Dirge Magazine is a new publication (anticipated launch date: December 15, 2014). They are now accepting submissions for their inaugural issue.
From their guidelines page:
What we’re interested in: Creep (Writing fiction that makes people uncomfortable? We want to see it.). Fresh takes on old tales. Non-Lovecraftian cosmic horror (think Jeff Vandermeer’s Southern Reach trilogy). Dark fantasy, and experimental horror. Kick us in the feels.
What we’re less interested in: Zombie apocalypse (Zzzz.). Supernatural romance, probably supernatural anything unless it’s genuinely unsettling. Fanfic. We don’t have anything against gore, but your story should have a lot more going for it than that. We don’t have a problem with sex, either, but we aren’t an erotica market.
Story length is 500-4,000 words. That upper limit isn’t firm, but they aren’t really interested in works much over 4k words. Payment is $0.01 – $0.05/word. According to comments one of the people involved in this magazine has made in the OPEN CALL: Horror Markets Facebook group, Dirge will not pay less than $25 for any individual story they accept (as long as it isn’t a reprint – see their guidelines for more information). Simultaneous submissions are okay, but please do them the courtesy of informing them if anyone else accepts the story first.
This one looks like fun, y’all. Who doesn’t want to be part of a brave new magazine’s first issue? Set aside your zombie tales and your Frankenstein’s monster-meets-daughter-of-the-Blob romances and write ’em something fresh. Just remember to boot their feels all to hell.
