Dust & Dark

”Torrenting from a corporate laptop doesn’t feel right”: Meta emails unsealed Meta’s alleged torrenting and seeding of pirated books complicates copyright case.

Feeling pretty correct about our decision to get off Facebook… arstechnica.com/tech-policy/...

We're sending submission responses over the weekend. To those who haven't been selected, please know that the process of choosing has been *incredibly* hard. We have had more great submissions than we could possibly run, and we hope you'll submit more work to us in the future!

Thanks for the heads-up. We had fixed this, but it looks like Wordpress restored a previous cached version. Should be working now!

This has slowed down submissions reading and work on the project considerably. I’m sorry to everyone waiting to hear back on their story submissions, and I hope to be ready to announce our first lineup of stories within the next two weeks. Thank you so much for your patience and understanding. (2/2)

Hi folks. Editor Owen here with a quick update. In December I started suffering dizzy spells and blackouts. I’m going to be undergoing some tests for a heart condition which I’m told is more inconvenient than dangerous and can hopefully be managed with some lifestyle changes (if I have it!). (1/2)

✨ Scottish writers! Send us your delicious words! ✨

I'm delighted to be judging the Cymera Prize alongside the wonderful @shoreinf.bsky.social & @simonguy.bsky.social. Can't wait to read your stories.

We have deleted our Facebook account as we do not feel our values align with those of Meta. For now, Bluesky is our only social media platform.

Our editor had a bit of a health scare, but we’re still hard at work on submissions. Hope to have some news for authors by the end of the year. Thank you so much for your patience.

Just saw that the story which prompted this post has been accepted elsewhere. 😀

It's a strange kind of sadness reading a wonderful story submission that deserves to be published but just doesn't fit our brief.

Working on it!

Just under half way through our submissions pile, and not only have I seen some excellent horror stories that I want in the magazine, I’ve seen some of the best stories I’ve ever read, full stop. So excited to bring them to you.

The energy we are bringing to 2025.

Our heroic team of volunteer submissions readers is working through our hefty pile of stories. We already have so many strong candidates for our debut issue. We have room for six or seven from over 1,000 submitted works. Thank you, writers, for your patience during the process.

My last collection of M.R. James illustrations from a few years ago, Im getting my new set ready to share next week

Screenshot of the Daily Mail newspaper’s Bluesky profile. Shows their logo and a headline suggesting Ukraine could build a nuclear bomb, which seems unlikely. Also shows Bluesky’s account block dialogue.

Delighted to have more Bluesky followers than the Daily Mail.

Great to see so many new friends following us in the past few days. We’re a new print and digital magazine showcasing chilling and atmospheric horror stories with something to say. We hope you’ll like what we have in store when we launch in early 2025! #horror #fiction

Closing in on 1,000 followers. Welcome! We think you’re going to love what we have in store for you.

We’re a new horror fiction magazine with a focus on chilling, atmospheric stories with something to say. We are committed to fair pay for authors.

We’d love your support on Kickstarter next year.

Our submissions window closes on 31 October (which seems appropriate), and we are very close to our submissions quota, so may have to close before then. If you’re thinking of sending us your work, please be quick!

Thank you so much to the kind folks who responded to our plea for submissions readers. Our editor has limited internet access this week, but will be getting back to you individually asap.

*would involve

Come on, Bluesky, edit button?

We will credit submissions readers in the magazine if desired, and send you a copy with our thanks.

It looks like we could have close to 1,000 submissions by the end of our window.

I guess that’s a nice problem to have?

(Our editor won’t be making anything from our debut issue, either.)

Unfortunately we are not able to pay submissions readers. We aim to pay professional rates to our featured authors, and we would love to reach a point where we can pay submissions readers as well. If you would like to give some of your time to help us, we would be immensely grateful.

It wouldn’t involve reading a selection of submitted stories and rating them from one to five based on quality, emotional impact and suitability to our brief. The highest rated stories will go on for consideration for our debut issue.

We've had a much stronger response to our calls for submissions than we were prepared for. Our small team is pretty much overwhelmed. If you would be interested in helping with submissions reading, please email editor@dustanddark.com

Thank you so much for your submissions. Our editor works for a humanitarian organisation and has been seconded to work on the current Middle East conflict emergency. This is likely to cause a delay in our reading process. We thank you for understanding.

Greetings, new followers.

We're building a new home for horror. Chilling stories and fair pay for authors. If that's something you want to support, we hope you'll consider backing our Kickstarter in the new year.

Dust & Dark Submission Manager Submit to Dust & Dark. Powered by Duosuma: Duotrope's Submission Manager.

We're more than half way towards our submissions quota. We've been blown away by the quality of many of the stories we've received. It's going to be very tough to pick the lineup for our debut issue.

There's still time to send your work for consideration: duotrope.com/duosuma/subm...