an NEHW table event in October: $13

Meet your Instructors

Kristi Petersen Schoonover is editing NEHW’s ninth anthology, Wicked Sick. Her fiction has appeared in many magazines and anthologies. She holds an MFA in Creative Writing from Goddard College, serves as co-host of the Dark Discussions podcast, and is founding editor of the dark literary journal 34 Orchard. Follow her adventures at kristipetersenschoonover.com.

Trisha J. Wooldridge, editor of NEHW’s Wicked Women, writes stuff that occasionally wins awards—child-friendly ones as T.J. Wooldridge. Find her in the Shirley Jackson Award-winning The Twisted Book of Shadows; some HWA Poetry Showcase volumes; and in multiple anthologies (as writer or editor). She also lovingly tortures consenting authors with her editing talents. http://www.anovelfriend.com.

Scott T. Goudsward, editor on nearly all of the NEHW anthologies, from Wicked Tales to Wicked Sick was also published in the first two anthologies, Epitaphsand Wicked Seasons. He’s also the author of dozens of other short stories, the novels Trailer Trash and Fountain of the Dead, and half the team behind the popular non-fiction Horror Guide series, documenting the geographic locations referenced and used in movies, television, and literature. Wicked Sick will be his 12th edited / co-edited anthology. http://www.goudsward.com/scott/

Meet the Event Moderator

CIBA-award winner and author of the best-selling series Recollections of a Rune Knight, Jack Cullen lives in New England where he can be found traveling around in a 1956 Willys Wagon named The Professor. His many professions include veteran, attorney, and police captain. Check out his website at www.jackcullenwrites.com

Jack will be keeping the day on track, announcing each event, moderating, and hosting the afternoon Q&A of authors and editors.

About the Venue:

Atelier Pro-Kreativeis a multi-functional artist’s loft to create the latest visions within videography, photography, podcasts/multimedia and more. It’s a beautiful space on the second floor in a historical mill location. Unfortunately, there is no elevator for members with special needs. But there will be a video of the workshop available for members to purchase and future opportunities for critiques from NEHW editors. Members wishing to purchase signed copies of Wicked Women and Wicked Creatures, or to pre-purchase Wicked Sick, can send an email to NEHWnews@gmail.com.

Atelier Pro-Creative has a small parking lot and on-street parking. Attendants will be on site to assist attendees.

The full-day workshop is limited to 25 attendees; afternoon tickets will be capped based on the venue’s limits. We will send notices as we reach capacity and if same-day sales of the workshop (without critique) and afternoon signing and Q&A will be available. To secure your place, email Scott at NEHWnews@gmail.comor Trisha at trish@anovelfriend.com stating what you want to sign up for, and you will receive a detailed invoice to complete the purchase. Those purchasing the additional critique will receive further instructions upon their completed purchase; critique material MUST BE SUBMITTED by 11:59 pm, Monday, April 4th or the critique slot will be forfeited without refund.

Health & Safety Precautions:

NEHW and Atelier Pro-Creative will work in compliance with local mandates. Currently, masking in Westford, MA is optional. We have capped attendance and included breaks with respect to safe distancing for an indoor event. We will not require proof of vaccination and cannot provide on-site testing. Attendees are welcome to wear masks and take additional breaks outside as they feel necessary. We ask anyone feeling sick or showing any symptoms the day of the event not attend. Admission sales are not refundable, but all paid attendees who cannot attend will have free access to the recorded workshop and Q&A, will receive submission critiques via email, and will receive any pre-purchased and signed books via mail; NEHW will pay for media mail postage.

Agenda for April 9:

9:30-10:00: Light morning snacks, coffee, tea, water

10:00 -10:50: Workshop Part 1: Crafting Short Stories

11:00-11:50: Workshop Part 2: Submitting and Selling Short Storie

12:00-12:50: Workshop Part 3: “I sold a story! Now what?” Marketing & Promo

1:00-2:15: Lunch and Networking, Shopping Time

2:30-2:50: Author Signing (& Shopping Time)

3:00-4:30: Wicked Q&A

4:45-6:00: Individual Critique feedback in private, Social & Networking Time

Wicked Sick!

WICKED SICK

Wicked Sick will be the 9th anthology from the New England Horror Writers! We’re planning for a release at 2022 Necronomicon-Providence in August or at either the Merrimack Valley Halloween Book Fest or Salem Outdoor Market in October, depending on when it’s ready and the state of events and travel Most likely look for the book Spring 2023.

The subject of the anthology is sickness, be it physical or mental. What new diseases or contagions strike fear into your heart? What are some horrific existing sicknesses that no one is talking about? What horrific symptoms have not been explored? What effects are there to explore on a person’s psyche? To what extent will one go to protect sick loved ones—from the illness itself, from an abusive system of care, or from consequences of their diseased actions? What happens when society uses illness as a means of control? How does one cope when sickness changes who a person is entirely? What happens when the world calls you sick, but you aren’t suffering? What happens when you’re suffering, but no one believes you’re sick? What are some historical horrors of medicine that haven’t been explored: human test subjects, cruel surgery training, battlefield triage?

