Submissions for the Diner are Open!

www.themidnightdiner.com for more updated information!

Coach's Midnight Diner is a hardboiled genre anthology with a Christian slant. No ABA restrictions on God, no CBA restrictions on reality. Didactic preachy works are dismissed unceremoniously; we're looking for high quality works that are uncompromising in craft and quality.

Submissions for the 2008 Edition of Coach's Midnight Diner are now open at the Relief Writer's Network. Here's what we're looking for:

1. Unpublished Short Fiction up to 10,000 words. Simultaneous submissions okay, but you need to pull your submission ASAP if it gets accepted elsewhere.

2. Submissions are only accepted via the Online Submission System at the Relief Writers Network. Absolutely NO email or snail mail read or even remotely considered unless your name is Stephen King and you wrote The Stand. Anne Rice and F. Paul Wilson are also exceptions. Everybody else, get with the program. Here's the link: http://www.reliefjournal.com/component/option,com_wrapper/Itemid,52/ . If you email me asking where the link is, expect severe sarcasm.

3. Categories for Submisisons are:

Category	Examples (for clarification only)
Horror	Stephen King, Anne Rice, Dean Koontz
UFO/Aliens	X-Files, Coast To Coast AM
Conspiracy	Millenium (TV Show), X-Files, Coast To Coast AM
Hardboiled Detective/Crime	Raymond Chandler, Janet Evanovich
That One That Happens in Diner	All categories - just has to happen in a diner
Jesus Vs. Cthulhu	No posers. If you're submitting in this category, you had better be familiar with Lovecraft or Derleth's work, and the piece had better reflect it. I'm not kidding.
Paranormal/Archetypal Exploration	Neil Gaiman. Do I really need to say more?
Weird Western- NEW!	Cowboys and Indians meet something weird
Weird War - NEW!	In honor of all our soldiers in all branches of the armed forces
Monster Stories - NEW!	Dracula, Frankenstein, Godzilla, Buffy - yes, you can submit your Christian vampire story here.
Adventure	Indiana Jones, Dan Brown (hey, the guy's a great writer, even if his theology sucks)
Shatner On A Plane	Twilight Zone, Outer Limits, Night Gallery

Three Editor's Choice awards will be selected. Prize money for Editor's Choice is a hundred bucks. All categories are eligible. Everybody else gets their names up on Amazon, a contributor's copy, bragging rights, and the opportunity to be on the Diner staff for the next edition.

4. No sci-fi, no sword-and-sorcery. Other places are more suited for these genres, i.e. the incredible site at raygunrevivial.com for Sci-fi helmed by Diner-approved editor Johne Cook.

5. Know what we've published in the last edition. The Diner is available on Amazon.com, Barnesandnoble.com, and of course on the Relief store at http://www.reliefjournal.com/store. A Sample Size Edition of the Diner is available on Scribd.com, http://www.scribd.com/doc/230614/Coachs-Midnight-Diner-Sample-Size-Edition.

6. Spiritual warfare is allowed, but should have an original twist. Absolutely no shining swords - you can poke somebody's eye with one of those in a diner, and we don't have the insurance for that sort of thing.

6. The Diner is not for children, or the faint of heart. Jesus dressed up as Thor, a whore who moonlights as an exorcist, a bouncer at a strip club, and more offbeat characters were regulars in the first edition of the Diner. This is not Guideposts or your Sunday School quarterly. Pansy sanitized work will be unceremoniously dismissed. Do not send me work where gangbangers say things like, "Golly gee, Beav, what ever are we going to do with this swell crack?"

7. Submissions will tentatively close May 1, 2008. Do not send queries. Submit your work. All your base are belong to us.

Go pour some coffee, and let's see what you've got. Give me your best shot.

Your friendly neighborhood fry cook,
Coach Culbertson
Editor-In-Chief | Coach's Midnight Diner

P.S. This site is merely a placeholder for something much stronger coming your way soon. Stay tuned!