Short Story Contest Announcement: Garden State Speculative Fiction Writers.

[temporus]

The Twentieth Annual
Garden State Speculative Fiction Writers
Short Story Contest

Theme:

HAARPING ON CONSPIRACIES

1970s paranoia is back in fashion, but with a 21st century technological edge. Does the NSA listen in on every little tweet? Will drones watch over the backyards of America? And what exactly is HAARP (the High Frequency Active Auroral Research Program), with its high-power radio frequency transmitter facility located deep in the Alaskan wilderness? Is the Air Force really studying the ionopshere, or is electronically tickling the Northern Lights a cute cover for more sinister experiments in weather manipulation, satellite disruption and mind control?
Your mission, should you choose to accept it, is to impress us with the wildest conspiracy you can imagine, whether inspired by current events like those above or drawn completely from your worst hypothetical fears. All genres will be considered, and the subject matter need not be limited to modern, scientific skullduggery. Freemasonry, ancient cabals, cults, secret societies and good, old-fashioned assassination plots are just as welcome.

Submission Period: The contest opens April 1, 2014 and closes July 31, 2014.

Eligibility and Prizes: The contest is open to everyone, including Julian Assange and Edward Snowden. All authors will receive written critiques from each of three first round judges. The top three stories will move on to the second round, judged by Hildy Silverman, editor-in-chief of Space and Time Magazine. The 1st Place story will be published in a future issue of S&T, as per editor’s timeline and discretion, and the author will receive the Graversen Award ($75), in honor of the GSSW’s founder, Patricia Graversen. The 2nd and 3rd place winners will receive $40 and $25, respectively. There is NO ENTRY FEE. Multiple submissions are NOT allowed.

Format: Stories must be original and unpublished. Manuscripts must be double spaced and no more than 4000 words in length (firm). Judging is blind, so please remove identifying information from the manuscript, including all headers and footers. Only the title should precede the text on the first page of the manuscript. Failure to meet these conditions will result in disqualification.

Where to Submit: Electronic submissions ONLY. Email manuscripts as an attachment in .rtf file format to contest@gshw.net. Include contact information (name, mailing address, phone number, email address) in the body of the email and note the story title in the subject line.

Contest results will be announced at the GSSW’s meeting on November 1, 2014 at the public library in Old Bridge, NJ. All entrants are invited to attend. For directions, please visit our website at http://www.gshw.net. Prize money will be issued in the form of a check payable to winner. Winners unable to attend the meeting will receive their prizes by mail. All contestants will be notified of the results via email and receive critiques no more than 30 days after the public announcement.

Good luck!

[Anonymous]

Unless I can think of a really good reason not to, I am going to enter this contest. Thanks for posting!

[temporus]

A couple of quick points.

1) It’s free. (This is new, previous years the group has charged for entries. I’m hoping a successful contest this year will convince the group it’s good to keep it free.)
2) It’s one entry only, per contestant. (Also new this year, prior years, we allowed multiple entries.)
3) It’s a blind contest, so no identifying info on the manuscript. If you’re like me, and have it built into your writing template, double check that before you enter, because I believe it could mean disqualification. I’d hate to see that for anyone.

Good luck if you choose to try.

(Note, I am not the contest coordinator, and may, or may not be one of the first round judges.)

[Anonymous]

I’m largely ignorant as to how these things work, so one more question: will entries be judged only on the quality of the story, or that of the conspiracy as well?

[ErinMH]

Primarily quality of the story and how well it adheres to the theme — probably not whether the conspiracy is plausible, but certainly whether it’s important to the story.

[Author]

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