The March Missive

Here we go…

The week of April 4th marks the beginning of our bold new Made Up Words experiment, and we insist that you join us! In fact, we’ve made it easy: all of our 2,000 Medium subscribers will receive 30 days of full access to our second home — our home-away-from-home, if you will:

Click here to make sure you never miss a story.

Now that that’s settled…have you heard what readers are saying about our March issue? Here are a few of the comments so far:

On DCI Wooderson’s “Porch”:

“Perfectly real. Perfectly nuanced.” — Camille Wilkinson

On Togrim Kvernavann’s “The Marriage Consultant”:

“I’m re-reading this, and its these small moments of foreshadowing that make me realise why I felt chills the first time I read this! This story is amazingly creepy, well-written and uniquely original! Love it!” — Edona Mustafa

On Kristy Arbuckle Lommen’s “The Cat”:

“Wow. Held me entranced throughout. Thank you.” — Sean Howard

On Charles Kunene’s “Alkaline Hearts”:

“Geez, that was heartbreaking. I was with you every step of the way.” — Iriel C.

We hope you enjoy the rest of the issue! If you’d like to submit your own short fiction to Made Up Words, please read on.

Submissions for our May issue are open from April 1 — April 10. During that time we are interested in all types of subject matter, but will take special note of work that reflects the theme of:

“On these magic shores children at play are for ever beaching their coracles,” wrote J.M. Barrie in Peter Pan. “We too have been there; we can still hear the sound of the surf, though we shall land no more.”

The cusp of summer brings to mind the long days and simple joys of an idyllic childhood. Or does it? You tell us. We invite you to submit short fiction that explores childhood in all its tenderness and terror, its magic and mayhem. Reach beyond the familiar tropes, and write only the story that you can write. As always, we promise to read every word.

Our general submission guidelines apply and have been updated, so please read them prior to submitting.

We now use Submittable. Click here to submit.