As many of you already know, Black Petals has completely dropped its print version and is now a 100% online magazine (issue #41 was our last print issue—it and other back issues are still available...) Starting with #42, Winter of 2007, what you see here on the web is what you get, no cost, no passwords, no membership required. The new electronic-only version of BP is staffed by Kenneth James Crist and Anne Stickel, acting as equal partners.

     Anne is accepting submissions by email only and handling the editing chores and I will be doing the website work. Guidelines remain as follows:

      We accept short fiction, poetry of any length up to four pages, and illustrations.

     Black Petals is about the dark side of Science Fiction, and the bizarre and unusual in Horror. Give us your best, most bizarre tales and your most chilling poetry. We will do the rest because we strive to publish a quarterly, very professional magazine.

     Keeping this in mind, please do not waste our time with manuscripts containing Star Trek or any other copyrighted characters. They will be discarded. Work in which graphic sex or violence serves only to “spice up” the tale, rape scenes, and “splatter punk” don’t impress us; neither does focusing on ‘sexploitation’ or abuse of children, animals or dead people. Other than that, go for it, and we will try our best to read and reply to all submissions.

     Authors, please e-mail queries first—to A.M. Stickel, Editor, at tstickl@juno.com If you want your book reviewed, query first, and then, if requested, please sign, date and mail a copy to her at: 1164 Green Valley Rd., Watsonville, CA 95076-0616. We would love to promote you; however, online-only manuscripts will not be reviewed at this time. Overseas submissions, following queries (in English), will also be considered, as long as they are in appropriate digital format and do not require extensive copyediting.

     Payment at this time is limited to bragging rights. Authors and artists retain all rights to their material after our one-time publication. We require First Worldwide Electronic Rights for 18 months, after which we normally archive our websites so readers can see back issues. Your story or poem will be yours to do with as you like, but will still appear indefinitely on our domain. If you wish to have your material pulled after it appears once, please let us know!

     Black Petals’ copyeditor likes to see author-information-only on the 1st page, followed by a page (not numbered) with title and author byline at the top, then 2 blank lines, and, finally, the story, continuing with story, only, for as many pages as it takes. Manuscripts from 300 to 3000 words are preferred, especially those running between 1000 and 2000 words. Virus-free Microsoft.doc or rtf attachments to e-mail cover letter should be in Times New Roman, single spaced, font size 10, indent the 1st line of each paragraph 5 spaces (starting your first letter at space 6), leave 1 space, not 2, between the end of one sentence and the beginning of the next, and no double-spacing between paragraphs...