Upcoming Themes!

12-12 theme: Fantasy

12-19 theme: Rebirth

12-26 theme: Sin

Tweet the Meat News. Back to normal... Upcoming Themes

Hey Tweet the Meaters....

After a few hectic weeks out in the big, bad real world, things are finally settling down. Halloween is over, winter is settling in (as I type this, it's 90 degrees outside my window), and the holiday season approaches fast.



Once again we'd like to thank all the judges, sponsors, and entrants in our Annual contest. Over the next few days we hope to have the official blog all updated with the bios from the last couple weeks. When it gets too busy, it's always the last thing to be updated as the Twitter stream itself is always the first priority.

Some of the upcoming themes:

11-7 Theme: Winter

11-14 Theme: Gore

11-21 Theme: Holidays

What? You wanted more prizes?! We got more prizes!

The Prizes:

First Place: $20

+ A copy of Issue #1 of Shock Totem autographed by Mercedes Yardley and Kurt Newton

+ A physical copy of Shimmerzine's Clockwork Jungle Book Special Issue


Second Place: $5

Third through Sixth Place: $2

The Tweet the Meat First Annual Halloween Jerky Tweet Contest

The Rules:

•One entry per person.
•Anyone may enter.
•140 characters or less.
•Must not be previously published, even on your own Twitter stream
•The theme is open.
•Open: Saturday 10/17
•Close: 11:59 PM Saturday 10/24 Pacific Time
• Send entries to Tweetthemeat@gmail.com subject: Contest Entry
• Include a Twitter-length bio like you would with a normal submission.
•Entry constitutes acceptance of Tweet the Meat's guidelines

The Prizes:

First Place: $20

+ A copy of Issue #1 of Shock Totem autographed by Mercedes Yardley and Kurt Newton

+ A physical copy of Shimmerzine's Clockwork Jungle Book Special Issue


Second Place: $5

Third through Sixth Place: $2

The Judging:

Judges will be announced after the submission period is over. The regular Tweet the Meat editors will choose a batch of their favorites and will send these on, stripped of bios, to the judges who will rank their top 6. From these rankings, the winners will be determined.

Winners will NOT be notified in advance.

The winners will be announced by the publication of their entry on Tweet the Meat

Monday, October 26th - 6th Place will publish
Tuesday, October 27th - 5th Place will publish
Wednesday, October 28th - 4th Place will publish
Thursday, October 29th - 3rd Place will publish
Friday, October 30th - 2nd Place will publish
Saturday, October 31st - The Grand Prize Winner will publish


Prizes will be officially awarded the first week of November. Cash prizes will be awarded via Paypal. If you don't have Paypal, an Amazon.com gift certificate will be purchase on your behalf.

Tweet the Meat News: A special announcement

We're going to have a couple changes in the coming weeks, just for the month of October.

First off, the open-themed submission period coming up this weekend 10/3 will remain open all week until 10/9. Instead of 5 entries, you are limited to 10 entries.

We are going to accept double the amount of stories that week.

We are doing this because there will be no submission period the weekend of 10/24.

And we are doing that because Our 10/17 submission window will be a special week.

The theme will be open. You will be limited to one entry a person.

And there will be prizes. Oh yes, there will be prizes.

More details coming soon.


If you would like to be a contest sponsor by donating a prize (Your book, magazine, membership, beef jerky, etc., or money... sweet, sweet money...) please email us at tweetthemeat(at)gmail.com with 'sponsor' in the subject line. All sponsors will be acknowledged all week long in a special banner on the Twitter page.



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Tweet the Meat Author: HD Grogan

HD Grogan (@HDGrogan) is sometimes disturbed by the ideas she wakes up with.

HD's Meat Tweets:

5/25/09
9/30/09

Tweet the Meat Author: Deborah Walker

Deborah Walker thinks: least said, soonest mended.

Deborah's Meat Tweets:
5/13/09
5/26/09
5/27/09
6/29/09
9/29/09

Tweet the Meat Author: Matt Albertson

Matt Albertson is a Seattle geek who works as a public radio fundraiser by day and aspiring writer by night. He produces the Building Character podcast, exploring people’s life experiences and the meanings they make of them. More information about can be found at http://MattAlbertson.com. Follow him on twitter @MattAlbertson.

Matt's Meat Tweets:

8/12/09
9/08/09
9/14/09
9/25/09
9/28/09

Tweet the Meat Author: Charles M. Kline

There was once a boy named Charles who discovered in adulthood that he had, in fact, been raised by wolves during his infantile stages and that his “real” parents were actually camping in the woods when they found him and took him home. This would explain his strange nocturnal habits, peculiar canine-like smell, tendency for eating raw meat, and other behavioral anomalies he’d rather not have made public.

http://thenightscape.wordpress.com/

Charles' Meat Tweets:

6/21/09
9/26/09

Tweet the Meat Author: Kaolin Fire

@kaolinfire writes http://is.gd/x9d4 ;edits http://is.gd/x9bW ;makes websites http://is.gd/x9c9 ;and computer games http://is.gd/x9cq

Kaolin's Meat Tweets:

5/20/09
6/10/09
7/01/09
7/08/09
7/15/09
8/26/09
9/09/09
9/23/09

Tweet the Meat Author: William Wood

William Wood can be found in an old farmhouse in the Blue Ridge Mountains with his wife and kids, all of whom love him dearly and whisper every time he leaves the room. He occasionally sleeps instead of writing. Approach him warily at omnitome@gmail.com.

