It's too hot to think and I'm up against a deadline so you're just getting links, not writing talk, sorry.


Open Calls

Dirty Magick Magazine Summer 2025 Urban fantasy, swords & sorcery, and gothic and supernatural horror

Mmeory Memory manipulation – Examples include magic spells, cyborg memory edits, very unreliable narrators, time travel gone horribly wrong.

Timber Ghost Press Is Open For Novella And Novel Submissions

Keyed This is a tribute anthology honouring the legacy of actress Michelle Trachtenberg, with a spotlight on mystical girls, unchosen heroes, found families, and impossible truths (it's for royalties so there is pay)

LE FANTASTIQUE – A Literary Tribute to CLIVE BARKER (it's an honorium upon request...)

The Alchemy Spoon: Now Seeking Poetry Submissions

Story Unlikely

Flame Tree Fiction romantic fantasy

53 Literary Journals Seeking Genre Fiction



From Around the web

It’s Normal to Embrace the Paranormal

Is Your Traditional Publisher Going Bankrupt? 8 Warning Signs to Look Out For

What I've Learned Disrupting Book Marketing Venue by Venue

Why You Deserve to Go on a Writing Retreat


Why You Should Question Your Writing Goals




From Betty

Are You Depicting Abuse?

Narration Makeover: Giving Action More Immediacy

How Storytellers Use Reactivity & Proactivity for Effect

Writing an Inciting Incident? You Can Do Better

How to Prepare Your Manuscript for a Developmental Edit

Story 360 Conference Made My Head Spin…in a Good Way!

Characterization

Reasons to Grow Your Author Subscriber List Through Your Newsletter.

Find the Writing Inspiration You Need to Reignite Your Muse With These 8 Tips.

Before I get into my writerly ways let me just say, diabetes is going to steer me around the bend. Today I was bad. I ate fries for lunch and pizza for dinner. My sugar is 90. Two days ago I ate nothing but proteins and my sugar was 360.... WHY?

So into the writing crap. I have been thinking about timing of scenes this week. Early this week I watched The Night House and finished reading The Witch's Orchard. Let me start with House. This was a horror movie and without spoiling too much, she is learning terrible things about her dead husband (while dealing with what she thinks is his ghost). After learning this, when the ghost wants to get frisky, she's into it.

And I'm thinking what woman who learns her husband might have been murdering women who look like her is going to want him touching all over her? Had this scene come before she learned this about her husband, maybe it would have hit they way they wanted it to (unless disbelief was their goal)


Same thing with Orchard, it went a place SO many stories have gone. The protagonist nearly gets killed, does get injured and then in spite of having her leg torn open and breaking in meth lab explosion fumes, feels like having sex. If there is one thing you'll see in my sex scenes, they don't tend to come after times like this because it makes no sense to me. I suppose the whole 'nearly died celebrate life' thing is a trope. It's just one that has me rolling my eyes. Having had some serious injuries, I can tell you sex is the last thing on my mind in those times.

In my novel (still need to get more betas on this) I DID mess up the timing. I ended up having to reorder things and expand some of the beginning in order for the timing to not feel off.

How do you handle timing? Do you find timing issues that bother you?


OPEN CALLS

Anomaly July 2025 Window Science fiction stories under 300 words in length

Brink Literary Magazine July 2025 Window Hybrid fiction with the theme of Obsession

Fraidy Cat Quarterly Volume 7 Rage

The Quiet Ones 2025 Window Quiet Horror and Intimate-Scale Dystopian Fiction

The 13th Floor 30,000-50,000 word stories that take place on the mysterious 13th floor! (details in the post)

The Orange & Bee July 2025 Window Original and contemporary short stories, poems, and essays that explore, expand on, and subvert the rich traditions of international folklore, with a strong focus on fairy tales (though we also sometimes dabble in other forms of folklore, such as fables, myths, and legends)

Ten Manuscript Publishers Open to Direct Submissions in June 2025


Fish Barrel Review: Now Seeking Submissions

36 Themed Calls and Contests for June 2025.

star crossed



From Around the Web

Advance to Adaptation

Three Strategies for Creating Progressively Escalating Complications

The Art of the Twist: Adding Surprise to Your Story Structure


How to Publish a Novel in 2025

Unusual Writing Formats: When Your Story Demands Footnotes, Letters, or a Series of Haikus

