NIGHTMARE MAGAZINE Opening For Submissions June 15

NOTE: Nightmare will open to submissions on June 15, 2012.

Instructions for submitting to Nightmare follow. Please read everything on this page before submitting. DO NOT SUBMIT BEFORE JUNE 15TH, 2012.

Submission Procedures

All fiction must be submitted through our online submission system, which will be located at nightmare-magazine.com and will go live on June 15th. 

Please do not email your submissions.

Our submissions form asks for your name, email address, cover letter, story title, and story. Your cover letter should contain the length of your story, your publishing history, and any other relevant information (e.g, if you send us a psychological horror story about serial killers and your doctoral dissertation was on the psychology of serial killers, mention that). All stories should be in standard manuscript format and can be submitted in either .RTF or .DOC format. Email submissions@nightmare-magazine.com for all fiction-related inquiries, or if you have any trouble using our online submission system (but please DO NOT email your submissions to this address).

After you have submitted your story, a tracking number will be displayed and an automated email confirmation containing this information will be sent to you. If you have not received this email submissions@nightmare-magazine.com to let us know. Your tracking number will allow you to monitor the status of your submission through our website, so please make note of it.

Guidelines for Original Fiction

Nightmare is seeking original horror and dark fantasy stories of 1500-7500 words. Stories of 5000 words or less are preferred. We pay 5¢/word for original fiction, on acceptance. To see which rights we're seeking, please view our contract template for original fiction.

All types of horror or dark fantasy are welcome; if in doubt, go ahead and submit it and let our editors decide. No subject should be considered off-limits, and we encourage writers to take chances with their fiction and push the envelope.

We believe that the horror genre's diversity is its greatest strength, and we wish that viewpoint to be reflected in our story content and our submission queues; we welcome submissions from writers of every race, religion, nationality, gender, and sexual orientation.

 Guidelines for Reprints

Nightmare publishes two reprints each month, but it is primarily a market for original fiction; a majority of our reprints will be directly solicited, but you may submit a reprint for consideration if you wish. For reprints, we are offering 1¢/word, on acceptance. However, we are only interested in considering stories for reprint that are not currently available online in any form. To see which rights we're seeking, please view our contract template for reprinted fiction.

Rejections & Response Times

Be aware that every month we expect to receive several hundred submissions. As such, we cannot offer personalized feedback on each story. If we say, "send more," however, it does mean that we hope to see something else from you.

Most rejections will be sent out within two business days, while stories being seriously considered may be held for up to two weeks.

Please do not respond to rejection letters, even just to say “Thanks for the quick turnaround” etc. We appreciate the thought, but it is unnecessary and will just clutter up our editorial inbox.

Summary

Stories should belong to the horror genre, and between 1500 and 7500 words long. Stories of 5000 words or less are preferred.

Payment for original fiction is 5¢/word, on acceptance. To see which rights we're seeking, please view our contract template for original fiction.

Payment for reprinted fiction is 1¢/word, on acceptance. To see which rights we're seeking, please view our contract template for reprinted fiction.

Additional Notes

Sexual themes and stories with strong sexual content are acceptable, but Nightmare is not a market for erotica.

Nightmare is not a market for media-based fiction (i.e., stories set in the Hellraiser or Buffy the Vampire Slayer universes, etc.), or any kind of fan fiction.

Nightmare is not a market for poetry.

We do not accept simultaneous submissions or multiple submissions.

Do not query for fiction. If you're not sure if your story is suitable, please simply submit it and let our editors decide.

If editor John Joseph Adams has previously rejected your story, please do not submit it to Nightmare, unless it was rejected as being unsuitable for the market (due to theme, etc.) or unless it has been significantly revised to the extent that it is no longer the same story.

You may not submit another story for a period of seven days after receiving a rejection.

