Wednesday, July 25, 2007

"Halo" Short Fiction Contest


I hope you all are having a great summer!

Before back-to-school time sneaks up on us, I thought I'd coax you off the beach and away from the pool to brush up on your writing skills.

I know, I know. You'd rather take a nap. But this just might be worth it!

Using the photograph above for inspiration, compose a short fiction piece of no more than 250 words in any genre or style. Send your entry to me by email at jevanswriter at yahoo dot com before 11:00 p.m., Wednesday, August 1st (Eastern Time, United States). I'd prefer attachments formatted in Microsoft Word or Word Perfect, but if you have something more exotic, you can paste the text into the body of an email. Each entry will be posted and indexed.

To make things interesting, I'm offering the following prizes (not to mention bragging rights):

  • 1st Place: $25 Amazon gift certificate, 8 x 10 print of the "Halo" photograph (inscribed by Jason Evans)
  • 2nd Place: $20 Amazon gift certificate
  • 3rd Place: $15 Amazon gift certificate
  • 4th Place: $10 Amazon gift certificate
  • 5th Place: $5 Amazon gift certificate
  • Readers' Choice Award $15 Amazon Gift certificate, 8 x 10 print of the "Halo" photograph (inscribed by Jason Evans)

But this is about more than prizes. I hope you take advantage of the opportunity to meet and interact with your fellow writers. Our different perspectives, styles, and skills become clear when we all start at the same place. It's a great opportunity to learn from each other.

Rules:
  1. 250 words maximum.
  2. Titles are optional, but encouraged. Titles do not count toward your word count.
  3. One entry per person.
  4. Any genre or style is welcome. If you choose to submit poetry, you must have narrative movement within the poem if you wish to compete with the prose pieces for the prizes.
  5. The copyright remains with you, the author; however, you grant me worldwide first electronic publishing rights to post your entry on this blog.
  6. Judging will be conducted by me, Jason Evans. For an explanation of judging and helpful hints, see A Note on Judging.
  7. Please provide a name for your byline. If you have a website or a blog, I'd be happy to link your site to your byline. If you don't have a website or blog, feel free to include a short bio. A bio does not count towards your word count.
  8. At the close of the contest, I will give the date and time for the announcement of winners.
  9. After the winners are announced, I will post what I liked most about each entry in the comments. Also, if you send a request to me by email, I would be happy to offer any constructive comments I might have. Constructive comments will be by private email only.
  10. The Readers' Choice Award is awarded by vote of the contest participants. The entry with the highest number of votes wins. The rules for this portion of the contest will be posted after the entry period closes.
  11. Public critiques in comments are encouraged, but must remain respectful. I reserve the right to delete comments and ban participants who do not abide by the collegial spirit of Clarity of Night contests.
  12. For prior contests and their results, see the links on the sidebar.

Welcome to my sixth contest! The entry period is now open.

(Click HERE for the contest underway.)

22 comments:

Jaye Wells said...

Woohoo! What a great surprise. You know I'm in.

Jude said...

Fantastic Jason. AS always, I'll enter!

Bernita said...

Well, damn, Jason!
This picture depicts exactly a scene in a short story I just sold.
Hmmm. Hmmm.
I'll see what I can do.

SzélsőFa said...

At 248, I think I'm entering it, too. Just a few more re-reads and adjustments perhaps, and I'll be sending it via email.

Anonymous said...

Excellent picture. Very inspiring. I also left a link to the contest on author John Scalzi's blog (he asked for links) to get the word out.

The Quoibler said...

Too cool, too cool, too cool...

I feel like a kid, all giddy with excitement! :)

Angelique

Pallav said...

Oh boy.

Oh boy...

Oh boy!

:D

Comin atcha!

N

Anonymous said...

Done. I love it when you do this. Thanks for letting me know, Jason.

Anonymous said...

First time, thank you for the opportunity. I will be emailing you!
Yvonne

Anonymous said...

