Ring in the New Year! Our submissions window is now open!

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Submissions for SHORT FICTION are now open! The window will close at 11:59 pm your local time on Saturday, January 10, 2026.

We are considering fiction pieces for our Spring and Autumn 2026 issues from 1000 to 6000 words. Please note, we are not accepting poetry submissions this time around. We will welcome poetry again in January of 2027.

We do our best to respond as quickly as we can, and aim to have all responses sent out no later than February 28.

Our guidelines are here: https://34orchard.com/guidelines/

If you have any questions or concerns and need to contact us, you can either reach out to us through the form on our Contact page or email us at 34orchardjournal@gmail.com.

We open for submissions January 1, 2026!

On By kristipetersenschoonoverIn Announcements1 Comment

We hope you’re enjoying these waning days of 2025 and making plans for a wordful 2026!

Our submissions window for our 2026 issues is about to open. Submissions open at 12:00 am your local time on Thursday, January 1, 2026, and will close at 11:59 pm your local time on Saturday, January 10, 2026.

We are considering only fiction pieces from 1000 to 6000 words. Please note, we are not accepting poetry submissions this time around. We will welcome poetry again in January of 2027.

Our guidelines are here: https://34orchard.com/guidelines/

If you have any questions or concerns and need to contact us, you can either reach out to us through the form on our Contact page or email us at 34orchardjournal@gmail.com.

What to watch this weekend: THE LADY OF THE LAKE (Documentary, 2023)

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THE LADY OF THE LAKE 2023 POSTER ARTI love documentaries about many things—topping the list lately, it’s been urban legends and the paranormal. Recently, I found the The Lady of the Lake, a 2023 documentary hosted by paranormal investigator and historian Amanda D. Paulson, about an infamous murder and ensuing supernatural activity at Lake Crescent in Washington State.

This exceeded expectations. Aside from detailing the inciting incident and who the players were through extensive research, law enforcement sheds light on how the case was solved—complete with vintage footage and photos—locals are interviewed about their experiences and lore, and paranormal investigators share their results.

The solid production values create an atmosphere that makes this genuinely creepy and unsettling. Yet what’s most compelling is its discussion about the nature of haunted places and its philosophical waxing about the afterlife, and what it offers on liminal space, in particular—both in concrete and abstract—makes it a nice fit for 34O readers.

If you love ghost stories, urban legends, and true crime and enjoy deep thoughts on phenomena called hauntings—and if you’re a fan of the atmosphere and mood of Lake Mungo—this is for you.

You can watch the trailer (and read Bloody Disgusting’s full review) here: https://youtu.be/W7aK3q83IPs?si=68J1ThKT_ROZ4Dtn

As of this post’s publication, it’s available for free on Tubi and for rent on Amazon Prime.

Writers: Tighten your work—delete these phrases!

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JOURNAL ART -- K'S NOTESHello all,

Some great advice from former literary agent Nathan Bransford today on how to tighten up your writing—by just deleting a few phrases! Before submitting your piece to any market, check through it and see what of these can be cut—a cleaner, tighter piece always gives you an edge in the slush pile.

Find and delete these phrases from your novel

Thanks to 34 Orchard contributor Trisha J. Wooldridge for the link! Enjoy!

 

HP Lovecraft Film Festival VIRTUAL starts this Friday 12/5!

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HPLFF 2025 POSTER

We love our cosmic horror—it asks so many questions and makes us think. We also love short films.  So the H.P. Lovecraft Film Festival, going strong since 1995, is our jam.

Hosts Gwen and Brian Callahan go above and beyond—the quality of this festival, from curation and content to pledge campaign rewards and collateral material—is top notch.

Although the in-person festival happened in September, the streaming edition arrives December 5-9, 2025, and you’ll be able to enjoy over sixty short films, several full-length features, author readings, and panels right from your living room.

TALES FROM THE EMMA COVER

This year’s thirtieth anniversary theme is Cthulu on the High Seas, so in addition, some contributors to the Lovecraftian Microfiction/Challenge from Beyond books, which always accompany the festival, were instead asked to write an X-files-esque story surrounding The Emma, a two-masted schooner that plays into strange events in Lovecraft’s story “The Call of Cthulu.” There are stories by favorites like Cody Goodfellow and John Shirley (34O editor Kristi Petersen Schoonover’s story “Compaction” is included too). The books will be on sale after the festival on Arkhaam Bazaar’s website.

If short films and cosmic/existentialist horror rocks your world, this festival is for you! You can purchase tickets for the December 5-9, 2025 streaming event here: https://hplfilmfestival.eventive.org/passes/buy.

34 ORCHARD HOLIDAY ART

The 34 ORCHARD Holiday Playlist

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Let’s face it: the holidays—no matter which one of a few is celebrated in December—can be not so great sometimes. There are people we miss, traditions we wish had never ended, tensions in relationships that’ll either explode over the punch bowl or get stuffed away in a stocking for yet another year, and hauntings by past not-so-merrys… and that’s just for starters.

34 ORCHARD HOLIDAY ART

But it’s these darker undercurrents that make the happier times more joyful. As sad as the holidays can be, if we didn’t have those downers, we wouldn’t have the intense moments of magic. Those moments when the world simply stops and we’re given the gift of perfect happiness, even if fleeting.

Writers always talk about their playlists—music they work to. I have them for 34 Orchard, too, and I even have some just for the holidays. Here’s mine. It’s nostalgia and pain, starry dark and eclipse sharp. I put them in an order that tells a story, too—well, sort of, anyway. I don’t really expect anyone to get it because nobody’s in my head, but I hope you enjoy it. The full Youtube playlist link is below, and for your convenience, I included the link to each individual song as well.

