Weird Circular #47 February (copy 01)

The May Weird Circular

May 11, 2021

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

Welcome to the Weird Circular

Dear Fellow Weird Writers,

Sorry for the long wait, I've been busy cooking up lots of weirdness. The main thing I've been working on is some new workshops and videos that I hope you'll enjoy. This month I'm doing a series of blackout poems taken from the words of murderers and I'm calling it #SerialKillerSummer. You can follow along on my

. Also, I've been super busy putting together promo for my new book,

The Smallest of Bones

, a collection of weird tiny horror poems coming out in September from CLASH books. 

Promoting your work as a writer can be weird. You want people to read and enjoy your work, but sometimes it takes a lot of effort. It feels especially hard when that writing is close to your heart. My new book is primarily about my struggle with gender and body image, which is not exactly easy to talk about. But I am not here to apologize. I'm here to say, I hope you connect with my work and love it, like I love you, mysterious reader :) 

Your corporeal host,

Holly 

P.S. Here's a super-secret sneak-peek of my new book's cover. Just for y'all. Stay tuned for pre-order info!!

Submission Calls

Upcoming Submission Windows:

May

  • Prairie Fire (deadline 5/16): Theme: Roots & Routes. Poetry (max 3 poems). Short fiction and creative nonfiction (up to 5k words). Pays $.10/word or $40/poem. 

  • Flash Fiction Online (deadline 5/21): Speculative flash fiction (500 to 1000 words). 

  • Cast of Wonders (deadline 5/31) Theme: Holiday-themed speculative short fiction (up to 6k words). Pro rates. 

  • Kaleidotrope (deadline 5/31): Speculative short fiction (250-10k words), Poetry. Pays $.01/word, $5/poem. 

  • Split Lip Magazine (deadline 5/31): Memoir (under 2k words), Flash (under 1k words), Poetry (one poem), Fiction (1k-3k words), Reviews (query). Pays $50 for originals.

  • Overcast Podcast (deadline 5/31): Speculative short fiction (1k-5k words), Pays $.01/word. 

June

  • Chicken Soup for the Soul (deadline 6/1): Theme: Angels. Short fiction (1.2k words or less). Pro rates. 

  • Filling Station (no deadline): Fiction (up to 10 pages), Poetry (Up to 6 pages), Nonfiction (up to 10 pages)  Pays $25. 

Need more submission ideas? Check the

newest markets,

, Duotrope's

,

, or Literary Mama's

.

YOU SHOULD BE WRITING

Exercise: Memories are an excellent starting point for fiction. Have you noticed how random memories can be? Make a list of 5 random memories. These work best if they are not events, but details like a small, object, feeling, or surprising moment. Try to describe the memory in a short paragraph of 250 words. 

Bonus Round:

 Write a short story or poem inspired by the memories. Use them as fragments to create liminal space. 

Exercise: We're all so busy these days. Spend some time and be with yourself this week. Carve out that time, put it on your calendar, tell your family to leave you alone, and go to a quiet place where you can be alone. Don't make yourself write, but let a piece of paper be nearby for thoughts that come your way. 

Bonus Round:

 Write one page of freestyle writing. What comes your way?

Exercise:

 This is an exercise from my speculative short fiction class. Write a scene including a trope from your story’s genre or a genre you are interested in. You can play around and include multiple tropes from multiple genres if you want, but the goal is that they make sense logically to the reader. The challenge here is including the trope in a short scene. Your scene can be from a story in progress or entirely new. Your scene should include the following: 

A character enters and leaves a space (setting). 

Dialogue occurs (whether internal thoughts or with other characters).

Something happens (to a character or via the character’s actions.)

Bonus Round

: Write 3 scenes like this and combine them into a short story or chapter in a book. 

Exercise: I'm sharing a video with you this month that's from my speculative fiction class. It's all about how you can find your voice as a writer!

Editing tip of the month: If you're struggling to find time to work on your writing, you're not alone. I give you permission to take a break if you need it, but you might consider signing up for a revision workshop. Some of my favorites are Writing Workshops Dallas, Lighthouse, and Grub Street. I'll be teaching a revision-specific workshop in June for poets at the Poetry Barn, stay tuned!

Inspiration from the Ether

News From Your Corporeal Host

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