The Zombie’s in the Details

Admittedly I’ve had zombies on the brain, fortunately not in my brain, but I like to think this would have leaped out at me, as if out of a coffin, in any case. There I am peacefully scrolling through a semi-weekly newsletter for freelance writers, which usually contains calls for submissions from self-help anthologies, small-town newspapers, and romance novels, when I come across this:

* Living Dead Press
PAYS: $.01/word plus copy
Original stories about standard zombies that have not been printed anywhere before. Only slow, Romero-type zombies. Keep the plot true to a world where the dead walk. All the stories need to be set during either Night of the Living Dead or Dawn of the Dead timeline. Therefore the zombies are not rotting and purtid just yet, but do have wounds or have just left the funeral home. No viruses, the dead walk and we don’t know why, just like the movies. Its not airborn ect. you die, you come back, period. In this world, the dead walking is new as people deal with it in their own ways, be it fight or run. No werewolves or vampires, its the world we live in but the dead walk, otherwise everything is the same. We want action, save the intelligent stories for someone else. We want blood, gore and guns. Also, we are not fans of first person stories so unless your story is absolutley fantastic, only a few will be picked that are in first person. Here’s the deal folks. If we start reading and the story goes of in any other direction than what we are looking for, it gets rejected for this book on the spot. Stories are to range from 3,000 to 6,000 words. The story can be up to 10,000, but you only get paid to 6. Nothing under 3,000 will be considered, they are too short. We want real stories, not flash fiction. Under deadline.

Every field has its specifications, but this seems extreme to me. I am thrilled to know that there are so many people out there writing intelligent first-person flash-fiction stories about rotting, putrid, fast-moving zombies that the editors of Living Dead feels the need to shun them. All you zombie-writers stop reading this right now and go submit your stories to Living Dead Press. Everyone else, just be glad you aren’t living in a land where the dead walk.