Tim Weed: Five Things I Learned Writing The Afterlife Project



From Betty

Six Important Differences Between Filmed and Narrated Stories


Ten Easy Jokes for Your Dialogue

Why the Mysterious Badass Hero Is a Trap For New Writers

Seven Ways to Create Rifts Between Close Characters

The Strategic Author's Guide to Amazon's Kindle Unlimited

Dual Protagonists


Communication is the Key to Critique Partner Success (still looking for new members for mine)

Three Strategies for Creating Progressively Escalating Complications

The Importance of Beginning a Book with Publishing End Goals in Mind

Your protagonist’s plans are useful, especially when they don’t pan out

How Do I Deliver My Self-Published Book to a Reader?.

Adventuring in Utah Gave Me Insight into Important Writing Truths: Part 1 The Brutal Beginning

Six “Soft Skills” To Make You a Better Writer

Be All-Seeing By Writing Third Person Omniscient

And just like that it's over I can't believe four days are gone so fast. And at the same time managed to feel like 4 months. So tired. Today was a shorter day though. We used to have workshops ALL sunday but I think last year it was changed to only half a day because so many had to be home by tomorrow. Met a younger prof from NY and she likes a lot of the same things I do. She wants us to have a fantasy book reading club and wants to beta read my stuff. I don't know if I'll do that but I will absolutely keep in contact

I was back at the hotel by 1 and I did stay the day because I always leave monday and wasn't even thinking but anyhow I decided let's go to the Pittsburgh Aviary. Well so did all of Pittsburgh. No place to park. The onstreet parking is dicey to begin with and as I rolled by I saw there was a line out the door. I don't need birds that bad. I should have gone to the Heinz history museum but it didn't have new exhibits (I went last year) and thought well I have never see ALL of the Pittsburgh Science Center, just the special exhibits. Kind of a waste of my money sadly mostly because it is 100% geared to the 4-11 year old crew which is amazing really but since I have no kids... The special exhibit was on mental health but while inventive, it was wasted on me because it was designed to be experienced in a group. Nothing could be done on your own. Oh well, I was entertained for a couple of hours at least.

And then dinner. OMFG, I saved the best for last and it was also SUPPOSED to be open and it wasn't. See me curled into a ball in the corner. I found some middle eastern/greek thing Ephestus Pizza and got a gyro pizza (onions, tomato, gyro meat and feta on a wood fire pizza sounded good. I've been so used to mediocre gyro meat as of late I was shocked I could smell the lamb (halal) through the box. It was true gyro meat and lots of it (better be given the price) tons of cheese too. Excellent. To make myself less disappointed I got baklava (vegan, I'm assuming butter isn't halal? I don't know. I found out today you couldn't put honey in tea because the heat kills the honey and that's forbidden) Anyhow best baklava I've had in ages.


So obviously no writing anything today. My brain is mush so links only

Open Calls

Plott Hound Magazine

Creepy Corner Season 1

Season’s Grievings: Holiday Travel Stories Gone Wrong

Scavengers: Now Seeking Submissions

30 Magazines Publishing Hybrid Writing



From around the web

How to Get Back Into Writing

Notes from the Editor’s Desk: May 2025

Why Tension Relies on Hope

What is Sensory Language? Definition + Examples

When Pantsing Pays Off for Writers


From Betty

Six Tricks for Memorable Character Moments

Five More Signs Your Story Is Sexist

Misattributed Arousal in Fiction

Five Ways Gods and the Afterlife Change a Fantasy Setting

The Tools Have Changed, but Your Voice Still Matters

Choose a Powerful Foundation for Your Story, Part Two

More Short Story Words of Wisdom

Reading Like a Writer

Writing 101: Point of View Basics

Character Secret Thesaurus: Making a Black Market Purchase

10 Ways to Reveal a Hero in Your Manuscript

Happy Mother's Day

This got me thinking again about YA fiction and the overly heavily reliance on bad moms or dead ones. We've talked about ways around this before but I'm always open to hear more ideas or examples. I think if we're going to go the bad parent routine then ones like Joyce Summers or Camilla Noceda are the way to go: working too hard and concerned with their daughters but a bit clueless. Camilla comes around much faster than Joyce

Of course, a lot of them go the route of dead Mom (looking at you Disney but it's not your fault. You use fairy tales from a time where mom usually died in birth).

