Gothic Blue Book Submissions Now Open
Burial Day Books Call for Submission: Gothic Blue Book VOL 4
Gothic Blue Books were short fictions popular in the 18th and 19th century. They were descendants of the chap book trade and are now a thing of the past. Burial Day Books will resurrect this art form with its own Gothic Blue Book Vol. 4 to be available this October 31st 2014.
What was a Gothic Blue Book?
Gothic Blue Books were abridgements of full-length Gothic novels. The subjects of these books fell into one of two categories; the first being set in a monastery or convent and the second being set in a castle.
In terms of the physicality of the book, they were three and a half to four inches in width and six to seven inches in height, with a page count of thirty-six to seventy-two pages.
These little pieces of terror were popular at the time because they were affordable, a sixpence or a shilling each. Their cost affordability led them to be nicknamed Shilling Shockers or Sixpenny Shockers.
What are we looking for?
Original Gothic Blue Books typically took place in either a monastery, convent or castle. In years past we have asked for short stories that take place in one of these locations, or a modern day location such as a morgue, haunted house or cemetery. This year, we have added a new entry – legend, folklore or myth of the Americas.
When we think of legend, folklore or myth of the Americas the range is staggering, from the Jersey Devil in the East Coast, to the Wendigo, American werewolf, La Llorona, vanishing hitchhiker, the woman in white, abandoned mining towns and so much more.
Please submit a short story or poem no longer than 3,500 words that follows one of the following:
A single mention or setting in one of the original Gothic Blue Book settings:
a) Monastery
b) Convent
c) Castle
A single mention or setting in one of the modern Gothic Blue Book settings:
a) Cemetery
b) Funeral home or morgue
c) Haunted house
2014 Addition:
a) A story or poem dealing with a legend, folklore or myth of the Americas.
In addition to the above, the story or poem must instill fear using a supernatural element – ghosts, ghouls, monsters, myth, folklore or legend. Extreme violence, sexuality, gore, and profanity will not be considered.
For inspiration look to Edgar Allan Poe, H. P. Lovecraft, Jorge Luis Borges, Shirley Jackson, Emily Brontë, or Neil Gaiman.
The collection will be published October 31st 2014 in eBook and traditional book format.
DEADLINE: AUGUST 31st 2014
If accepted you are giving Burial Day Books:
A. The exclusive first right to publish your story.
B. The right to republish the story in or in connection with Burial Day, including electronic or hard copy form, including in promotional material or compilations – provided that authorial credit is given in every instance of reproduction.
After your story appears on Burial Day and in the Gothic Blue Book you are free to republish your piece elsewhere as long as you communicate to potential buyers that they are buying your story as a non-exclusive piece.
Payment details:
$25.00 (USD)
Two (2) Contributor copies of the anthology
Click here to submit you story: Gothic Blue Book Submission
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Sci-Fi Spectacular on April 12, 2014!
Sci-Fi Spectacular
Over 16 hours of Sci-Fi/Horror/Fantasy
April 12, 2014 – Noon ’til Late
Over 16 hours of Sci-Fi/Horror Movie Madness!
Patio Theater
6008 Irving Park Rd.
Chicago, IL 60634
Special Guests:
DOUG JONES (HELLBOY I & II, PAN’S LABYRINTH, HOCUS POCUS, BUFFY THE VAMPIRE SLAYER)!
KYRA SCHON (little ghoul girl)from NIGHT OF THE LIVING DEAD!
Doors open at 10am – Show Starts At Noon
CURRENT FILM LINE-UP:
Early Extras:
10:15am-Buffy the Vampire Slayer (Hush Episode
with star Doug Jones in Person!)
11am-Stereo (Early David Cronenberg)
Main Show:
Noon-A Trip To The Moon (Silent with Live Organ!)
12:15pm-Godzilla Vs. King King
2:15pm-Legend (Ridley Scott)
4:25pm-Buckaroo Banzai (30th Anniversary)
6:25pm-Roger Corman 50’s Trailer Contest
6:40pm-Night of the Living Dead (star Kyra Schon)
in Person!)
8:30pm-Pan’s Labyrinth (star Doug Jones in Person!)
10:45pm-Escape From New York (John Carpenter)
12:30am-Dead Zone (David Cronenberg & Stephen King)
2:15am-Phenomena (Dario Argento)
Plus: Vendors, Prizes, Surprises, a live
Charity Auction for Vital Bridges (vitalbridges.org),
Free Picture Taking with Celebrity Guests & more!!!
Free Parking on side streets (check for permit
parking signs).
Tickets are $20 presale,
$25 at the door, day of show.
Kids under 13 at $10 at the door.
Presale tickets available online: http://www.brownpapertickets.
Tickets available at these stores:
Laurie’s Planet of Sound (4639 N. Lincoln Ave, Chicago)
Thrift & Thrive (6025 W. Irving Park Rd, Chicago)
Shake Rattle & Read (4812 N. Broadway, Chicago)
Alley Cat Comics (5304 N. Clark St., Chicago)
Horrorbles (6729 Stanley Ave., Berwyn, IL)
Pay Once, Come And Go As You Like!
For late night festival goers, Chicago Hauntings Ghost Tours
will be giving late bus rides (1am to 5am) from the Sci-Fi
Spectacular to the Irving Park Blue Line “EL” for free!
