Tim Major's Blog, page 2

Open submission calls for writers: February 2025

Here’s this month’s list of the most interesting open submissions calls for writers I’ve found!
Sign up for my email newsletter if you want advance notice of open calls like these.

Hiding Under the Leaves
This new anthology from The Slab Press will contain folk horror stories. Editor Donna Scott is on the hunt for stories featuring ‘curses and cunning folk; superstitions and the old ways; twisted rural landscapes and dark, creeping woodlands.’
Word count: 2000–9000 words
Payment: 1 pence per ...

Open submission calls for writers: January 2025

Happy new year! For any writer, sending short stories to publishers is a great way to mark the start of a fresh new year. Here are the more interesting open calls I’ve found recently:

Witch Craft
This new volume in the ‘Beyond and Within’ series is again being put together by award-winning editors Marie O’Regan and Paul Kane. Most stories will be by invited contributors, but around four will be from open submissions.
Word count: 2000–4000 words
Payment: 6 pence per word
Deadline: 19 January 2...

Favourite books of 2024

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Of all the recently published books I read this year, Six Lives by Lavie Tidhar (2024) was the one I relished the most. Each of the six parts follows, as you’d expect, a single life (all members of a convoluted family tree), and there are pleasing links between the stories that reward attention. But it’s the style that most impresses – not only does each story move forward in time, which affects the tone, but each episode is essentially a different genre, ...

Favourite film, TV and videogames of 2024

Films

By far my favourite film released in cinemas this year was Civil War (Alex Garland, 2024). While it confused mainstream viewers who expected a postapocalyptic action adventure, the totally sober approach to a plausible breakdown of society pushed all my buttons. I loved the passivity of the journalist protagonists, I loved the non-specific, non-partisan background to the conflict. And I loved the soundtrack, particular the early double-whammy of ‘Lovefingers’ by Silver Apples and ‘R...

Favourite albums of 2024

Drone / Jazz / Virtuosity

Mo Léan by Róis is one of the strangest and most affecting albums I heard this year, exploring the Irish tradition of keening in grief. Róis’s tremendous voice is like a falsetto PJ Harvey, and the album is steeped in wonky electronics, field recordings and spoken interludes.

Plays John Coltrane and Langston Hughes by Raphael Rogiński is similarly startling. I barely recognise any of the Coltrane compositions he adapts, and I know none of the Hughes; Rog...

My writing year 2024

My Victorian murder mystery novel Jekyll & Hyde: Consulting Detectives was published in hardback by Titan Books in Oct 2024.

I also had 8 short stories published:

‘Wesley Not-There’ in Interzone #297, Jan 2024‘Echec!’ as a standalone chapbook (Salò Press), Mar 2024‘Small Lives’ in ParSec, Issue 10, May 2024‘Production • Pristine White • Pale Green’ in The Utopia of Us (Luna Press), Jun 2024‘Degrees of Freedom’ in Shoreline of Infinity, Issue 38, Aug 2024‘The Sca...

Open submission calls for writers: December 2024

Here’s this month’s list of the most interesting open submissions calls for writers I’ve found!
Sign up for my email newsletter if you want advance notice of open calls like these.

Silent Nightmares
This anthology of ‘dark holiday horrors’, which will be published this time next year, has a star name among its editorial lineup: Chuck Palahniuk, the author of Fight Club. Most of the contributions will be by invited writers, but there are few additional slots available.
Word count: Up to 5000 ...

Open submission calls for writers: November 2024

Here’s this month’s list of the most interesting open submissions calls for writers I’ve found!
Sign up for my email newsletter if you want advance notice of open calls like these.

Fever Dreams
The ABCs of Horror anthology series from respected author and editor Mark Morris is now up to its sixth volume. He’s seeking four horror stories from up-and-comers to be placed alongside commissioned stories from some of the greats of the genre.
Word count: 3000–5000 words
Payment: 8 cents per word
Dead...

British Fantasy Awards

Last weekend’s FantasyCon in Chester was as enjoyable as always, with lots of great conversations with writer friends. And to my surprise I also came away with a British Fantasy Award! My story ‘The Brazen Head of Westinghouse’ won the British Fantasy Award for Best Short Fiction.

Huge thanks to Gareth Jelley, editor of Interzone, for publishing the story in the first place. You can read the story on IZ Digital for free, if you’re interested in checking it out. It’s also reprinted ...

Open submission calls for writers: October 2024

Here’s this month’s list of the most interesting open submissions calls for writers I’ve found!
Sign up for my email newsletter if you want advance notice of open calls like these.

Dust & Dark
This new British magazine aims to publish ‘stylish, atmospheric horror fiction’ – that is, stories more focused on lingering dread than jump scares.
Word count: 2000–7000 words
Payment: 7p per word
Deadline: 31 October 2024
Find out more

Stop Surveillance Copaganda
The instructions on the website are a ...