Submission Call for "Bioterror - Stories of Monsters and Betrayal"

Viruses. Bacteria, Fungi. Toxins.

Once, the world feared the mighty power of nuclear weapons, but now the enemy is invisible to the eye. From the mustard gas within World War I trenches, to the anthrax spread in envelopes througout great urban centers in the early 2000s, history is full of real life examples of bioterror, that have inspired fiction since the olden days: HG Wells was writing about it in 1894, with his The Stolen Bacillus story, but so did Margaret Atwood (Onyx and Crake), Stephen King (The Stand), and Michael Chrichton (The Andromeda Strain), just to cite a few of the most celebrated examples.

The advent of other medias took it up a notch: the Resident Evil videogame franchise popularized the theme and brought along with it a revival of the zombie and horror genre as a whole, which eventually hit the theaters with 28 Days Later, and culminated with the Walking Dead comic book and TV show, and keeps spreading up to this day.

Stories about bioterror are famous for their monsters—both genetically modified and human, as the people who create the bio-agents are often moved by misguided scientific advances and greed, and end up becoming just as bad as the bestial offspring they produce. It is also about survival, and dare I say hope, as humanity keeps on thriving, despite the evils it inflicts on itself.

What am I looking for: Stories of 1,500-5,000 words that think outside the box. Everybody has a story to tell about an unexplained zombie outbreak, but how about bio-engineered dinosaurs, a virus that only infects dogs and cats, bio-engineered bugs that lay eggs on you, and you don’t find out until it’s too late? Most importantly, the monsters should only be the flavor to the story: the grit of it it’s the people who have to live through it. Stories don’t necessarily need to be focused on just horror—Sean of the Dead gave us a great zombie comedy!

Compensation: This is mostly an effort of cross-promotion, but you will be free to sell the digital copy of the anthology in your own storefront and keep all the profits, as well as make it a print run and sell it at your site or at cons. Everybody’s names and social media handles with be stamped on the face page of their shorts, this way we’ll be promoting each other as well as making a buck out of our work.

How to join: Reach for the contact form and send me the title, a prospective number of words, a one line hook and a 300 words synopsis of your short—this should not be a book blurb, I need to know beginning, middle and end! Stories don’t need to be finished at the time of the pitch, as you will have the time to complete them after being selected.

Deadline: Send your pitches by September 7th, 2025. The selected authors will be announced a week later. I plan on launching this around Christmas time, or early 2026, with a nice online event.

Bring it on, and make it roar!