Dread Central

 I received an email, as I often do, with "Horror Headlines" from Dread Central.

This particular email, instead of just informing me of the latest outputs of directors, already published authors and video game companies, it also stated that Dread Central was looking for short horror fiction to "publish" on their site.

The stipulations were simple:

• All stories must be 300 – 1000 words in length. Any stories outside of this window will not be considered.
• Stories must be shared with us through an editable format. This includes Docx, Google Doc, and editable PDF. Any works which we are unable to edit/copy and paste will not be considered
• Stories may have been published elsewhere, but priority will be assigned to unpublished works
• Dread Central will not own your stories after publication

HOW TO SUBMIT

• Send your stories to submissions@dreadcentral.com
• In the subject line state: “Your name – Story title – Word count”
• In the body of the email please include a one-sentence summary as well as the document
• In the email please specify if the story has been previously published or not
• Only one submission per email. We will not accept more than 3 unique submissions per month

Immediately I began combing through my collection of both published (in some form or another) and unpublished short horror fiction. I actually do not have a story under 1,000 words long. The shortest story I could find was 1,300 words. 

I guess Dread Central (and its readers) will have to live without my fiction.

I can't imagine how anyone could any sense of story, character development in 1,000 words. 

Oh well.

I'll read a little bit of what they publish (if/when they do publish this submitted fiction).

Who knows, I might find a trophy amongst the refuse.