AND THE WINNER IS...

The 2016 Women in Horror Flash Fiction Contest is complete and now it's time for the fun part--- THE WINNER! Our judges took the bundle of amazing stories and painstakingly wheedled them down to a top ten. Then, our loyal readers did their part and voted on their favorite! It was a neck-in-neck race that was really fun to watch on my end. Every story we received was great, but in the words of Connor MacLeod--- "There can be only one." So without further ado.....

**INSERT DRUM ROLL HERE**

The winner of the 2016 Women in Horror Flash Fiction Contest is...

STAYING by MYRIAH STROZYKOWSKI

 

Congratulations, Myriah! Our readers chose your twisty story of possession as their favorite of the lot! Myriah has won not only lots of bowing and proclamations of "we're not worthy," but also a $20 Amazon Gift Card!

 

Thanks again to everyone who entered, read, judged, and voted! We at Mocha Memoirs LOVE interacting with our readers and hope that you'll think about checking out all of our titles! You can also keep abreast on our new releases by subscribing to the newsletter using the form to the right! Stay tuned for more springtime fun coming up in March... 

Women in Horror Month: A Flash Fiction Contest

February is Women in Horror Month, and we here at Mocha Memoirs Press love our ladies of horror! In celebration of “Ghoul Power,” MMP is hosting a February Flash Fiction contest! Flash fiction is quickly becoming popular on the eBook scene. They’re super short pieces (usually less than 1000 words) that you can read on your phone, tablet, or eReader while you’re waiting your turn at the salon, stuck in traffic, or right before bed. So here’s how it works:

1. Write a short horror story with a female POV character that’s 1000 words or less.
2. Submit your story to mochamemoirs.marketing@gmail.com with WIH FLASH FICTION_Title_YourName in the subject line (Example: Re: WIH FLASH FICTION_BathtubOfDestiny_AlexandraChristian) by February 15, 2016. Please take note that all stories must be submitted as a Word document attachment!
3. All stories will be posted on the Mocha Memoirs Press blog**:  http://mochamemoirspress.blogspot.com/  by Feb. 17th.
4. Our panel of judges will choose the top ten finalists’ stories by Feb. 22nd. Voting will open on Feb. 23rd, allowing readers to vote for their favorite finalists.
5. Grand Prize Winner: $20 Amazon Gift Card.
6. All TOP TEN FINALISTS will have their stories featured in a promotional mini-anthology used to promote Mocha Memoirs Press.

Even though it is Women in Horror month, authors of all genders may submit. Just remember:  HORROR stories with FEMALE PROTAGONISTS! So there, that’s not so complicated! Now, the submission window is narrow, so get to work on those stories!

** Please note that all standard MMP guidelines concerning content apply.  While this is horror, stories that feature explicit descriptions of rape, bestiality or abuse will not be accepted. Also stories that glorify violence, racism, or misogyny will not be accepted. Violence and sex are acceptable but make them integral to the plot. Remember, these stories are for Women in Horror Month and therefore we are all about empowering women!

About our “Ladies of Horror” Panelists…

Eden Royce: Eden Royce is descended from women who practiced root, a type of conjure magic in her native Charleston, South Carolina. She now lives in Kent, The Garden of England, and writes stories loosely based on her childhood. She has had over a dozen short stories published in various anthologies and her current release, Spook Lights: Southern Gothic Horror was on the Horror Writers’ Association’s recommended reading list for 2015. Eden is one of the writers for The 7 Magpies project, a first of its kind: a short horror film anthology written and directed entirely by black women.

She is also the horror submissions editor for Mocha Memoirs Press where she conceived and edited several anthologies, one of which is The Grotesquerie, twenty-one horror short stories written by women. She also writes a regular feature for Graveyard Shift Sisters, a site dedicated to purging the black female horror fan from the margins, where she interviews female authors and reviews their latest work.

In her dwindling free time, she is a proofreader, book reviewer, and ice cream connoisseur. Learn more about her at edenroyce.com.

