I am delighted to announce one open submission slot for the forthcoming ancestral horror anthology ROOTS OF MY FEARS, due from Titan Books in 2025 and edited by me, Gemma Amor.

Our roster of authors so far is as follows:

● Ai Jiang
● Usman T Malik
● Adam Nevill
● Nuzo Onoh
● Premee Mohamed
● Gabino Iglesias
● Nadia El- Fassi
● Ramsey Campbell
● Erika T. Wurth
● V Castro
● Hailey Piper
● YOU

I would dearly love to be able to open up for more open sub spots, but as this is my first anthology with Titan, I am limited as to how many non-invitees I can feature.

Submission guidelines as follows:

Theme:
We are leaning heavily into family or heritage lore with this anthology, and are looking for stories influenced or inspired by:

● Tales authors may have heard/been told as a child, by a relative or loved one
● Lore passed down from previous generations
● Family anecdotes or secrets
● Ancestral customs and cultural traditions
● Hometown rumours, legends, myths, (or even lack thereof)
● Identity, heritage, upbringing
● Basically anything that sings to a writer’s memories, blood, inheritance, birthright, upbringing, sense of belonging, geography or again, lack thereof.

The aim is to invoke both ancient and modern narratives, where background plays a key role, positive or otherwise.

In a nutshell: this anthology is a highly personalised collection of stories with roots that incorporate a wide variety of influences and experiences.

Details:
● Payment is $0.08 per word.
● No reprints.
● This call has a strict 5k word limit. Anything over 5k words will be immediately discounted.
● Horror only. No sci-fi, fantasy, romance or crime.
● Formatting will go a long way to helping me read faster. Double spaced lines, properly indented (not tabbed please). 12 point arial preferred. Page numbers are helpful.
● Please state your name and word count clearly on the top of the first page of your submission.
● Word files only. Do not paste your story into the body of your email. No PDFs.
● Please send one story per email. Multiple stories/attachments will be immediately discounted.
● NO AI.
● I won’t consider anything that I deem fits into the following categories: narratives that are racist, ableist, sexist, homophobic, transphobic, fat phobic, featuring cruelty to animals, gratuitous sexual assault used as an entertainment or plot device with no meritable discussion or exploration of the act, grooming.
● Deadline August 4th.
● Content warnings are always appreciated, but not necessary.
● I will endeavour to reply personally to as many submissions as I can. This is dependent however on the volume of submissions received. Suffice to say, if you do not hear back from me by Sept 1st 2024, your story has not been selected/shortlisted.

Please email your submission, clearly labelled SUBMISSION: ROOTS OF MY FEARS, STORY TITLE, AUTHOR NAME to:

gemma (dot) amor (at) outlook (dot) com

If that doesn’t work, email me here.
I look forward to receiving your stories!
Gemma