THE MARKET

• Zine: Dark Discoveries Magazine
• Editor(s): James R. Beach (Publisher/Editor-in-chief), Jason V Brock (Managing Editor)
• Pay rate: $.05 a word for stories from 500 words up to 5000 words (maximum $250.00). Payment within 60 days of publication
• Response Time: 3-4 months (only query after 4 months)
• Deadline: October 1st through June 1st annually (closed between that time period)
• Description: Looking for well-written, powerful, original ideas and new twists on old Horror conventions. Must be in the Horror/Dark Fantasy and Dark Mystery veins. (More in guidelines)
• Submission Guidelines: www.darkdiscoveries.com

NOTE: Horror author D.L. Snell conducted the following interview to give writers a better idea of what the editors of this specific market are seeking; however, most editors are open to ideas outside of the preferences discussed here, as long as they fit the basic submission guidelines.

THE SCOOP
1) What authors do you enjoy and what is it about their writing that captivates you?
I like a wide variety of authors - Aickman, Ballard, Beaumont, Bloch, Borges, Bradbury, Braunbeck, Brown, Brunner, Campbell, Collier, Dick, Ellison, Farmer, Farris, Gorman, Grant, Irving, Jackson, James, Kafka, Ketchum, King, Lansdale, Leiber, Ligotti, Lovecraft, Machen, Matheson, Morrell, Nolan, Oates, Piccirilli, Shirley, Straub, Sturgeon, Tem, Thompson, Wagner, Wellman, Woolrich - you name it! I think the unifying thing is that they all examine the darker side of the human condition at times and write strong, compelling fiction that keeps you reading. I tend to lean towards stories with strong characters, are well-written, have solid plots and make you think about them afterwards or feel something emotionally.

2) What are your favorite genres? Which of these genres would you like to see incorporated into submissions to this market?
Although I tend to read a lot in the horror genre, I don't limit myself to that and read in various other fields--Science Fiction, Mystery, Mainstream, etc. I like nonfiction also--everything from history to psychology. I like to read about the lives of certain fiction writers as well and often times find them more interesting than their work honestly.

One of the things we've stayed away from in the past was Lovecraftian/Cthuhlu stories. I like this sort of thing myself if it's well done and has an original angle, etc. (Ramsey Campbell, Ligotti, Wilum Pugmire, etc. are perfect examples), but we didn't run much of it in DD in the past as there were a number of other publications devoted to that. Sadly, now they are gone. So we decided to do an issue towards the topic of Lovecraft this last fall. Even then, we chose to focus more on the overall influence on pop culture, rather than just doing the usual HPL influenced fiction and art. Needless to say, we are open to running more stories in this style in the future.

We're also incorporating a bit more Science Fiction into Dark Discoveries to appeal to more readers. Push the boundaries a bit. We did a 50th anniversary Twilight Zone special this last summer, which featured: Richard Matheson, George Clayton Johnson, Earl Hamner, William F. Nolan, John Tomerlin, Marc Scott Zicree, Roger Anker, (my DD managing editor/art director) Jason V Brock and others. Although TZ is probably known more as a SF series, it really was a Fantasy one and much of it was quite dark. We ran a few stories in the issue much in the latter vein, but still managed to attract a wider audience by not limiting it to just "Horror". We also did a cover on the lighter, more humorous side just to push that edge a bit more.

3) What settings most intrigue you? Ordinary or exotic locales? Real or fantasy? Past, present, or future?

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