The theme cycle this year has been the ways we observe and record our world. We've had maps, pictures, and books so far and we always like to do something a little different for the end of the cycle, so the theme is time, or more specifically: TIME TRAVEL.
We're genuinely excited to see what hits our inbox over the next month. Killing Hitler has been done, time and time again, but we're sure the creativity and originality we see here issue after issue is going to shine through with some truly thrilling stuff.
It could be a machine that stitches points in time together, but cannot separate them again. Or a colossal clockwork time machine spinning faster and faster, out of control, dragging everyone and everything with it. A Victorian daemon hunter, pursuing his mark through an arcane portal, finding himself in its birthplace, the military gene factories of 2101 AD. Maybe a harmless disease, unthinkingly brought back to an era without immunity, becomes a plague. Or it could be a wizard of the barren plains and black seas travelling back to witness creation, and finding us, staring at screens as our world melts around us.
We're primarily a genre magazine, although our focus often drifts, so sci-fi, horror, fantasy, also surreal, literary, crime (and the great thing about time travel is it provides such rich opportunities for genre mash-ups), but ultimately, the stories we accept are the ones that won't let go, the ones that light a fire within us, the ones that demand to be re-read, time after time.
The theme of time travel must be present in the story (although the actual act does not need to take place within the story). The title cannot be time or travel or any variation of those, and the story must be exactly 100 words, with a 1 word title. Full guidelines are here.
Imagine.
Create.
Have fun!
