Electronic Magazine (eZine) of Fiction for the Mind

Open for Submissions September '09.
Issue #1 is live!
Our next issue is due out second quarter 2010.
We are a paying market for original new Short Fiction. Submit your fiction!

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Read our Issue #1. We processed over three hundred short stories to bring you our first issue. It contains some great stories by great writers.

I want the writing we publish to be so good and the stories so unique that we can showcase our Issues for years to come, while we intend to publish a new issue every three to six months. I want fiction so dark, twisted, or just plain tasty that I lose sleep after reading them. We're going to try and include a mix of every category of story. We aim to publish fiction that stirs the mind and awakens the heart. Or, something scary! It doesn't have to be genre fiction for us to be happy, but at the same time, we're a genre market.
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Signing up with your email address means you'll receive an email when our next issue comes out. There are currently 141 people signed up for our email list. We never sell or trade or spam our email list. It would be a violation of our privacy policy, and we would lose our advertising contract. You may want to whitelist noreply@untiedshoelacesofthemind.com or the email may end up in your spam folder.
Register as a writer.
Registering will allow you to submit your fiction.

Submissions

For starters, we love mind benders and stories that make you think. We are a paying market: we pay a semi-pro rate of three cents a word ($0.03/word) for short fiction, up to thirty U.S. dollars. We process payments through Paypal (if you can't accept payment via Paypal, a check will be mailed). This site contains Google Ads throughout (except editor control panels), that is to help us turn a profit and offset costs. We use only trusted Google ads, so that we have a working business model. Right now, we're a few months old, and we've learned a lot along the way. We have an easy to use fiction submission engine and editor control panel. To submit a piece, you have to use our browser based submission management tool. It's easy! If you have any problems with it, report them promptly, and they will be addressed. Report bugs or problems to geoffporter@yahoo.com (please include as much information about the bug as possible, and use a good subject line in your email).

Submit genre or literary stories between 100-2,000 words. Our preference is between 500-1,000 word stories, but we will happily accept longer stories. Click here for our story categories. Longer works will be considered, but payment stops at $30 US Dollars. If it needs to be 3.5k words, then you can submit it like that.

No email submissions! Submit in Digital format via browser which means no paragraph indents and double spaced between paragraphs. (Don't worry, if your work is in manuscript format, we have a converter). If it's not in manuscript format or digital format, then I don't know, it should be one of those two standards.

We don't accept artwork, erotica, or poetry.

We will publish an author's name with the story. We will also publish stories anonymously, but we have to have a name on file for the writer for copyright purposes, and we require an email address as well, so we can discuss potential changes or fixes to their story. If you don't feel comfortable entering your name and email address into a foreign database, please include them at the top of the body of your story on submission. Also at the author's discretion, an email address, web address, and/or a short bio will be included with the story. Your story will have a hit counter when published, so you'll know how many people opened your story to read it.

REPRINTS
We will accept reprints only from established authors (i.e., you've written books that ended up in bookstores). Otherwise, no reprints! If you do submit a reprint, please note that at the top of the story submission. We define a reprint as a story that's been selectively published, posting it to your homepage or to a forums, doesn't count as being published.

Multi-Submit
This means you're allowed to submit more than one story to us.

Simultaneous Submissions
NO SIMULTANEOS SUBMISSIONS. If you submitted your story to another market, give them time to reject or accept it before submitting it to Untied Shoelaces of the Mind. If you submit a story to us, please don't submit it to any other markets until we've rejected it or accepted it.

Register as a writer.
Registering will allow you to submit your fiction.

Categories (or Genre)

All stories must possess conflict, a beginning, a middle, and an ending. Solid plot twist(s) are nice in short fiction as well. Stories that are a mix of categories are welcome. Romance with a thick vein of sarcastic humor, or a nice horror piece laden with slapstick humor, will both be welcomed.

Categories
Romance
Submit great dialogue.
Action/Adventure/Thriller/Mystery
Yes, one giant genre mix.
Science Fiction / Fantasy
Tell us a tale that will inspire us to play RPGs in the woods.
Humor
Make us laugh and smile, but not necessarily in that order.
Literary
We expect deep rooted conflict in these.
Horror
Last on our list, but definitely not least. We love horror.

Issue #1

Posted January, 2010

Humor
Undying Love
Printer Friendly
By James S. Dorr
SciFi
Fridge Wars
Printer Friendly
By Tracie McBride
SciFi
In the Dry
Printer Friendly
By TD Carroll
SciFi
Screamcatcher
Printer Friendly
By Sheila Crosby
Horror
Koko's Rabbit
Printer Friendly
By James S. Dorr
Humor
THE LIZARDS AND I
Printer Friendly
By Conda V. Douglas
Horror
Trading Up
Printer Friendly
By Tracie McBride
Humor
Dragon Snot and Chosen Ones
Printer Friendly
By Therese Arkenberg
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