No Vacancy

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?

Bananafish Editor Editions

Our friends over at Bananafish recently began a series of Editor Editions: short fiction written by magazine editors in the style of their particular magazine. I don’t think it’s too much to call it an ingenious alternative to an editor interview.

They invited me to take part and I jumped at the chance. You can find my short, “Last Minute,” here.

There’s a short blurb there about what we look for in a story, too. But, as always, descriptions only go so far. That’s the beauty of these Editor Editions. We can tell you want we want, sure, but it’s a lot more helpful to just show you.

Although you should still totally read the submission guidelines. Let’s not get crazy here.

Best of the Web Nominations

Jersey Devil Press is proud to nominate the following stories for Dzanc Books Best of the Web 2011:

“To Do List,” by Morowa Yejidé
“Hand Me Down,” by Jim Walke
“A Robot’s Sonnet,” by Danger_Slater

They’re three damn fine stories by three damn fine writers and we’re doing what we can to get them the added attention the deserve. Best of luck to you.

In other news, we’re also pleased to announce the addition of Stephen Schwegler to the JDP staff. He’ll be on hand to help us read through submissions, as that impartial third party you hear so much about on the news. Apparently when you only have two people you sometimes end up with a tie, which sometimes ends up with shouting and veiled threats of violence. Steve’s also in charge of wrangling livestock, should that be an issue. We don’t think it will, but we’d rather be safe than sorry.