August News, Events & Links

PPW News

The August Write Brain will be "Writing a Winner: Tips & Tricks for Entering Writing Contests," featuring MB Partlow and Dawn Smit. Tuesday, August 20, 6:30-8:30 P.M. at Penrose Library. Want to improve your odds of winning a writing contest? Insure you're judged on the quality of your writing, not the mistakes you made in following the guidelines? Dawn Smit and MB Partlow will address tips, tricks, do's and don'ts for writing contests. In addition, you'll get advice on writing synopses, query letters, and formatting your entry. Plus, you'll have a leg up on your competition for the 2014 Zebulon Writing Contest (note the official new name of the Pikes Peak Writers Fiction Writing Contest!) We'll teach you everything you need to know about entering a writing contest, and give you the tools to meet all the guidelines they lay out. RSVP to rsvp@pikespeakwriters.com. You can find more information on the PPW Events tab above.

You can find the recording of the July Write Brain, The Outer Limits of Inner Life: Bringing Characters to Life by Looking Within, presented by David Corbett, on the PPW Events tab.

Writer's Night has a new location. The next one is Monday, August 26, 6:30 to 8:30 P.M., in the Principal's Office at Ivywild School, 1604 S. Cascade Ave.

PPW Open Critique will occur on Wednesday, August 21, 6:00 to 8:30 PM, at the Cottonwood Center for the Arts. The first 8 to RSVP may bring 8 pages of their manuscript to critique. More information on the Events tab.

Other "Local" Events

Rocky Mountain Fiction Writers will host Cindi Myers, as she presents How to Be Your Own Best Editor: Self Editing for Writers, on Saturday, August 17, from 9 A.M. to 12:00 P.M. There will be a continental breakfast at 8:45 A.M. The meeting will be in the Business Incubator Center. They will also have their Writer of the Year Event, Saturday, August 10, 4:00 P.M. to 6:00 P.M., at Denver's BookBar.

Colorado Springs Fiction Writers has various meetings throughout at the month at different locations. Visitors are welcome. 

Black Cat Books and the BAC, located in Manitou Springs, have lots of programs for readers and writers alike.  Even knitters!  Check out the events page for more information.

The Pikes Peak Romance Writers of America will have a pot luck on Sunday, August 11, from 2:00 to 4:00 P.M. at the BAC. 

The Pikes Peak Branch of the National League of American Pen Women and Rocky Mountain Chapter of the Mystery Writers of America are both on hiatus for the summer. Programming for each will continue in September.

Publications Open for Submissions and Contests:
Please note: Inclusion of links in this post does not equal sponsorship by Pikes Peak Writers or a relationship between the two entities.  Please always be sure to pursue due diligence before submitting anything to a publication or contest.

Rose Red Review accepts submissions art, photography, short fiction, flash fiction, creative non-fiction, and poetry. The reading period for their Autumn 2013 issue ends August 12. They're looking for the dark origin of fairy tales and other beasties.

UFO Publishing is seeking submissions for Coffee: Caffeinated Tales of the Fantastic. Coffee must be a major plot element. Submissions close August 31. Pays $.05 per word. Short or flash fiction with an element of the fantastic.

Rhino's submission window closes August 31. They seek poetry, translations of poetry, and flash. Pays in a contributor copy.

Dreadful Cafe is soliciting query letters for their first anthology, Membrane. All genres, but there is a theme. Pays $125 for short stories, $250 for novelettes, $500 for novellas. Deadline is TBD, but I imagine the sooner you get it in, the better, as they'll close it when they've found what they want. It opened in April.

The theme for the Kazka Press 713 Flash contest for September is Warning Sign. The deadline is August 20. Stories must be between 713 and 1000 words. Pays $10.

The Sustainable Arts Foundation issues a Sustainable Arts Foundation Award of $6000 and a Sustainable Arts Foundation Promise Award of $1000 to writers and artists with families (children). You must submit a portfolio. The deadline to apply is August 31.

Dreamspinner Press has an open call for submissions for Dr. Feelgood is for romantic short fiction stories with a medical/physical health theme. Deadline is October 1.

The First Line has their next winter theme out. They give you the starting line, you finish it. Winter theme is due November 1. Click on the link to view the prompt sentences. Pays $30 for fiction, $20 for non-fiction, plus a contributor copy.

Emby Press has several upcoming anthologies about monster hunters: Blood Trails is looking for your standard monster hunter as part of a trilogy of anthologies, with a deadline of August 15; Doomsday seeks monster hunters with a focus on an apocalyptic scenario, an outbreak, an epidemic, with a deadline of September 15; The Dark Monocle seeks steampunk monster hunters, with a deadline of October 15. All pay $25.

Alaska Quarterly Review seeks short fiction, fiction novel excerpts, poems, short plays, literary non-fiction, and photo essays. They do not open for submissions until August 15.

Descant is taking part in the 25 year anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall with an issue following the theme of Berlin. Pays $100 honorarium. Seeking fiction, poetry, essays, and art. Deadline August 16.

Horrified Press is accepting submissions for Until the End, an anthology featuring short and flash fiction based on a couple left behind in the apocalypse. Deadline August 20. Pays in royalties. May consider poetry. They're also seeking submissions for Tales of the Undead - Suffer Eternal, Volume III. Deadline August 25. Pays in royalties.

Chuffed Buff Books seeks poetry for Poetry and the City. Deadline August 31. Pays £4 per poem.

Wolf Willow Journal has four editions of their literary journal each year. They're thematic, but will accept things that don't follow the theme. Macabre Symphony will be their October 2013 edition. Poetry, fiction, non-fiction, artwork, and photography. Fall reading period ends August 31. Pays $20 for short fiction and creative non-fiction. Pays $10 for flash, photography, poetry, and art (cover art pays $20).

Live in Brampton? The Brampton Arts Council offers a grant to writers of any kind, as long as their ultimate goal is publication. Amount varies. Deadline August 29.

Crushing Hearts and Black Butterfly Publishing has an anthology call out. The Cogs of Time is a steampunk anthology. Deadline October 31. Pay unknown.

The August theme for Crossed Genres is Young Adult, with a deadline of August 31. Pays 5 cents per word.

World Weaver Press is seeking submissions for a Krampus anthology (yet to be named). Krampus is St. Nick's nasty associate, who comes along to punish children deserving of some discipline. Pays $10 and a paperback copy of the anthology.

The Sleepers Almanac, No. 9 is seeking submissions. Closes August 4. Pay unknown.

Alban Lake Publishing is seeking submissions for their quarterly MG magazine, FrostFire Worlds. Open submissions throughout the year. Pays $15 for original stories, $3 for original poems, $6 for illustrations, $10 for articles.

Submission and Contest links originally posted on The Warrior Muse.

About the Author:  After years of letting her writing fall by the wayside, Shannon Lawrence has recently thrown herself back into it. Her main focus is fantasy and horror and she has just finished a Young Adult Fantasy novel. She has a flash fiction piece featured in the anthology Sunday Snaps: The Stories, and her short horror story "The Blue Mist" will be in the March 2014 issue of Nightfall Magazine. She has also discovered a love of photography and enjoys photographing the breathtaking Colorado scenery and wildlife, as well as her children. She blogs about reading, writing and photography at www.thewarriormuse.com.