Announcing Tempest’s First Writing Contest
Free to enter: submit, cross fingers, cash check
Tempest in Under 1000 invites you to our Wondrous Word Wrestling Contest, sponsored by DiceOrder
Our storm wants to make it rain!
What we’re looking for
Submit exactly 400 words in any genre on the topic, “Is money ever clean?” to contact@daschapaylorauthor.com
The rules
Title is not included in the word count; hyphenated words count as one. Keep your submissions porn-free, please. Dirty like a martini is acceptable, dirty like a Sanchez is not. Don’t go all literary, we want to follow your plot.
Your submission should be written by you and you should own the rights free and clear. Please write in English. Include your name and e-mail address with your submission. Submissions will be stripped of identifying data and will be read blind. No handicaps, no advantages.
For the winners
This is a smart game with smart prizes. The top two entries will receive $50 and $25 respectively via PayPal. Three skilled contestants will receive honorable mentions. All five entries will be published in Tempest in Under 1000. Winning entrants agree to grant Tempest in Under 1000 first digital publishing rights for six months. Authors retain all rights to their work.
What our judges will be looking for
· Fresh point of view
· Originality
· Ideas and concepts
· Adherence to word count. Stories not exactly 400 words in length will be rejected.
· Grammar
· Creativity
· Readability: 12 point font, double spaced; be common in your font choosing; submit as a Word document — doc or docx.
Entries close no later than midnight August 1, 2020, or as soon as we receive 50 stories that follow our submission requirements. Winners will be announced on August 31, 2020
Our Sponsor
A brand new Live Play Tabletop RPG, DiceOrder is excited to be able to support Tempest in it’s mission to provide writing and publication opportunities! Storytelling, connection, and the things we can learn from each other when sharing our creativity are vitally important to the work we do. Everyone at DiceOrder is excited to be a part of the stories the writers of Tempest will tell us!
Meet our gorgeous and generous judges
J.M. Frey
J.M. is an author, screenwriter, and professional smartypants. With an MA in Communications and Culture, she’s appeared in podcasts, documentaries, and on radio and television to discuss all things geeky through the lens of academia. She also has an addiction to scarves, Doctor Who, and tea, which may or may not all be related. Her life’s ambition is to have stepped foot on every continent (only 3 left!)
Her debut novel Triptych was nominated for two Lambda Literary Awards, won the San Francisco Book Festival award for SF/F, was nominated for a 2011 CBC Bookie, was named one of The Advocate’s Best Overlooked Books of 2011, and garnered both a starred review and a place among the Best Books of 2011 from Publishers Weekly.
Her sophomore novel, an epic-length feminist meta-fantasy titled The Untold Tale, (book one of the Accidental Turn Series), debuted December 2015, and was followed up by The Forgotten Tale in 2016 and The Silenced Tale in December 2017. The Skylark’s Song, book one of The Skylark’s Saga, a steampunk action novel about a girl vigilante and her mysterious rocketpack, soared into book stores in 2018, and was followed up by The Skylark’s Sacrifice in September 2019.
The Skylark’s Saga was signed to a shopping agreement for an animation series in 2018. She was the grateful recipient of a Toronto Arts Council Grant in 2018, and is enjoying the ability to really dig into the research needed for the project. You can follow her research blog here. Her digital-only queer time-travel novel A Woman of the Sea was named a winner of the 2019 WATTY AWARD for Historical Fiction.
Reuben Salsa
At 10, Reuben discovered Byron. By the age of 14, Reuben was addicted to opiates. At 16, he was charged with murder. Welcome to the alternate world of Salsa. Co-owner of The Bad Influence and Chief Bullshitter of the Bullshitty Satire Division. (https://medium.com/the-bad-influence)
Tom Lucas
Tom Lucas was born and raised in Detroit, and although currently enjoying the lack of snow and ice in Florida, remains a son of the post-industrial apocalypse.
He is the author of the bizarro books Leather to the Corinthians and Pax Titanus, as well as short stories found in the anthologies Potter’s Field, Southern Haunts III, Mondo Bizarro, and F*ed Up Fairy Tales, among others.
When not writing, Tom likes to drive fast and take chances.
Visit Tom at his digital home: www.room1331.com
