Story News

My short story “Counting Mississippis” is now live and available to read for free on Kaleidotrope! It’s a dark fantasy story about mothers and daughters and the storms they face together. There’s also quite a bit about hair in there; you might not realize it, but wrangling unruly locks is something I think about a lot….

New Story!

My short story “Terrible Fish” is now available to read for free at FLAPPERHOUSE. It’s a horror story about mirrors, because every mirror I’ve ever seen has creeped me out at least a little bit. Check it out, and while you’re there don’t forget to read the rest of the issue. FLAPPERHOUSE is a fun,…

Menace and Whimsy II

My story “These Troubles, Oh No” is now online over at A cappella Zoo.  It’s an excerpt from my NaNoWriMo novel Uncurled.  A different title was given in the notes, but it’s changed.  Permanently, ’cause this is a much better title.  It’s taken from a line in R.A. Lafferty’s The Reefs of Earth: “A child’s…

Menace and Whimsy

I almost forgot all about this whole shameless self-promotion thing. An excerpt from my (as yet untitled) NaNoWrimo’d novel will be published in the Spring issue of A cappella Zoo.  The excerpt, “These Troubles, Oh No”, was accepted pdq; the editor called me just a couple of days after I had submitted it.  This really…

Market of the Week – Paying

This week’s paying market is an absurdist journal out of Massachusetts.  Bust Down The Door And Eat All The Chickens specializes in humorous bizarro, slipstream, and absurdist fiction.  Their ‘zine is published in print a few times a year; they typically also publish one or two online editions per year.

Market of the Week: Contest-type

I’m adding a new category to Market of the Week. A number of smaller print and online magazines have decided to use their editorial budgets to offer writing ‘prizes’ to work they’ve accepted for publication.  When your piece is accepted by these markets, your piece automatically goes into a competition pool.  The best work (usually…

Market of the Week: Paying

Cafe Irreal publishes fiction which “rejects the tendency to portray people and places realistically and the need for a full resolution to the story; instead, it shows us a reality constantly being undermined” (from the website).  If you plan to submit to this market, it’s absolutely critical that you check out their Theory and Archives…

Market of the Week: Non-Paying

Black Words on White Paper is a monthly magazine.  It’s available online and in print.  Each month they publish a White Cover version for the general public, and a Black Cover issue for mature readers only. They accept poetry and prose.  Online issues are complete, but you can also order print copies from Lulu.  Submissions…

The Ancestors – L.A. Banks, Brandon Massey and Tananarive Due

This trio of stories from African American authors doesn’t exactly deal with the sins of the fathers but focuses, instead, on their legacies -those who come after, and their methods of making sense of the past.  Every person, every family, every country has dark moments that they have tried to bury under the weight of…

The Grin of the Dark

© 2007 by Ramsey Campbell — Tor Books Let’s face it: clowns are terrifying.  It’s not just the makeup, the costumes or the unpredictability; it’s the gleeful way clowns indulge in near-sadistic slapstick shenanigans and then laugh hysterically at their own antics.  The horror genre teems with evil or killer clowns, and any horror buff…

Peckinpah: An Ultraviolent Romance

The plot is simple, and familiar: an Evil Madman rides into a small town with a pack of berserkers and they wreak bloody havoc on the citizenry. In D. Harlan Wilson’s hands, this simple and familiar plot becomes something utterly bizarre, wickedly satirical, and downright hilarious.