... So, there's this film fest / screenplay competition in Los Angeles called Shriekfest. Every other year or so I submit to them just to see what happens.

Well, in 2011 I submitted to them some of my best work and, ultimately, I didn't make the cut. However, in sending me news of my rejection, festival founder/director Denise Gossett told me that my script Flatdog was, “very close to making semi finalist status” and she encouraged me to submit more of my work next year.
Well, sadly, I didn't submit in 2012.
I plan to submit this year, but haven't done it yet (incidentally, the cost for submitting scripts is somewhere in the neighborhood of $60... I may do it in fall when money starts flowing my way again).
However, Denise is great about sending referrals to past/present submitters, subscribers and members of Shriekfest.
So today she contacted all of us with a call for "short horror scripts".

The note from Denise goes like this: "I received this email....looking ONLY for short horror scripts. Do NOT forward this to your friends, this is ONLY for Shriekfest past/current submitters.   Tell them Denise Gossett at Shriekfest sent you."

The note she passed along ran like this:

"Good Afternoon, I hope this finds you happy and healthy.  As the great Actor/Coach Steve Eastin would love to say, "we have many miles to go before we sleep" So let me get moving.  A production team that I've partnered with is looking for a Short Horror Script.  Ideally it's creepy, scary and laces in some humor as well.   Finance is secured, the team is solid, I worked with them 2 Springs ago and they're good people.  There is a bit of money for the script that get's optioned, but please remember it is an Indie. Thank you and have an amazing day.  Sincerely John Doe" (I'm hiding the guys name for the sake of her privacy)

So, I submitted two short horror scripts I wrote in 2004.

One is a zombie film called The Sleep of the Dead, which I wrote after having a slew of zombie nightmares. It's reminiscent of early Wes Craven and Italian zombie films (think Fulci).

The other is a film called A Demon's Pornography. I can't even begin to describe this one to you, but needless to say it comes from an adolescence watching films by Sam Raimi, Peter Jackson, H.G. Lewis and films like Frank Grow's Love God and Alberto Sciamma's Killer Tongue.  

Now, gmail (in all its wondrous glory) is (to me) so user unfriendly that it sent the damn e-mail before I was good and ready... But alas, hopefully the content of my scripts will outshine that...

Hopefully something will pan out.