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SPACEPORTS & SPIDERSILK

Spaceports & Spidersilk is a print magazine for younger readers [8-9 on up through 89]. It features short stories, poems, and art, as well as brief essays on science and the environment, interviews, quizzes, contests, [and, quite frankly, anything else that is genre-oriented and will help encourage the younger generation to read...and to dream, especially about going to the stars]. We at Spaceports & Spidersilk hope that younger writers and artists, as well as adults, will submit their work.

 

NOTE: We prefer to see stories that have young protagonists—someone the younger readers can connect with.

 

Spaceports & Spidersilk is published in print three times a year: in February, June, and October. Eventually it will also be available as an eBook. Marcie Lynn Tentchoff is the editor of Spaceports & Spidersilk.

 

The genres for Spaceports & Spidersilk include fantasy, science fiction, and a category we are going to define as ‘shadow stories’. Shadow stories are mild horror. We want spooky, not terrifying. Most of all, we want ADVENTURES! And especially SF or fantasy adventures.

 

While we believe that adult readers can and will enjoy good stories aimed at kids, we still want stories which are aimed at kids. Generally, kids (especially in the 8-14 range) prefer to read about other kids. Stories about middle-aged couples seldom appeal.

No reader, young or old, wants to be force-fed a moral. Too often stories written for kids seem to be all about the lesson the reader is meant to learn, and few things are as likely to make readers run screaming. Give us a good story, one that entertains and connects with emotions. If that story causes the readers to rethink something, or proves an interesting point, great, but in the end it has to be something they enjoy reading.
 

The guidelines for submissions to Spaceports & Spidersilk are simple and straightforward. Here they are:

 

What we want

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Spaceports & Spidersilk will consider---

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  • genre stories between 1000 and 3000 words

  • flash fiction – less than 1000 words

  • poetry of up to 25 lines.

  • black-and-white art

  • cover art

  • essays of up to 800 words.

  • interviews and articles of up to 800 words

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Spaceports & Spidersilk will accept reprints, provided they are identified as such, provided you have the rights to the work, and provided you tell us where and when the submission was first published.

 

What we DO NOT want

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  • NO “bad language”. This includes cussing, swearing, and those wonderful hyphenated words you use when you whack your thumb with a hammer. You know what they are. I don’t have to tell you. Also, no racial epithets. You know what those are, too.

  • NO sex. Your characters may kiss, or fall in love, or get married, but that’s all.

  • NO drugs, illegal substances etc. None.

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What we ALMOST DO NOT want

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NO sexist language. I said ‘almost’. It is quite typical of boys of a certain age to say things like, “She can’t do that, she’s just a girl.” Usually, in real life, such statements are preludes to valuable and sometimes painful lessons learned. So it must be in the fiction you submit to Spaceports & Spidersilk.

 

Payment--Effective the February 2020 issue of Spaceports & Spidersilk, the following payments apply:

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  • $6.00 for each accepted original story;

  • $3.00 for each accepted flash fiction;

  • $2.00 for each accepted story reprint;

  • $2.00 for each accepted poem;

  • 10.00 for the cover art;

  • $4.00 for each accepted b&w illustration

 

HOW TO SUBMIT YOUR WORK

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Please submit stories and essays [and articles, etc] as RTF attachments to spacesilk at yahoo dot com. You will have to convert this to a usable address, of course. Please write SUBMISSION and the title of your piece in the subject line of your e-mail.

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Please submit poems in the body of the e-mail to spacesilk at yahoo dot com. You will have to convert this to a usable address, of course. Please write SUBMISSION and the title of your piece in the subject line of your e-mail.

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Please submit art as a jpeg attachment to spacesilk at yahoo dot com. You will have to convert this to a usable address, of course. Please write SUBMISSION and the title of your piece in the subject line of your e-mail.

 

If Spaceports & Spidersilk accepts your submission, we will ask for your mailing address so that we may send your payment and contributor’s copy. We will also ask for a brief bio of the writer or artist.

 

If you have any questions about this, or about Spaceports & Spidersilk, please e-mail them to spacesilk at yahoo dot com. Again, you will have to convert this to a usable address.

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