William's Meat Tweets:

8/21/09
9/22/09

Tweet the Meat Author: Robert C. Eccles

Robert C. Eccles is a radio news reporter and anchor who enjoys writing short horror stories. He's had more than two dozen short stories published at Flashes in the Dark (where he's also a submissions editor), Micro Horror, House of Horror, Sonar 4 Science Fiction and Horror Ezine and The Daily Tourniquet.

His 100-word horror story, "Difficult Birth", can be found in the July 2009 print issue of Necrotic Tissue Magazine.

Robert's Meat Tweets:

7/14/09
8/09/09
9/21/09

Tweet the Meat Author: Jorge

Jorge lives in Panama and attends university where he has a secret lab and a poster of pinhead.

Jorge's Meat Tweets:

9/20/09

Tweet the Meat Author: Michael Bowles

Michael Bowles has wandered through the book business for twelve years in various capacities. He writes horror and ghost stories, poems for children, and has a newfound love for Twitter flash fiction. He lives in Toronto with his wife, his inner demons, a dog, a cat, two fish, and two unsettlingly fast-moving snails.

Michael's Meat Tweets:

7/20/09
9/19/09

Tweet the Meat Author: R. Gatwood

R. Gatwood is concise.

R.'s Meat Tweets:

8/19/09
9/17/09
9/18/09

Tweet the Meat Author: Julia Rios

Julia Rios (@omgjulia) hopes to keep her head firmly attached to her body. http://www.juliarios.com

Julia's Meat Tweets:

9/16/09

Tweet the Meat Author: Shennandoah Diaz

Shennandoah Diaz writes stories of humanity under less than human circumstances. Her paranormal thriller, A Coyote Among Us, was named a finalist in the 2009 Writers’ League of Texas Manuscript Contest. She posts helpful tips for writers on her blog http://shennandoahdiaz.blogspot.com and on twitter @shennandoahdiaz.

Shennandoah's Meat Tweets:

8/13/09
9/15/09

Tweet the Meat Author: Becca Dommett

Becca Dommett is a 21yr old English Graduate, writing in an effort not to grow up, and to prove her student debt is worth it.

Becca's Meat Tweets:

5/18/09
6/09/09
8/08/09
9/12/09

Tweet the Meat Author: Dave Webb

Dave Webb is still not dead, although some mornings it looks like he is. He blogs nonsense at http://unsatirical.blogspot.com

Dave's Meat Tweets:

6/03/09
8/18/09
8/27/09
9/10/09

Tweet the Meat Author:Filamena Young

Filamena Young writes fiction and freelances as a game writer. Her fiction has made rounds in a number of 'zines and twitter fiction publications, and her freelance work appears in a number of books from White Wolf Publishing. She's a mother, a wife, and a geek living just outside Philadelphia. Find out more and read her blog and book reviews at filamena.com.

Filamena's Meat Tweets:

6/7/09
9/7/09

Tweet the Meat Author: Al Lawrence

Al Lawrence writes from Edmonton, Alberta. He's a "Hair and Style mechanic," and he has a pet ferret named Oyster who does most of the work.

Al's Meat Tweets:

8/30/09
9/6/09

Tweet the Meat Author: Conda V. Douglas

Conda V. Douglas (@Conda_V)loves writing. Visit her blog: www.condascreativecenter.blogspot.com for fun and easy secrets, hints and tips.

Conda adores this brave, fun new electronic world. Blogs and podcasts and now tweets, oh my!

Conda's Meat Tweets:

9/05/09

Tweet the Meat author: Mercedes M. Yardley

Mercedes M. Yardley writes whimsical horror and beautiful tragedy. There is strength in suffering. Her blog is at www.abrokenlaptop.wordpress.com.

Mercedes' Meat Tweets:

5/12/09
6/17/09
9/4/09

Tweet the Meat Author: Lida Broadhurst

When it is too hot, too cold, or too rainy in Oakland, CA, Lida's work is weirder than usual. She also will appear in "Thaumatrope." She may be found at @leelee119

Lida's Meat Tweets:

9/03/09

Tweet the Meat Author: Adam Callaway

Adam Callaway @Weirdside Waxes speculative from a base in Northern Wisconsin. http://adamcallaway.blogspot.com.

Adam's Meat Tweets:

9/02/09

Tweet the Meat Author: Beth Katte

[BIO] Beth Katte @bethblackbird scrawls injurious truths. http://www.bethkatte.com/

Beth's Meat Tweets:

8/31/09

Tweet the Meat Author: Jeff Coley

Jeff (screenwritr on Twitter) Coley combats the Texas heat with craft beer and Twitter length fiction. He's working to build an Internet comedy network, have some scripts produced, a webcomic distributed on mobile devices and some novels published. If he's still alive after those goals are accomplished, he might get married or attempt to design some video games. You can visit his new blog at jeffcoley.wordpress.com. Warning---it is scantily contented, which might bore interested readers. Give me a couple of weeks.

Jeff's Meat Tweets:

8/29/09

Tweet the Meat Author: Michelle Ristuccia

You can find Michelle Ristuccia's (@mrsmica) writing blog @http://wakingdreamsblog.blogspot.com

Michelle's Meat Tweets:

8/28/09

Tweet the Meat Author: Sebastián Lalaurette

Sebastián Lalaurette is an Argentinian writer, journalist and editor who writes mainly in Spanish but has nightmares in a variety of languages. He blogs at www.lalaurette.com.ar/blog, publishes the digital magazine "Sismo Trapisonda" (www.sismotrapisonda.com.ar), writes for a national newspaper, and hasn't died so far.

Sebastián's Meat Tweets:

8/25/09

Tweet the Meat Author: Brenda Stokes

Brenda Stokes @digitalinkwell writes disturbing things and teaches her pet rats tricks. www.brendastokes.com

Brenda's Meat Tweets:

8/24/09

Tweet the Meat Author: Kim L.