We will be having a special guest editor – Kristi Petersen Schoonover!

What don’t we want? An anthology filled with plague doctor and pandemic stories. This is also not the place for personal and biographical recounting of the Covid-19 experiences. We also don’t need rehashes of The Stand, Swann Song, The Hot Zone, I Am Legend or V-Wars, and we’ve all seen and read countless disease-that-creates-zombies apocalypse stories, so avoid those. They’ll be a hard sell.

And though we shouldn’t have to say it, nothing inappropriate with animals or children. No extreme violence. Violence and sex should be for the purpose of moving the plot, and not too graphic. This is not the anthology for extreme horror or gore. Aim for R rated.

Reading period: 2/1/22 to 6/30/22 And 11:59 PM

Currently we’re set up for BLIND SUBMISSIONS

Please make sure your story is submitted in standard manuscript format. Not familiar with standard manuscript format? Here’s a link: https://www.shunn.net/format/story/1/

Now you know. No excuses.

Word count should be 3K to 6K. Query for longer or shorter works. Payment is a flat rate $70 for short stories, $50 for long form poems, $25 for short form poems, one physical copy of the anthology and an e-book. We’ll be looking for fifteen stories and likely 3 – 5 poems. Payment to be made within 90 days of publication.

Send submissions to our Submittable account! Send QUERIES ONLY to NEHWNEWS@Gmail.com

We’re looking for FNASR, first E-book/Audio rights and non-exclusive electronic reprint rights. Yes, we’ll notify you if we intend on reprinting your story in the future and it will ONLY be for promotional purposes.

This anthology is ONLY open to paying members of the NEHW.

Wicked Creatures! The 8th book!

Massive Entity-17 Bernardo Carpio K. H. Vaughan

The Mumble Man James A. Moore

Carving Grace Kristi Petersen Schoonover

Birth of a Creature Cindy O’Quinn

Silver Leaves and Moth Wings David Bernard

Wood You Love? Rob Smales

Dragon’s Scales Victoria Dalpe

This Night Has a Chill Katherine Silva

Burning Bright Errick Nunnally

The Quality of Mercy Richard Alan Scott

Harvest Morgan Sylvia

Heart of Frankenstein Trisha J. Wooldridge

There is no 23:38 Westbound J. Edwin Buja

The Thing in the Window D.E. Ladd

Keep On Trucking Daniel R. Robichaud

It Whispers in My Brain Peter N. Dudar

Lavinia, The Traveler Patricia Gomes

Kobold John C. Foster

Fifteen Years From Now Howard Odentz

Flutter John Grover

The Ookie Birds Paul McMahon

The Sick and the Cursed Timothy P Flynn

Ulcinium F. R. Michaels

The Weatherman and the Monk Nick A. Zaino III

Wicked Women ToC

The final ToC for Wicked Women due October 2020 from NEHW Press.

Tree Limbs Block the Road by Patricia Gomes
Milk Time by Elaine Pascale

DoesThis Bring You Joy? by Sara Marks

Bad Trip Highway by Renee S. DeCamillis

Child of Reason by Christine Lajewski

Sunsets by Victoria Dalpe

Silver Heart by Morgan Sylvia

The Fetch by E.A. Black

The Tale of Annette by Tracy Carbone

Souls of the Wicked Like Crumbs in Her Hand by Suzanne Reynolds-Alpert

The Hungry Man by Lindsay Moore

Ristra by Mary Robles

Three Sisters Island by Hillary Monahan

Arbor Day by Kristi Petersen Schoonover

The Stones of Grisbury by Angi Shearstone

The Hungry Heart by Roxanne Dent

Her Eyes Like Silver Dollars by Gillian Daniels

Getaway by Lola J. Clemente

Flesh Harvest by Kameryn James

The Monsters We Become by Jennifer Williams

Tiger’s Husband by Jane Yolen

Edited by Trisha Wooldridge

State of the Anthology Address

From the editor:

Hello, Women and Female-Identifying NEHW members!

This is Trish, guest editor for Wicked Women with some updates for y’all.

Our first round of rejections, acceptances, and revise & rewrite requests have all gone out this weekend. If you submitted and have not heard, you may send an email to nehwsubs@gmail.com to ask about your submission.

We do still have some space in the anthology, and due to just about everyone’s life getting turned upside down thanks to COVID-19 & co, we’re extending the deadline to APRIL 15. (So you have something other than taxes to look forward to or to redirect stress!)

