Yesterday I discovered that the folks over at Exploitation Media are looking for short stories for an anthology about cannibalism. The working title? Tales From the Menu.
If you read my last post, you know I paused work on Book II of The Ahbta series to write a submission for a summer camp writing competition. After spending a week writing the 5,000-word story, The Summer I Was Ten, I set it aside for a few days before tackling the final edits.
That left me with an unexpected window of free time.
So I figured, what the heck? Why not write a story about cannibalism?
The submission guidelines seemed reasonable enough.
Stories have to be between 1,000 and 4,000 words. Okay, I can do that.
They also have to answer the question: What causes the desire to devour one of your own kind?
Still doable.
Then I noticed the deadline.
July 31… or whenever they’ve filled all 24 spots.
Oops.
Well, I’m happy to report that I finished the first draft today. It came in at a lean 1,078 words, so now the challenge isn’t writing more—it’s revising without cutting myself below the minimum word count.
I’m going to let it sit for a day or two before diving back in with a red pen. With any luck, I’ll have it polished and submitted before the anthology fills up.
Now, if you’ll excuse me, I have a grieving widow, a casserole, and a very strange story waiting for one more revision.