Kim L. dreams of a new way each time.

Kim's Meat Tweets:

8/23/09

Tweet the Meat Author: Ed Pahule

Ed Pahule is currently sequestered in his Milwaukee cape cod working on his latest fantasy piece. He has published in The Horror Show, Quantum Muse, and Writer's Guild and was editor/co-founder of a short-lived fiction magazine, Mid-Coaster.

Ed's Meat Tweets:

8/22/09

Tweet the Meat News: Cold Ethyl and a change to the Guidelines

This weekend 8/22's theme is Open/No Theme!

If the Guinness Book of World Records has an entry for 'Most Necrophilia-Themed Stories Read in a Single Sitting,' I'm fairly certain we would have a shot at winning.

Almost 50% of you took to the True Love theme as an invitation to relate to us your sex/love/relationships with a corpse stories. A good shower was needed after the first round of readings.



As of this moment we are not yet done with the submissions, so if you haven't heard from us yet, that's okay. We'll get to you soon.

We are requesting an additional right for all future stories, and it has been added to the guidelines. We are asking for non-exclusive print anthology rights. The reasons for this will become apparent in the next couple of weeks. However, if any future Tweet the Meaters are uncomfortable with this, they may choose to opt-out at the time of acceptance without fear of us rescinding our offer to publish that or any future tweet. If you have any questions about this, please email us at tweetthemeat(at)gmail(dot)com.

Total submissions this week: 90

Subs where the "Love" was no longer with us: 42
Thread and needle used to sew up parts: 5
Same-sex love stories: 4
Interspecies love stories: 3
Where that species was a turtle: 1

Tweet the Meat Author: Abby "Merc" Rustad

Abby "Merc" Rustad (Merc_hyn_di on Twitter) escaped from the Twilight Zone at a young age, but the contamination is irreversible. She's weird. And she likes zombies. She's had fiction published in M-BRANE SF, Alternative Coordinates, Fusion Fragment, AlienSkin Magazine, and others. Feel free to visit her blog at http://merc-rants.blogspot.com

Abby's Meat Tweets:

6/05/09
7/09/09
8/17/09

Tweet the Meat Author: R. Hernandez

R. Hernandez lives in Texas where he never once hit an armadillo with his car.

R.'s Meat Tweets:

8/14/09

8/15/09

Tweet the Meat News

Tonight's theme: True Love!

Only one person submitted a story based on my favorite fairy tale of all time, Bluebeard. (If you aren't familiar with it, I suggest you read it. It's pretty gruesome.)

If you haven't heard from us, feel free to query.

Total Subs: 77

Hansel and Gretel themed: 15
Little Red Riding Hood themed: 8

Tweet the Meat Author: Lisa Morton

@lnmorton is secretly afraid of clowns.

Lisa's Meat Tweets:

8/10/09

8/11/09

Tweet the Meat News: Grinding the organs in music week

Tonight's theme: Fairy Tales.

Just a quick note that we're done with the week's submissions. We're having a hectic week in the real life which translates to get-to-it-as-soon-as-we-can in the Tweet the Meat World. That also means the blog itself tends to get neglected, but we'll update it as soon as we can.

If you haven't heard from us, please feel free to query.

Total Submissions this week: 102

Body parts used as strings for guitars/pianos/other instruments: 9

Bodies placed inside of instruments: 5

"Iron Maiden:" 3

"Organ Grinders:" 6

Violin music as a central theme: 12

Thanks for your continued support

Tweet the Meat Author: Bryce Beattie

"My name is Bryce Beattie, and I'm addicted to pulp. When I was a kid, some careless adult left a tape with several episodes of "The Shadow" lying around. After I listened to that, I was hooked. Pretty soon, audio just wasn't enough and I moved on to to the paperback stuff. At first it was just hardboiled detective fiction, but then I started reading old Conan stories and yarns about John Carter of Mars. Now I'm pretty hopeless. In fact, I'm so deep into pulp fiction that I write my own. You can check out the products of my pulp addiction at www.StoryHack.com "

Bryce's Meat Tweets:

8/7/09

Tweet the Meat Author: Olivia Berrier

Olivia Berrier belongs to the worlds of fantasy fiction and mathematics, trying to create a utopia where words and numbers can live peacefully. She is often clueless and always shoeless. Follow her @MinikinMath

Olivia's Meat Tweets:

7/11/09
8/06/09

Tweet the Meat Author: Scetches

Scetches was born with a pencil in her fist and too many words in her mouth. @scetches

Scetches' Meat Tweets:

8/5/09

Tweet the Meat Author: Finale Doshi

Finale develops intelligent systems and robots. Except for some mathy bits, they aren't particularly scary (and neither is she).

Finale's Meat Tweets:

8/04/09

Tweet the Meat Author: Sean Lyman Frasier

Sean Lyman Frasier writes and performs poetry in Astoria, NY three seasons of the year. During the winter he travels with arctic wolves.

He has published several collections with Fat Candiru Press and was once told by Whoopi Goldberg that he is one reason she loves this world. He welcomes love mail at slfrasier@gmail.com and news of coming releases can be found at http://fatcandirupress.blogspot.com.


