Flashing Swords Press

Annoucing a very special Flashing Swords Contest!

Take a good look at this image. What do you see going on here? Who is that girl? Why's she standing like that? Who are those guys? Why are they doing what they're doing? What has happened, is happening or is about to happen?

Let your imagination roam, then write a story about what you see. Send it to us at flashingswordspress@gmail.com. Query letters are not required, however submissions must have the author's name, title, word count, email address and other standard contact information at the top. Submissions should be in Times New Roman or Courier New, both 12 point, and should NOT be double spaced! Submissions may be sent as an attached .doc or .rtf file if we know you. If we don't know you, then please paste the story into the body of your email. We'll contact you if it is chosen and ask for a .rtf or .doc at that time.

For attached submissions only:
We would greatly appreciate it if you would use real italics instead of underlining in places where you want italics.

Contest Entry Fee

There isn't one.

Submissions

Submissions will be open from June 14, 2008 to Sept. 30, 2008. Once submissions close, the Flashing Swords editorial team, along with Johnney Perkins, the artist who has created the fantastic image you see above, will read them and choose the winners. Submission word count must be between 1000 and 4500 words. This is a hard limit and we are sorry but we can't change it.

Winning

Winning entries will be chosen until a total of 45000 words is reached. Once all entries are selected, a special collector's issue of Flashing Swords will be released. The cover will, of course, be Johnney's marvelous image. That issue will be on sale for 6 months from the time of release. It will be available in print and e-book format only. Stories in the issue will not be available to read for free online.

All winners will receive:

* a standard FS magazine publishing contract and standard payment of 1 cent a word
* a free .pdf of the issue

In addition, the top three winners (as determined by the Flashing Swords editorial team along with artist Johnney Perkins) will receive their choice of:

* a print copy of this special collector's issue of Flashing Swords

OR
* a mug featuring the cover art of the issue, their own name and the name of their winning story

Do this:

Make the story exciting
Make it different
Make it live
Make it fun
Make sure it fits the image
Ask questions if you don't understand something. Send questions to the same address as submissions are to be sent to.

Don't do this:

Make the characters 2 dimenionsal or boring
Stick to cliches or worn out tropes
Write the most likely sort of story given the image.
Write a story that doesn't fit the image.
Break any of the normal submission rules
Ignore the required word count and turn in something too short or too long.
Make guesses instead of asking questions if something is unclear to you.

The more unique, interesting, exciting and attention holding your story is, the more the team is going to lean toward accepting it.

The more boring, mundane, normal, following the same old tired beaten path sort of story you send in, the less the team is going to want to read enough of it to even consider picking it. Just an FYI for you to keep in mind.

Stand, Stand
Shall They Cry!

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