Short Story Publication

[blgarver]

Hey guys.

I have this short story set in the world of my as-yet unfinished trilogy, starring the anti-hero of the series.  I'm sure I've talked about it around here somewhere.  I posted it over at the Cogni boards a while back and had some good feedback. 

Anywho, I have submitted to some small operations, and a few not-so-small operations.  Glimmer Train was the first, then I moved on to some e-zines.  All rejections, of course.  Which is fine.  Most of the responses, however, involved some variation of "your story isn't quite what we're looking for." 

Now, I assumed that was just a nice way of saying "your story isn't good enough", but one of the last responses I recieved said that it was more horror than fantasy and didn't fit their genre well enough.

I'm not sure how they saw it more horror than fantasy...I don't consider it to be horror at all.  Maybe it isn't the closest thing to true fantasy, but I would say it is at least "adventure" with some speculative fiction elements.  But whatever...

I was wondering if anybody knew of any good publications to submit short stories that (apparently) don't quite fit snugly into the fantasy genre, but is definately speculative fiction.  I'm looking to rack up my number of rejections so I can get them out of the way, but I would at least like to be rejected from the correct genre...if that makes any sense.

Thanks for any info!

BLG

[Starbeam]

First magazine that comes to mind for me is Realms of Fantasy.  http://www.rofmagazine.com/pages/guidelines Link for their guidelines to submit.  I haven't read the magazine in a while, but they do have a tendency, last I did see, to publish a lot of darker fantasy that borders on horror.  That's the best I can suggest without really having any kinda idea of the story in general.

[KevinEvans]

If it doesnt go any where before March, send it to Baen's Universe. They do multi genre fiction, and have an introducing new writers section.

 http://www.baensuniverse.com/subguide.html

I personally like to go through Universe slush on the Baen's Bar forums, but direct e-mail is also done.
Regards,
Kevin

[Starbeam]

You could also try the Writer's of the Future contest, although I don't know if they would do horror/fantasy.  I haven't read any of the anthologies they've put out, so I'm not really helpful there.  But they have the contest quarterly and have some pretty recognizable authors for judges.
http://www.writersofthefuture.com/

[Cyclone Jack]

Aberrant Dreams actively pursues SF/fantasy with a horrific edge. 3 cents per word and a contributor's copy of their yearly anthology.

Dark Energy "We're looking for wild stories that cross genres." $20 flat fee.

Good luck!

[meg_evonne]

wooozooo   Haven't seen CJ for a long time or have we just not been crossing threads! Welcome back!

[Cyclone Jack]

wooozooo   Haven't seen CJ for a long time or have we just not been crossing threads! Welcome back!

Heya M_E!

Last October I took off on walkabout, something I generally do at least once every other year (sometimes more often) as a way to keep from becoming bogged down in any one place. Traveling on 'The Raggedy Edge' (to steal a Firefly phrase) is the best way I know to obtain writing material and the mindset to use it. I also like to get away from the 'Net and its inbuilt InfoOverload for a while.

I'm back for the forseeable future, though.