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TopShelf's
October TG Terror
Contest
Entry Submission Dates are from October 1, 2009 until October 22, 2009.
Voting Dates are from Saturday October 24, 2009 - Friday October 30, 2009
The Big Spooky Revelation Night to find the lucky ghouls & guys who won is, of course, on Saturday October 31, 2009!
Contest Over! Voting to Begin Soon!
The time is here to bring out the spookiness, fear, and horror of Halloween into writing! Come up with a story, that deals with a character that is TG or became TG throughout its course of flow and fill it in with frightening stuff! That simple! Any genre, any plot device, any time period (even prehistoric!) The Contest will last a total of 3 weeks for submissions (October 1, 2009 - October 22, 2009). |
Erin will be mailing the awards out to the designated winners). The voting will occur over a 1 week period day period by registered site users only and only 1 vote per person using only 1 of their registered site accounts. Multiple attempts to vote using additional accounts owned or created by that person will nullify their vote and have us pull out the paddle!
The voting will be blind ballot of course and the results kept hidden. The 3 top stories will be awarded a prize designated as follows: 1st place - $75, 2nd place - $50, 3rd place - $25. The winners will need to pm Erin or Sephrena with their mailing address to mail the winners their money. All prizes will be mailed the day after the winners announcement.
This contest is dedicated to my best friend in the whole wide world - Princess Chelsea.
This contest is for you dear!
I would like for everyone to try and participate!!!
Rules for the contest are as follows:
- Theme - Any may be used - understanding that the Story should be inclusive of Halloween day/night.
- Story Length - any length.
- Characters - the main or a secondary character must be a TG, TV, TS, BI, Gay, Lesbian, or genderqueer (a challenging individual that shifts gender quite frequently)
- Character Age - Any age group, but there will be ABSOLUTELY NONE of the stories allowed to contain underage sex! Underage is defined as anyone under the age of 16! Making out is different and is of course allowed.
- Time period - any era, fantasy, sci-fi, any environment in which the author wishes to place her/his characters.
- Fiction - Must be fiction.
- Type of Submission - can be a chapter of an ongoing serial, a short story, a poem, a novel, a piece of any length. Only restriction is that this work be NEW writing and not already posted prior to the starting date of this contest. This is for new works only, and as such please do not use anything recycled from other sites.
- Contest Duration - 3 weeks - no extensions.
- Starting Date - 3:00am Eastern US time October 1, 2009
- Closing Date - 3:00am Eastern US time October 22, 2009.
- Marking Your Story - There will be a selection in the +fiction page under CONTESTS entitled "TopShelf's 2009 October TG Terror Contest" to mark your story with. PLEASE CHECK TO ENSURE YOU MARK YOUR ENTRY.
- Number of Submissions - Any author may submit any number of new entries that are validly marked in the contest box, but only one entry per author will be counted in the final totals, the one that gets the top number of votes from that author will be the one counted for purposes of determining winners.
- Voting Dates - 3:00am Eastern US time October 24, 2009 on the Posted Voting Box on the front page of BigCloset TopShelf until 3:00am Eastern US time October 30, 2009. Voting is limited to REGISTERED site users only. Only 1 vote per person using only 1 of their registered site accounts. Multiple attempts to vote using additional accounts owned or created by that person will nullify their vote and Erin will dole out the paddle for the offender.
- Tie-breaking - In the event of a Tie for any position, Erin and Sephrena and the involved winners will discuss a suitable resolution between the placed winners and/or issue additional prize monies. The results of the contest will be posted within 24 hours of the declared winners and all prize resolutions will be announced along with the winners.
- Prizes - 1st place - $75, 2nd place - $50, 3rd place - $25. All money prizes are awarded in US dollar value via money order mailed to the designated winners.
Ghoul Luck and Happy TG Terror Halloween to you all!
