Stone’s Throw is the monthly online companion to Rock and a Hard Place Magazine, delivering shorter, sharper content on a regular basis in an electronic medium, before collecting all 12 stories for an annual print anthology. Each month, writers will be given a submission prompt, and the best of the best, by our estimation, will be posted here the following month.
Interested in Submitting?
Stone’s Throw will open for submissions the first week of every month, from 12AM on the first through 11:59PM on the seventh. We’re looking for all the same dark fiction, crime and noir as our usual submissions, but with a target length between 1,000 and 2,000 words, and aligned with the monthly submissions prompt (see below). We’ll read through the best, choose the one story that shines brightest, and publish it online the following month, paying $25 per accepted story.
After a year, we’ll collect all twelve stories into a Stone’s Throw Anthology, to be published alongside our other print issues.
PLEASE NOTE — If you have been accepted within the calendar year for Stone’s Throw, you are ineligible to submit again during that same calendar year. However, we look forward to reading your submissions during our regular RHP Magazine open calls!
Upcoming Submissions Prompts
MAY SUBMISSIONS (opens April 1 - 7, 2024) — It’s always been about more than the baskets. For May, we’re looking for stories that feature workers and their bosses, the power imbalance between them, and the desperation or demands that can cause people on either side of that divide to make some very poor decisions. Click here to submit!
JUNE SUBMISSIONS (opens May 1 - 7, 2024) — Home is where the noir is. This month, we’re looking for stories set at home, wherever that is. Apartments. The suburbs. A townhouse. An RV. Under an overpass. We all need to lay our head somewhere, and while we imagine it to always be safe, sometimes that’s just wishful thinking.
JULY SUBMISSIONS (opens June 1 - 7, 2024) — It’s a time for gatherings and cookouts, so this month, we want your stories about food. That restaurant that's been open for 20 years despite never having any customers. A baker's deranged attempt to perfect their blood pudding. A delivery order gone horrifically wrong. Extra rare or well done, if it’s about food, we want it.
AUGUST SUBMISSIONS (opens July 1 - 7, 2024) — It's the hottest time of the year, and things are getting sweaty. This month, we’re looking for steam and sweat and, yes, sex. Send us your best story where sex, desire, or lust lead to the undressing and undoing of those involved.
SEPTEMBER SUBMISSIONS (opens August 1 - 7, 2024) — Baseball is winding down, football is starting up. Basketball players are at camp, and hockey players are on ice. Meanwhile, Uncle Nicky can’t stay away from the track. That's right, this month, we want stories about sports. About the dreams involved. About the gambling. About the competition. About the broken bones. If it involves sports and it’s noir, we’ll see you at the finish line.
OCTOBER SUBMISSIONS (opens September 1 - 7, 2024) — Every town has a legend of a haunted place, and in most cases, those legends and haunted places involve a crime. This month, we want stories about legends, real or imagined, the crimes that inspired them, and the way those legends affect those living in their shadows. Make it dark. Make it gothic. Make it undeniably Stone’s Throw.
NOVEMBER SUBMISSIONS (opens October 1 - 7, 2024) — It’s election season, so this month we want to see stories about the government, its power, and how it can put its thumb on the scale. Whether its a cop with a chip on their shoulder, a zoning board that cannot be reasoned with, or a congressman saying one thing then doing the other, we want to see your stories about the little guy, and what happens when they come face to face with unaccountable power.
DECEMBER SUBMISSIONS (opens November 1 - 7, 2024) — It's time for Jingle Bell Rock. For December, we want stories about music. Whether it's musicians in a very tough spot, a record collector who will do anything to get that rare LP, the secrets that lurk in relationships between bandmates, or the traditions and legends of specific musical subcultures, if it's about music, we want to roll with it.
JANUARY SUBMISSIONS (opens December 1 - 7, 2024) — The holidays are over, and it's time to get back on the straight and narrow. Easier said than done, though. This month, we want stories about overindulgence. Opulence. Living beyond your means. Whether that's money, drugs, generosity, or viciousness, we want stories about people who overdo it, and what happens when they realize they’re in a hole they can’t hope to fill.
Submissions are OPEN for our MAY SUBMISSIONS WINDOW
Workers of the world, unite! And send us your stories of horrible bosses! The submissions window is open April 1 - 7 for our May Submissions prompt. See you at the toppling of the bourgeois oppressor swine by the proletariat, comrades! Click here to submit!