Add another one to the list...

Apex Digest have announced the below Halloween Contest.

This year’s theme is: ELECTION HORROR

Guidelines:Your story must incorporate the theme of ELECTION HORROR.
Word count maximum is 1,000.
Your story must have first rights available.
Submit your story to halloween@apexdigest.com.
Submissions are open NOW.
Deadline is 11:59 PM, October 15th, EST.

This year’s celebrity judge is noted SF author Jay Lake!

Winner receives payment of 10 cents per word and publication in Apex Digest Online.
Second place receives payment of 5 cents per word and publication in Apex Digest Online.
Third place receives a free Apex Book Company hardcover.
Fourth place receives a free Apex Book Company trade paperback.
Winning and second place story will be published on November 4th (election day).
Good luck and have fun writing some election horror!

And that was July...

Okay, not much going on in July...

1. Wrote two mini short stories (100 Words each - an heir and a spare) for the Necrotic Tissue 100 Word Bite contest:

Halloween Watch - which I should find out today (EEK!) whether it has made it.
Bug Eyed - which I didn't send in as HW wasn't rejected. Will send it along when they reopen in October.

2. Wrote one short story:

Chasing Alice out of Wonderland - sent to 'The World is Dead' anthology this morning. Treble EEK!

3. Started two MG novels (as you do).

The first one - Matchsticks, Moths & Machinations - got stuck at 5718 words. I decided the storyline may not be appropriate for an MG audience and will hopefully be sorting it all out at the end of this month.

The second - The Poisoned Apple II (working title) - completed 15,479 words of it this month. Fingers crossed I finished the first draft in August.

And that's about it.

I HEART...

David Macinnis Gill is running a competition with a difference to give away ARCs of his novel Soul Enchilada.

Here are the rules:
To enter:

1. Create your own candy heart at http://www.cryptogram.com/hearts/ . Your heart can say anything you’d like. You are not limited to phrases from the ARC (since you haven’t read it).

2. Copy and paste this entire post–as well as the image of your candy heart–on your blog, Facebook, MySpace, website, etc.

3. Once you’ve completed #3, email me at davidmacinnisgill AT gmail.com with the link to your post. Voila! You’re entered in the giveaway.

4. The contest will be judged by three teen readers based on the criteria of originality, design, and message. The contest closes July 31st.

5. The prize is a personalized, signed ARC and a special gift, TDB by the judges. The winner will be contacted via email. Her/his name and winning entry candy heart will be posted on my lj blog, as well as my home site DavidMacinnisGill.com.

*Note to my fellow future published authors - this is a GREAT way to publicise your book - God Bless the Internet.*

Bite Me!

Received an email from Paige McCoy the editor of Necrotic Tissue yesterday to say that my story 'Halloween Watch' (still not loving that title), along with a few others, had survived all cuts and slices from over 60 submissions. I should add this is for their 100 word Bite Contest. Now it's a case of keeping my fingers crossed that I don't hear back until August 1st when they will be announcing the winner, runners up and those folks who have made it into the issue. If I hear back before it means I'm out...*

*Note to family & friends: Please don't buy any more nail varnish or manicure sets for me as I have no longer have nails on my fingers... Chocolate however is still approved.

Weeeee! Mushroom Men & Space Squid

How's this for a weird and yet wonderful competition:

SPACE SQUID, the Sci-Fi Humour magazine, in associated with GamecockMedia.com and RevolutionSF.com, have announced a competition.

THE MUSHROOM MEN FICTION CONTEST.

A free writing contest where the first prize is a free Wii game console and a copy of the new Wii video game Mushroom Men!

Other prizes include Les Claypool Mushroom Men rock posters, Mushroom Men baseball caps, trading cards with sweepstakes codes, Mushroom Men squeezy toys, and copies of Mushroom Men for the Wii and for the Nintendo DS. Runner-up stories will appear on the fiction page of RevolutionSF.com and in a special supplementary issue that will be seen by hundreds of people at gaming events like the Penny Arcade Expo.

The first-prize story will appear in the supplementary issue, RevolutionSF.com, Space Squid issue #6, and may appear as promotional material for the game elsewhere. Now that is some prize!

The closing date is August 1st, 2008 and your story should be between 500 & 1500 words. More details can be found at the Space Squid site.