New writing contest coming soon

[vicki]

I am starting a new yearly contest. Every year, the prizes will be bigger and better as I gain sponsors and supporters.

I'll be holding the writing contest on here and on my website. Best of all, you get to enter and be the judges. And, you can say you were there when it all began.

Your contest submission will be a short story of 1,000 words or less. More than 1,000 words and it will be rejected. (Title does not count.) It must be related to a particular theme, of which I'll provide at the time the contest starts.

Start time is January 1, 2009 and will run for 30 days, until January 30, 2009. On January 31, 2009, I'll stop taking submissions and announce the beginning of judging.

When judging begins, you will go to my website at http://www.vickimtaylor.com and judge the entries and vote for your three favorites. The three winners will be announced based on the number of votes each entry received.

There is no entry fee.

This year's prize is a Borders $25.00 gift card.

Watch for more announcements right here!!

[vicki]

Hey folks, time is getting close. I'll give you a hint about the contest theme. It's going to be based on a song from Nickleback.

Okay.. that's your first hint.

See you soon with more hints!!

[vicki]

Second Hint - The song is from the Dark Horse album from Nickleback

[vicki]

The Song is "If Today was your Last Day" by Nickleback.

So, the theme is "IF TODAY WAS YOUR LAST DAY"... I want you to listen to the music, read the lyrics, do what you need to do, to envelop the theme. Dig deep for inspiration. But, don't literally write the short story from the lyrics.

I'll choose the top three and put them on my website at http://www.vickimtaylor.com after the deadline, January 31, 2009 for you to read and there will be instructions on how to vote. You'll decide who receives 1st, 2nd, and 3rd place.

Here's the nitty gritty. Follow standard formatting guidelines.
One inch margins all around.
Double space.
12 point Times New Roman font
1000 words or less (don't count the title) If you're over, you're automatically disqualified, and I will count every word)
Put page number in the right top corner and name and title in the top left corner

Include a SHORT cover e-letter and don't forget to include your e-mail and mailing address.

Send your entries to me as an attached RTF file to vicki@vickimtaylor.com. If it's anything other than an Rich Text Format file, I won't open it and you're automatically disqualified.


There is NO ENTRY FEE for this contest.

So, begin!

[vicki]

Just a REMINDER!!

Contest ends January 30th... Get writing and get those entries in soon!!

[vicki]

The submissions stopped on January 31st. I received a number of entries. I'll start judging them this week and next. I'll be able to put the top three on my website after that and give you the opportunity to vote for the winners in order of your favorites.

Pray that the techgods are with us on this one!!

We'll have a winner announcement before the end of February!!!!

Good luck to all of you who entered!!