Deadline
September 15, 2010
(Midnight, PT)
"There is no terror in the bang, only in the anticipation of it."
- Alfred Hitchcock
Something's wrong.
And if it isn't righted soon, it will most definitely cause the death of your protagonist.
The only source of help is a cell phone that, for some reason, becomes useless.* Despite the high-tech times we live in, your protagonist is a lone, sitting duck.
You have up to 1,500 words to resolve this nightmare. And that's just enough space to show off your knack for building suspense. The end's in sight. The clock is ticking. How does your protagonist get out of this alive?
*The cell phone that suddenly has "no service" at that critical moment is a writing technique that's been done to death. Therefore, we're going to publish in The Verb, along with the winning story, your Most Ingenious Reasons a Cell Phone Becomes Useless.
$100Story published in The Verb
Story Opinion, also published in The Verb
Entry Fee: None
Length may be up to 1,500 words. But not a word more. (Your contact information and your title are not included in the word count.)
Short stories only. No poetry, essays or plays.
Entries must be original and unpublished. Send only your best. Once submissions arrive, no revisions will be accepted.
Open to writers worldwide. (Payment to winners outside the USA are made via PayPal only.)
Limited. Only one story per author.
The judge for this contest is Elizabeth Guy. Read her bio on the Readers page.
Winner will be notified via email October 4, 2010. The winning story will be published in the October 2010 (Halloween) issue of The Verb.
Only the winning entry receives a free Opinion. Read previous contest Opinions. Remaining entrants may order an Opinion after the results have been announced.
As always, complete contest results will be posted in the Contest Café.
Read about the judging process and our method of posting contest results.
All contest entries must be submitted electronically. You may paste your text within the body of an email or send it as a .pdf, .doc, .docx or .rtf. We don't accept any other formats.
At the top of your submission, please provide:
~ your name
~ your mailing address
~ your email address
~ word countDon't forget to include your title!
Font should be black 12-pt. Arial, Courier or Times Roman, double spaced.
Separate scenes with your favorite symbol. We don't care which one you use, as long as it clearly signifies a break.
Confirm we've received your entire submission by including the words: The End.
You are now ready to contest@readingwriters.com ?subject=Intense Suspense Contest" style="font-weight: 700; text-decoration: none;"> submit your work.
(If clicking this link doesn't automatically open your email, send your work to contest--at--readingwriters.com AFTER you've replaced the --at-- with the @ sign. Subject: Intense Suspense Contest.)We confirm receipt of every contest entry. If you haven't received a confirmation within 24 hours, we haven't received yours. Please re-send.
We don't, however, acknowledge spam-blocking filters that require us to fill out a form to join an approved list. If you use such an address for this contest, you won't receive emails from us.
· RIGHTS ·
Winner grants ReadingWriters, publisher of The Verb writing ezine, First Electronic Rights. Simply put, this means you allow us to publish your story first on the internet. After October 2010, the story will move to The Verb archives and remain there until you ask us to remove it. You, the winning author, retain all other rights to your work.
These First Electronic Rights apply to the winning entry only.
Remaining entrants retain ALL rights to their work.