Sean's Meat Tweets:

7/27/09
8/03/09

Tweet the Meat Author: Amanda Lord

Amanda Lord is a librarian and writer of science fiction, fantasy & horror. She lives in upstate NY with her husband Joel. You can read her short story "Red Dust" in Issue 6 of Crossed Genres (http://crossedgenres.com/) or find more of her work at http://dulcinbradbury.livejournal.com


Amanda's Meat Tweets:

7/31/09

Tweet the Meat Author: Sara Garland

Sara writes to escape the nightmares of the real world. http://jackagorey.blogspot.com/


Sara's Meat Tweets:

7/30/09

Tweet the Meat Author: RJ Payne

RJ Payne is fantasy fiction writer based in Cambridge, England. She is a member of CWIL and www.differentstar.net @rebeccajpayne

RJ's Meat Tweets:

7/25/09

Tweet the Meat Author: Brent Bowen

Turned onto reading at an early age -- the product of bible stories given as punishment for stealing candy from a drug store -- Brent Bowen devours books and writes in a lot of speculative genres.

He has worked in the public relations profession for a number of well-known companies, but Brent would easily say goodbye if he could write "real" fiction full time. His worked has received recognition from Writers of the Future and he will attend Viable Paradise this fall. Brent (@daemonrange) can be found at www.splitlegend.com/news.

Brent's Meat Tweets

7/24/09

Doing the electric slide with sheep and sparks and zombies (Oh my!)

This weekend's theme: The Wind

We were pleasantly surprised with the electric-themed submissions this week. Sometimes when we come up with specific themes, we get worried that it's too out there or strange or unspecific or too specific for the stories to be of high quality.

Electrocutions, power tools, and zombies doing the Electric Slide. That was the theme this week. Good job, everybody.

We are done with the submissions this week.



Total Submissions: 92

Subs with the words "Electric Slide" in them: 6
Subs with "Electric Sheep" in them: 5
Number of electric chairs: 8
Number of wall socket deaths: 8
Electric eels: 3
Times the word "Spark" or "Sparky" appeared: 22

The Wind

Tweet the Meat Author: Michael Maller

Michael Maller is kept quite busy making himself laugh.

Twitter: twitter.com/voxkeferman

Michael's Meat Tweets:

7/23/09

Tweet the Meat Author: Diane Turnshek

Diane Turnshek runs Alpha (http://alpha.spellcaster.org), a summer camp for horror-writing teens, and she'd like to thank her Alpha students (especially Justin Ortlip) for their assistance and encouragement.

She writes in short bites while teaching both astronomy and writing classes at six colleges and universities. http://sff.net/people/diane

Diane Turnshek's mind has been seriously warped by Tweet the Meat's allure.

Diane's Meat Tweets:
6-27-09
7-22-09

Tweet the Meat Author: Chip Street

Chip Street likes to tell stories, not all of them creepy. He is an illustrator, screenwriter and filmmaker, co-author of "Faeries", a horror script fast gaining traction. Learn more about
Faeries at chipstreet.wordpress.com/projects/faeries.

Website:
www.chipstreet.com - Twitter @chipstreet

Chip's Meat Tweets:

7/21/09

Tweet the Meat author: James Van Vleet

James Van Vleet doesn't write horror, at least not on purpose. By day he's a graphic artist. By night he's really, really lonely.

James' Meat Tweets:

5-08-09
5-09-09
7-19-09

Tweet the Meat Author: Amy Sterling Casil

Amy Sterling Casil @asterling writes science fiction, fantasy, nonfiction and dark fantasy http://ow.ly/hsUN and http://ow.ly/hsV1 and volunteers for http://ow.ly/hsVh.


Amy's Meat Tweets:
7/18/09

Tweet the Meat Author: David Bernstein

When David isn't writing horror, he can be found reading or watching it. He lives in the NYC area. Email him at macabrestories@hotmail.com

Macabrestories on Twitter.
Facebook: Macabre Stories

David's Meat Tweets:

7/17/09
7/29/09

Tweet the Meat Author: Joanne Merriam

Joanne Merriam (@joannemerriam) is a Nova Scotian living and writing in Nashville. http://www.joannemerriam.com

Joanne's Meat Tweets:

7/16/09

We got the submissions... they are Hot! Hot! Hot!

Next weekend's theme: "Electric"

Hot theme was smokin'. The overwhelming motif was, once again, people eating people. And people like their meat cooked. We are done combing through the multiple submissions, so if you haven't heard from us, please let us know.


Total Submissions - 89


Nuclear blasts - 12
People consumed because they were cooked - 34
The character count of the longest submission - 5055
Paris Hilton "That's Hot"-themed subs - 4
"Hot Crossed Buns" being taken literally - 3

Next weekend's theme: "Electric"

Tweet the Meat Author: Niko Krommydas

Niko Krommydas writes and paints now and will die sometime in the future. Follow him at @krommydas

Niko's Meat Tweets:

5/17/09
7/13/09

Tweet the Meat Author: Julie M. Andrews

Julie M Andrews attended the Clarion Writers Workshop in 2007 and joined Broad Universe this year. This tweet was submitted during a Broad Universe submission mailing party and marks the author's first fiction sale.

Julie's Meat Tweets:

7/02/09

7/10/09

Open Theme Stats

Tonight's theme: Hot!

It's been a long week, my friends. I like these occasional open-themed weekends because of the diverse stories. We had a difficult time picking the best stories, and that led to the traditional last-minute delay. As always we appreciate all of you who continue to support us with your submissions and donations.