Nightmare pays professional rates for fiction (5 cents per word), in accordance with both HWA's and SFWA's guidelines for professional publications. Please note that SFWA's bylaws indicate that a market must be publishing continuously for at least one year before it can become a SFWA-qualifying professional market, though all sales made during the first year will be retroactively determined to be professional sales and thus SFWA-qualifying. (So Nightmare would become a SFWA-qualifying market in October 2013, pending SFWA board approval, and all sales made in the intervening period would retroactively become qualifying publications.)

Guidelines for Nonfiction

All of our nonfiction is currently assigned in-house. We are not open to submissions or queries in this area.

Guidelines for Art

If you wish to have your art considered for Nightmare Magazine, please send an inquiry, along with a link to an online gallery (if possible), to art@nightmare-magazine.com. Please note that we only use 12 covers per year, and we only purchase pre-existing pieces of art; we do not commission original art.

Happy Holidays, everybody! Stay alive out there!

Brain Munchers, How We Love Thee

Author Ty Schwamberger is lurching (or bolting, if that's your thing) from blog to blog, spreading the malignant word of his new zombie novella, The Fields. On his way to undead notoriety, he swung by the Print Is Dead virtual offices and had the following to say:

Ah, there’s nothing like a nice radioactive chemical spill, a once-in-a-lifetime lunar movement or another strange phenomenon to reanimate the decaying dead, making them dig out of their own graves and come looking for the living. Hell, who doesn’t like to tote around a double-barrel shotgun, while scrambling away from the oncoming hordes? Right. No? Oh, come on, you’re sitting there and reading this article about the undead on your computer and you don’t like our brain-munching brethrens? Blasphemy! Zombies are cool, man! Well, at least when safely housed inside the TV or printed as words in a book. Not so sure I’d use the word “cool” if they were knocking on my front door, asking if they could borrow my brains for a nice, midnight snack. Nope. Not one bite, err, bit.

When people think of zombie movies in particular, who’s the first person you think about? Danny DeVito? Mel Gibson? Marlon Brando? Uh, no. We think of George A. Romero, of course. But, there are a couple notable zombie films prior to 1968. Films such as White Zombie (1932) and Revenge of the Zombies (1943). These two films centered around the idea of digging up bodies are removing them their graves right after burial. Voodoo was then used to turn the dead into living, mindless slaves, obeying the biddings of their human master. A few years later came a small budget, black and white film titled Night of the Living Dead, written and directed by George A. Romero. NLD hit theaters and drive-ins in 1968.

The effects of Romero's ground-breaking treatment of the theme are of course still seen today. The 1970s and 1980s brought films such as: Children Shouldn't Play with Dead Things (1972), Garden of the Dead (1972), Dawn of the Dead (1978), Dead and Buried (1981), The Evil Dead (1982), Zombie Island Massacre (1984), Day of the Dead (1985), The Return of the Living Dead (1985), Night of the Creeps (1986), Evil Dead II (1987), The Dead Next Door (1988). Ah, the good ol’ days.

Then the 1990s came and, well, the movies sucked. Then the 2000s – zombie subgenre has really taken off, with such films as: I Am Legend (2007), Dawn of the Dead (2004), Shaun of the Dead (2004), 28 Days Later (2007), Zombieland (2009) and who could forget Zombie Strippers (2008)!

Since we’ve established we enjoy watching or reading about zombies, just not actually having to deal with them in “real life”, let’s talk a little about where zombies came from. Came from, you ask? Yes. The origins. The beginning. Way back in the day.

What about the history of zombie books, you ask? Well, fine. I guess I can spare a few more minutes and tell you about that too. Tales of undead fun more or less started back in 1921 with Herbert West: Re-animator by H.P. Lovecraft. There were some zombie books between Lovecraft in 1921 and the 2000s, but the subgenre really took off in 2003 with The Zombie Survival Guide by Max Brooks and The Rising by Brian Keene. Other notable authors that have ventured into the graveyard after midnight, include: Stephen King, David Dunwoody, J.L. Bourne, Kim Paffenroth, Gary Braunbeck, Joe McKinney, Jonathan Maberry, along with several other great folks.

