Hey guys,

Music to write by: “Judith” by A Perfect Circle

Welcome to post 6 in the Markets for New Genre Writers series. If you missed it, the previous post was on the ezine, Bewildering Stories.

Next up: DKA Magazine.

Background

Founded in 1999 by Rebecca Shelley, DKA magazine walks a fine line. Like other Double-Edged Publishing‘s ezines, they believe in offering speculative fiction with a Christian slant, but they also aim to appeal to a broad market. The full name of the zine is “Dragons, Knight, and Angels Magazine” and that’s what they want to see. In their DKA Vision section, they clarify:

The powerful, mystical dragon, traditionally representing evil or the thing feared or the threat to the land. Also standing for that wide-open land populated by astounding creatures of imagination.

The knight, traditional hero, the rescuer, the Messiah-figure, the undaunted human facing enormous challenges and carrying on with faltering or hardy faith, flawed or virtuous, always intrepid and often blessed.

And the angel, the messenger of God, the spiritual being that guards and intervenes and fills its space with holy light and power, who lets us know we are not alone and that we ought not be afraid, for God is with us.

Despite the tone of the above page, DKA magazine isn’t in-your-face about their Christianity. They are interested in stories with Christian morality with great storytelling. Period.

EDIT: Mir, assistant editor at DKA magazine, commented in record time. She wanted to clarify what kind of fiction they are looking for. She writes:

A couple of clarifications (as the one who wrote up that vision statement):

We aren’t looking for 1. dragons, 2. knights, and 3. angels. We will look at stories with those elements, but we use those elements as symbols (hence the “stands for” and “represents”). The elements are symbolic, ergo we take science fiction, but don’t have to be.

I say this to hold back a slew of dragon stories, knight stories, or angel stories. We take all types of speculative fiction and poetry that FITS the vision. And we are a “Magazine of Christian Science Fiction and Fantasy”, which is more narrow than the other DEP imprints. We actually call ourselves a “Christian” magazine, whereas they do not.

What we seek, above all, is quality and surprise. We don’t want a typical story rehasing the same old knight/dragon scenarios. If you use these archetypical elements, use them in a fresh way or we will not be bouncing over it.

Why is the magazine attractive to you?

DKA magazine is available online and also in a new printed format, which offers the potential for double exposure. They are open to new authors (it’s the magazine where this author got his start), and even reserve a special slot in every issue for student contributors.

In my experience, Double-Edged Publishing works very closely with new authors to help them develop their careers. You see many authors being published again and again in any of their five publications. My own work has appeared in Raygun Revival, DKA  magazine, and is upcoming in The Sword Review.  This philosophy gives you the potential to really get your name out there in the Christian Speculative market (which judging from DEP’s pageviews is quite large) as well as opening the door to multiple sales to their other magazines.

Genre

Fantasy, but open to Sci-Fi and Horror. A family market, so no cursing.

Payment

1/2c per word up to $25.  Asks for First North American Rights.

Max Word Count

3000, but will accept exceptional works up to 5000 words.

Submission Guidelines are here.