The one I've seen less is Mom's a bitch. If I'm honest, my grandmother was and I have a student whos mother likes all her children but this student. Currently hospitalized, the student is the only one looking after her and the nurse said this must be your favorite kid and mom is like no, not at all. You watch enough ID Discovery you will see a mom (or father) pick one child to torture and the rest are raised with love. It's so bizarre and yet it's not uncommon.

What is uncommon is to see this in fiction (or should I say in the genres I personally read). Has anyone seen examples of it?

OPEN CALLS

Beyond Straightforward science fiction with great characters

Anomaly June 2025 Window Dark and disruptive SF stories that have strong emotional resonance under 300 words in length

The First Line – Fall 2025 Story must begin with: Her truck took the sharp turns of the mountain road with ease.

Radon Journal Stories and poetry containing elements of science fiction, anarchism, transhumanism, or dystopia.

Flashpoint Science Fiction Spring 2025 Window Science fiction, fantasy, slipstream, and everything in between

Three-Lobed Burning Eye May 2025 Window Speculative fiction with strong narrative voices

5 Paying Literary Magazines to Submit to in May 2025

The Bloomin’ Onion: Now Seeking Fiction Submissions

Game Over Books: Accepting Manuscript Submissions


32 Themed Calls and Contests for May 2025


From Around the Web

Writing Tips from a Neurodivergent Brain

Avoid These Common Book Title Mistakes That Can Tank Your Sales Also want to point out this is more important to the indie crew as publishers can/will change yours

How to Give Writing Feedback Like a Pro




Am I A Writer or Just a Person Who Owns Too Many Notebooks?



People Lose Thousands of Dollars at Failed A Million Lives Book Festival A word of caution

A Guide to eBook Conversion Services for Your Book

What is a Character Flaw?

How to Use TikTok to Sell Books: 12 Practical Tips

From Betty

Why Tossing In Calamity Won’t Make Your Story Exciting

#1 Sign of a Successful Writer? Persevering Through Failure.

10 Things I Learned Teaching Children to Write

Voice Revisited

More Thriller Words of Wisdom

Learning to Set the Stage with Description in Your Manuscript

Tropes and why maybe I should take them as a sign. In the writers' online meeting we were talking tropes and I admitted I do not like two big ones in romance 'enemies to lovers' and 'fake dating' (if you like them, fantastic, they're just not me). I think they were horrified that I don't like them and it got me thinking, maybe this is why I don't sell as well as I probably should. I am not fond of a lot of romance tropes so I'm not likely to write them. It's even why I shied away from duckprintspress LGBT reading challenge on storygraph (something I was like whee new and then forgot about 2 weeks later). It's heavy on the tropes (but it looks like a great challenge and I recommend it. It's just not a me challenge but I might look at it again to see where I can slot some of my reads into)

Not following the tropes might turn off some readers. They're there for the comforting formula. Even in my fandom challenge unconventionalcourtship the blurb I chose did include fake dating and I'm like yep let me dance around that. I would like to think, however, that there is plenty of room for other not as tropey stuff (I just know every one of my novels has absolutely flatlined no matter how much effort went into the marketing. It has pretty much killed my desire to continue on as Jana).

How about you? What are your favorite tropes (Hurt/Comfort for me, found family)? Which ones do you write? Which ones have you subverted? How did that work? (and let's not yuck on someone's yum please). How well do you play with tropes? Apparently I play poorly with romance ones at least.

Open Calls

Tractor Beam Issue 2 Soilpunk (sci-fi involving soil) with the theme of ‘The Garden’ Caveat by me - no one is sure if the 1,200$ is split between all the authors or per story (my bet is on the former). I checked the webpage and it's weird, made by Tractor Beverages, some organic juice thing. I'm like i have a story that fits this but....

Archive of the Odd #7 stories told in the style of found footage, also known epistolary, neo-epistolary, found file, or found document fiction. Essentially, stories told in the form of other documents.



