We CANNOT offer any payment for stories we publish.
Just our eternal love and undying affection. But isn't that enough?
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Submit stories by copying and pasting
into an e-mail. We'll worry about formatting later.
There are basically two categories for submissions.
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(1) "Shuddersome Shorts" are
short horror stories (max. 5000 words) with twist or surprise endings,
very much like the sort of thing they used to publish in the old comic
books like Boris Karloff Presents or on the Twilight Zone series.
We're not looking for high art here, nor something to change the world
(although a touch of pathos is nice, from time to time). We just
want the sort of tale where someone can look back fondly and say, "Hey,
remember that neat one where..." If you can get around to reading
even one of the ones we've already published, you'll see what we mean.
And we don't want anything too violent, or too nasty. Keep it fun
and have fun!
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(2) We are accepting short
stories ("Two-Fisted Tales") and serials (up to 30,000 words) written to
evoke just about anything from the pulp era. This could
include costumed superheroes, Conan-style barbarians, Doc Savage-like teams
with gadgets and things, Flash Gordon-style space opera (like Perry Rhodan)
with rocket packs and rayguns, even westerns (or "atomic westerns", like
Wild, Wild West). Check out "The Midnight Sons", for a good example.
The key here is "action-packed". We don't want a character study
of Space Commander Buck, nor a "day in the life" of Dingo the Barbarian.
We want thrills and we want imagination. Keep it tight, keep it fast.
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But keep in mind, we DO NOT want a simple rip off,
either. The trick is to evoke the flavour of the greats, but with
a character (or world) all your own. We repeat -- we
don't want copyrighted characters themselves. Also, we
don't want you using characters created by other authors for our site.
You've got an imagination -- use it.
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A final point: it's nice if you can set the story in the
pulp era, 1950s or before -- but not necessary. Again, just go wild
and don't be afraid to have fun!
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Please, query about serials!
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And, remember -- this is the Internet. It's not easy
to read stories on a computer screen, so keep your paragraphs short and
tight.
If you have any questions, just write to us at lattabros@yahoo.com!
Jeffrey Blair Latta, co-editor and Supreme
Plasmate
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and Dagger