Total submissions: 79

Cannibal-themed subs: 12
Submissions in English: 78
People who asked "Pretty please" to be accepted: 1
Subs about rabbits: 3

Tweet the Meat Author: B.T. Evilpants

B.T. Evilpants writes from a bunker beneath the streets of Detroit. If you enjoy a good laugh, visit him at: http://hubpages.com/profile/B.T.+Evilpants

B.T. Evilpants Meat Tweets:

7/07/09

Tweet the Meat Author: Matthew Hostetler

Matthew Hostetler posts new stories every week at http://twitter.com/ellipts

Matthew's Meat Tweets:

7/06/09

Tweet the Meat Author: Jameson T. Caine

Jameson T. Caine has at one time or another worked as a carpenter, meat cutter, shipping clerk, assembly line worker, long haul truck driver and ordained minister. Currently he drives a tanker truck by day and calls himself a writer by night, the latter fueled by a steady diet of soda and cheese puffs. In his spare time he devotes himself to anything horror, fantasy or sci-fi related, being a life-long fan of the genre since he was subjected to the original Night of the Living Dead at age five. He lives in Northern California with his wife and two dogs. Visit him online at http://jamesontcaine.blogspot.com/.

Jameson T Caine's Meat Tweets:

5-14-09
7-03-09

Rapunzel, Rapunzel, show me your hair stats

What a week. We had a boost in submissions which led to a slight delay in responses, but we are finally done. When you guys think hair, a full quarter of you think someone should be strangled by it. Ten percent of you have some very nasty things to say about Rapunzel.



total submissions: 102

Rapunzel themed submissions: 11
Subs involving shower drains: 8
strangulation or suffocation by hair: 25
Subs about gingers: 6

This weekend's theme: Open

Tweet the Meat Author: John Pupo

John is trying to break free of the shackles of retail hell. He recently has had work published online in The Shine Journal.

Follow him at @JohnPupo

John's Meat Tweets:

6/30/09
7/28/09

Tweet the Meat Author: P.A. Flaherty

P.A. Flaherty writes fiction, creative nonfiction, horror, true crime, reviews and recipes. She is currently working on her first mystery novel. Follow her edible adventures at http://www.examiner.com/x-12601-Cheese-Examiner. Help her resist the onslaught of time in Fierce with Reality, currently available at http://www.jstwrite.com.

P.A.'s Meat Tweets:

6/28/09

Tweet the Meat Author: Ellie Vaughn

Ellie Vaughn writes screenplays, poetry and fiction. Currently chipping away at the glass ceiling with a bloody hatchet. Visit her @EllieVaughn

Ellie's Meat Tweets:

6/26/09

Tweet the Meat News: Future Stats

The theme "Future" was your excuse to send us your sci-fi-themed tweets, which was how we expected you would interpret the theme. As always, we had plenty of great stories to work through. Your vision of the future is pretty bleak. Some of you guys really are pretty messed up in the head.

We wouldn't want it any other way.

Total Submissions: 64

Death by asphyxiation: 12
Death by robot: 8
Bionic and/or robotic cats: 3
Subs written in code: 2
Nigerian Scam Emails: 53 (not included in the submissions count)
Harry Potter-themed submissions: 0


We just spent some time cleaning up the blog and properly linking bios to their Meat Tweets on Twitter. If you ever see any weirdness in a blog posting, feel free to comment in the blog or email us, and we'll take a look at it.

Thaumatrope has been slowly leaking out an interview they did with us. Check it out here.

Theme for tonight's sub period: Hair

Tweet the Meat Author: Mark Leslie

Mark Leslie cowers in fear at the tiniest of "bumps" in the night and lies awake for hours worried about the monster under his bed. His fiction has recently appeared in Champagne Shivers, Black Ink Horror and the NORTHERN HAUNTS anthology. A collection of Mark's previously published fiction and poetry, ONE HAND SCREAMING was released in 2004 and his work is forthcoming in Necrotic Tissue, Everyday Weirdness and the Clonepod podcast.

He may be found at http://markleslie.blogspot.com

Mark's Meat Tweets:

6-08-09
6-25-09

Tweet the Meat Author: Amanda Davis

Amanda Davis had terror for breakfast with a murder bagel and mayhem juice. She blogs at http://davisac1.livejournal.com

Amanda's Meat Tweets:

6/04/09

6/23/09

6/24/09

Tweet the Meat Author: Joseph Patrick Pascale

Joseph Patrick Pascale is a fiction writer residing in New Jersey. His fiction has been included in three issues of the Prism literary journal. More work is forthcoming in Thaumatrope and Off The Rocks. He is currently studying toward his Master of Arts degree in English Literature at Centenary College. Follow @JosephPascale on Twitter or visit his website http://josephpascale.pyraliss.com for additional information.

Joseph's Meat Tweets:

6/20/09

Tweet the Meat author: John Pelton

John Pelton writes from his nightmares, which he has nightly. He also has them during the day.


John Pelton's Meat Tweets

5-15-09
5-31-09
6-19-09

Tweet the Meat News: Submission Stats for Retro

This was a bit of a strange week. The total number of subs were down fairly substantially, though the quality was still sky high. As a result, we struggled picking this week's accepted stories. We are fully completed with the subs for the week, so if you haven't heard from us, feel free to send a query.

The very awesome Twitter publication Thaumatrope will be publishing an interview with Tweet the Meat over a few days next week. Please give them a follow, if you don't already.

Like many of you, we have spent this week glued to our Twitter feeds waiting for the next post from our friends in the midst of a revolution in Iran. Regardless of your politics or how you feel about what's happening in Iran, it's amazing to witness history live as it happens. Who thought such a thing as Twitter would be such a monumental tool?

Total Submissions: 60

Subs mentioning vinyl records: 6

Subs mentioning editor's favorite band: 1 (Up the Irons!)

Disco-themed subs: 5

Harry Potter themed submissions: 1

Harry Potter themed submissions that were identical to the previous week's Harry Potter-themed sub: 1

Number of visits to this blog from people googling "Newsweek Submission Guidelines": 15

Friday's theme: Future.

