Saturday 2 August 2008

Writer Explodes at Computer Terminal

We haven't got long - in fact we only have until 9am Monday 4th August!!! That's like this Monday - OMG! Mini panic run around my very small study. Okay, back to it. Weird Tales (yes, the Weird Tales) is running a Writing Contest based on SPAM email messages.

Here's the details:

You’ve seen the latest wave of spam — you know, the faux outrageous news headlines: “Osama trains goats for tactical bombing.” “Laika the Russian space dog returns to Earth.” Isn’t it a shame the headline is all we get? So here at Weird Tales we’re inviting YOU to turn this spam into… um… spam-ade!

Write a flash-fiction story — under 500 words — based on a spam you’ve received. Send your story, along with the headline that inspired it, to contest@weirdtales.net before 9 a.m. on Monday, Aug. 4. The Weird Tales editorial team will judge them, and three winners will be announced at the Weird Tales reception on Friday, Aug. 8 at the World Science Fiction Convention in Denver!

The first-, second-, and third-place winners will all be published online at WeirdTalesMagazine.com the week of August 11. The first- and second-place winners will also receive three free issues of Weird Tales; and the first-place winner will also receive an autographed copy of Ekaterina Sedia’s incredible new novel The Alchemy of Stone.



Thank goodness it's for stories under 500 words. Okay, there goes working on 'The Poisoned Apple' for the rest of today. I need two of me (in fact being a Gemini technically I should already be two people!): the Horror writer and the Children's writer. No wonder I get the two mixed up sometimes.

Hey, and if you have no spam and have to use the title of this post - go for it!!! Now that would be too cool.

9 comments:

Fox Lee said...

Oh man...I almost never get spam. I know that's a good thing, but now I have to go research it? What a silly world.

Cate Gardner said...

I've gone into panic can't-think-of-anything mode...

Brenda said...

What a fun contest...I doubt I could come up with something so quick, but I would love to read what everyone else comes up with...

About time SPAM was good for something...grin...

Felicity Dowker said...

So do we have to have actually received/seen the spam our piece is inspired by, or can we just make it up? I've never really received the sort of spam they refer to, but I'm sure I could have fun inventing it.

...although maybe not in under 24 hours, and not at a level that would stand a chance with Weird Tales.

Cate Gardner said...

Felicity, on the Weird Tales contest page they have a link that takes you to a site where they list hundreds of SPAM email titles.

Though if you make something up, I won't tell. ;)

I wrote something last night, sent it off and then scratched my head a few hours later and thought - 'now that didn't really make much sense did it, Cate'.

Mary Witzl said...

I'm so excited -- I've actually got a story already written about spam mail that just needs to be trimmed and tweaked! I'll give this a shot, and thank you for telling us about it!

Lemons into lemonade, but I kind of enjoy those spam e-mails anyway; some of them are really creative.

Cate Gardner said...

Ooh! I wish I'd had one all prepared. Good luck, Mary.

Mary said...

Great contest! Good luck with your story. :)

Cate Gardner said...

Cheers, Mary :) I'll need it.