About Stumble Magazine:

Founded in 2008, Stumble is an independent magazine devoted to short fiction and photography. We publish new content regularly on the web, and a print edition twice a year.   Stumble publishes new and emerging artists as well as established writers and photographers. Our mission encourages a diversity of content, and we strive to find stories and photography that vary in tone and style.   Stumble doesn’t adhere to a specific aesthetic–-we just dig through the pile and publish what we like. We believe in the future of fiction. We think the web is a beautiful space. Above all, we love to be surprised.

Source: http://stumblemag.com/blog/about/

Submission Guidelines:

FICTION:   We are looking for short literary fiction that is challenging, interesting, and original. We don’t care if it’s traditional or experimental, as long as it’s good. The ideal length is 3,000 words or less. We publish regularly online, and a print edition twice a year.  We accept submissions year-round via email. Please attach your story in .doc format. A few words about you is always nice.   We’ll respond as soon we can, usually within a month.   Please send your writing to fiction@stumblemag.com   PHOTOGRAPHY:   We publish photography that we find beautiful and intriguing. Take a look at the work we’ve published already if you want to get a sense of the kinds of things we like. We feature a new photographer every two months.   Ideally, we would like a link to your online portfolio. If your work is not online, please send us your portfolio as a low-res PDF.   Please send your photography to art@stumblemag.com   THANKS IN ADVANCE:   We can’t make our little magazine without all of the exceptional unsolicited work that we receive. A real live human being will read/look at anything you send and we really appreciate the opportunity. Thanks for sharing your work!   PAYMENT:   None at the moment (not even for us). But you’ll get a couple of free copies of our print issue, and our eternal gratitude.

Source: http://stumblemag.com/blog/submit/

Gaga knows. Obama knows. Banksy knows. If you’re reading this, we’re willing to bet you know, too—culture and the arts translate directly into our everyday lives. Gadfly Online is there to throw those cultural transfusions into high relief. Gadfly is for people who itch to know more about the arts, personalities, and cultural events of our time. Our readers demand a unique perspective, both in what they think and what they read. From Justin Bieber to Muhammad Ali, from rickrolling to the War on Drugs, we keep you informed of American pop culture’s ever-unfolding drama.

Created to provoke readers to recognize the day-to-day relevance of pop culture, we transcend the hype over culture, literature, television, film, and the arts to challenge the assumptions of a dynamic and diverse America. Gadfly strives to provides its readers with thoughtful coverage through current features on fresh faces, new sounds and trends-in-the-making, as well as retrospectives on the kingpins of pop culture, whether mainstream or underground. We also aspire to provide a forum for artistic expression for all shades of artists—from poets, to painters, to film makers, and so on—by giving talent a chance to shine. We are always seeking additional editorials and commentary—Click here for more info on how to contact us. Let us hear from you.

Where Did We Come From? Launched as a full-size print publication in 1998, Gadfly Magazine—the progenitor of Gadfly Online—provided a forum to artists known, unknown and some still in the embryonic stages of their development. Harnessing the infinite resources of the internet, the magazine transitioned from a print publication to an online pub in 2001, yet the mission remained the same: to explore culturally significant events and the individuals behind them and bring the best in popular culture to our insightful readers.  The articles published in Gadfly Magazine are preserved and available in our online archive.

Awards Pronounced “odd, eccentric and eclectic” by the Washington Post, Gadfly was selected in 1999 by the Utne Reader’s Eleventh Annual Alternative Press Awards for Best Cultural Coverage. Utne commended the magazine’s diversity of coverage, saying, “Gadfly’s stupendous eclecticism makes this glossy bimonthly second only to the Library of Congress as a warehouse of American pop culture.”

What’s In A Name? In an old Greek myth, Zeus, king of the gods, loved a mortal woman, Io. When Hera discovered her husband’s infidelity, Zeus was forced to turn Io into a cow in order to shield her from his wife’s wrath. Not to be deterred, Hera sent a tiny gadfly to nip and tickle the cow, a prickling torment that some believe continues even today.

Gadfly Online is a publication of Gadfly Productions.

