Last Call For Alcohol

Time is running out to submit to the shiny new Out of the Gutter 8 Anthology. The doors close on 21^st November.  I’ll let Editor-in-chief, Matt tell you all about it...

Brace yourselves! OUT OF THE GUTTER is back with Out of the Gutter 8: 21st Century Digital Love, featuring contest winners, essays, and new tales of wretchedness and woe alongside 2012’s very best from The Flash Fiction Offensive and the Bareknuckles Pulp Department!

Contest: We will select two stories (one flash, another between 3,000 and 5,000 words) that hit the theme of modern digital love. What’s that mean? You tell us. Guns, girls, good intentions gone bad spring to our minds, but there's no limit on subject matter, setting, or style, as long as it's in the pulp tradition. Pure story, in other words. All submissions for the contest will also be automatically considered for inclusion in the anthology.

 Fiction Submissions: Open submissions for the anthology (i.e., not for the contest) can be your regular ol’ gutterish stories. We’re selecting some flash, some longer. Only requirement is to adhere to the strict quality standards of The Flash Fiction Offensive and Bareknuckles Pulp. Hit us hard, hit us raw.

Non-fiction Submissions: We're also looking for non-fiction and essays on the subject of modern technology and love. Anybody have thoughts on Internet porn? I mean, those few of you degenerates who've actually visited such sites. We've been too busy visiting the confessional (mostly to confess to how much Internet porn we watch). Gmail chats gone wrong? Girls (and boys) gone wild? The suckiness of Instragram? What have you got?

Best of 2012: You didn’t think we’d forget our loyal contributors, did you? FFO and BKP will select the top stories from 2012, based almost entirely on the number of hits that story has received. You want a book deal? Pimp your work! Rack up the hits! Any story published by either e-zine in 2012 is eligible. So forward that story of a meth-dealing dead hooker to grandma’s sewing group and get them to share!

There have been some fantastic bad-ass stories published this year and many are worthy of inclusion. If it was my job to choose (which thank god it’s not) these would be my top picks.

Flash Fiction Offensive:

McRib Therapy Alleviates Seasonal Depression by CS DeWildt

We all got problems, man. Some of us are misguided loners; some of us are dead in basements. Some of us are just giant red, chain-smoking clowns with a busted foot and bad attitude. Who are you to judge?

Bareknuckles Pulp:

Kin by Gareth Spark

Here’s some damn fine Brit Grit from this side of the pond. You can choose you’re friends, but not your family. Well this sure as hell ain’t the Walton’s.

There are also many, many other fine pieces worthy of your time; while you’re over there perhaps you could find it in your heart to humor this deluded pulp scribbler and check out my efforts as well.

The Legend of Johnny Kool by Chris Leek

A Redheaded Woman by Chris Leek