Thriller is the August Post

Somehow or other the July post was reposted on top of the August Post

Here is the meat of that post–scroll down for smoother version and the jpg of the magazine cover and photo of editor, Ammar.

Please tell us a bit about the history of your magazine and about the magazine’s goals present day? Particularly, can you define how your magazine differs from other crime magazines out there?

 Hi Joan! Thank you for the interview opportunity. The goal of Thriller Magazine is to showcase some established and rising voices of the thriller genre. Our hope is to be a publication that gives new authors a place to show their work alongside more well-known names. We publish short stories, flash fiction, poetry, and the occasional review/interview. I believe one thing missing in the publishing world are enough opportunities for newer authors. As a bestselling/award-winning author myself, I had a lot of difficulty publishing my earlier works when I started my writing career a few years ago. Therefore, I wanted to create a publication that gave newer authors a fair shot, and I think that is the biggest difference maker with Thriller Magazine.

 What made you make the decision to pay your short story contributors?

 We are actually not able to pay our contributors at this time. However, we have set it up to where we are going to start making some money through advertisements, and we plan to use those profits to pay our contributors by our 3^rd issue (which will release next year). The main reason we want to start paying authors as soon as funds allow it is because I truly believe that authors and artists should be compensated and recognized for their works.

 What are you seeking in general and what especially delights you in a manuscript submission?

We publish a variety of sub-genres under the thriller genre. For our first issue (which was published earlier this month), we had a western thriller, a detective story, a superhero thriller, a horror thriller, and a murder thriller. So there is no one type of story that we favor. We enjoy works that have a strong voice and have some sort of emotional impact, even if that emotion is hollow. We want to feel ourselves in the shoes of the protagonist!

 What is an instant turn-off in a submission?

I think there are several. The biggest one is a rude submission. Another turn off is when an author has obviously not read the submission guidelines. One thing I’ve learned from being both an author and editor is that when there are two stories of equal quality and merit, the publication offer will always go to the author that is the easiest to work with. So those are some things to keep in mind when submitting work to different places!

What are some of your favorite journals/magazines?

 That’s a great question and is tough to answer! Outside of the major magazines/journals, some of the more niche ones I enjoy reading are Suspense Magazine & Grotesque Quarterly.

 How can writers contact you with questions and find out about submission calls?

We are currently accepting submission for our 2^nd issue until October 15^th! We’re looking for short stories under 5,000 words, flash fiction, and poetry up to 40 lines. You can read our guidelines at www.thrillermagazine.org. For any questions, please write to magazinethriller@gmail.com

Is there anything else you would like to say to writers who are considering submitting to you?

Like I mentioned earlier, we are accepting submission for our 2^nd issue until October 15^th! The issue will be out in December of this year. You can read more about our magazine and our submission guidelines on our website (www.thrillermagazine.org). We look forward to reading a lot of amazing stories.

Thank you for the interview, Joan! It was a real pleasure 😉

Thank you, Ammar!

 

Writing for the King

Well, for King’s River Life, that is. Lori Ham’s magazine is a gem for mystery lovers. She not only publishes mystery short fiction, in her pages the wonderful Kevin Tipple and others review books, and offer an abundance of other information on the mystery genre.

The pages of this magazine also include reviews of some local California events, but her give-aways are open to all readers–so many mysteries, so little time. I’ve been fortunate enough to have some of my short stories appear on her virtual pages. She often requests stories geared to holidays–I found that to be a great way to break in.  Ham is great to work with and respects writers of all stripes–experienced, emerging, beginners.

Here are her responses to my questions:

Please tell us a bit about the history of your magazine and about the magazine’s goals present day? Particularly, can you define how your magazine differs from other crime magazines out there?

Our first issue came out May 29, 2010. I had been let go from my job with the local newspaper due to an issue with my editor-long story. I decided to start a magazine where I published all the things she had told me no one would read-it’s changed a lot from then. We celebrate 8 years this month. One way ours differs is because while half of each issue is mystery-reviews, interviews, author guest posts, TV reviews, mystery short stories-the other half is animal rescue, local entertainment, and other local color. As to goals-we just want to keep sharing great mystery content with our readers!

What are you seeking in general and what especially delights you in a manuscript submission?

We will consider all mystery short stories of any sub genres-nothing too graphic though. Prefer lengths between 1000-3000 words, but will take flash fiction and up to around 5000 words. We also look for a lot of holiday related mystery short stories each year-soon we will be taking submissions forJuly 4th mystery short stories.

I just love a story that is clever with great characters.

We don’t pay, but the writer gets a byline and a mini bio where they can promote anything they like-their blog, their latest book, whatever. And we do take reprints.

What is an instant turn-off in a submission?

Graphic sex, bad writing, unoriginal.

What are some of your favorite journals/magazines?

I spend most of my reading time reading books to review though I do have a subscription to the NY Times. I used to read a lot of Ellery Queen’s Mystery Magazine and Alfred Hitchcock, and I used to devour the Writer’s Digest.

How can writers contact you with questions and find out about submission calls?

Our submission email is krlmagazine@gmail[dot]com. I always make a mention in our mystery Facebook group https://www.facebook.com/groups/krlmysterygroup/. And I mention our calls on a lot of yahoo lists.

Is there anything else you would like to say to writers who are considering submitting to you?

Check us out-see what we are publishing and go for it kingsriverlife.com. We are ALWAYS looking for mystery short stories-holiday and just general. Right now we have something new and exciting starting up the end of this month-a mystery podcast called Mysteryrat’s Maze Mystery Podcast. We are going to be having actors from our area (we live near Fresno) reading mystery short stories and some mystery novel first chapters. We are mostly looking for around 2000 words-but we are in the process of feeling this all out so we are open to other lengths. Same submission contact info as the regular short stories. If you would like to sign up for our newsletter to keep up with the podcast you can do so at https://tinyletter.com/kingsriverlife.