Announcements, Microfictions

Call For Submissions: Halloween Microfictions

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Things are hopping here in Salem MA, aka the Witch City. Tourists are pouring in by the busload. I’ve seen people in fancy “Witch” hats, navigated around countless walking tours, and already notched five things off my Haunted Happenings bingo card. All of this is to say that it’s that time of year again. Pumpkin spice. Halloween decor. Scary movies. And Circlet Press Halloween Microfictions.

Circlet Press is first and foremost a publisher of literary erotica. We pride ourselves on publishing inclusive and diverse stories of a fantastical nature. We especially seek to lift up authors who come from frequently marginalized backgrounds and identities.

For our Halloween microfictions we want stories that reflect our sensibilities—literary, erotic, exploring and celebrating gender and sexuality—while also harnessing the spirit of Autumn and October and Halloween. Horror is welcome so long as it is erotic and character-driven. Let your imaginations run wild. Stories can be funny or heartbreaking, steamy or sweet, and full on Pumpkin Spice Latte or just dusted with a hint of cinnamon, metaphorically speaking.

A few things to bear in mind:

A happy ending is not necessary. HOWEVER, I will not accept any stories where one spouse kills the other.

Halloween party hookups, night club hookups, demon summoning, and horny ghosts have been done to death. If you’re going to send those PLEASE make it original.

I am 100% open to classic monsters. I love vampires and zombies and werewolves and lots of other creatures. Just make sure to give them your own unique spin if that’s what you do.

I STRONGLY encourage authors to read the works posted to our website in order to familiarize yourselves with what we publish.

REQUIREMENTS:

Stories must contain erotic elements.
Consent must be EXPLICIT.
Nothing under the age of consent.
No bestiality.
No fan fiction.

The details:

Word count limit is 1,500. No reprints. Multiple submissions are okay. Please send as a Word doc or RTF (or in the body of the email) and follow standard manuscript formatting guidelines. Look up William Shunn if you aren’t familiar with manuscript formatting.

The deadline is October 15th, 11:59 pm EST. Payment will be $5 for stories under 1,000 words and $10 for stories 1,000 words to 1,500 words. Author retains all rights. Please include a short bio with your submission. Send submissions to jwsubs13@gmail.com

Microfictions

2021 Halloween Microfiction Roundup

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It’s a beautiful, sunny day here in Salem MA as I write this. The tourists have gone home. The locals are emerging from their homes bleary eyed and hopeful. Another wheel of the year has turned and brings with it new promise.

This year many of our stories  centered around death. Making peace with it. Saying goodbye. Eking out the very last precious moments with loved ones. If nothing else, the pandemic has taught us the importance of human connection. I do hope you will all take a moment to revisit these stories, or read them for the first time if October was too much of a whirlwind for you.

Cloudless Climes and Starry Skies by A.C. Quill
Danse Macabre / Memento Vivere by Bernie Mojzes
Desire by DJ Tyrer
The Offering by Jennifer Williams
A Little Magic In Me by Avery Vanderlyle
Eyes Wide Shut by Elvyra Venus
The Dark Room by Cecilia Tan

I’m not going to say goodbye this year. I don’t know what the future holds. Things are in flux. Change is afoot. But death is merely transformation. We’ll still be here one way or another. The Circlet Alumni are cooking something up for next year. So long as life doesn’t get in the way you’ll hear from us again.

Until then, thank you. Thank you to everyone who submitted work. Thank you to everyone who read and shared the stories here.

Have a blessed New Year and stay safe.

Microfictions

Halloween Microfiction: The Dark Room by Cecilia Tan

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“The Dark Room”
by Cecilia Tan

I hate committees. I hate meetings. Much as I love my fellow committee members, we always get sidetracked into debating if the group should boycott Facebook (if only) or whether the endorphin high from relentless edging can lead to hallucinations (an urban myth—and don’t try Tide Pods either). But I must admit sometimes good ideas come out of collective brainstorming.

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Microfictions

Halloween Microfiction: Eyes Wide Shut by Elvyra Venus

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“Eyes Wide Shut”
by Elvyra Venus

The moon was full, the trick-or-treaters finally home in bed, and a few teens lingered on the streets throwing eggs and keying cars. I centered the bowl full of grave dirt, murderer cremains, and my blood on the gravesite and lit the white candle pressed into the muck. Though I’d purchased the $2 candle at the craft store, I had spent hours carving sigils and circles into it, the physical manifestation of my will for this spell to work.

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Microfictions

Halloween Microfiction: The Offering by Jennifer Williams

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“The Offering”
by Jennifer Williams

“Fuck,” I whisper.

His magic sings across my skin as my eager cunt pushes on empty air. My body is pulled taut, bound in iron round my neck, wrists, and ankles. Not that I need it. I’m exactly where I want to be. The room is dark and I imagine it is cool. I can see the shadow of damp stone walls surrounding us and I smell the must of neglect and decay.

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Microfictions

Halloween Microfiction: Desire by DJ Tyrer

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“Desire”
by DJ Tyrer

She beckons in the mist to follow her down steps into the darkness below.

It smells musty, like earth after the rain. Not horrible.

She’s no more than shadow, but I hear movement within the vault, her dress hitting the floor.

Offers a hand with thin, sharp fingers. I take it.

We kiss. No lips touch mine, just bare teeth, fleshless cheeks.

I don’t care. The urge is too strong. We become one.

Flesh melts away. Flesh grows.

In the furnace of our climax, she is reborn and I feel my consciousness burn away to the clatter of falling bones.

–

DJ Tyrer is the person behind Atlantean Publishing, editor of View From Atlantis webzine, and has had flash fiction published in anthologies and magazines around the world, such as Apples, Shadows and Light (Earlyworks Press), and Journals of Horror: Found Fiction (Pleasant Storm Entertainment), issues of Sirens Call, and Tigershark, and on Cease Cows, The Flash Fiction Press, Space Squid, and Trembling With Fear.
https://djtyrer.blogspot.co.uk/

Microfictions

Microfiction: I Am the Candle by Eric Del Carlo

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Editor’s Note: This story contains suicidal ideation. 

“I Am the Candle”
by Eric Del Carlo

I see your tears. And I know your lover has left you. The boy pigmented in autumnal hues? Or the raven-haired, much-tattooed girl? Who was here last? I try to recall if I heard harsh words. I can’t always understand what you and your paramours say to one another, but I often recognize tone, timbre. And know when emotions run high and perilous.

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