Needs: cutting edge, hardboiled, horror, literary, noir, psychological/horror.  No fanfiction, romance, or swords & sorcery and no erotica. We no longer publish erotica, but if your story contains graphic sex that is essential to the story, that's fine.  Absolutely nothing glorifying Satanism!  Nothing so sick or perverted that even I can’t read it. Nothing racist or bigoted, anti-religion, nothing blasphemous or sacrilegious.  Nothing either right-wing Conservative or so politically correct the ACLU would love it.  There’s a happy medium somewhere: Write straight from the heart; call it like you see it, but show some control.

 

Length: No more than 3,500 words.  Anything longer, please query first. Flash fiction (approximately 500 words or less) is cool.  Fiction: one story at a time and no simultaneous submissions, please! (The absolute BEST way to land on the Yellow Mama shitlist is to send a story, then pull it because you sent it somewhere else. Once ya do that, yer screwed at our house.)  Poetry: up to three poems.  Again, no simultaneous submissions, please. Please note: We will be closed to submissions from April 15th through June 15th, due to overstock of great material. 

 

We require Worldwide electronic rights from the day of acceptance until the day the issue your story/poem appears in goes out of print & into the Archives.  If the rights are for one year, you cannot publish that piece anywhere else on the World Wide Web until the work goes out of print & into said Archives.  Artwork: up to three pieces.

 

How to contact:  Electronic submissions only. Send fiction and poetry as email attachments in MS Word or something compatible to our new email address at: crosmus@hotmail.com with “Submission” as subject.  Please do not paste your work into the body of an email and expect me to reformat the thing. Send artwork as a file attachment to the same address. In any case, a brief cover letter would be nice.  Include a short bio and past publications (if any) and make sure your name, address, & email address is on the first page of the manuscript.  Also make sure you insert numbers on every page.

 

     Please carefully proofread your story.  Lately I've been getting TOO many stories with misspelled words & typos on the VERY FIRST PAGE.  Sometimes the very first PARAGRAPH!  Like, what does that say about the writer? Please use Times New Roman font—I HATE Courier (My mag, my rules!)

 

Payment: The thrill of having your story/poem/artwork seen by so many!  The joy of seeing your name in print! I could go on, and on. But sorry, no bucks, and since we’re not a print mag, no copies, either! And last of all, please wait 3 months before submitting new material, whether your work was accepted, or rejected.