Bizarro Circus of Madness Bizarro

Neurodiversity and the More-Than-Human Neurodiversity and the More-Than-Human

5 markets and more


From Around the web

Writing 101: Effective Dialogue Techniques

How (and Why) To Define a Strong Author Brand I do like the examples here


What Makes an Antinovel? 6 Key Elements and Examples

From Betty

Six Ways to Make Fantasy Travel More Interesting

Six Pieces of Misunderstood Storytelling Advice


What Storytellers Should Know About Normalization

Bringing Necromancy to Life in Your Story

Making Your Story Immersive

Five Tips on Writing for the Second Read

Can Placeholders Cause Problems?

The Best Way to “Show, Don’t Tell” –Scene Segmenting

Cinematic Technique for Fiction Writers

Trigger Questions: The Worldbuilding Game-Changer

6 Tips for Creating Chemistry Between Characters

A Peek Inside the Mind of a Developmental Editor

5 Red Flags Your Novel Might Be Too Much Work to Read

Villains vs. Antagonists

What’s A Writer to Do NOW With Social Media?

The Heart of the Matter

Character Secret Thesaurus: Living Under a Curse

Character Secret Thesaurus: Giving Up a Child

Writing 101: Effective Dialogue Techniques

Seven Writing Fears That May Be Holding You Back from Greatness

The answer is always community

How to Write Believable Characters in Unbelievable Situations

How to use hopes and dreams to make a character come alive

When the Hero in Your Manuscript Can’t—or Shouldn’t—Change


Writing Research isn’t for the Fainthearted

How to Battle One of a Writer's Worst Enemies—PROCRASTINATION

The Enduring Relevance and Power of Written Words: 3 Essential Tools for Writers

The Pooh Crew—Real-life People Every Writer Needs in Their Writing Life

Yesterday I bought a cheese I've avoided 'bread cheese.' The name wasn't appetizing but I thought why not try it? It's rare you find a cheese you don't like so today, I went to slice some and it tells me to warm it up and eat it with maple syrup or jam or the traditional way with coffee. My eyes went wide. Who's tradition is it to eat cheese with coffee.

So I researched it and my answer was the other names for this is Finnish Squeaky cheese (and oh so it's SUPPOSED to make that noise when I chew) or leipäjuusto. I'm like fine, if it's traditional...and to my surprised it was SO good with coffee. Damn. Had to be sure not to eat the whole brick and lie on the ground with a stomach ache.

But this led me to think about traditions and how we incorporate them into our stories. I did use that in my last novel the 1980s monster hunter thing from haint blue, to Italian, Filipino and Welsh traditions. Italian ones pop up everywhere.

I have done less with it in my fantasy work. One place I did it was with the one character loosely based on the people of Nepal (at least in appearance but then I second guessed having one of the few darker skinned characters to have these traits, it was a fear of dead bodies rather inspired by several groups. I'm good at this sort of second guessing).

I do want to work more traditions (of my invention) into my next fantasy novels. It can be something the character (or their family) are afraid of them losing because they left their homeland. Do they worry about looking weird because they're celebrating something no one else in town is doing? Do they worry that it might cost them a job due to prejudice.

That last one did nearly happen to me. People don't remember that in the 80s and even into the early 90s Italians still weren't welcome in a lot of places in America. I have never been shy about my Italian American heritage. When I was in NYC, I had mentioned going to the Ferragosto, the feast of the Assumption in Little Italy and one of the surgeons I was training under was SO angry I would be with Italians she tried to get me fired from my residency to the point of lying to the residency director. What happened was I was then put with surgeons better suited to me (i.e. I was reassigned to working with Italian, African American and Jewish doctors while the white Protestants ones didn't have to deal with me). What if your character, like me, was trapped because if I made waves and was let go from my residency I was done. I couldn't practice as a doctor without it. I never said another word about it and it was a tradition I've let lapse since.

Have you tried to write new traditions in fantasy/SF works? Let's hear about them? Same with how real world ones you've woven in.


Open Call

Road Kill: Texas Horror by Texas Writers, Vol. 10 pays well but you have to be a Texan

Elven Rock of Ages A 1980s band that end up in a fantasy kingdom (a few specific details to include below.) It's basically a shared universe and it sounds fun.

