Free Short Story Contest
I thought some of you might be interested in this free short story contest, which is sponsored by the DIY self-publishing company Wordclay.
They are actually running two parallel contests, one for a single short story and the other for a short story collection. To enter the latter, you have to have enough short stories to fill the pages of a 48-page book. The maximum length for a single story is 5,000 words.
There are some good prizes on offer for a free contest, including $500 for the winner in each category and $250 for the runner-up. There are also prizes of publication in book form by the sponsors for the other short-listed entries. You do have to register at the site before you can enter, but there is no obligation to buy anything. The closing date is 11.59 pm ET on 31 May 2008 (i.e. before 1 June 2008), so you have about a week to get your story (or stories) in. Once again, here is a link for further details.
Good luck if you decide to enter this contest!
They are actually running two parallel contests, one for a single short story and the other for a short story collection. To enter the latter, you have to have enough short stories to fill the pages of a 48-page book. The maximum length for a single story is 5,000 words.
There are some good prizes on offer for a free contest, including $500 for the winner in each category and $250 for the runner-up. There are also prizes of publication in book form by the sponsors for the other short-listed entries. You do have to register at the site before you can enter, but there is no obligation to buy anything. The closing date is 11.59 pm ET on 31 May 2008 (i.e. before 1 June 2008), so you have about a week to get your story (or stories) in. Once again, here is a link for further details.
Good luck if you decide to enter this contest!
Labels: contests, fiction, opportunities
Nick at 2:29 AM 
6 Comments:
Another interesting short story contest: http://dublit.com/contest
Thanks for the link, Nick. I wonder if they'll let a writer from the old country enter!
I'm pretty sure the contest is open to anyone in the world. Certainly, I can't see anything in the rules to suggest otherwise.
Give it a go - you still have two days to the deadline!
Nick, Hi I find your blog really good and toward helping writers. I have a similar blog, which is meant to help the writers out there. If you could please get me a link to my blog http://cutewriting.blogspot.com with the link text: "Creative Writing Tips " I will not only give you a one way link but also digg your blog and technorati favorite it. My one way link to you will be from lenxworld.blogspot.com, which is another blog of mine. Please give me a reply to vjlenin(at)gmail.com many thanks.
Hi Lenx
Thank you for your offer. Sorry I can't provide a link to your site from my blogroll, but this blog is sponsored by the WCCL Network, so I am only allowed to link to other sites they own.
Your blog does look useful for writers, and I am happy to give it a mention in a future blog post, if that is any good to you?
I don't know how to write a short story but did I ever tell you about the last time I was in New York. I spent a few days and nights hanging with my friend Raymond. One night enshrouded by fog we were as usual wandering through the grime-tinged neon-lit streets trying to ease the pain of existence that gnawed incessantly at our guts. Sometime after midnight we drifted along with countless other remnants of early promise and discarded bits of refuse into one of the less elegant parts of town and eventually found ourselves in a seedy juke joint that was crawling with down-on-their-luck Stellas and Stanleys, sweethearts and romeos, as well as the usual lowlifes,creeps, cry-babies, loonies, stiffs, wannabe's and has-beens. It felt like home.
We'd just managed to loosen up the death grip of hopelessness that the city wound about you with a few short hard ones when I noticed a cute feline slinking and purring in my general vicinity. I said to Raymond that I'd thought I'd seen the same girl lapping at her latte in a local cafe that morning. He said maybe she hadn't been lapping a latte but merely licking the cream off a cappuccino. He says things like that and I let him. I said, "What'd ya mean, do you know her?" He said "Next question."
It was cozy as a pack of drowned rats in that seething dive and I couldn't help but get an earful now and then. Those still functioning well enough to operate their booze-pickled jaws spat out scintillating marvels of etiquette like
Hey mister, it wouldn't hurt to do a girl a favor by giving a look next time you pass by."
Or "Look, I know you ain't had no dinner tonight baby, and it's breakin my heart."
Or, "Yeah mac, I got your apertif right here!"
The city does that to ya.
Before long the voices all mingled into a sort of serenade for the lost and misbegotten, a homily for the bypassed and forsaken, as from the corner juke box another wistful tune of broken dreams wove it's narcotic spell...
I've been round the block more than a time or two
I've known Barcelona, Cabo, Roma, and Marseille too
I've done that, seen it all, heard everything till you
Put your latest (or “a new”) twist on goodbye
Trained to absorb and deflect any random blow
Thought I knew the ropes, had the moves, but I didn't know
You held a secret weapon slung with ease upon your bow
Just waiting to let it fly
You floated up to me with your graceful air
You always looked so cool, très debonair
I still don't know how you caught me so unaware
With a whisper, "Nobody cares about you
Ain't nobody left in your corner at the eleventh hour
They threw in the towel a coupla rounds ago
Cash in your chips champ, take an early shower
It's all over but the crying”
I knew you were hard as angels go
You ran a tight game played your jacks like a pro
But I never dreamed you could stoop so low
To whisper "Nobody cares about you"...
As we left those angels behind sometime in the early morning hours I looked up and noted the name of the place. It was ….well I forgot the name but I know I’ll be back there. Next time I’m in the city.
copyright©2008 michael james prue
Post a Comment
Links to this post:
Create a Link
<< Home