"Ascension" Short Fiction Contest

Feeling the winter blues curling around you? Need a little juice to kick the cold in the nuts? You've come to the right place!! (I almost said "write place," but that would be dorky to the tenth power.) The "Ascension" Short Fiction Contest officially opens this Wednesday, January 7th. Welcome!!

This contest is my 10th. Not sure if I believe it. But since The Clarity of Night is halfway into its 4th year, I guess I've gotten around. And get this! Another contest winner has secured her first book deal! She will be featured as a guest writer after the contest closes and will treat us to her vision of the "Ascension" photo. Warmest congratulations to she-who-is-yet-to-be-named! (If you know her, shhhhhh.)

So, let's get to business. Here's how it works. Using the photograph above for inspiration, compose a short fiction (or poetry) 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, January 14th (Eastern Time, United States). I'd prefer attachments formatted in Microsoft Word or Word Perfect (please see the format request below), 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.

As always, to make things interesting, I'm offering the following prizes. Please note that since I haven't run a contest for six months, Readers' Choice prizes have been expanded, and First Place has been increased:

• 1st Place: $50 Amazon gift certificate, 8 x 10 print of the "Ascension" 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 1st Place: $15 Amazon Gift certificate, 8 x 10 print of the "Ascension" photograph (inscribed by Jason Evans)
  
• Readers' Choice Award 2nd Place: $10 Amazon Gift Certificate
  
• Readers' Choice Award 3rd Place: $5 Amazon Gift Certificate

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 shine 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 indefinitely.
   
6. Judging will be conducted by me, Jason Evans. For an explanation of the judging criteria and scoring system, see A Note on Judging. You can also read the winning entries from past contests.
   
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.
   
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.

Format Request:
These are not rules, and I will not reject an entry which does not conform, but if you follow them, my work in running the contest is much less. For that, I will be eternally grateful!

1. Single space lines, and double space paragraph breaks.
   
2. No tabs or indents for new paragraphs.
   
3. If you have italics in your text, please code it for html by putting a begin italics code < i > where it starts and an end italics code < /i > where it ends.
   
4. Although it's rarely used, handle bold < b >< /b > and underline < u >< /u > the same way.
   
5. Write your title at the top of the document left justified in title case (first letters capitalized). On the next line write your byline left justified (example, by Jason Evans). Add two blank lines, then begin your story.

Welcome to this latest contest! You can send your entries early, but the contest will officially open and entries will be posted starting on January 7th.

Help spread the word!