For more info: facebook.com/terrorintheaisles & Patiotheater.net
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Tattoo Arts & Horror Festival, April 18-20, 2014, Tinley Park
Immersed In Ink Tattoo Arts & Horror Festival will be making our next stop on the 2014 Tour in Chicago IL, on April 18-20 at the Tinley Park Convention Center.. This show is a celebration of pop culture in tattoo arts and films and features some of the hottest tattoo artists from all over the US. Live tattooing, gut wrenching sideshows, costume contests, Ms. Tattoo Pageant, human suspension, insane body modification, tattoo contests, guest appearances by some of your favorite horror celebrities and so much more! Click here to see Our entertainment line-up. The Huntsville Tattoo & Horror Expo is OPEN TO THE PUBLIC!
SHOW HOURS:
Friday : 2pm-10pm
Saturday : 11:30am-11pm
Sunday : 12pm-8pm
ADMISSION:
$20 per day ($3 Service Charge for CC Transactions)
$35 for a weekend pass ($3 Service Charge for CC Transactions)
Kids under 5 get in FREE with paying adult. Discount tickets can be purchased online.
CASH ONLY at the door. There is an ATM on site, but we do recommend that you bring cash to avoid the transaction charges.
COME ON FRIDAY IN A COSTUME AND GET $5 OFF YOUR ADMISSION FOR THE DAY!
COSTUME CONTEST IS AT 3PM ON SATURDAY. THE CONTEST WILL BE JUDGED BY A PANEL OF CELEBRITY JUDGES AND PROFESSIONAL FX ARTISTS — WINNER WILL RECEIVE $50 CASH!
———-
TINLEY PARK, IL:
APRIL 18-20, 2014
TINLEY PARK CONVENTION CENTER
18451 Convention Center Dr, Tinley Park, IL 60477
Host Hotel: Holiday Inn, 18451 Convention Center Dr, Tinley Park, IL 60477
ROOM RATE: $105 | 708.444.1100 and tell them you are with the group “Immersed In Ink”.


To Touch the Sun by Laura L. Enright
To Touch the Sun, the new novel by Laura L. Enright, was released Feb. 25 through Dagda Publishing. The novel, set in Chicago, is the first in Enright’s Sentient/Feral Vampire Series set in Chicago and is available on Amazon in paperback and Kindle format.
1916: France, World War I
Narain Khan was 25 when he left his native India to fight in the trenches of the Western Front during WWI. It was his hope that he could stay on after the war to pursue his dream of studying the culinary arts and becoming a world class chef. Instead, he fell to shrapnel amidst the carnage of No Man’s Land which, when darkness fell, attracted a roaming pack of feral vampires–mindless feeders–who fell upon the soldiers left wounded and dying. Attacked by the ferals, Narain was transformed into the other type of vampire: A sentient capable of moving about in society with only a few restrictions and able to feed without killing the host.
Present Day: Chicago, U.S.
Narain has reached a crossroads. Helping him adjust to his condition through the decades was his beloved Sophie who was not only his wife, but his food source once they realized she wasn’t susceptible to the condition. Her sacrifice enabled him to lead as normal a life as possible, making hunting for food unnecessary. Cancer had taken Sophie the previous year and after the stock of blood she had saved up has been depleted, Narain is faced with again having to hunt for his food, something he is both morally opposed to, but also causes him to fear passing on the condition to unwitting, perhaps dangerous hosts. If left too long, however, hunger can bring out the deadly feral nature even in a sentient vampire. As a well-??respected chef and owner of a successful Chicago restaurant, Narain has worked hard to promote a veneer of normality. The last thing he and his business partner and friend Dom Amato needs is for Narain’s hunger to get the better of him.
Events conspire, however, to drag Narain away from the safe life he has cultivated back into one of madness and danger: The attraction he feels for microbiologist Cassie Lambert, who has a link to his past Narain is unaware of, and the re-??emergence of a ghost from the Great War. Captain Reginald Jameson was a sadistic predator when Narain had challenged him during their service in the trenches of France. The vampire Jameson of 90 years later is infinitely more dangerous, his sadism backed by the bizarre abilities of their condition. The discovery that Cassie Lambert has made about the cause of vampirism is one that Jameson is willing to kill to obtain.
Jameson has brought back another ghost from their shared history in his search to find immunity to sunlight. The experiments of his researchers, however, have resulted in the creation of a third, more terrifying breed of vampire: Boris, a psychopathic monster who will stop at nothing to destroy all in his path.
In trying to protect Cassie from Jameson and Boris, Narain will have to rely on skills that he’s allowed to atrophy over the decades. In a climatic struggle, Narain will have to learn that to defeat the real monsters, he has to embrace what he is and awaken the beast within.
About The Author:
A resident of Chicago, Laura is the author of Chicago’s Most Wanted™ The Top 10 Book of Murderous Mobsters, Midway Monsters, and Windy City Oddities, Vampires’ Most Wanted: The Top 10 Book of Bloodthirsty Biters, Stake-wielding Slayers, and Other Undead Oddities.
To Touch The Sun is her first full-length horror novel. Laura was a guest on WGN Radio’s Nick Digilio Show on March 12 and will also be appearing at The Printer’s Row Lit Fest at 10 a.m.-2 p.m. Sunday, June 8 as part of the Chicago Writer’s Association Group. For news and information on future book signings, visit http://laura-enright.com/.
To purchase the book CLICK HERE.
For more information on the series visit http://enrightvampires.blogspot.com/
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Chicago Zombie Prom 2014!
The 2014 Chicago Zombie Prom will once again take place at the Bottom Lounge on June 20th, 2014!For full details & information: ZombiePromChicago.com
To RSVP via Facebook: Chicago Zombie Prom 2014 Event Page
To get tickets: Zombie Prom Chicago Ticket Page Leave a Comment Go to Post...