Now it’s time for me to enter into the fray… I’m pleased to announce that The Zombie Feed Press, an imprint of Apex Publications is releasing my zombie novella, The Fields. Below is a brief synopsis about the book.

Billy Fletcher learned to farm the family’s tobacco fields – and beat slaves – by the hands of his father. Now, his father is dead, the slaves have long since been freed, and the once-lush fields are dying. Salvation by the name of Abraham knocks on the farmhouse door, bringing wild ideas. He can help Billy save the plantation and return the fields to their former glory…by raising his father’s slaves from the dead.

Can the resurrected slaves breathe life back into the Fletcher farm? Having brought the slaves back from graves that his father sent them to, can Billy be the kind master his father wasn’t? Is keeping the farm worth denying the men the freedom they earned with death?

Billy’s conscience holds the key to those mysteries, but not the biggest one: what does Abraham really want from the former slave owner’s son?

Welcome to The Fields.

New York Times bestselling author, Jonathan Maberry, wrote the introduction for the book. “[The Fields]…is part horror story in the classic sense – misdeeds from the past coming back to haunt the present. It’s part zombie story. It’s part adventure. And it’s part social satire in its darkest sense.”

I hope you’ve enjoyed the little history lesson given today. I’m also going to ask that you take a chance on The Fields. This is a very unique twist on the subgenre that we all love watching and reading. I don’t think you’ll be disappointed with my entrance into “the field”. If so, you can give me a shout, and I’ll come running to assist the next time a crazed zombie comes knocking at your door, while looking to feast upon your nice, fresh hot brains.

Enjoy!

Ty Schwamberger is growing force within the horror genre. He is the author of a novel, multiple novellas, collections and editor on several anthologies. In addition, he’s had many short stories published online and in print. Two stories, ‘Cake Batter’ (released in 2010) and ‘House Call’ (currently in pre-production in 2011), have been optioned for film adaptation.

Order the Fields here.

You can learn more about Ty at: http://tyschwamberger.com.

"Eat Locals" tee, for the socially conscious zombie.

From Lonely Dinosaur...

Whether you're in your garden, at the farmers market, or holed up in the local mall fending off a ravenous zombie hoard, this shirt is the best way to give zombies a piece of your mind.

via Patrick Parker

ParaNorman, new stop-motion zombie movie from Laika, looks kewl...

Not like there's anything wrong with CGI, but all that glorious old school stop motion in Coraline is, well, glorious. Coming soon from the folks behind that gloriousness, ParaNorman is apparently about horror geek kid who can talk to dead people and generally finds out all his favorite movies are true, and has to fight a curse afflicting his home town and none of the grownups believe him.

And I will totally be there to watch it, anyway.

Free Amazon Android App Today: Night of the Living Dead Defense

If you have an Android smart phone or other device, you may or may not know that one of the greatest advantages of the platform is your ability to purchase apps from multiple marketplaces. One of them is Amazon's store, which gives away an app or game for free every day - some of them great ones, some turds, some right in the middle.


Night of the Living Dead Defense is somewhere in the middle: not the greatest tower defense game you ever played, not even the greatest one with zombies in it, most likely. In fact, it's kind of a big ripoff of GRave Defense. And like most spinoffs lately labeled with the name of a classic Romero movie, it's got jack squat to do with Night of the Living Dead. 


But hell, it's free instead of two bucks, just for today, and provides yet another way to spend another hour of your life shooting zombies. And you can't buy that kind of quality time, really.

Zombie Attack Barbie

From Sarah Anne Langton...

"From the 1950s onwards girls were encouraged to hone their zombie slaughtering skills in preparation for the inevitable apocalypse. Though young ladies dispose of the undead with ease today, toys such as Mattel’s 1962 ‘Zombie Attack Barbie’ were instrumental in helping to habituate girls to a new social norm where zombie disposal would become a very necessary life skill..."

http://www.secretarcticbase.com/2011/11/24/zombie-attack-barbie/