Tweet the Meat Author: C.D. Thomas

C.D.Thomas likes evening walks in deserted office buildings, echoes of rainstorms in hollow rooms, and men who cry, afraid. Watch this month's work at http://thaumatrope.greententacles.com/serials/Glom/

C.D.'s Meat Tweets:

6/18/09

Tweet the Meat Author: Stephen D. Rogers

Over five hundred of Stephen's stories and poems have appeared in more than two hundred publications. Visit www.stephendrogers.com today.

Stephen's Meat Tweets:

6/16/09

Tweet the Meat Author: Ignacio Zulueta

Ignacio Zulueta writes and lives in Oakland. His plays have been done at the Ashland New Plays Festival, the Magic Theatre (via Golden Thread’s ReOrient), the Eureka, the Phoenix, and Berkeley Rep (via Playground-SF).

His wartime drama 22 Minutes Remaining will play at the 2009 San Francisco Fringe Festival this September. Stay updated at www.ignaciointerface.blogspot.com.

Ignacio's Meat Tweets:

6/15/09

Tweet the Meat Author: Horace Torys

Horace Torys has nothing to fear but fear itself. And wasps. @HoraceTorys is scared spitless of wasps.

Horace's Meat Tweets:

5/22/09
6/14/09

Tweet the Meat Author: Peter Keller

Peter Keller is a hemophiliac on the cutting edge of twitter fiction @wordshiv

Peter's Meat Tweets:

6/12/09

Tweet the Meat Author: Moxie Malone

Moxie Malone Writes the Wrong.

Purveyor of dreams, fantasies and the occasional nightmare. Everything you need or want to know about her can be found in her writings.

--
www.MoxieMalone.com

Moxie's Meat Tweets:

6/11/09

Tweet the Meat News: Submission Stats for Dad week

Ahh, nothing goes together like vomit and dad. What a week.

The bar was set especially high this week. We had several excellent submissions. It's funny how many of you translated the dad theme into the "Eating dad" or "Dad eating me" or "Dad and I eat someone together" theme.

We'd like to extend a special thank you to everyone out there who keeps submitting week after week, despite getting rejected week after week. Your tenacity is well-remembered and will eventually be well-rewarded.

We experimented with a new script for auto-responding which failed miserably. We are almost done with submissions this week, and we plan on having everyone emailed by the end of tomorrow. (Which is what we always say, and it almost always ends up being on Friday).

Submission stats:

Number of submissions: 85
Number of submissions for the "secret" theme: 15

Number of stories where flesh was consumed: 29 (!)
Number of stories where flesh was consumed and then vomited back up: 4
Number of sliced-off penises: 3
Number of Harry Potter-themed submissions: 1

Tweet the Meat Author: The Beef Ninja

The Beef Ninja is a vegetarian. A very bad one. "The greatest food in the world can be found from Thai street vendors."

The Beef Ninja's Meat Tweets:

6/06/09

Tweet the Meat News: Submissions Done

All notices have been sent out, a day late as usual. If you haven't heard from us, AND YOU SUBMITTED DURING THE WEEKEND, feel free to query. We've had a strange rash of submissions this week outside of the open period. Unless we've told you otherwise, these subs end up unread. Thanks for your understanding.

Remember subs open up again tonight at midnight. The theme is "Dad."

Tweet the Meat News: Submission Info for the week

Hello all,

We are a little more than halfway done with this week's submissions, and we anticipate to have all the responses out by the end of tomorrow barring any catastrophes. This was a solid week for submissions.

Total Submissions: 91

Subs about crackheads: 12
Zombies: 7
Percentage of subs received on Friday Night/Saturday: 43.9%
Percentage of subs by former authors: 18.7%
Number of subs over 140 characters: 3
Number of subs in TXT SPK: 3 (all from the same submitter)

Next week's theme: Dad

Tweet the Meat Author: Megan Engelhardt

Megan Engelhardt (@HHCMeg) works at a library and daydreams of horrible ways for her patrons to suffer.

Megan's Meat Tweets:

6/02/09

Tweet the Meat Author: Jenny McFadyen

Jenny McFadyen loves the gloaming but is scared of the dark. She is a writer who still believes that monsters lurk in the closet, a witch lives under the bed and cats suck out your soul as you sleep. Keep her company at @Cyfarwydd.

Jenny's Meat Tweets:

6/01/09

Background Image

Twitter is having technical issues with background images. This week's BG is


Hopefully you'll see it on site soon.

Tweet the Meat News: Twitter was down.

Hootsuite/Twitter had a bit of technical hiccup, causing John's Tweet to be published late. Hopefully it won't happen again, though Twitter going down seems to be pretty common.

Tweet the Meat author: Chef Cthulhu

Chef Cthulhu is not really a chef even though he really likes food... so all you chefs, foodies and culinary folks on Twitter PLEASE stop auto-following him! He is owner and proprietor of Cthulhu's Family Restaurant where he blogs about whatever he wants. Follow him at @Chef_Cthulhu

Meat Tweets:

5/3/09
5/29/09

Tweet the Meat News: Subs done. Crackheads suck.

We have finished up our submissions for the week. Thanks again to everyone who submitted. If you haven't heard from us by now, it means you somehow got missed. Please feel free to query.

The home where two of the Tweet the Meat editors live was burglarized and completely trashed today, which is the reason for the slight delay. Any stories that get submitted this week where crackhead thieves get brutally tortured may receive extra attention. Just sayin'.

Tweet the Meat Author: Ellen McCloud

Ellen McCloud aka @candyo121 is an aspiring horror author from West Virginia.