Tales of Galactic Pest ControlShort stories that explore the theme of pest control in creative, unexpected, and engaging ways. Another one that plans to pay well. I have an idea. Can literal manifestation of nightmares be a pest to be controlled?

Search for the Any Key Action/adventure mixed with any drama, can’t use a physical key, the why of the search should be the most important part



From Around the web

Meta’s Use of Pirated Material to Train AI, and Why You Should Care

Five Ways to Get Your Protagonist to Realize They’re the Problem

3 Writing Aspects You Should Never Let Anyone Mess With

2025 Laptop Buying Guide for Authors

32 Themed Submission Calls and Contests for April 2025

From Betty

Sidekick Protagonists

Creating Distinct and Grounded Anti-Heroes

Seven Reasons Storytellers Should Consume Bad Stories

Five Tips for Creating an Engaging Space Battle

The Best Way to “Show, Don’t Tell” –Scene Segmenting

How to Write: Conflict is NOT Tension

Choose a Powerful Foundation for Your Story

Thesaurus Love

Let Me Tell You a Short Story

Hooking the Reader Words of Wisdom

Using a Character’s Personality Traits to Generate Conflict

Character Secret Thesaurus: Hiding the Truth about Family

Writing Tips: Query Letter Questions Answered

Who Are You as a Writer on the Page?

Just links again. I spent all day learning how to do looped animations on powerpoint and fine tuning the PPT and giving my lecture and then couldn't remember did I start at 3:41 or 4:41. One meant I was on target. One meant I was 25 minutes over. I had to regive the lecture (I didn't mind as I was finding issues I didn't see just reading). Barely can get it under 1 hour with no questions, no drinking water, nothing. Had to give up the thing I spent a half hour learning to animate.

Open Call

Big Thinking Publishing is open to Novellas Fantasy, Science Fiction novellas

Scary Stories to Tell in October Theme: Halloween

Saturday Mourning Television Short horror fiction inspired by early morning kids TV

Terrorcore is looking For YA-ish Horror Novels YA Horror (Think Point Horror, Christopher Pike, and R.L. Stine (Fear Street))

Eye to the Telescope #57 Speculative poems about Birds

10 Literary Magazines Accepting Mystery, Crime, & Thriller Fiction

30 Creative Nonfiction Magazines



From Around the web


Is it Downhill After 50(+) for Women in Horror Part One

WiHM 2025: Is it Downhill After 50(+) for Women in Horror Part 2

WiHM 2025: Is it Downhill After 50(+) for Women in Horror Part 3

Five Horror Fiction Conventions You Should Be Attending

Why All Authors Should Try Notion

How to Use Show, Don’t Tell to Strengthen Your Story

Notes from the Editor’s Desk: March 2025

The Key to a Realistic Writing Plan

A Guide to eBook Conversion Services for Your Book

What is a Character Flaw?

How to Use TikTok to Sell Books: 12 Practical Tips


From Betty


How to Tell a Story Within a Story

Six Signs of Over-Summarized Prose

Five Ways to Include Collective Action in Your Story

How Conflict Enhances Your Story

The Female of the Species.

Writing 101: Dialogue Mechanics

Character Secret Thesaurus: Being an Anonymous Financial Donor

Announcing the first We Need Diverse Books Day on April 3, 2025! and you can donate here.

April Writing Idea Starters for Blogging, Social Media, and Articles

Sell More Books with These 5 Simple Book Table Elements

Harnessing the Power of Smell in Our Writing.

Characterization: Going Deeper with the Characters You Write Through Listening

Made it home. Rocket let me know what his thoughts were about the neighbors feeding him for a week. Rolls eyes. Things are a bit stressful with my blood sugar nearly 400 for reasons I don't get (it was around 250 in Mexico in spite of ALL the alcohol and desserts) and the jaw pain is back. Guess I'm calling a dentist too. Let's hit this with all the doctors because I'm not having this.


