FUN IN THE DARK

A mini anthology series of fabulously fun, deliciously dark short fiction.

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#4: “ANTIQUITIES”

Submission deadline: Midnight, 31 October 2026
Story length: 2000-5000 words
Payment: £20 plus a copy of both the print and e-book editions to each selected author.
Submissions are open to any author writing in the English language, at any stage of their career.

What are we looking for?

General requirements

We’re open to seeing work across various genres: submissions of horror, science fiction, fantasy, weird or bizarro fiction, crime/mystery etc. are all welcome. As long as your story fits the “antiquities” theme and the overall tone of the anthology — fun yet dark — we’d like to see it.

Read more about what we mean by “fun yet dark” here…

Theme specific requirements

We’re looking for your creepy, weird, fun stories about any old objects and curios. This might be an artifacts dug up from ancient archaeological sites, haunted artworks and cursed books, a sinister-looking old doll Grandma left in her will (thank a lot, Nana) or a rusted old key for which you can’t find the lock. The antiquity you choose could be from this world or another (don’t rule out what the aliens might have buried on earth eons ago), we just ask that the object is antique and the creepy/odd things that happen around it are the focal point of your story.

What aren’t we looking for?

We’re not looking for stories featuring modern objects or media. So no cursed video tapes or electronic equipment please. But if you want to send us a story about a cursed film reel from the days of silent film, or a haunted wax cylinder recording from the Victorian era, we’re definitely want to see those sorts of stories!

This volume’s guest reader…

Joining us for this volume is Margo Pecha, who’ll be helping to choose six stories for the anthology. Margo lives in southwest Washington state where she writes about obsession, paranoia, and rurality. Her fiction has appeared in Cosmic Horror Monthly, Fraidy Cat Quarterly, and anthologies such as The Muddy Goose Guide to the Weird Northwest and Encounters with Cryptids. Her short story “The Midnight Sardine Club” appears in Fun in the Dark #1: Transformations; a fabulous tale set in an occult antiques store. When she’s not reading or writing, she’s working in her gardens and herding chickens. Margo will make an excellent addition to the Fun in the Dark team for Volume 4 and we’re excited to have her onboard!

You can find out more about Margo here!

Submission Guidelines:

DEADLINE: Midnight, 31 October 2026.

N.B. “Midnight” applies to your own specific time zone, rather than GMT.

How to submit:

Email a DOC/DOCX or PDF of your story and a cover letter to kilterandrammel@hotmail.com with “Fun in the Dark Submission: Antiquities” as the subject.

Stories should be submitted in standard manuscript format: 1-inch margins, 12-point Times New Roman, double-spaced.

If you’re unsure of how to format your manuscript for submission, check out William Shunn’s excellent guide here: https://www.shunn.net/format/story/

Your cover letter should include the following:

• The title and word count of your story.
• Whether this is a simultaneous submission.
• A short author bio of 50–100 words about your writing background and any previous publication credits if you have any.
• Links to your author website/social media accounts (if available).

Further particulars:

One entry per author.

Submissions should be between 2000 and 5000 words.

Submissions under 2K and over 5K will not be accepted.

Submissions should be previously unpublished.

N.B. We define ‘published’ works as any work available publicly, including stories posted on personal blogs or sites/apps like Substack or Wattpad

No resubmissions (i.e. nothing you’ve previously submitted to Kilter & Rammel that was unsuccessful).

No AI submissions, i.e. stories that have been created with generative AI technology. We don’t want to read what a machine has come up with, we want to see your fabulous, human-made work!

You can find our full AI policy here.

Simultaneous submissions are allowed, but please tell us immediately if your work is accepted elsewhere during the submission window.

Authors will be notified of whether their story will be included by the end of November 2026. Selected authors will receive a one-time payment of £20 (paid via PayPal or suitable equivalent) and one copy of both print and e-book editions.

Anything you’re unsure of? Check out the “Questions you might have…” section below, and feel free to email us at kilterandrammel@hotmail.com if you have any further queries.

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Questions you might have…

What do you mean by “fun yet dark”?

Fun — this can, of course, mean funny or humorous, and we certainly enjoy work that has a good sense of humour, especially a dark one! But it doesn’t have to mean funny — there’s as much fun in being given the creeps, or in being a little grossed out, or in having to solve a mystery as a reader.

