Themed Issue 27.2 Announcement

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This year, the theme for the Iron Horse Literary Review 27.2 Issue submission is DECEPTION.

Way back in 1982, as if prescient about what 2024 would look like, psychologists D.C. Daniel and K.L. Herbig, who specialized in strategic military subterfuge, defined DECEPTION as "the deliberate misrepresentation of reality to gain a competitive advantage." Note that their definition, unlike that of other psychologists, limits DECEPTION to deliberate acts that achieve a goal and benefit the schemer.

More specifically, they further divide DECEPTION into three subcategories: 1) COVER (secret keeping and camouflage); 2) LYING (making explicitly false statements to draw the target away from the truth); and 3) DECEPTION (which, unlike lying, doesn't focus primarily on the actions of the liar, but rather studies the effects of dishonesty on the receiver). This third subcategory, according to Daniel and Herbig, can be either ambiguity-increasing (which misleads by confusing the target) or ambiguity-decreasing (which misleads the target by building up the attractiveness of a false alternative). We especially love how Daniel and Herbig's definition insightfully realizes that the receiver of a deception is considered a TARGET by the deceiver. No one would ever consider themselves a willing target, but don't we see a lot of that today?

For IHLR Issue 27.2, THE DECEPTION ISSUE, we're looking for manuscripts that consider any facet of "subterfuge" according to Daniel and Herbig. The protagonist/speaker can be either the liar or the target. Someone (or even multiple someones) is keeping a secret, or they're lying outright. Or maybe someone has built up a particularly destructive false alternative and is calling it truth. Will your manuscript be set in the past, today's world, or the future? Only you can know.

We'd be particularly interested in manuscripts that skillfully deceive the reader! Skillfully, being the key. No surprise endings that turn out to be silly or implausible, please.

Think: fraud, cheating, dissembling, bluffing, gaslighting, dodging, artifice, monkey business, schemes, magic tricks, exaggeration, understatement, disguises, masks, Trojan horses, false testimony, false promises, flimflam, hoaxes, con jobs, sting operations, grifters, practical jokes gone bad, etc., etc.

Submission Guidelines:

For our print issues, we read flash stories (1,000 words or less) and full-length stories (up to 5,000 words, approx. 17 pages).

Our General Submit Day opens October 15. The Free Submit Day for the 27.2 DECEPTION ISSUE will be November 1. This is the link to the submission portal, click here.