CandyO's Meat Tweets:

5-28-09

Tweet the Meat News: Submission Stats

Every week, we like to leave the theme slightly generic and open to allow a broad interpretation. Whenever I see the term "Critters" I always think of that 1986 movie, and by default I think of any sort of small creature with gobs of teeth and legs. You guys overwhelmingly interpreted the theme as "bugs." At least 60% of the critter-themed submissions were bug-centric. And that's okay. Bugs freak us out.

Subs were down a bit this week, but the quality bar was higher than ever. We are about halfway through the submissions. Everyone should have a response by the end of tomorrow.

Total Subs: 88

Number of stories involving bugs coming from orifices: 13
Number of stories involving bugs going into orifices: 5
Number of stories about the editor's mother: 1
Number of 419 scam emails received during submission period: 25


Next week: No theme.

Tweet the Meat Author: Karen L. Newman

Karen L. Newman lives in Kentucky where she's an active member of the Horror Writers Association and edits Illumen and Afterburn SF.

Over two hundred and fifty of her short stories and poems have been published both online and in print in places such as Star*Line, Dreams and Nightmares, and Raven Electrick. Her poetry collections include EEKU (Sam’s Dot, 2005), ChemICKals (Naked Snake Press, 2007), and Toward Absolute Zero (Sam’s Dot, 2009). She won the 2005 Kentucky Mary Jane Barnes Award and two of her poems received honorable mention in The Year’s Best Fantasy and Horror. She's been nominated for a Rhysling Award and twice nominated for a Dwarf Star Award. Please visit her online at http://home.zoomnet.net/~karennew.

Karen's Meat Tweets:
5-21-09

Tweet the Meat News: Submissions Done

We are done with this week's submissions. If you haven't heard from us one way or another, please feel free to query.

Tweet the Meat News: Submission Stats

One of the best things about the small space/prompt combination is you'll see several extremely similar stories that are also crafted in very different ways. We anticipated lower participation this week due to a tough theme, but we were wrong. Many people took to the challenge in surprising ways.

A couple people didn't get auto-responses this week, which was the result of human error on our end. If you sent two submissions, no worries.

Total Submissions: 125

Number of consumed brains: 22

Zombie-themed stories: 13

Murdered kittens: 2

The majority of our responses most likely won't go out until later today and tomorrow, both good and bad. Thanks for your continued support and patience.

We also really appreciate all the re-tweets and @tweetthemeat replies. We don't get the chance to respond to many, but we read them all.

In a couple weeks we're going (hoping) to start taking submissions for artwork that will be the background image for themed weeks. More info on that when it comes time.

Next week's theme: Critters.

Tweet the Meat Author: Denise Danks

Denise Danks is a screenwriter, journalist and author of the Georgina Powers series of computer crime novels and the noir thriller Torso.

Denise Danks' Meat Tweets:

5-19-09

Tweet the Meat News: Subs done

We are finally done with all the subs from the previous weekend. If you haven't heard from us, please double check your email then feel free to send us a query.

Tweet the Meat News: Submission Stats for the rip fest

As always, it was great fun to read all of your submissions. Once again, we've been overwhelmed with more good submissions than we know what to do with. If you haven't heard from us yet, that's a good thing.

If you have been rejected, we really encourage you to submit to one of the other Twitterzines. We have a list of them here. Some of these subs were too good to go unread.

We are still getting handfuls of submissions that are too long. Please, familiarize yourself with the market and Twitter before you submit. We're not rejecting your 140 word opus of gore and horror because we're "uneducated hacks" who don't know brilliance when we see it, we're rejecting it because it doesn't fit the market. (Well, maybe we are uneducated hacks, but we can still recognize when someone hasn't followed the guidelines.)

Twitter has a 140 character limit that includes spaces. If it doesn't fit, it's rejected. Period.


Stats:
*Total Submissions: 112

*Ripped-open ribcages: 8
*Insanely-angry responses to a rejection: 1
*Stories where someone rips a poster/piece of paper/something else which results in someone's flesh also being ripped: 9
*Ripped-off tattoos: 4


Next week's theme: Memories.

Note our sub guidelines have changed. Multiple subs now all go into a single email.

Tweet the Meat News: Change in Sub Guidelines

We've decided to add a slight change to our submission guidelines to make everyone's lives easier.

Effective immediately, all multiple submissions need to be placed within a single email.

That means if you're submitting one story, you'll send us one email. If you're submitting five stories, you'll still send us only one email. Please only send us one email a weekend. Thank you!

Full submission guidelines may be read here.

Tweet the Meat Author: Errid Farland

Errid owns www.ShowMeYourLits.com, a website which sponsors a weekly flash contest. Her stories have appeared in Barrelhouse, Thieves Jargon, Word Riot, storySouth, Pindledyboz, GUD, and other great places.

Errid's Meat Tweets:

5-11-09

Tweet the Meat Author: J. Matthew Zoss

Bio: J. Matthew Zoss writes stuff. He has been published in books, magazines and websites.

Meat Tweets:

5-10-09

Tweet the Meat Author: Ace Masters

Ace Masters is a Glendale, AZ-based writer and actor. http://www.theacemasters.com

Meat Tweets:

5/6/09
5/7/09

Tweet the Meat News: Submission Stats

We had a very successful weekend. The quality of your stories continues to be excellent, and we're rejecting stories not because they're bad, but because we simply don't have room. Thank you to everybody who submitted this week. If you haven't heard from us yet, you will soon.

