Fantasy & Gothic Blog

CALL FOR SUBMISSIONS for Pirates & Ghosts and Agents & Spies Short Stories

Continuing the success of our previous call for submissions (we received almost 2000 submissions!), we’re looking for around twenty to thirty short stories by contemporary writers to complement a selection of classic tales in two new anthologies. We are keen to encourage new writers, without prejudice to age, background or previous publication history. It’s the story that matters, and the quality of writing.

Submit by email to 2017@flametreepublishing.com 

Following on from the first part of our Q&A with the Supernatural Horror authors (which can be read here), this post looks at their favourite tales and own writing methods. The selection of responses below sheds light on the authors behind the tales – tales that collectively promise a veritable feast of brooding atmosphere, nightmarish monsters and unsettling circumstances, alongside a number of notable stories from the genre by classic authors like M.R. James, Ambrose Bierce, Elizabeth Gaskell, Nathaniel Hawthorne, Wilkie Collins, H.P. Lovecraft, Bram Stoker, Edgar Allan Poe… and more.

This week, it's the turn of our Supernatural Horror authors to face questions on their selected stories, influences and writing practices. In this first part of the Q&A, some of the authors summarise how inspirations played a part in the composition of their sinister tales. With the anthology shortly available to buy through our website, the below responses offer us a sneak peak of what’s in store! 

Concluding our Q&A with the new Lost Worlds authors, we quizzed them about their writing methods, as well as their own favourite stories from the genre. Conan Doyle's The Lost World was, understandably, a popular choice, and we're very happy to say extracts of this influential tale are included in the collection, alongside works too by Jules Verne, H.G. Wells, Robert E. Howard, H. Rider Haggard, and other greats.

In anticipation of the release of our Lost Worlds anthology, we got in touch with some of the authors behind the new short stories in order to hear about the inspiration behind their contribution, as well as their thoughts on the genre and the writing process itself. In the first of 2 blogs this week, the responses below provide a tantalising glimpse into a few of the chosen tales: mysterious lands and intrepid explorers soon to be unleashed into the book world… 

Following on from our recent blog on the successful submissions for Supernatural Horror and Lost Worlds, we proudly present the selected short stories for this year’s Time Travel and Heroic Fantasy anthologies. They join our growing range of deluxe hardcover themed anthologies, which can be found here.

With nearly 2000 submissions across the four anthologies, this year’s selection process was a truly difficult but enjoyable task. Past and future intertwine in the Time Travel volume, which gathers together the best of today’s fresh talent alongside a selection of the ‘timeless’ short fiction that helped form the genre. Meanwhile, majestic mythical beasts abound in the Heroic Fantasy collection, with adventures in sorcery, swordplay, and fantastical lands also bringing original tales from contemporary authors together with classic storytelling.

We're delighted to announce the full list of successful submissions for the first two of our 2017 Gothic Fantasy deluxe anthologies: Lost Worlds and Supernatural Horror. These join our growing collection of popular hardcover anthologies, which so far include the titles: Dystopia Utopia, Swords & Steam, Crime & Mystery, Murder Mayhem, Horror, Ghosts, and Science Fiction. 

We received an overwhelmingly positive response to our call for submissions this year, making narrowing down the final selection a difficult but immensely rewarding process. The Supernatural Horror volume, which attracted over 900 submissions alone, brings an array of nightmarish monsters, sinister happenings and creepy tales, while Lost Worlds carries with it the thrill of unexplored lands and mysterious civilisations. We are proud to be publishing this selection of exciting contemporary writers alongside works by iconic authors that have helped shape and inspire these genres.

UPDATE: SUBMISSIONS are now CLOSED for Lost Worlds, Supernatural Horror, Time Travel & Heroic Fantasy. Thanks to everyone who submitted.

Our new publication Dystopia Utopia Short Stories includes a wide range of original stories to establish the breadth and depth of inspiration for modern sf, fantasy and YA fiction. Although our fabulous series of Gothic Fiction titles focuses on short stories, we included a few chapters of essential, early Utopian novels from Samuel Butler, William Morris, Mary Shelley, Richard Jefferies and Edward Bellamy. So here are the full texts, unabridged, available for you to download, as free PDFs.

Continuing the successful format of our Gothic Fantasy deluxe hardcover anthologies, we’re delighted to add a further two new titles to the series: Dystopia Utopia, and Swords & Steam. These join this year's Crime & Mystery and Murder Mayhem collections, and last year’s editions on Horror, Ghosts and Science Fiction, and bring to the series the worlds of alternate realities, steampunk, historical fantasy and perfect or imperfect societies. Once again combining classic tales with new fiction, we include such greats as Fyodor Dostoevsky, Rudyard Kipling, Mary Shelley and Jules Verne, whose expertly crafted stories helped shape the genres as we know them today, and continue to inspire the modern authors we are excited to be able to publish alongside them. Yet again, our call for submissions was met with a fantastic response, which made the final selection a tough but enjoyable job.