Killer Flash has met its end.
Check back at noon Pacific time
on July 31st, 2024 for results!
Still time to take one last stab
at Killer Flash
Slacker Special keeps late entries open
until July 22nd.
Submit to Killer Flash
“Life is pleasant. Death is peaceful.
It’s the transition that’s troublesome.”
―
Time once again to get morbid. As we first did back in 2018, we’re asking writers to submit stories that involve some form of death. Sounds straightforward enough, but keep in mind we don’t want to see a dozen stories featuring the same axe murderer archetype or the anguish of putting down your rabid dog. We’re looking for subtle over explicit, nuance over nastiness. That said, feel free to go as dark as the inside of a coffin on a moonless night.
And while we want to see some form of death in each entry, the way it manifests is completely open-ended. Get creative with it. Murder is great if it’s unique and compelling. Suicide is pretty tricky, but certainly on the table. Animal attacks? Go for it. Paranormal entities dragging a soul to hell? Sure, give it a whirl. Cannibalistic cult sacrifices? Now you’re cooking. Destruction of nature? The fall of an alien civilization? The slow death of the American Dream? Heady stuff.
Go as literal or metaphorical with the death as you want. Make it the central focus of the story or an event that’s merely implied. Go crushingly bleak with it, or add some levity and laugh right in Death’s stupid face. There really are no rules about how to implement an element of death in your entry; the lone requirement is that its grim specter must be included in some way.
For a good sense of what we’re looking for, take a peek at our Killer Flash 2018 mega-issue.
That said, we’re not interested in torture porn, so explicit gore or shock value alone isn’t going to cut it with us. You got to go deeper than that. We also don’t want to see terrorism or mass shooting related stories.
Submit to Killer Flash
The top three entries will win cold, hard cash.
$300 for Killer Flash winner
$200 for 2nd place
$100 for 3rd place
We also give mad respect to 4th-10th place,
publishing them in our Killer Flash 2024 mega-issue.
Submit to Killer Flash
Follow these guidelines, and you could have some extra coin in your pocket, and some bragging rights as the Killer Flash 2024 winner.
– All submissions must absolutely be under 1,000 words, and we tend to look more kindly on 750 or fewer because…MURDEROUS SQUIRREL!
– All contest submissions will be read blind, so we won’t be playing favorites.
– Please paste your submission into the corresponding field. Do not list your name anywhere in your submission or we’ll assume that you don’t know how to read.
– Costs $8 to enter during the early-bird period and $10 after that $13 to enter during Slacker Special (Sorry, no refunds.)
– We may extend deadlines if necessary (and you can expect our usual week-ish Slacker Special—with corresponding increase in submission fee for your procrastinators).
– Submissions must be previously unpublished work, and you will retain copyright (duh). By entering this contest you give us permission to publish your work, if selected for our Top 10, both online and in our future print anthology.
– No limit on how many entries you can submit, but you must submit them one at a time. Don’t just mash them all in there.
– Early-bird deadline is May 10th. Soft deadline is 11:59 PM PST on July 15th, 2024. Slacker Special final deadline is 11:59pm Pacific time on July 22nd, 2024. Winners announced by July 31st, 2024, and we’ll release the Killer Flash mega-issue shortly thereafter.
– And, most importantly, this is a KILLER FLASH contest, so something’s gotta die. But again, this can be in any form imaginable.
So that means you can do something like this…
or this…
or this…
or this…
or even this…
Knock ’em dead.
Submit to Killer Flash
The Molotov Cocktail 