NOTE: Deadline has been extended until the end of March, or until full.

Strange, sinister shadows jump and skitter in the firelight. Broomsticks and black hats are silhouetted against the moon, and in the darkness witchfinders hunt their hated enemy. Under the influence of their Ghastly Tome, the army of the Red gathers its forces in the night. Join us as our all-American hero battles against the Reds within their midst. Zombies, magic, witch-hunts, spies, communists, boarding schools, supervillains and bad comic book tie-ins all lie in wait for our intrepid adventurer. Can he save the day before it’s too late?

Not sure how to interpret this theme? Here are just some of the ideas you could explore:

• Chill us with tales of black magic, witchcraft and ritual.
• Go undercover on Inquisitorial investigations and witch-hunts.
• Explore ideas of communism, the Cold War and the McCarthy era.
• Play with, twist or mock the conventions of zombie movies such as The Evil Dead .
• Give us subversive stories of comic book-style superheroes and ‘all-American’ action stars.
• Show us what happens when spies and magic clash.
• Play with any or all of these themes in an unusual or unexpected setting.

• A 41st century student reads from the long-forbidden Book of the Red, releasing a pandemic of socialism over a militantly capitalist cyborg empire.
• The Bloody Scapegoats are rising across the Western world—and they want to eat your brains! But luckily for humankind, they have political turmoil of their own, as they split into two factions: those led by the infamous Brian Lumley, and those led by his arch enemy, the Red Baron, Kim Newman himself. Only one person can tip the balance: Siamese Queens of the Macabre, Nancy A. Collins and Poppy Z. Brite.
• An unpopular president, in a desperate search for an excuse to go to war, opens a Terrorist Cloning Facility on the post-apocalyptic ruins of Guantanamo. But man should never mess with nature. Especially during election time.
• The head Zombie Witchfinder-General breaks into a repressed British boarding school for nubile young witches. His reception is not quite what he expected . . .

Most of all, don’t give us typical genre fantasy or horror. We want stories that are out of the ordinary, surreal and twisted, or laced with dark, wicked humour. We want angry voices, new voices, voices that want to toy with the reader and teach them something new and exciting. Take us dark places, dirty places, and show us things to make us giggle, gasp or gag.

All submissions must have a countercultural element. By this we mean an engagement with, challenging of or subverting of popular cultures and ideologies. Many submissions lack this important point. If you want to know what that means in practice, pick up a copy and see how our mission statement and our themes come together. Read the editorial introduction. Read the stories. Read the poems. Look at the cover art. Then ask yourself, 'Can I really imagine myself alongside these works?' If you can, then submissions should be sent, as always, to editor@polluto.com.



All contributors will receive one comp copy, and one story each issue will be selected as the editor's favourite, receiving payment at 4p/word (capped at £200). Payment to non-UK residents is by PayPal ONLY. We cannot send foreign bankers drafts or send foreign currency.

And as C. S. Lewis once muttered under his breath during a reading by Tolkien, 'Not another fucking elf.'