Selah Janel: Selah Janel has been blessed with a giant imagination since she was little and convinced that fairies lived in the nearby state park or vampires hid in the abandoned barns outside of town. The many people around her that supported her love of reading and curiosity probably made it worse. Her e-books The Other Man, Holly and Ivy, and Mooner are published through Mocha Memoirs Press. Lost in the Shadows, a collection of short stories celebrating the edges of ideas and the spaces between genres was co-written with S.H. Roddey. Her work has also been included in The MacGuffin, The Realm Beyond, Stories for Children Magazine, The Big Bad: an Anthology of Evil, The Big Bad 2, The Grotesquerie, and Thunder on the Battlefield: Sorcery. Olde School is the first book in her series, The Kingdom City Chronicles, published through Seventh Star Press. She likes her music to rock, her vampires lethal, her fairies to play mind games, and her princesses to hold their own. Catch up with Selah at http://www.selahjanel.wordpress.com

S.H. Roddey:  South Carolina native S.H. Roddey has been writing for fun since she was a child and still enjoys building worlds across the speculative fiction spectrum filled with mystery and intrigue.  She brings to the literary world a unique blend of humor, emotion, and wild ideas filled with dark themes and strong characters. She is a voracious reader, wannabe chef, and video game addict with two full-time jobs: administrative professional and mom to a cat, teenager, and pair of precocious little girls. She also enjoys being married to her best friend and full-time muse and moonlighting as romance author Siobhan Kinkade. Visit her at http://www.shroddey.com.

Sumiko Saulson: Born to African-American and Russian-Jewish parents, she is a native Californian, and has spent most of her adult life in the Bay Area. She is a horror blogger and journalist, graphic novelist, horror, sci-fi and dark fantasy writer. Her works include “60 Black Women in Horror,”“Death’s Cafe: Ashes and Coffee,” “Solitude,” “Warmth”, “Happiness and Other Diseases,” “Somnalia,” “Insatiable,”  the Young Adult horror novella series “The Moon Cried Blood”, and the short story anthology “Things That Go Bump in My Head.” Visit her at http://www.SumikoSaulson.com

A New Year, A New SALE!

Winter is here, finally and the holidays are over. Those dreary wintertime blues are starting to set in. We here at Mocha Memoirs Press love our readers and want to start 2016 with a bang! To that end we're having a blowout SALE on all of our anthologies and collections. We've got everything from steampunk to steamy erotic romance collections that are just the thing to curl up with on a cold winter's night!

From 1/18/16- 1/29/16, MMP is hosting the Warm Winter Collections SALE and CONTEST! All digital copies of our anthologies and collections will be just $2.99! And if print is more your speed, we're slashing those prices by 30% (for those print discounts, you'll need to go to CreateSpace and use Discount Code S9JNPK2Q).


We're also having a big celebration on Thursday, Jan. 21 from 7:30-9:30pm EST on Facebook.  You can join in from the comfort of your couch to talk with some of our authors about writing, submitting to anthology markets, and all their little tricks of the trade.


So there's really no reason not to fill up those Christmas Kindles with a ton of stories that will get you through the gloom. And if that wasn't exciting enough, we're also giving away a $10 Amazon gift card that you can use to buy even more books! So chin up, buttercup! We've got you covered at Mocha Memoirs Press!


In the meantime, click HERE to ENTER the Warm Winter Collections Contest and get lots of chances to win $10 in Amazon cash!!

a Rafflecopter giveaway

July is about to get HOTTER. MMP Celebration!

Readers!
Next month is Mocha Memoirs Press’s anniversary. To celebrate, we’re going to GIVE away prizes instead of getting gifts. We invite you to join us in the festivities. See below for details.

31 Days of Give Aways
Each day Mocha Memoirs Press will select a member from our Mocha Memoirs Press Cafe Yahoo Group. You must be able to answer some trivia question (psst totally easy too) about MMP. Daily Winner gets a prize. All 31 winners’ names are put into a raffle and one grand prize winner will receive a gift card to Amazon worth $25.00.

To join the MMP Cafe, go here: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/mochamemoirspresscafe/join

31 Days of Steamy Mocha $1.00 shots
For the month of July 2012 only, we’re offering our steamy mocha shots for $1.00. These erotic or steamy romances are powerful packs of deliciousness. Stories from bestselling authors, Tysche Dwai, Billy London, RaeLynn Blue, and Nikki Winter just to name a few will be available.

After 7/31/12, the promotional price will end and these succulent stories will go back to their original prices. All of the stories are brand new. You can’t get these steamy shots before 7/1/12. Our blog will post what sweet sinfulness is available each Friday and Saturday in July. Available at http://mochamemoirspress.com.

31 Days of Mocha Spotlights
You’ll want to visit this blog to see what’s new. Every single day in July will have a new blog by guests authors, editors and the owner of MMP. You’ll learn about intimacy, how to be a better writer, what drives character development, and more. Some of our authors have penned short stories just for the blog and our anniversary. You’ll want to subscribe to our blog to stay up to date. Also, this is where we’ll post new $1.00 Mocha shots and winners of our 31 One a Day Giveaway

Of course, there’s so much more. Chats, yahoo groups takeovers and more. Join us in the festivities.
Get started here: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/mochamemoirspresscafe/join