Needs: cutting edge, hardboiled, horror, literary, noir, psychological/horror.  No fanfiction, romance, or swords & sorcery, no fantasy 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!

  No stories involving abuse of children, animals or dead people.

Seriously folks, ANIMAL ABUSE IS OUR NUMBER ONE NO-NO! IT WILL GET YOUR STORY KICKED BACK QUICKER THAN ANYTHING ELSE.

Nothing so sick or perverted that even I can’t read it. Nothing racist or bigoted, anti-religion, nothing blasphemous or sacrilegious.  Nothing strongly Conservative or blatantly Liberal or so politically correct the ACLU would love it. Seriously, keep your politics to yourself or at least low-key. There’s a happy medium somewhere: Write straight from the heart; call it like you see it, but show some control. Also, no published song lyrics or poetry or quotes from other stories. Material from texts or academic books may be quoted, but must be properly footnoted.

Length: No more than 3,500 words.  Anything longer, please query first. Flash fiction (approximately 700 words) is cool.  Fiction: ONE STORY AT A TIME AND NO SIMULTANEOUS SUBMISSIONS! THE ABSOLUTE BEST WAY TO MAKE THE YELLOW MAMA SHITLIST IS TO SEND A STORY AND THEN PULL IT BECAUSE YOU SENT IT SOMEWHERE ELSE. ONCE YOU DO THAT, YOU’RE SCREWED AT OUR HOUSE!   Poetry: up to three poems.  Again, no simultaneous submissions, please. 

If your story is a reprint, it must have been published at least a year prior to your submission with us. All reprints must be accompanied by the bibliography of the story, in other words where and when it has been published before. In addition, ORIGINAL, UNPUBLISHED WORK WILL ALWAYS BE GIVEN PREFERENCE OVER REPRINTS, and reprint material may be "bumped" in favor of original, unpublished pieces. We do this to keep fresh material and ideas flowing and to try and even the field for the newer, upcoming writers.

We require Worldwide Electronic Rights from the day of acceptance until the day the issue your story/poem appears in is taken down from the magazine site, and placed into archives.  If the rights are for one year, you cannot publish that piece anywhere else on the World Wide Web until the work goes off the magazine site & into the 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. Please don't submit using Google Outlook or other new, fancy apps. We're old-fashioned, so just keep it simple, okay? In any case, include a brief cover letter with a SHORT bio, stating some past publications. AND INCLUDE YOUR NAME IN THE EMAIL SUBJECT LINE. However, please do not send a long list of every story/poem that's ever been published. And do NOT include a synopsis of the story you're sending.

      Please 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.

Also, you can read an interview with the editor at this link:

http://sixquestionsfor.blogspot.com/2018/05/sqf-revisited-yellow-mama.html