The folks over at Rektor’s Revenge asked me to pass on notice of their short story contest. As always, I can’t guarantee the legitimacy of any requests for material appearing here, so do your research first. Today, your exercise is this: regardless of whether you plan to send in a submission, write a piece that would be appropriate to the call. Then, consider submitting it. If you do submit it, come back and let us know so we can cheer you on!

From their contest guidelines page:

First Prize: The First Place Winner receives $500.00.

Second Prize: The Second Place Winner receives $250.00.

Third Prize: The Third Place Winner receives $100.00.

Conciliation Prize: The Conciliation Winner receives $100.00.
The conciliation prize will be a random drawing from all the stories submitted with the exception of the 1st, 2nd and 3rd prize winners.

Plus: Via press release Mak Rektor Publishing will also be announcing the contest winners and will be showcasing all winners on our site.

Entry Deadline: September 30/08

Judgement Day: is on Halloween, all winners will be notified via email on October 31/08

Entry Fee: $5.95 USD.

You may opt to pay your entry fee electronically, or by sending a cheque and your story to the attention of Mak Rektor Publishing at the following address:

Mak Rektor
P.O. Box 546
Station A
Ottawa, Ontario
Canada K1N 9H1

Occasionally I relay calls for submissions or contest announcements from folks who’d like to receive your entries. As always, I can’t guarantee the legitimacy of any requests for material appearing here, so do your research first. Today, your exercise is this: regardless of whether you plan to send in a submission, write a piece that would be appropriate to the call. Then, consider submitting it. If you do submit it, come back and let us know so we can cheer you on!

CALL FOR SUBMISSIONS: Christmas Traditions: True Stories of Holiday Celebration

Send submissions to: Helen Kay Polaski (Szymanski) at hkpolaski [at] yahoo.com

Christmas Traditions: True Stories of Holiday Celebration will be filled with stories that touch the mind as well as the soul as they take the reader on a magical journey through Christmas—past and present—while giving the reader ideas for traditions they might be interested in adapting in the future. Each story will include a well-known holiday tradition or a unique tradition known only to a particular family or community, as well as a touching story that circulates around each individual tradition. (I love traditions and can’t wait to see how your family celebrates Christmas!)

Stories must be first person, true accountings of either shared or unique traditions celebrated by families, communities, and/or groups during the Christmas holiday season, and all must be based on strong individual family/community dynamics, specific geographical location, and/or different cultures and religion. Approximately 70-80 stories (700-1,200 words) will be gathered. (When writing your story please keep in mind that Christmas is the most magical time of the year. I want to see the magic unfolding on the page before me as I read, and so do my readers.)

Only stories that have a beginning, middle, and an end will be considered. I’m looking for great inspirational stories that “include” a holiday tradition. Please do not send an essay that lists all of the things your family enjoys during the holidays. Instead, choose one tradition your family follows and write a story about it that is as moving as it is real. Only true stories that have not been previously published will be accepted.

Payment: upon publication, $75 and a copy of the book (for each accepted story)
Deadline extended: December 20, 2007

Please include your full name, current address, email address, phone number, and a 50-word bio.

Editor – Helen Kay Polaski (Szymanski)

Helen Kay Polaski
CALL FOR SUBMISSIONS: Christmas Traditions
Editor: A Cup of Comfort for Weddings, Rocking Chair Reader book series, Classic Christmas, Christmas Through a Child’s Eyes

I’ve been asked to post the latest Dream Quest One announcement. As always, I can’t check out contest legitimacy, so make sure things sound right to you, or poke around on the internet for more information. If you enter and win, be sure to come back and share the joy!

The Dream Quest One Poetry & Writing Contest is open to everyone whether experienced or not. This competition welcomes anyone who loves to arrange words into beautiful art or to write a short story that is worth telling. And to all who have the ability to dream. Write your best short story or poem for a chance to win cash prizes. All works must be original. (http://www.dreamquestone.com)

 

Guidelines:
(1) Write a poem, thirty lines or fewer on any subject, style or form, single or double line spacing, neatly hand printed or typed.

and/or

(2) Write a short story five pages maximum, single or double line spacing, on any subject or theme, creative writing, fiction or non-fiction (including essay compositions, diary, journal entries and screenwriting). Must also be neatly hand printed or typed.

Multiple poem and story entries are accepted.
Deadline: December 31, 2007.
Winners will be announced on January 31, 2008.

Prizes:
Writing Contest First Prize: $500. Second Prize: $250. Third Prize: $100.
Poetry Contest First Prize: $250. Second Prize: $125. Third Prize: $50.

Entry fees:
Writing Contest entry fee is: $10 per short story.
Poetry Contest entry fee is: $5 per poem.

To send entries by mail: Include title and story or poem, your name, address, phone#, email, brief biographical info. (Tell us a little about yourself) on the coversheet, add a self-addressed stamped envelope for entry confirmation. Mail entries/fees payable to: Dreamquestone.com.

