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What Kind of Fiction Should You Write? – Created with Haiku Deck, presentation software that inspires
What do you think? Are New Weird and Slipstream interchangeable in some ways? Do you consider them a kind of Fantasy? In any case, this article describes this style very well.
Quote: It’s a modern, non-linear, magical-realism type of almost experimental fiction, dancing between borders of science fiction, fantasy and mainstream literary fiction.
I posted earlier with paying and non-paying short fiction cross-genre markets, ranked by pay rates, with word counts, and descriptions, but my next blog post ate it. So, I did it all over again for you, but just the paying ones, and adding new venues as well. 10 paying cross-genre places took a lot of hours to discover, so may this list serve you well.
Ruthless Peoples Ruthless Peoples Magazine (RPM) is a cross-genre fiction magazine. RPM subscribes to no genre. Capture something of the human condition in a story of ghosts or femme fatales or dusty electricians or rivalries at work, if you like–or in the brass dials of a spy satellite, the wink of an elephant’s greasy nostril, a collapsing circus tent.
With that said, the preference is for character over caricature, drama over hysteria, plot over passivity, fresh observation over cliche. Juvenile or pretentious work is revolting, so bring a sense of a character reaching for the maximum understanding of what lies in front of them, and acting on it. Choice-making ruthlessness needs to be at the heart of every RPM story. The ruthlessness does not have to be brash or brutal–it could be as simple and hurtful as closing a door, or saying goodbye. To 1,000 words. PAYS 100 dollars.
Pulp Literature: genre and cross-genre stories. The quarterly digest-size magazine features short stories, novellas, and standalone excerpts from novels in popular literary genres: sci-fi, fantasy, mystery, history, thriller, and chiller. Up to 75 pages. PAYS 7 cents a word.
Crossed Genres It’s the mission of Crossed Genres Publications to give a voice to people often ignored or marginalized in SFF, which has led us to publish titles focused on older women, overweight women, immigration, skilled laborers, QUILTBAG families, and people marginalized throughout history. Each month CG Magazine has a new genre or theme. Short story submissions must combine elements of either Science Fiction and/or Fantasy with the current theme. – SFWA Market. 1000 to 6000 words. PAYS 6 cents a word.
Three-Lobed Burning Eye We are looking for quality speculative fiction, in the vein of horror and dark fantasy, what you might call magical realism, slipstream, cross genre, or weird fiction. We will consider the occasional science fiction, suspense, or western story, though we prefer that it contain some speculative element. Sword & sorcery, hard SF, space opera, and extreme horror are hard sells. We like voices both literary and pulpy, with unique and flowing but not experimental styles. All labels aside, we want stories that expand genre, that value originality in character, narrative, and plot. 500 – 1000 words. PAYS 3 cents a word.
Lakeside Circus We want speculative fiction, particularly science fiction (hard, soft, near-future, etc), urban fantasy, magic realism, mad science, and apocalypse tales. Whether prose or poetry, we’re looking for the same kind of almost-weird fiction we publish in our anthologies. We like fiction with layers of meaning; stories that are odd or different without being too strange to understand. We enjoy interstitial, genre-bending, and “literary SF/F” writing. Your work has to encapsulate a complete moment; more than a vignette, each submission must have a beginning, middle, and end. Something has to change along the way, but parts of the story can happen off stage. As always, we want beautiful, dark, unusual, and meaningful. 1000 – 2500 words. PAYS 2 cents a word.
Betwixt Betwixt publishes speculative fiction of all sorts—fantasy, science fiction, horror, slipstream, weird fiction, npunk, you name it. We particularly like stories that smash genre boundaries to smithereens, but we also love fresh takes on established genres and in-depth explorations of ultraspecific niches. Experiments in form and style are welcomed enthusiastically—but a straightforward narrative with tight, crisp language is just as beautiful. When it comes down to it, we want stories that will amaze us, astound us, provoke our thoughts, and boggle our minds. 1000 – 30,000 words. PAYS 2 cents a word.
Kaleidotrope Kaleidotrope tends heavily towards the speculative — towards science fiction, fantasy, and horror — but we like an eclectic mix and are therefore always eager to read interesting work that falls outside those categories. In the end, what we want is interesting, sometimes unconventional work, well-written stories and poems that surprise and amuse us, shock and disturb us, that tell us things we didn’t know or reveal old truths in brand new ways. We want strange visions of distant shores, of imaginary countries and ordinary people, and work that doesn’t lose sight of entertainment and the joy of good writing. 250 to10,000 words. PAYS 1 cent a word.
Tales of the Talisman. We welcome cross-genre stories, but they must have some element of science fiction or fantasy. 6000 words. PAYS 10 dollars.
Premonitions Annual print magazine, Original, high-quality SF/fantasy. Horror must have a science fiction element and be psychological or scary, rather than simply gory. No supernatural fantasy-horror, or traditional swords ‘n’ sorcery quest sagas. We are interested in publishing highly imaginative prose on a wide variety of genre themes. Cutting-edge SF and experimental writing styles (cross-genre scenarios, slipstream, etc) are always welcome. 500 – 6000 words. PAYS £5 per 1000 word + contributor’s copy
Mythologue We publish all genres as well as cross-genre work. We’re interested in story-telling, regardless of theme or setting. What we look for is universality of theme – something that adds to the tradition of story – the stories we have been telling since the beginning. A common misconception: this is not a magazine that particularly specializes in fairy stories, though we do publish them. We’re interested in stories – Whether dark, bright, erotic, mysterious, adventurous, dystopian, folkloric, or fantastic. 500 – 1000 words – PAYS 5 dollars.
Interested in my cross-genre SF novel, Unside: A Book of Closed Time-Like Curves? You can sign up to find out when it’s available HERE.
Tantra Bensko's Genre Fiction 