The Occult Detective Anthology Wants You!
Calling All Writers
We here at 1325 Publishing are proud to announce our first writing contest. This anthology will focus on the topic of occult detectives. Born in the late 19th century, occult detectives are private investigators who use science, deduction, and their knowledge of the dark arts to battle and defeat supernatural entities. Sometimes occult detectives are specialists—masters of psychology and ceremonial magic who regularly take cases to defeat the forces of darkness. Other times they are accidental sleuths—reporters who stumble upon strange mutilation murders, security guards who get weird late-night visitors, or librarians who find a cursed tome. Either way, the occult detective genre is all about combining mystery with horror, the rational and the irrational.
Some examples of great occult detective fiction:
Carnaki, The Ghost Finder by William Hope Hodgson
The Casebook of Jules de Grandin by Seabury Quinn
The Hound of the Baskervilles by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle
Other recommendations would be the work of Manly Wade Wellman, the first season of True Detective, The X-Files, Kolchak, the Night Stalker, Dylan Dog, and much more. Occult detectives are everywhere, and you don’t even have to look hard.
Guidelines:
Stories must be written in 12-point font. They should include a title, the author’s name, and a word count in the document. Word Docs are preferred, but open to other formats. Either single-spaced or double-spaced are fine.
Word count must not exceed 10,000 words.
All submissions must be originals. No reprints, please.
Deadline is May 1, 2025, and all submissions must be sent to 1325Publishing@proton.me
Winners will not only have their work published in an anthology but will also receive a small payment for their work.
We at 1325 look forward to your work. Stay tuned for more books, as we have two full-length releases to be published soon.
We are also still accepting novella, collection, and chapbook submissions at 1325Publishing@proton.me as well.
Coincidently, I started a new occult detective story today, part of a planned series. My intention is for it to be a short story, but it might also end up being a novelette. I'm not sure quite yet. If it’s the right length, I’ll consider tossing it your way. (It’s in the tradition of Frederick C. Davis’s “Ravenwood” series.)