Random Stats:

Total Submissions: 120

Number of piranha-based stories: 5
Number of drownings: lost count after 30, but probably about 40.
Number of mermaids: 8
Number of submissions for the "secret" theme: 21

In case you missed it, next week's theme is "Ripping"

Tweet the Meat Author: Kenneth Kellsborough

Kenneth Kellsborough lives in Naperville, Illinois. His ticogonderoga pencil is his typewriter, his fiancee is his editor, and the beedy, red-eyed multitude collectively form his muse--don't worry, they're here to help.

Kenneth's Meat Tweets:

5-02-09

Tweet the Meat Author: Aaron Polson

Today's Meat Tweet comes to us from Aaron Polson:

In his day job, Aaron Polson attempts to teach high school students the difference between irony and coincidence.

http://www.aaronpolson.com

Please support our authors by checking out their website.

Aaron Polson's Meat Tweets

5/01/09

Tweet the Meat News: Week One Submissions done; Today is our official opening

We are finally through all of the first week submissions. If you haven't heard from us, then we had a hiccup somewhere. Everyone who submitted should have heard from us by now.

If you know you submitted something on 25th or the 26th, and you didn't hear anything email us ASAP and we can figure out what happened. Or re-submit tomorrow.

Submissions open tonight at midnight. The theme is "Wet." The submission guidelines are here.

Also, tonight's entry will be our first official story submitted by someone else, and it will appear at 6:00 Pacific Time immediately preceded by a bio.

We had a great time reading all of your submissions last week. We look forward to reading more.

Tweet the Meat News: Twitter Literary Zines

There are several venues for micro fiction and prose on Twitter, and if you've somehow found yourself here, you may be interested in some of the others. I recommend reading and following every single one of these. Some of these are paying markets, some are not. 

I'm only listing ones that accept other people's work.

Nanoism "Thoughtful" fiction

Outshine optimistic, near-future prose

Picfic Experimental

Thaumatrope Sci-Fi, Fantasy, and Horror

Escarp Poetry and Prose

And of course there's Tweet the Meat, Twitter's premier paying Horrorzine. 

I also highly recommend Very Short Story but these are all written by one person.

If anyone knows of any others, feel free to post in comments and I'll add them to the list. 

Tweet the Meat News: Submission stats; about themes

The first submission period was a rousing success. We have finished the first round of reading, and we will soon start sending out letters.

Here are some statistics:

Submissions: 111

Outright rejections because the sub was too long: 23

Outright rejections because the sub was WAY too long: 2

Number of people who wrote to express outrage at the sub auto-reply: 2

Number of stories involving decapitated heads: 14 (That's not a bad thing, mind you.)

Number of dead babies: 6

Number of vampire-themed stories: 8

Number of stories submitted in TXT SPK: 0 (Thank you!)

The first user-submitted story will appear on Friday, May 1st.

Themes

Starting next submission period, we are introducing themes. Each week we may have a theme from which we will accept the majority of the stories. You do not have to follow the theme if you feel you have a great submission. From time to time we may also have a weekend-only 'secret theme.' Only people who submitted the week before will learn what the secret theme is.

Theme for 5/2: Wet

As always, if you have any questions, ask. Tweetthemeat (at) gmail.com

Thank you for your support

Tweet the Meat News. Are your stories credited?

Someone expressed concern that the stories on Tweet the Meat are not properly being credited. All the tweets will be credited to the author if they wish. If the authors wish to remain anonymous, that's fine as well.

Every Meat Tweet that has appeared on Tweet the Meat so far, including all from the "Where" theme that appeared Monday through Friday has been written by an anonymous Tweet the Meat editor. Our official opening is May 1st, and from that point on, all Meat Tweets will be paid submissions.

Submissions are open at the moment. We have received several submissions so far, and we are looking forward to seeing more.

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Submission Guidelines

Tweet the Meat is a Twitter-only, horror/weird/speculative market that opened in May, 2009.

No serials. No unfinished stories. You must scare us in 140 characters or less. Are you up to the challenge?

SUBMISSION GUIDELINES

No fan fiction or any other trademarked characters.
No reprints.
Nothing that would be illegal in any way.
Dear Lord, nothing in SMS or text-speak.
All stories must be complete. (No Serials.)
Other than that, the world is your oyster... Your 140 character oyster.

Our submission periods are on Saturdays and Sundays. If your clock says it's Saturday or Sunday, you may submit. If it says it's Monday, Friday or any other day, don't submit.

Most weeks, we are asking for a specific theme. To learn what the next theme will be, read the Twitter Feed or check back after Thursday and click here.

Please, no simultaneous submissions. Multiple submissions are allowed and encouraged up to five at a time. Please put all of your submissions in a single email, and please only send us one email a weekend.

We aim to have a response time of <1 week. Feel free to query if you haven't heard from us after 14 days.

Please submit in the body of an email to tweetthemeat (at) gmail(dot)com. Put "Submission" in the title. Include your name and a short bio. Your bio will appear in this blog with a link to your tweet.

Due to the length of the Twitter stories, no title is necessary. Bylines are given in a secondary tweet.

We ask for non-exclusive, first digital rights. In addition, we request non-exclusive, print anthology rights (This is new as of 9/18/09). Original author retains all copyrights. All we ask is it first appears on Tweet the Meat, and immediately thereafter it's yours to do with as you please.

We pay a flat rate of $1.00 a tweet. We pay via Paypal only, so if you don't have a Paypal account, we can donate your payment to the paypal-accepting charity of your choice. We pay on acceptance.

We publish one Meat Tweet a day at approximately 6 p.m. Pacific Time. In the future, we hope to increase both the frequency and pay rate.

If you have any questions, please feel free to email us at tweetthemeat (at) gmail(dot)com.

This form was last updated on 9-18-09