Trickster’s Treats #3 – 7 Deadly Sins!

CALLOUT FOR SUBMISSIONS

Callout for this year’s Halloween magazine Trickster’s Treats. We’re looking for flash fiction/short stories based on ONE of the seven deadly sins, which for our purposes include (but not strictly limited to) the following:-
  • Pride (A difficult one because there are antithetical meanings – some good, some harmful. Conceitedness; over-inflated self of self-worth; excessive self-admiration, vanity, self-love, etc. could all be seen as negative forms of pride.)
  • Greed (Any kind of greed apart from gluttony – see below. Selfishness, acquisitiveness, pursuit of money, power, objects, often at the expense of others, etc.)
  • Gluttony (A special kind of greed connected with the consuming of food, etc. Habitual or temporary overindulgence, over-consumption, consuming more than our fair share, etc.)
  • Lust (Strong sexual desire for someone (or something like money, power, love, overwhelming desire or cravings, etc. Note it could be construed as a positive urge, e.g. for freedom, validation, etc. but this might still lead to destructive actions due to its overwhelming nature)
  • Envy (Jealousy, grudging admiration for another, resentful longing to possess something, someone, or some quality or condition belonging to another, etc.)
  • Wrath (Extreme or vindictive anger; vengeful punishment; revenge; judgment; ‘eye for an eye’, etc.)
  • Sloth (Laziness, lack of care, lethargy, not bothering to do what is required, sluggishness, inaction or inactivity due to emotional state, e.g. lack of self-worth could also fall into this category)

Note: The deadline is 7th July 2019. See below for further submission details.

wraparound cover draft

We’re after disturbing, delicious stories of darkness, not dismay or depression. We’re also hoping for that glimmer of light in the darkness without being sickly optimistic. Delight and surprise us, and make it memorable! Be inspired by this, but try to think outside the boxes (or should that be seven circles…?)

Editing Team:

I’m delighted to share that we will be joined by TWO award winning co-editors and SEVEN Submissions editors for Trickster’s Treat 3…
Lee Murray and Marie O’Regan have kindly volunteered to steer the Trickster towards this year’s bag of treats!
Lee Murray (co-editor): Lee Murray is an award-winning writer of fantasy, science fiction, and horror. She lives with her family in the Land of the Long White Cloud where she conjures up stories for readers of all ages from her office overlooking a cow paddock. (Read more…)  
Marie O’Regan (co-editor): Marie O’Regan is an award-nominated writer and editor of horror and dark fantasy fiction, and her short fiction has been published in such places as The Alsiso Project, When Darkness Comes, Terror Tales 2, Terror Tales of London, Best British Horror 2014 and Great British Horror #2: Dark, Satanic Mills, among others. (Read more…)

Submissions Editors:

Our wonderful volunteer submissions/assistant editors will each be reading and shortlisting (for their sins!)…

We will also be applying an ‘anonymity process’ so the submissions editors won’t know whose story they’re reading.

Cover Artist:

Award-winning artist Greg Chapman has kindly volunteered to produce the cover art for this year’s Trickster’s Treats! You can find some of Greg’s distinctive art here!
Trivia: The house on the cover was included in the first two issues of Trickster’s Treats (see images below) although the photographs were taken some time apart, over the past 2.5 years in fact, chronicling the sad demise and decay of what must have once been someone’s family home.
(We think Greg has done an awesome job transforming the cover from its original cartoony style to this imposing, highly evocative piece.)

Submission Details:

  • Submissions must be 700 words (maximum, preferably exactly!)
    • Try to stick to ONE of the above themes, not multiple. We need to know which category it fits best, and it will only be submitted to one ‘sin’ – Thanks.
    • If you’d like to submit a longer piece, please aim for 1,400 words, 2,100 words, or 2,800 words, or very close to those numbers. We will only allow so many of these, so please get them in early!
    • Avoid surprise endings if the category will give that away, as it’s no longer a surprise then!
    • No support for bigotry or prejudice… of any kind. It’s okay if your characters are racist, homophobic, sexist, ageist, sizeist, or any other collective noun, but do make sure the story (and by implication, the author!) doesn’t support these bigoted, harmful views.
  • EMAIL (Please don’t PM or submit via social media) your completed, proof-read story
    • It can be simply formatted (attached as RTF or Word doc/docx)  – use “double quotes” please for speech.
    • Email to me initially at:- DillonStephen@hotmail.com and I will forward to the submissions editor for that ‘sin’.
    • Please don’t include your name or other details in the attached story, but include these in the body of the email.
    • Use the subject ‘Seven Deadly Sins – ‘ and the sin of your choice (pride, greed, lust, envy, gluttony, wrath, or sloth). Include in the subject the length of your story as in this example: “Seven Deadly Sins – Pride, 700”
  • The deadline for this callout is 7th July, 2019.
    • At that point if there are slots remaining in any category, we will extend the callout.
  • There is no payment for your stories, so we are considering them donations.
    • Contributors will receive a digital PDF copy.
    • Print copies will be available to buy from Amazon.
    • Profits will go to charity: water
  • Please don’t include your name or personal details in the story submission, but feel free to include these in your email, thanks.
  • Please help us out by sharing the link to this page and/or posts you see on FaceBook – where charity:water is concerned, every drop counts! Thanks.
– Steve Dillon
Things in the Well series editor.
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