Gadfly Productions, Gadfly, and the associated graphic images (e.g., capital G with fly superimposed and Gadfly cartoon character) are marks of Gadfly Productions, owned by The Rutherford Institute. Called “odd, eccentric and eclectic” by The Washington Post, the Utne Reader selected Gadfly in 1999 for best Cultural Coverage for their Eleventh Annual Alternative Press Awards. “Gadfly’s stupendous eclecticism makes this glossy bimonthly second only to the Library of Congress as a warehouse of American pop culture,” Utne stated. “And number one when it comes to fun reading.”

Source: http://www.gadflyonline.com/wpblog/?page_id=146

via Writer’s Life: A Mixed Bag.

Welcome to Duotrope

Source: http://duotrope.com/index.aspx

I keep reminding myself I must write daily and  send my manuscripts with the consistency of the sun rising and setting. This I do.

I continue reading. I’m reading speculative fiction, the Bible, Steve Jobs biography, a historical fiction novel set Virginia during the US Civil War, and nonfiction military history. I also am listening to a number of podcasts. They include: “I Should Be Writing”, “The Drabblecast”, “The Writer’s Almanac”, and “Writing Excuses”.

I had one speculative fiction short story rejected. I continue writing and editing my historical fiction book.

I was encouraged when I received an update from Candace Have Online Writer’s Workshop Chat Group today. It has the story of one member of the group who after over 400 rejections sold her first book, followed by two more and then a series.

Hold on tight to you dreams, but keep writing and learning.

Dust-jacket from the first edition

Chapter  Nineteen – Usher II

Literary expert William Stendahl has retreated to Mars to escape the book-burning dictates of the Moral Climate Monitors. On Mars he has built his image of the perfect haunted mansion, replicating the building from Edgar Allen Poe’s short story The Fall of the House of Usher, complete with mechanical creatures, creepy soundtracks and the extermination of all life in the surrounding area. When the Moral Climate Monitors come to visit, each of them is killed in a manner reminiscent of a different Poe story, culminating in the immurement of the lead inspector. When all of Stendahl’s persecutors are dead, the house sinks into the lake.

Chapter Twenty – The Playground

When Charles Underhill was a boy, he was tormented by neighborhood bullies. When his son begins playing in a local playground, he becomes deeply disturbed when he sees a bully from his youth.

Chapter Twenty-one – The Illustrated Man

An overweight carnival worker is given a second chance as a Tattooed Man, and visits a strange woman who applies skin illustrations over his entire body. She covers two special areas, claiming they will show the future. When the first is revealed, it’s an illustration of the man strangling his wife. Shortly after this comes to pass, the carnival workers run the man down, beat him, and look at the second area, which shows an illustration of the same beating they are doing.

We have watched novice writers bloom under our encouragement, expanding their horizons and entering other markets. When these writers return with a more powerful and passionate piece, we all share in the glory and pride of their achievement. The idea is to keep striving for success. There’s no greater inspiration than seeing one’s own writing on the pages of a magazine. Let us help you achieve it. We hope you enjoy reading Long Story Short as much as we enjoy publishing it for you.  Good luck and good writing!

The Editors.

Source: http://www.alongstoryshort.net/AboutLSS.html
Website: http://www.alongstoryshort.net/
Submission Guideline: http://www.alongstoryshort.net/submissionguidelines.html

Dust-jacket from the first edition

Fiorello Bodoni, a poor junkyard owner, has managed to save $3,000 to fulfill his lifelong dream of sending one member of his family on a trip to outer space. The family, however, finds it impossible to choose who will go because those left behind will inevitably envy the chosen one for the rest of their lives. Bodoni instead uses the money to build a replica rocket from an old mock-up, and sets up a 3D theater inside the cabin and convinces the children they are actually going through space.

The British edition, first published in 1952 by Hart-Davis omits The Rocket Man, The Fire Balloons, The Exiles and The Concrete Mixer, and adds Usher II from The Martian Chronicles and The Playground from The Stories of Ray Bradbury.

An edition published in 2001 by William Morrow omits The Fire Balloons and adds The Illustrated Man to the end of the book.

Dust-jacket from the first edition

Children across the country are deeply involved in an exciting game they call ‘Invasion’. Their parents think it is cute until it turns out that the invasion is real and aliens are using the children to help them get control of Earth.