Dream Quest One

Poetry & Writing Contest
P.O. Box 3141
Chicago, IL 60654

Visit http://www.dreamquestone.com for further details, to print out an entry form or to enter online.

Check out the Hidden Side of a Leaf’s 24 Hour Read-a-Thon details. The event will take place on Saturday October 20; I’m tentatively planning to take part just for fun, posting my updates at Errant Thoughts and reviews of anything I finish over at Errant Dreams Reviews. It’ll be fun and there are prizes involved, so join up! Since it’s about reading and involves making regular posts that you might have to get creative to keep interesting and entertaining, you could consider it your exercise for that day.

We’re in the process of importing the blogs over to the new site. We’ve imported the posts, but haven’t yet prettied everything up enough to put in the redirects. Thus we won’t be posting anything significant here until that’s ready. I expect it to be set probably sometime next week. Thanks for your patience!

UPDATE 5/29/07: We ran into a few technical glitches that’ll delay switching over for a little longer, so I’ll continue posting here for now.

UPDATE 6/13/07: We haven’t put the redirects in yet as we still have a couple of things to move over from the site as a whole, but the Epiphanies will be posted here now!

I was asked to pass on the following announcement. As always, try to check out the reputations of the contests you enter–I can’t guarantee the legitimacy of any given contest. Also, be sure to follow any guidelines as closely as possible!

The Dream Quest One Poetry & Writing Contest is open to everyone whether experienced or not. This competition is open to all and anyone who loves to arrange words into beautiful art or to write a short story that is worth telling everyone. And to all who have the ability to dream. Write your best short story or poem for a chance to win cash prizes. All works must be original.

Guidelines:
(1) Write a poem, thirty lines or fewer on any subject or style or form, single or double line spacing, neatly hand printed or typed.
Or
(2) Write a short story five pages maximum, single or double line spacing, on any subject or theme, creative writing, fiction or non-fiction (including essay compositions, diary, journal entries and screenwriting). Must also be neatly hand printed or typed.

Multiple poem and story entries are accepted.

Deadline: January 15, 2007.
Winners will be announced on February 15, 2007.

Prizes:
Writing Contest First Prize is $500. Second Prize is $250. Third Prize $100.

Poetry Contest First Prize is $250. Second Prize is $125. Third Prize is $50.

Entry fees:
Writing Contest entry fee is: $10 per short story.

Poetry Contest entry fee is: $5 per poem.

To send entries by mail: Include title and story or poem, your name, address, phone#, email, brief biographical info. (Tell us a little about yourself) on the coversheet, add a self-addressed stamped envelope for entry confirmation. Mail entries/fees payable to: Dreamquestone.com.

Dream Quest One
Poetry & Writing Contest
P.O. Box 3141
Chicago, IL 60654

Visit http://www.dreamquestone.com for further details, to print out an entry form or to enter online.

Technorati Tags: write, writers, writing, writing competition, writing contest

From the Writer’s Digest website:

The Writer’s Digest 7th Annual Short Short Story Competition

We’re looking for fiction that’s bold, brilliant…but brief. Send us your best in 1,500 words or fewer.
But don’t be too long about it—the deadline is Friday, December 01, 2006.

PRIZES
First Place: $3,000
Second Place: $1,500
Third Place: $500
Fourth Through Tenth Place: $100
Eleventh Through Twenty-Fifth Place: $50 gift certificate for Writer’s Digest Books

For more details check out the WD website and remember–that deadline is December 1, 2006!

Come to think of it, for today’s exercise, grab any other exercise from this blog that gives you ideas and use it as the inspiration for a 1500-word-or-less story. Then edit, revise, rewrite–and submit! If you win, come back and let me know so I can cheer you on!

Technorati Tags: fiction, writing contest, Writer’s Digest, writing competition

WD Popular Fiction Awards

The deadline of the Writer’s Digest Popular Fiction Awards Competition is Wednesday November 1, 2006. Please note that there is an entry fee for this contest. Click on the above link to read the entry guidelines, submit manuscripts online, and so on. The grand prize winner will apparently recieve cash, books, a manuscript critique, and marketing advice, while the first place winner in each genre category will receive the same, but the cash prize will be smaller.
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I just wanted to give credit where credit is due–I wanted a gorgeous, inspiring style for this particular blog, and thanks to the style contest I found this style (foggy forest) by Jessica Hayes. Check out her site–this style worked beautifully out of the box, and is incredibly gorgeous, so I already love her work!

In the right-hand column on the Epiphanies main page, you’ll find a link to the creative commons license I’ve decided to put this under. The attribution clause says “You must attribute the work in the manner specified by the author or licensor”, so I figured I should find a good spot to specify that, and here it is. If you decide to use any of the content in the epiphanies blog according to that license (please do read it–it’s incredibly short and easy to understand), please attribute it with the following:

“This material provided courtesy of burningvoid.com under a creative commons license”, with a link back to either the main page or the Epiphanies main page (assuming the reproduction is online).
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