On the way here I was thinking you'll be too tired to do a writerly ways then thought you know what, let's ask this HOW do your characters first come to you (those of us doing original fiction). For me I tend to get their personalities and jobs first. For example, I can not stop thinking about this demon/goddess woman whose rule of gluttony was given over to a man (Beezlebub) and her empire of all inclusive resorts and Vegas casinos (and the idea that travel is good for stories). I do not know what she looks like but I have her thoughts.

I do wish I would get appearances more easily. I'm not sure if there is something off with my ability to 'see' my characters or if it has to do with my early start in fanfic. As some of you know in the 80s neither Elfquest nor Pern (both of which were big then) allowed you to use the actual characters just the world building so many of us to give the fan artists insight into our characters, would use celebrity faces as a starting point. I still tend to do that.

So how do you arrive at your characters? Hear them? See them? something else?


Open Call

Space Opera Stories

Hachette Book Group Announces REQUITED: A New Adult Imprint Focused on Romantic, Bingeable Fiction

Last Girls Club Summer Issue 2025 A pro-feminist story with the idea of “For Your Own Good”

Dark Canadiana: An Anthology of Canadian Horror open only to Canadians

The Necronomicon of Sherlock Holmes Insert Sherlock Holmes into the realm of Lovecraftian Horror (pays very well)

Eerie River is open to Novels and Novellas from Canadian Authors

5 Paying Literary Magazines to Submit to in March 2025

Temporal Lobe Literary: Now Seeking Submissions

27 Literary Journals Open to Publishing Reprints


From around the web


Want to Write Faster? How Tracking Your Word Count Can Boost Your Productivity

POV Deep Dive: The Second Person

How to Make Your Fantasy World Feel Real: 6 Pillars of Organic Worldbuilding

Brewing the First Line of a Poem: Starting Strong with Memorable Openings


From Betty


How I Junked the First Act to Save My Novel

5 Lessons I Learned from My 30-Day Writing Challenge

Write Emotional Scenes that Better Engage Readers

Less Stress, More Words: A No-Burnout Plan for Writers

Playing with Time

How to Choose the Perfect Talent for Your Character

How to Show Emotional Volatility

Character Secret Thesaurus: Hiding Wealth

Stop linking to Amazon already!

Tips for Creating a Fictional Dream for Your Readers

March Forward, Write Now

Get More from a Writing Conference When You follow These Seven Tips

I have no words of wisdom this week. I spent hours working on the timeline for my sabbatical research. I finally said enough's enough after it was over 4 pages long. That's more than I need for a 1 hour speech but my mind is mush so welcome to the links' page.


OPEN CALLS

Will This Be A Problem? Speculative fiction, science fiction, fantasy or horror written by African writers

When Vampires Save the (Day) Night I wish I had something for this but the deadline is the end of this month and I don't have the time unless I dig up something incredibly old.

Consumed horror revolving around food

Something Out There Stories taking place in a specific area based around a UFO festival (this is a shared universe thing)

Roses & Wildflowers Autumn 2025 Issue An issue dedicated to hope. Solar-punk, hope-punk, envisioning a better future. Fantasy that explores hope and grace.

Where Connections Lead Your take on: where connections lead. Speculative stories welcome, if horror, gore needs to be off page

Jungle Scandals NSFW jungle adventure

Thema: I Wish I’d Said That I Wish I’d Said That

The Glass Post: Now Seeking Submissions

Publishing News & Opportunities

12 Literary Magazines Accepting Artwork

65 Specialized Publishers Open to Manuscript Submissions

THIS EXQUISITE TOPOLOGY slipstream, speculative—science fiction, horror, fantasy, weird— and fabulist pieces exploring the radiance, awe, and exuberant thrall of “This Exquisite Topology” in short stories



From Around the Web

How to Avoid Flat Characters in Your Story

Is BookBub About to Change Author Websites Forever?

Kickstarter For Authors With Oriana Leckert

Navigating Revision and Editing Without Losing Your Voice

How to Add Research for Your Next Book Project

Generate Greater Book Profits in 4 Easy Steps

From Betty

Taming Your Exposition

Troubleshooting When You’re Stuck

How to Build a Plot in the Background

The Essential Deep POV Checklist: 11 Tips For Better Writing

The Shadow Knows

Give Me a Break

Character Secret Thesaurus: Helping Someone Die with Dignity

How to Avoid Flat Characters in Your Story

6 First Page Inclusions for Drawing Readers In

Stamp out vague catchalls in your writing

Tips for Getting Your Writing in Publishable Condition



and there goes my dexcom telling me i'm low. My body told me first. I'll end this here and go eat some peanut butter.