After having gone through the first round of submission decisions, I wanted to say a few things…

First, I’m very glad we went with blind submissions. Many choices were very hard, but not knowing who sent what allowed me to focus on the writing equally for each piece. When I accepted the guest editor position, I decided I’d send feedback with rejections. And I would send out R&R requests for stories that hooked me with something but didn’t quite work for us.

Next, I want to remind everyone who did receive a rejection (as well as those who received R&Rs and might not agree with the suggestions), that you are all not only welcome but encouraged to submit something else. Really!

Now, here’s some cheat code for the incoming submissions:

While some of you have experience with Editor Trish, not all of you do. I am a TOUGH editor, and I know how well many of you can write. I expect each submission to show an author’s best game. Wicked Womenshould showcase of how freaking awesome I know NEHW women are.

So, I was rather surprised at how many submissions had common grammar errors or didn’t appear proofread.

Outside of straight up typos and missing punctuation, the top three grammar/proofreading errors found in over half the submissions:

· Run on sentences and/ or comma splices

· Improperly punctuated or hard to follow dialogue

· Incorrect verb tenses (especially past perfect / pluperfect)

These are all things authors can check for themselves, and they are all explained for free online. Do a Google search for what I listed, make sure you’ve not included those mistakes, and that will make a huge difference. While these issues weren’t sole reasons we rejected stories, they factored into decisions between an R&R and a rejection or an acceptance and an R&R.

I cite these first because they are easy to avoid and fix. But it was Big Picture issues that influenced our decisions most. Here are the three most common Big Picture issues we found:

· The submission was not a complete story; it was an “experience” or felt like a scene from something bigger.

· We didn’t see a clear motivation for character actions; the interiority of the character was missing or didn’t match the actions taken.

· It was a plot we’ve read / seen / heard / was forced to read in school several times already; we could predict each plot turn.

So if your incoming submission doesn’t have any of these issues, it will have a much higher chance of acceptance. But if you really want a powerful cheat code… do all that and…

#1! Give me a story with obviously queer characters!

Every. Single. Submission. We. Got…

…had either all cis-het characters—often with a plot point dependent on a heterosexual monogamous relationships—or sexuality/gender was not brought up at all. This made me extremely sad. Please make me happier with more rainbow representation? In gender AND sexuality? Pretty please???

2. We also received no stories with characters who were anything but able-bodied. Change that.

3. While there was a better representation of different ethnicities and cultures than queer and able-bodied identities, submissions that aren’t a cast of all or nearly all white people will be looked upon with more favor. (Unless they are racist or clichéd representations. Manuscripts that include racist, bigoted, or ignorant renditions of characters of color will be rejected.)

If you’re an author writing outside of your own experience, Writing the Other (writingtheother.com) has great resources. TV Tropesis another great place to check your clichés regarding characters of color—and clichés in general.

Double-bonus cheat code:

Here are some near and dear topics / themes we were hoping to receive…

While not nonexistent, there was a severe lack of wicked faery women or wicked human women dealing with the fae! And a severe lack of non-western folk / faery tale wicked representation. There was also no space horror, very few reimagined historically wicked women, and nothing with horses or horsewomen outlaws.

And no lighthouses! (One editor in particular would really love a good lighthouse horror!)

I’m not saying you have to include those topics, but clean manuscripts that do include diverse representation and favored topics are going to be exceptionally strong contenders!

So, potential submitters to Wicked Women—Go forth and write!! I look forward to the submissions we get by April 15!

If you need a reminder of the rest of the guidelines, here they are:

Length: 3K to 6K words; query for longer or shorter works.

Payment: $50 for short stories and $25 for poetry (depending on length that could change).

Formatting: Standard MS, 12 point Times New Roman. One space after the sentence ends. Attach the story as a file .DOC, .DOCX, or .RTF. No PDFs please. Do not copy and paste the story into the body of the email.

Send submissions to: NEHWSUBS@gmail(dot)com.

Submissions, as well as revised and resubmitted pieces, will be read blind. Make sure you identify yourself in the cover letter, but if you scrub your manuscript of your name—including the meta info if you know how—that makes things a lot easier for Dan, who has been wonderful about helping us keep things blind. We shouldn’t have to say it, but announcing publicly when you’re submitting, asking story-specific questions on a public forum, or letting one of the editors know you’ll be submitting soon hurts the blind process. Please don’t do this.

We also shouldn’t have to say this, but please do not send stories of sex with animals or with children. No extreme violence or gore. If you have to include violence in the story to continue the plot, that’s fine – not too graphic and move the plot along. Keep it R rated.

Payment will be made 90 days after publications.

Finally, we are still taking cover submissions!

If you are an artist or you know an artist who should submit, here’s the GLs for that:

Send 2-3 thumbnail concept images as .JPG or .PNG files to NEHWSUBS@gmail(dot)com along with a cover letter that includes estimated cost, time frames, and your contact information. Cover pitches do not need to be sent blind.

Thank you everyone!