Why "deadline" and Pedestal call for submissions

Thought for the week: The pessimist complains about the wind. The optimist expects the wind to change.  The realist adjusts the sails. ~ William Arthur Ward

Why do we call it “deadline”?

All writers deal with deadlines. If you frequently submit to contests or magazines, you live by those dates. Miss one and you either are disqualified or have an annoyed editor on your hands.

As much as we dread them now, deadlines used to be worse. During the American Civil War, prisoners were kept in wooden stockades. A railing marked the limit of the detention area. If a prisoner crossed the line marked by the railing, his captors assumed he was trying to escape and he was shot on sight. Both the Union and the Confederacy used the term and, as you might suspect, there is disagreement over which side used it first.

PEDESTAL MAGAZINE

http://www.thepedestalmagazine.com/submitguidelines.php

Deadline: October 14 for October 2011 issue.
Poetry submissions: "open," no restrictions on style, theme, length, or genre.

Fiction submissions: Maximum length=1,500 words. The story must contain the sentence, "Nobody thought that was where it was supposed to go." 

Pays $.05 per word for fiction,  $40 per poem.

The December issue will feature speculative fiction: science fiction, fantasy, horror, slipstream, surreal, and experimental. All fiction submitted between October 28 and December 14 should be speculative and not exceed 2,000 words.