Calling All Writers: 13 Calls for Spooky Stories/Haunted Tales for Halloween 2020

Hello fellow writers! For those of you who love writing creepy stories like me, I’ve listed some paying and non-paying journals and anthologies who are looking for stories, poems, or manuscripts in the realm of the supernatural, the gothic, the horror, and/or the mysterious. Many have rolling deadlines while others have dates coming up soon, so take a gander and pick one or more to send your best ghoulish and ghostly tales…

1. New Gothic Review

• Wants “previously unpublished short stories that embrace and reimagine Gothic fiction for the 21st century.”
• 1,500 – 6,500 words
• Pays
• Deadline: August 15^th

2. Hellbound Books Publishing

• For their upcoming anthology “Madame Gray’s Creep”, they want “well-written, spine-tingling tales of horror infused with black humor (gallows humor)” long with “gore, psychological, killers, monsters, and occult/paranormal. Twisted and tacky is a plus.”
• 2,500 – 8,000 words
• Pays
• Deadline: September 30^th

3. Underland Arcana

• Wants numinous, esoteric, supernatural, and/or weird stories that are mildly speculative, fantastic, mysterious, and/or horrific.
• Up to 5,000 words
• Pays
• Deadline: October 1^st

4. Tales from The Moonlit Path

• Wants horror, dark fiction, speculative fiction
• Up to 2,000 words
• Pays
• Deadline: October 8^th

5. Horror Addicts: Haunts and Hellions, A Gothic Romance Anthology

• Wants horror and romance plot that includes a “female protagonist dealing with a terrifying ordeal while struggling to be with her true love.”
• 2,000 – 5,000 words
• Pays
• Deadline: October 31^st

6. Three Crows Magazine

• Wants “dark and weird fantasy, horror, and sci-fi, with complex characters making morally ambiguous decisions”
• 1,000 – 10,000 words
• Pays
• Deadline: Unspecified

7. Wyldblood Press

• Wants high quality science fiction and fantasy. Vampires and werewolves are a plus.
• 1,000 – 6,000 words
• Pays
• Deadline: Unspecified

8. Apex Magazine

• Wants original fiction of the “strange, shocking, beautiful, surreal”
• Up to 7,500 words
• Pays
• Deadline: Unspecified

9. Fabled Collective/The Fabled Journal

• The Fabled Collective: a podcast that explores mysteries, legends, myths, lore, ghosts, and fairy tales
• The Fabled Journal: a collection of fiction, creative non-fiction, along with dark history, book reviews, and tips on living a creative life
• No pay
• Deadline: Ongoing

10. Ink and Sword

• Wants Mainstream Horror, Humor, Fantasy/Urban Fantasy, Science Fiction, Young Adult, Action, Romance (PG:13), Historical, Inspirational, Creative Non-Fiction
  • Think clean fiction
• 1,500 – 5,000 words
• No pay
• Deadline: Ongoing

11. Suspense Magazine

• Wants suspense, thriller, mystery, and horror genres for manuscripts
  • Also accepts book reviews, articles, and book excerpts
• 5,000 and under for short stories
• Pay unspecified
• Deadline: Ongoing

12. Dark Moon Digest

• Accepts short stories, flash fiction, and nonfiction: “reminiscent of The Twilight Zone, Black Mirror, Tales from the Crypt, and Tales from the Darkside”
• 1,500 – 7,000 words for short fiction, under 1,500 for flash fiction, 500 – 3,000 for nonfiction
• Pays
• Deadline: Published Quarterly

13. The Dark Sire

• Wants short fiction, poetry, and art in the subgenres of Fantasy, Gothic, Horror, and Psychological Realism
• Offering “The Dark Sire Awards” through October 31^st
  • 1,000 – 7,000 words for fiction
  • 1 – 4 pages for poetry
• Deadline (for regular submissions): Ongoing

* The majority of these journals/anthologies were found via Horror Tree. This is a website resource with regularly updated open calls for deadline submissions, anthologies, flash, non-fiction, poetry, and reprints. They also list non-anthology opportunities for audio podcast, contest, novel, novella, magazine, and other online market submissions.