Call for Short Horror Stories!

 Call for stories for the Lizzie Borden House Anthology

 

 

Everyone knows the legend of Lizzie Borden, especially the dark nursery rhyme...

 

Lizzie Borden took an axe

Gave her mother 40 whacks.

When she saw what she had done,

Gave her father 41

 

Riverdale Avenue Books has teamed up with the Historical Lizzie Borden house to put together an anthology of stories, under the direction of award-winning horror author Sèphera Girón, who has visited the house multiple times over the past few decades.

 

The “Official” Story of the Lizzie Borden House

·       Lizzie Borden was born in 1860 in Fall River, Massachusetts. Since her mother had died when she was young, she had been at odds with her stepmother, Abby, who she and her older sister, Emily, believed married her father for his wealth. Their father, Andrew, was a prominent developer in Fall River.  

·       Lizzie grew up an upstanding member of her community, being heavily involved in the church and performing services for the poor. As Lizzie grew older, the tension between the parents and the daughters grew. Lizzie and Emily remained unmarried, bringing negative attention to the family from their peers and the sisters were critical of the way their father was distributing his wealth to their stepmother’s family..

·       The story says that Lizzie, blind with rage, hacked her father and stepmother to death in the house. The trial that followed became one of the most sensationalized courtroom cases in American history, attracting hundreds of tourists to Fall River. Lizzie was acquitted due to lack of evidence and reasonable doubt although the fact that she destroyed the clothes she wore have convinced some of her guilt. She lived the rest of her life in relative anonymity, but her legacy still lives on to this day.  

·       Download visual assets of the Lizzie Borden House via Google Drive.  

And what we are looking for:

Short stories in this anthology can spread across many genres and we’re very interested in new and unique takes on the legends and realities of the Lizzie Borden story. We’d love to see time travel, science fiction, fantasy, paranormal, romance, erotica, mysteries, etc.

Stories can be reflective of the many possibilities of the house from the rumored theatre parties at Maplecroft, the mysterious disappearance of the maid Bridget Sullivan, people who came and went from the house on the murder day, the ghost cats that greet the current guests of the bed and breakfast, what happened to Michael the caretaker, and the mysterious death of the estranged Borden sisters mere days apart. Maybe discover what happened during the making of the movies and TV shows about the unsolved murder or various ghost-hunting escapades that had taken place in the house. Let’s also be mindful of the times these murders took place where only men were jurors, we can highlight Women’s Suffrage and Prohibition. Take us on a journey of intrigue,  mystery, and fantasy in a reimaging of the Lizzie Borden story.

 

We will be publishing the anthology, in hardcover, trade paperback and ebooks in October, and it will be available in book stores and online wherever books are sold.

 

We are looking for short stories of 1,000 to 5,000 words in all genres and categories.  Authors will be paid a $10 fee, and receive a copy of each edition of the book.

 

If you would like to send us your stories, please send them to LizzieBordenHouse@yahoo.com  and submissions@riverdaleavebooks.com or lori@riverdaleavebooks.com  with the subject “LizzieBorden.” After which, we will send you confirmation that we received your submission. If you do not receive a confirmation from either of those three emails, you may follow up with an email requesting confirmation.

 

Submissions will be open from now until September 21st. After September 21st, we will begin sending out acceptance or rejection emails for your submitted short stories. Please, do not follow up on whether your story has been accepted.

 

About the editor: Sèphera Girón is the author of 20 traditionally published books under various names. Her main love is horror and most of her work embraces themes of occult, metaphysical, erotica, and suspense.

As a freelance editor for over 10 years, Sèphera has helped hundreds of authors put their best words forward. She feels lucky that she not only can write for a living but she can help others write for a living as well.

In recent years, Sèphera has enjoyed paranormal investigations from as near as Casa Loma in Toronto to the Lizzie Borden House in Fall River and a haunted mansion in California. Her most recent trip took her to the Stanley Hotel in Colorado, the place that inspired The Overlook in The Shining by Stephen King. Some of her adventures inspired a few of her own books and stories.

Sèphera lives in Toronto.

 

Riverdale Avenue Books is an award-winning, New York-based boutique publisher with 15 imprints: Afraid, a horror imprint; The Binge Watchers Guides examining TV and film; Circlet, the latest incarnation of the classic sci-fi and fantasy erotica imprint; Desire, an erotica/erotic romance imprint; Magnus, the award-winning nonfiction imprint of LGBTQ titles; Magnus Lit, our LGBTQ fiction imprint; Pop featuring pop culture titles; Quest, a science fiction fantasy line; Truth, an erotic memoir line; Dagger, a mystery thriller imprint; Sports and Gaming featuring sports and gaming titles; Verve featuring lifestyle titles; Hera, featuring both the true and fictional lives and loves of women aged 35 and up and 120 Days, a reprint imprint for LGB classics. Started in 2012 by industry veteran Lori Perkins, visit us at www.RiverdaleAveBooks.com.