trash tales

"Trashy Tales of Terror : cheesy horror fiction featuring creepy kids, killer animals, mutants and monsters, etc."

The above caught my eye when I was perusing the submission guidelines for an anthology called Trash Tales, to be published next summer, but with a submission deadline of midnight on December 31st. Happy New Year. There is also a 5,000 word limit for entries.

There were any number of other suggested categories to submit stories in, from Sci-Fi to romance to cosy crime, in fact, as the guidelines state on the website (see link at the end), "Your story can be in any category or genre you like, as long as it's what we might all consider of a trashy nature!"

I learned of this opportunity whilst watching a #booktube channel, on Youtube. Alex Unabridged was the channel - you can link to their site here youtube.com/@alex_unabridged Alex will be producing/editing the anthology along with Olly from CriminOlly - you can find his #booktube channel here youtube.com/@CriminOllyBlog I recommend visits to both of these channels, they are excellent.

I liked the idea of this competition; the word limit, the themes, the title, and the vibes generally given out by both Alex and Olly, so I thought I'd dust off the trusty typewriter and knuckle down to writing a suitably trashy tale to submit. And while I have written a couple of stories, in the past, in a couple of the other suggested categories, I've never written a horror story, so the challenge of this appealed to me too. It's been a long while since I sent an entry for a competition, or responded to a call for submissions so it's been really good that this opportunity has forced me back into that mindset. I struggle with my own willpower sometimes so it's good for me to have enforced rules, and especially a deadline.

Anyway, I don't know why I'm spending time writing this post when I should be working on my story. So please, spare a thought for me this Christmas. While you're out carol singing, or tree trimming, or wasailing, or whatever, I'll be at home editing feverishly, killing my babies - that's technical editing terminology, before you think I've gone all Herod for the festive season. My countdown to the bells of midnight on new year's eve will have a very different frisson from those prior.

Follow this link to find submission guidelines for Trash Tales https://kilterandrammel.com

And here is a bonus link to a previous anthology produced by Olly, in August of this year, this one edited by Troy Tradup. The book is a gift to lovers of pulp and trash, and it has plenty of five star reviews. This link is to the ebook on Amazon, and it has a great title - CriminOlly presents Garbology: The GarbAugust Anthology of Awesome Trash. It'll give you a really good idea of what to expect from Trash Tales. See the cover below, copyright Oscar Nyberg. Anyway, here's that ebook link Garbology@amazon








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