Thank you for supporting 34 Orchard—for submitting, for donating, for opening up these blog posts and reading them, for sharing our magazine. And above all… for reading. The goal with every issue is for every reader to find a piece of writing that hits home, that speaks, that says, ‘hey, I’m not alone,’ that will never be forgotten.

If you’d like to suggest some titles of your own? Leave a comment! I have to pre-approve the comments, so if you don’t see it, don’t think I didn’t receive it and I’ll approve them as quickly as I can. Or, you can drop us a note through the Contact Page.

Wishing you all a gleefully melancholy holiday season,

Kristi

A 34 ORCHARD HOLIDAY PLAYLIST

1 “Taxi (Ave Maria)” – Perri Alleyne/arr. John Murphy (from the motion picture 28 Days Later)

2 “Every Day is Christmas” – Colby Caillat

3 “Save Some Christmas” – Rob Thomas

4 “Do You Hear What I Hear?” – Pink Martini 

5 “Last Christmas/Leave Before You Love Me Mash-Up” – Anthem Lights

6 “Long Ago” – Adam Sandler, Alison Krauss and the Eight Crazy Nights motion picture cast

7 “I’ll Be Home for Christmas” – Rascal Flatts

8 Magnificat (2010): 6. Suscepit Israel – Kim André Arnesen

9 “In the Bleak Midwinter” – Gustav Holst (Instrumental)

10 “Blue Christmas” – from the Rankin Bass special Year Without a Santa Claus

11 “In the Bleak Midwinter” – the cast of BBC’s Ghosts (Ghosts UK), Season 2, Episode 7

12 “Blue Christmas” – Peter Cetera 

13 “Save the Snowman” – Dan + Shay 

14 “Secret Garden” – Theodore Shapiro (from the motion picture Last Christmas)

15 “Somewhere in My Memory” – John Williams, from the motion picture Home Alone

16 “Eventually” – Lawrence (from the motion picture Noelle)

17 “Just Like That” – A Christmas Story Live! – Maya Rudolph

18 “A Long December” – Counting Crows 

19 “Merry Christmas, Alabama (Never Far From Home)” – Jimmy Buffet

20 “Christmas Gifts/The Best Gift” – Sandy Bainum and Euan Morton

21 “A Christmas Festival” – Leroy Anderson

22 “Last Christmas” – Emilia Clarke (from the motion picture Last Christmas)

23 “What Are You Doing New Year’s Eve?” – Nancy Wilson

24 “Auld Lang Syne” – Lea Michele (from the motion picture New Year’s Eve) 

25 “Auld Lang Syne” – Zooey Deschanel; score by John Debney (from the motion picture Elf)

26 “Let There Be Peace on Earth” – arr. Irwin Fisch, performed by Young People’s Chorus of New York City

Introducing DARKNESS MOST FOWL anthology and readings!

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Sometimes birdsong is dangerous.

If you love 34 Orchard and you want a volume full of tales that carry our vibe, don’t miss Darkness Most Fowl from The Godmother of Horror Press!

DARKNESS MOST FOWL ANTHOLOGY

This anthology was invitation only, and so writers we’ve recommended and several 34 Orchard alums build terrifying nests in this bird horror anthology! Edited by #7 “The Last Days”’s Elaine Pascale and featuring stunning art by Michael Takeda (#11, “Kintsugi”), others are Zachary Kellian (#6, “Shrike Song”), Die Booth (#1, “A Murder”), Ernest Ògúnyẹmí (#7, “The Flute”), Leen Raats (#8, “The Solitary Man”), Nicola Kapron (#3, “The Bodies We Should Forget”), Selah Janel (#5, “Mister Skinandbones”), Rob Frances (#4, “Everything Fits If You Push Hard Enough”), Robert Mayette (#8, “The Milestones on That Path”), L.E. Daniels (#8/“Weird Witness”), and ten other popular voices. From grackles and creepers to magpies and nightjars, these flights of dark fancy will claw your heart every time you hear beating wings.

Amazon link 

In the mood to be read to? Elaine has set up online readings! Schedule and days/times (with who’s reading so if you’ve got a favorite from a past 34O issue it’s easier to find them). Readings should be available at the YouTube link after the fact in case you miss the moment.

Wednesday, November 12 – 8 pm

 Kiyomi Appleton Gaines “Flight and Fawn”

Lee Andrew Forman “Old Ways”

Hideki Nakazono “The Heavens Demand”

Holley Cornetto “Guilded Cage” (34 Orchard recommends her book We Haunt These Woods)

Nikki Kallio “The Cardinal” (34 Orchard recommends her collection Finding the Bones)

C. O. Davidson “A Parliament in the Woods”

YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lfoqUGjaJZs

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/events/3972255883024644

Friday, November 14 – 7 pm

 Nicola Kapron “Dirt and Ashes”

Robert Mayette “To Even Look at Me”

Ernest Ògúnyẹmí “Christmas Chicken”

V. Castro “Witches of Winchester”

Geneve Flynn “I Am Not Myself Today”

L. E. Daniels “Stomata”

YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3aTNA0KiITk

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/share/1DnNac4kme/

Sunday, November 23 – 1 pm

Kristy Park Kulski “Magpie Teeth”

Leen Raats “Flock”

Selah Janel “Invasive”

Rob Francis “Skinflint’s Flock”

Die Booth “Little Gibbet”

Zachary Kellian “Predators of Paradise”

YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e3ofVc4NK9w
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/events/1453335772391314

HAPPY RELEASE DAY — ISSUE IS NOW LIVE!

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Hi folks,

A bit of a post scheduling snafu means the post that the issue was available went live hours before the actual issue.  The issue is now here at either of these links:

ISSUE 12

Issues

 

THANK YOU for your donations, and thanks for your patience! If you have any questions or concerns, please feel free to reach out to us on our contact page.

Kristi