I am so tired but let's see if we can talk about something here. One of you commented to last week about something that appears a lot in cozy mysteries (and more than a few romances, looking hard at you Hallmark). Woman moves back home/out to the country etc to take over some relative's bookstore/thrift or antique shop/bakery etc or she's had her heart broken and she's fleeing the area. In the end she gives up whatever high powered job she had whether or not she was unhappy in it, to take over whatever second career that allows her more time to solve crimes.

1. certainly you need to be your own boss so you can get time off to go solve crimes but we can do this without gutting out some different job.

2. In an era where we're trying to shove women out of the professional arena I think we're doing women a disservice by portraying them as happier running a coffee shop instead of being XYZ. Yes, I'm sure there are people out there who hate their professional job but it's in almost every series any more. It's tiring.

I think this bothers me because of #2. I had a high powered job. I worked my ASS off to power through college, get to medical school, carve out my little part of the medical world. I know what it feels like to lose your job because of circumstances out of my control. If I were in a cozy mystery, I'd be giving up my job to stay with the cute handyman after I came home to help Mom with something.

It feels like we're saying women are better at jobs where we're cooking or working retail than we are at anything else. I'm not saying that there is anything wrong with that. Bartending was one of my favorites of all my jobs. And if the story started with the women in those roles, it wouldn't bother me. It bothers me when they take someone who had to go ham on the world to get where they are and by the end of book one, they've thrown it in the garbage to do something else (especially when they weren't dissatisfied at the beginning of the book).

What do you think? Does this bother you? Do you have ideas of handling this better? I'm curious.


Open Calls.

5 Paying Literary Magazines to Submit to in February 2025

It Was Paradise Theme: In a world devastated by catastrophes, we need stories that confront these horrors. Yinz, it pays 15 cents a word but it's so not my thing with the apocalyptic feel but it may be yours.

Tiny Terrors 2025 Theme: Tiny Terrors is our short fiction program for when a novel just won’t do. Just a short shocking scream to keep you awake at night …

Call for Submissions: Cryptids Anthology (same publisher)

Planet Scumm Fall 2025 Issue Theme: Speculative Fiction, ideally with sci-fi elements if not sci-fi itself

Hearth Stories 2025 March Window Theme: Speculative fiction that explores connection, family, relationships, comfort, and the natural world. Looking for preindustrial age stuff (I don't remember this from before but hey my colonial story might have a shot)

The Cafe Irreal Spring 2025 Issue requires heavy reading of their request/theme

Eavesdrop Issue 4 Theme: Stories by Canadian writers with a focus on Echoes

Untitled Quest-Based Anthology For Oregon And Washington Writers Theme: Short story by Oregon or Washington writers, that takes place in one or both of those states, that has the reader go on a ‘quest’

Magic Malfunction Theme: What happens when magic goes wrong? (royalties)

76 Publishers With Geographic Limitations

Altered Reality Anthology


Rights at Risk: 19 Amendments to Liberation This is a charity auction to help protect women's rights. I think this is Cyndi Lauper's group benefitting from this.


From around the web

Why Bad Books Are Popular

The Perfect Guide for Where to Submit Your Writing (Does Not Exist)

5 Questions to Ask Before Adding a Subplot

Building a Writing Career from Small Wins

Bookshop.org Now Sells E-Books, Huzzah And Hooray


From Betty

Distinguishing Characters in Dialogue this one should be helpful

Passive Voice Examples: When It Works and When It Doesn’t

How Fiction Writers Can “Speed Up” Time

5 Questions to Ask Before Adding a Subplot

Should You Write a Series or Stand Alones?

Thirty Ways to Promote Your Book

Use This Method to Identify Your Story’s Stakes

Character Secret Thesaurus: Doubting One’s Faith

The How's and Why's of Formal Versus Informal Writing

Pursue Your Passion

Tips for Writing Great Dialogue