• Welcome to the Fantasy Writing Forums. Register Now to join us!

Apex microfiction contest for Halloween

After getting more than 500 subs for their Xmas microfiction contest, Apex is running another for Halloween. Here are the basic details:

There will be five categories: sea monsters, black dog/Hellhounds, banshees, science experiments gone wrong, and demons (this can include wendigos, succubus, be creative). Write a story to fit one of these five categories, then submit it to [email protected] with the subject line formatted as Title, Author, Category.

Stories must be 250 words or less.

You can submit one story per category, five stories total.

Send each story as a separate email with the story in the body of the email.

Submissions are open September 1st through October 15th.

Winners will be announced on Halloween on the Apex blog. There will be one winner per category.

The winning stories will get the spotlight turned on them in the November issue. The authors will be paid 6 cents per word, receive a free 12-month subscription to Apex Magazine and a short story critique from an Apex editor. Stories for critique can be up to 5,000 words long.

Everyone who submits gets a free issue of Apex Magazine.

More here: Steal the Spotlight Micro Fiction Contest | Apex Publications

And while mags generally don't love stories submitted after the lost another mag's contest, venues that also accept stories of up to 250 words are Antipodeon, Bards & Sages, Fantasy Scroll, Grievous Angel, Andromeda, Every Day Fiction, Ruthless People and Weird Year. If you can get to 250 words, that's Electric Spec's minimum.
 
An update about this contest:

One thing that I have noticed while reading through submissions (have to stay on top of them or it'll be a case of editor death by slush pile!) is that two of our categories are way more popular than the others. I've read more demon and sea monster stories, than I have banshee, black dog/Hellhound, or science experiment gone wrong stories combined. Now I'm loving the demon and sea monster stories. You guys are truly creative and it is wonderful, so please, keep sending them in. But I'd really like to see more stories featuring banshees, black dog/Hellhounds, and science experiments gone wrong and running amok.

Now they tell me. I wrote a sea monster story (well, river monster).
 
Top