Weird Circular #1 October

The Weird Circular: October 

October 01, 2016

October's Weird Circular is live with submission ideas, prompts, and more!

Welcome to the Weird Circular

Dear Fellow Writers of the Weird:

Wow, I am really impressed by the number of you who consider yourselves to be weird writers. Let's see if we can test you this month. I've lined up some fun and WEIRD prompts to get you going on your writing, as well as the newest and brightest submission calls in the galaxy. Strap on your boots and hold tight earthlings!

~Holly

October Submission Calls

Helios Quarterly, Deadline Oct. 15th: The secrets being kept from us reveal a world in of themselves. Science fiction has a long speculative history of new technology and species, the likes of which humanity has never seen. The horror genre always aims to excite and instill fear, with depictions of possessions and cruel vengeance. Fantasy literature can always teeter on the edge of a grim dark worldview. RE_ACTED wants stories that explore the dark side of human progression. What are the secrets we’ve erased from our families shared histories? What is the government, society, or even the universe itself trying to shield us from seeing? 

The Molotov Cocktail: Deadline Oct. 15th: Flash Fear Contest. $7 entry fee      It’s beginning to look like that time of year when everything shrivels and dies. Spiders emerge in droves and spin webs in places that your face might go. Shadows grow long, door hinges creak with more purpose and a crow’s caw begins to sound more like a warning. That means it’s time to turn our attention to all things horror.     With #FlashFear, we aim to do just that. In the past, we’ve focused on monsters for our Halloween contest, and they’re certainly still fair game. But this time, we want to open things up to all kinds of horror, from the psychological to the paranormal, Gothic to gore-tastic, monsters to good ole fashioned murderers. You can take a more literary approach, and simply be incredibly bleak, or you can go full genre and leave your entry dripping in blood. And there’s certainly room for dark humor.

Other Upcoming Submission Windows: 

Need more submission ideas? Check the

newest markets, Duotrope's

, Literary Mama's

, or Aerogramme's

. But don't forget to submit!

YOU SHOULD BE WRITING

Prompt #1: Head over to the magical image machine, aka archillect.com. Click the first image that stands out to you. Free write on the image for five minutes. What does it look like? Who's in the image? Why is that person there? Imagine your character in that place. What would they smell/hear/see/taste?Bonus Round: Click on the image's "?" link (below the image) to follow the rabbit hole down google. Create a found poem based on the google search, using words from the pages you discover. 

Prompt #2: Write a Stranger Things style story, poem, or chapter in your novel. What do I mean by Stranger Things style? Think Stephen King, Steven Spielberg, and Goosebumps. Gritty style, to-the-point-prose, nostalgia-soaked small towns and little kids who fight monsters on their bicycles. See how far you can take nostalgia. What did you love as a kid? Fill your story with that, those places, your memories. What would your Stranger Things be?Bonus Round: Flip the trope. Make all the characters female, or make the monsters bunnies. Write in ceremonial style of prose but keep the characters the same. Or keep your prose sparse but experiment with conveying setting in the same luscious way. 

Prompt #3: Go outside. That's right, walk out of your house. No, don't play #PokemonGo. Sit under a tree, by a river, on the beach, or simply on a bench. Take in the sights and sounds. What do you see? What do you hear? Who do you run into? What's the world like out there in nature? Write down your observations. Circle the shiny bits and flesh them out into a story, poem, or scene. Bonus Round: Go somewhere you've never been and write about it. Make it a nice and weird place, somewhere creepy like a haunted house. Maybe it's a new restaurant, park, or simply a new store. Or, if you're feeling adventurous, take a road trip to a new town, a small town, or a big city. Get out of your comfort zone with only your notebook as your map. Break free of your normal writing constraints. Be brave. 

Editing tip of the month: Ever wonder why your story sounds different read aloud by someone else? It's because your creative mind can't separate fact from fiction. To fix this problem, save your document as a PDF and turn on the text-to-speech option in Adobe Reader by going to View>Read Out Loud>Activate Read Out Loud. Now you can hear your document in a different voice to imagine how it sounds to a reader.

Inspiration from the Ether

☢ Weird Inspiration from the Real World Police Officer Drives 100 Miles with Grieving Man ☢

News From Your Corporeal Host

  • My poem, "Peony Red" was published in the September issue of Literary Orphans. Read it here. 

  • My poem "For Lonnie" was published in the Autumn 2016 issue of Liminality Mag. Read it here.

  • I did an interview in the Luna Station Quarterly blog with my super-secret identity, Harley Harbinger. Read it here.

  • In Medias Res: Stories from the In-Between is live, edited by me! Purchase here.

  • I'll be appearing at the Houston Poetry Fest October 7-9th. Find out more here. 

  • I'll be reading my work as part of Pablo Gimenez Zapiola's Eastex project. Find out more here. 

  • Writefest 2017 registration is now open! Sign up here. 

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