Jaye, you are a defending champion, after all. ;)

Jude, I'm looking forward to it!

Bernita, that's pretty serendipitous! And congratulations on placing a short story. Excellent!

SzélsőFa, 248 will do nicely. :) I can't wait to read it.

Strugglingwriter, thanks so much for helping to spread the word!!

Angelique, you won't be disappointed. :)

Nothingman, I'm a-ready!

Katherine, my pleasure. Glad to have you back!

Yvonne, got it! I need one more entry to post the first group of five. Thanks for joining in. :)

Anonymous said...

now i have two competitions (five poems, two fiction pieces) to grapple with! it's going to be a huge, huge challenge!

thanks for the opportunity, Jason!

Chris Eldin said...

Great contest!!

Thanks!!

Anthony Rapino said...

Right on! I'm going to have to participate. It's been a year since my last one too, so this should be fun.

Vixen said...

I do not claim to be a writer at all, but, I can't get that picture and the word Halo out of my mind all evening. I'm going to try to write something worth reading.

apprentice said...

I came on this late, but if time allows I'll have a go. I love the picture.

AngelConradie said...

woohoo! i love these jason! i'm definitely going to try and get an entry in on time...

Anonymous said...

I very likely won't be able to participate this time, Jason, due to recovering from back surgery this morning, but I did at least give your contest a shout-out on my blog a couple of days ago. Hopefully that will drive some interest and participation your way. I'll try to catch your next contest, though. :)

Anonymous said...

C.S., don't over extend yourself. Only if you have the time. :)

Takoda, my pleasure. Thanks for taking part!

Onipar, great to have you back. =)

Vixen, very cool!! I can't wait to see what's been twirling around in your mind.

Apprentice, thanks for the kind words about the picture. :) As always, I'd love to see you enter.

Angel, you can do it! I know you can. :)

Jim, wow, I'm sorry to hear that. I hope everything goes well for you, and that your recovery is swift. Good luck!!

bekbek said...

Jason and all: Have another amazing and fun and rewarding contest. I am still holding out for the possibility of entering, but I'm swamped and spend too much time at the computer as it is. I haven't even read any entries yet, but I am looking forward to them.

Congrats to all that enter. Regardless of winning, I know how wonderful the experience of finishing that story and putting it out there can be.

Thank you again, Jason. :)

b

Anonymous said...

Bekbek, great to see you! You've always been a big part of the contests. You've earned the right to sit this one out if you're swamped. ;) Thanks for the kind words.

W J said...

Jason,

This is very pleasing deja vu.

About 9 years ago, a very bright young woman, Katie Holbrook, then in high school in Spicer, MN, started ~inkblot~. Every month, Ms. Holbrook would post a picture at the ~inkblot~ website (www dot inkblot dot vurtified dot com) and invite visitors to submit to her by email within a month stories about the picture. She would then post the stories on the website. There were no awards, other than the great satisfaction of writing stories prompted by the pictures. Many wonderful stories were written and posted on ~inkblot~ for the world to see and read.

Ms. Holbrook continued ~inkblot~ for about three years. Sadly the site eventually disappeared from the Web, although some of ~inkblot~ episodes can still be found using "The Wayback Machine."

I know Ms. Holbrook went off to the University of Minnespota at the Twin Cities, where she majored in English and Women's Studies and won numerous scholarly awards.

Some of her great work as an activist while she was at the University can be found on the Web. For the past couple of years, she does not seem to have had a presence on the Web. Much to my chagrin, though I've no doubt she continues in other venues with her great and indeed brilliant work.

If she could know about this writing exercise you are enticing us with, I am sure she would be at least amused and probably pleased. She might even participate if she could find some time.

Hopefully I can find the time to enter this round, though that is doubtful now.

But I look forward eagerly to the next one, with or without awards.

WJ

Esther Avila said...

I missed it! I've been in Texas and then the East Coast for the past two and a half weeks. Oh well, at least I can still have the pleasure of reading all the stories. :)