"Elemental" Short Fiction Contest

Welcome to Summer 2011!

It's hot, it's fun, and it's going by too quickly. So let's pump it up even more with a good contest, shall we? (Cue the guitar riff.)

The Challenge

Here's how the contest works. Using the photograph 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. At the very latest, the contest will close at 10:00 p.m., Wednesday, July 20th (Eastern Time, United States). HOWEVER, since I once again will be posting all entries for everyone to enjoy, I'm going to set a limit on entries. Read on.

I'd prefer attachments formatted in Microsoft Word (please see the format request below), but if you have something more exotic, you can paste the text into the body of an email.

The Final Countdown

Yes, The Final Countdown was a very cheesy song from the 80's, but it is also the new way that I am going to ensure that the contest doesn't get too big for everyone to enjoy (and if you participated in the contest I ran in winter 2010, you know what too big looks like!!). Here's how it will work. Once I receive 95 entries, I will declare FINAL COUNTDOWN. At that point, I will post a countdown clock here at Clarity with 12 hours on it. Once FINAL COUNTDOWN is in effect, you must submit your entry before the 12 hours expire. Everyone who submits in time will make it in. Everyone who doesn't, well...sorry about that.

Prizes

Now for the goodies. Here are the prizes you a competing for:

• 1st Place: $50 Amazon gift certificate
  
• 2nd Place: $35 Amazon gift certificate
  
• 3rd Place: $30 Amazon gift certificate
  
• 4th Place: $25 Amazon gift certificate
  
• 5th Place: $20 Amazon gift certificate
  
• Readers' Choice Award: $40 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. You grant me non-exclusive, perpetual, worldwide electronic rights to your entry. All other rights remain with you.
   
6. Scoring will be conducted by me, Jason Evans. For an explanation of the judging criteria and scoring system, click HERE. For specific guidance on winning, click HERE. 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, let me know the address, and 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. 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.
   
10. 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.
    
11. 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.

I declare the "Elemental" Short Fiction Contest officially open!!