Nor does “fun” have to mean “light-hearted”, although again, we enjoy warm, cosy writing as long as there’s enough “darkness” in there to create a good balance. What we mainly mean by “fun” is work that isn’t too serious, or too gritty. We love thought-provoking/bleak/sombre writing ourselves, but Fun in the Dark isn’t the publication for that.

Dark — We’re up for some peril, some gore, some grossness and some nasty characters! Chill us, thrill us, make us squirm a bit! But we do have limits to the darkness for this series; we’re not looking for any extreme horror, ie. stories featuring ultra-graphic violence, sexual assault or abuse etc. There’s absolutely a place for that sort of work, but again, Fun in the Dark isn’t that place.

Dive into the darkness in your story, just make sure you bring the fun as well! What we’re ultimately looking for in submissions is a good balance of both elements.

Is there anything else you won’t accept?

We can’t accept any fan fiction or adaptations, unless the source material is in the public domain.

What do you mean by generative AI?

We’re talking about using an AI model, such as Chat GPT, to do the bulk of the work for you, e.g. to write the prose of your story. We won’t accept any submissions written using generative AI. We want to see to see work written by humans, not that of machines. Any submission that we strongly suspect has been written using generative AI will be rejected immediately.

We’re NOT talking about AI language/writing tools, like spelling and grammar checkers. Go right ahead and use those!

You can read our full AI policy here

What’s the process for selection?

On submission, Alex (editor-in-chief at Kilter & Rammel), will distribute your story to one of our three readers. They’ll read a batch of stories each, and from those they’ll each come up with a list of 20 favourites to send through to the second stage of selection.

Who are the K&R readers? Click here for more info!

The combined lists from our readers will make up a longlist of 60 stories, from which Alex will narrow down the submissions to a shortlist (maximum of 20 stories).

The shortlist will then be sent out for a blind reading by other members of the editorial team, including the guest reader for the volume.

Each member of the selection panel will judge the shortlisted stories and come up with their personal list of six that they’d like to see included in the anthology. A final line-up will be decided upon by comparing these lists to find a combination of stories that best works for the publication.

What happens if my story’s selected for publication?

You’ll be notified by 30 November 2026, and if you’re happy for us to publish your story you’ll be required to sign a publishing agreement indicating that a) you are the sole and true owner of the material submitted, and b) your story wasn’t written using generative AI.

Signing the publishing agreement will give Kilter & Rammel Publishing rights to publish your story in print and e-book formats, as well as on kilterandrammel.com. These rights will be exclusive for a period of three months from date of publication, converting to non-exclusive rights for a further period of two years, nine months. The contract will expire three years from the date of publication.

Once you’ve signed and returned the publishing agreement, you’ll receive your payment of £20. Author copies of the print and e-book will be delivered once the anthology is published.

Once you’re signed on, your story will be line/copyedited. The edit will look at the writing at a sentence level, and will deal with spelling, grammar, syntax, punctuation and flow. Your work will also be edited to bring it in line with the Kilter & Rammel House Style, though we will retain regional spelling differences. Your editor will be extremely careful to retain your voice and style, and any proposed edits that could impact those elements will be queried with you.

What’s the timeline for publication?

• Now—31 October 2026: submissions accepted.
• 1—30 November 2026: reading and selection. Authors notified of decisions.
• 1—15 December 2026: Authors paid and paperwork completed.
• 15 December 2026—28 February 2027: Production (editing, typesetting, proofing, marketing etc.)
• 1 March 2027: RELEASE!

Where will the publication be released?

The print edition will be available on Amazon only, but the e-book will be available more widely — Amazon, Kobo, Gumroad, Overdrive, among other platforms.

The paid editions will include the six selected stories, as well as extended author information, an editorial/introduction, as well as bonus material (eg. a story written by a member of the Kilter & Rammel team, a piece by the guest reader, or any other appropriate content).

The six selected stories will also be made available in a simple text-only format on kilterandrammel.com, where they will be free to access for readers for a limited time (for three months from the date of publication). This free access is important to us — we believe everyone should have access to great, entertaining fiction, regardless of personal financial circumstances.

If my story is selected for this anthology, does that bar me from being able submit stories for others in the Fun in the Dark series?

Absolutely not! We want to encourage folks to write as much as possible and get practised at submitting stories too. If any or all of the themes for the Fun in the Dark anthologies get your creative juices going, then get writing and submitting!