Category: Editorial team

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Submissions Open for Issue 4, Summer 2017

***DEADLINE EXTENDED AS REQUESTED TO 21ST AUGUST ***

From July 13th to August 12th we are open for submissions for our Summer 2017 edition, Issue 4. Take up your mouse and send us your short fiction, up to 500 words in length.

The theme for our fourth issue, which will see Strippedlit500 complete one cycle around the sun, is “Lovecraftian.” Your editor is an HPL fanatic; feed my appetite for elder gods, non-Euclidian angles, and the lurking horrors and whispered madness that lies, ancient and waiting, in your large metropolis.

You don’t have to use the words “Lovecraft” or “Lovecraftian” in either your title or the body of your story, but your story must deal with something related to the HPL mythos.

Please read our full submission guidelines here.

Bring cosmic weirdness, lurking horror, and unnameable depravity; summon the spirit of shadow covered, muttering Arkham – summon the ancient chaos that is the LOVECRAFTIAN!

For those readers who aren’t familiar with the man and his mythos, here are a couple of links to whet your appetite; what a treat awaits you!

Featured

Issue 3 Is Here (Spring 2017)

See the unseen… we have fantastic, horrific, amusing and tragic tales for you in this issue of our simultaneous blog and PDF edition of Issue 3; we will publish the stories simultaneously on our Twitter page; please do have a read of them, we are proud to present more great new short fiction.

Our theme for this issue was “unseen”; the quality of the writing and storytelling is once again very high.

Scroll down from this post to read the issue 3 stories individually. You can also search for stories by category in the sidebar. The stories are also collected under the Issue 3 Category

Issue 3 is also available in a free PDF file for you to download or read online.

Happy reading, and enormous thanks to all our contributors.

Margaret

Submissions Open for Issue 3, Spring 2017

From February 1st to 28th we are open for submissions for our Spring 2017 edition, Issue 3.

Send us your short fiction, of any length up to 500 words;  we want your stories, your cautionary tales, your glimpses into new, and familiar worlds.

The theme for our third issue is “Unseen.” That quiet colleague whom no one thinks about, that lurking fear of the basement, that health scare, that mystical experience, that unexplained sighting in the sky. What will you make of the theme?

 

What will be unseen in your story? Emotions, actions, people, events, consequences? Or will your tale revolve an actual, unseen phenomenon; what lies at the bottom of the Scottish loch, atop the rumour-muttered hills?

Or will your unseen be an activity, a thing that happened and must un-happen; are there things that must be unseen?

You don’t have to use the word “unseen” in either your title or the body of your story, but it must deal with something unseen.

Please read our full submission guidelines here.

Get writing, submit your short fiction and bring the force of your pen or mouse to that which is, which must be, or was, UNSEEN!

Issue 2 Is Here

Feel the power! Eight stories of Horror, Sci-Fi, Fantasy and Literary fiction feature in our blog and PDF edition of Issue 2; we will publish the stories simultaneously on our Twitter page; please do have a read of them, we are proud to present more fantastic new short fiction. The theme for issue 2 was “power” and it delivered an eclectic mix of great storytelling.

Scroll down from this post to read the issue 2 stories individually. You can also search for stories by category in the sidebar. The stories are also collected under the Issue 2 Category

Issue 2 is also available as a free PDF file for you to download or read online. You can access the PDF file here. Happy reading and enormous thanks to all our contributors.

Margaret

From July 1st to 31st we are open for submissions for our August edition, Issue 2. Send us your short fiction, of any length up to 500 words;  a complete story, a tale of wonder, excitement, horror, caution, love.

The theme for our second issue has been on my mind for a while – trying to conjure up a theme at once broad enough to allow multiple interpretations, yet evocative as a word on its own, my own day job led me in the right direction.  I work for a major utility company, and what are utilities except the taming of the elements for consumption? The consumption of…power! So “power” is our theme for the summer; take a moment to mull over all the possibilities this theme offers!

Will your story deal with power in its literal definition, of energy or force, that created the universe and fuels out daily commute, our cars, our electric lights, our water taps? Maybe a future source of power that allows us to traverse the unknown voids of the galaxies.

Or will your story speak of power over people, events, history? Will it be a benign force, or a tale of treachery, political manoeuvring, and double-dealing, that creates and destroys dynasties and empires?

Maybe your power is a more personal, subtle and insidious influence over those people around you? Maybe your power is a special power, an unusual capability, a superpower even?

Power in its most basic meaning equals force – does your power deal with an army, an invading force, an epic struggle for military supremacy?

You don’t have to use the word “power” in either your title or the body of your story, but it must deal with power in one of its accepted meanings. (Oxford Dictionary definitions)

Please read our full submission guidelines here.

Get writing, submit your short fiction and make us thrill at its unbridled POWER!

Issue 1 Has Arrived!

It’s happened! The twelve stories that feature in our very first issue have just been published on this blog and simultaneously on our Twitter page; please do have a read of them, we are proud to present some fantastic new short fiction.

The stories are all featured on this site; scroll down to see them individually. You can also search for stories by category in the sidebar. The stories are also collected under the Issue 1 Category

 

Issue 1 is also available as a free PDF file for you to download or read online. You can access the PDF file here. Happy reading and enormous thanks to all our contributors.

Margaret

Submissions now closed…

It’s the 1st May, May Day, an ancient spring festival day of celebration. We’ll have our UK Bank Holiday on Monday, but for now, let’s welcome the (chilly and very changeable at present!) breath of spring.

Submissions for our very first edition of stories, to be published here on the site and in a free PDF magazine, closed yesterday, 30th April. Work is now afoot to bring together twelve tales of new beginnings, to delight, impress, amuse and sometimes horrify the reader!

My (one person!) editorial team is now pulling these stories together; it’s been a labour of love, but I am excited and proud to be able to bring new stories to the world, from writers that may be new to you (and me), but that deserve your time.

Margaret
@lit500

 

Shadow Man

By Margaret McGoverne

We snuggled in the dark, the two of us, breath held, waiting for Shadow Man to materialise again. We recited our wishes in whispers, and Bella’s cold feet wriggled on my legs. Every few minutes the show reset as the window lit up, painting a fleeting portrait of a face, Shadow Man’s face, on the ceiling. We were granted another chance.

Continue reading “Shadow Man” →

Welcome!

Welcome to the very new strippedlit500.com site; every quarter we will publish new short fiction up to 500 words in length, as well as issuing a free PDF issue of all the stories we publish. We have an About page, one for Submissions and a page for discussion about what constitutes flash fiction, kicked off with an article by yours truly discussing the renaissance in short and micro fiction.

We are also on Twitter; please add us, and submit a short story!

In keeping with the start of this new literary/editorial venture that I’m embarking upon in reckless fashion, the theme for the first issue of strippedlit500 will be…..New Beginnings.

We have already had some fantastic submissions, and I am looking forward to our first edition, to be published at the beginning of May. Submissions are open until 30th April, so why not put your writing cap on and submit us your take on New Beginnings…

Margaret
@lit500