Reminder, regular submissions close at midnight tonight! Winter holiday submissions will be open for a week, starting November 10th!
In the meantime, assuming you’re not already in a sugar coma or weeping inconsolably about the suckitude of the Jets today, enjoy a suitably spooky story by the masterful Mike Sweeney over at the always awesome amphibi.us. It’s almost like they put the story up specifically for Halloween or something.
In our ongoing efforts to accidentally come up with themes at the most inappropriate times, we are proud to present Issue Fourteen of Jersey Devil Press, dedicated to that most wonderful and terrible of all emotions: Love.
That’s right. In the dead of autumn, just in time for Halloween, we’ve got a bunch of stories about the most pink and frilly of feelings. Or is it? After reading these five stories, I’m not so sure.
The authors here get love down in all its messy glory: the selflessness and the selfishness; the pain, the passion, the effort and the ease; the wonder and, especially, the unexpectedness of it all.
The first stop on this textual Tunnel of Love is Hilary Gan’s remarkable debut story, “The Pragmatist,” followed by “The Ballad of Done Me Wrong and Maybegirl,” by the enigmatic Sandra Bazzarelli. Next is the moving “The Rodeo Clown” by the prolific Annam Manthiram, then Michael Frissore’s “The Seven Stages of Sorrow,” equal parts beautiful and trippy. Then the ride brings us ashore, into a dirty fever dream of life in Brooklyn, as presented by the magnificent Chloe Caldwell in “That Was Called Love.”
There’s truth and heartbreak in these tales, as well as Chicken McNuggets and ninjas. If that’s not love, then I don’t know what is.
The issue is available for reading online here and downloading as a .pdf here. Remember to comment the crap out of the stories you like; it makes the writers feel special.
We’ve got the next 3+ issues already filled and waiting to go, so we’re gonna take us a well-deserved vacation. Sort of.
Regular submissions will be closed as of November 1st. We’ll keep going through what we have and what we get until then, shoring up our 2011 issues as far ahead as we can. Regular submissions will re-open on January 3rd, give or take a day pending the brutality of our hangovers.
“But what’s with the ‘regular’ qualifier?” I’m sure you’re asking. Well, just like last year, we’re planning on publishing another holiday half-issue. As such, we’ll be accepting holiday submissions only for the week of November 10th through the 17th. For what it’s worth, “holiday” really means “winter.” Christmas, Hannukah, New Year’s, slush monsters, whatever. Winter’s just not as alliterative a word. In any event, we want ’em short. 1,000 words or less. And we’re really looking for humor this year. And abominable snowmen. No Santa on a murdering spree stories, please.
So, to recap:
Regular submissions will be closed as of November 1st, re-opening in January.
Holiday submissions will be accepted from November 10th through the 17th.
We know that’s not a lot of time, but we have faith in you. I mean, you’re going to need to do something when you’re putting off writing your novel, right?