Image used with permission from DP Ragan from deviantart.com
Sephrena Lynn Miller
BigCloset TopShelf
TGLibrary.com
Comments
Rules clarification
I'm a little confused. It seems like "Any genre, any plot device, any time period (even prehistoric!)" and "the Story should be inclusive of Halloween day/night" contradict each other. Does the story have to take place over the end of October, but any year?
Has to take place in October around Halloween - Yes
but you can include other things like flashbacks, can be romantic or evil, can be in the future or past (but the main part of this has to be around a Halloween.) So if you invoke time travel for some reason - the story should begin or end on Halloween or the travel to a date inclusive of a Halloween.
Sephrena Lynn Miller
BigCloset TopShelf
TGLibrary.com
And is it possible
For the sake of clarification, to make a story where the protagonist is in fact unaware of Halloween and its importance, and never even heard about it, until somewhere near the middle of the narration (or later, for that sake) she mentions the date of a freak accident (like: "It will soon be a year since it all happened") and the other person deduces it was a Halloween occurence?
And no, I likely won't write such a story, but maybe someone else will ;)
Faraway
Faraway
Big Closet Top Shelf
Where you can fool around like you want to and most you get is some bemused good ribbing!
Rules clarification
You could, I'm sure, widen the scope a bit if you read "Halloween" as "Samhain". That should give you a few more thousand years (in either direction) you could set it in. :-D
Horror and terrifying
Two things I dont do. I guess that makes me a wuss; however I have never found horror or terrifying to be something that is for me. I don't watch movies or read books with horror. I have a hard time. So what I am saying I'll not be submitting a story as it is a genre that I do my best to avoid
Jill Micayla
May you have a wonderful today and a better tomorrow
Jill Micayla
Be kinder than necessary,Because everyone you meet
Is fighting some kind of battle.
Uh, why not?
Did you read some of the previous year entries?
Maggie Finson's 'Dead Girls Don’t Cry', for example? I personally found it not at all terrifying. And it was still a Halloween entry. So there is nothing wrong with making a story that is just a little on thrilling side, I trust you to be able to make it wonderful without moving outside your comfort zone.
Please?
Faraway
Faraway
Big Closet Top Shelf
Where you can fool around like you want to and most you get is some bemused good ribbing!
Never mind the quality, look at the speed
I'm just a little disappointed that the timescales announced for this competition (just like the previous two) mean that it's about how quickly one can throw together a story, rather than how good we can make it. I don't have lots of spare time available, and I do have a life, so I can't simply drop everything at the announcement of a competition.
I usually reckon on a minimum of two months to write a story. I take pride in what I write, and I like to let a story properly mature. I'm not averse to some competitions being in the form of a race, but it would be nice if, for the next competition, we were to be given a couple of months notice.
It's not about Speed
But if it makes things better, I'm hosting the Christmas contest. Go ahead and write a Christmas story then because its not going to be any more specific than TG and the spirit of Christmas. Start now =^.^=.
Sephrena Lynn Miller
BigCloset TopShelf
TGLibrary.com
Can't keep everyone happy :) Planning for Contests/Challenges
When we posted longer contests, we got complaints about that, too. :)
But yes, we will have longer contests in the future. I can also tell you that the contest/challenge after this one is on the theme of Gifts. It will run during November, though the start and end dates have not been decided. Then we'll have a holiday challenge for Christmas which will not have a more specific theme. January is open for someone besides Sephy and I to offer a challenge or contest.
February will be the annual Short Story Challenge, possibly with a theme to be announced before the end of the year.
A March of Fools contest/challenge will follow that. At this time, nothing is planned after April 1. Sounds like a good time to announce a longer challenge, maybe a novel contest with entries due in October/November.
Comments on any of this?
Hugs,
Erin
= Give everyone the benefit of the doubt because certainty is a fragile thing that can be shattered by one overlooked fact.
= Give everyone the benefit of the doubt because certainty is a fragile thing that can be shattered by one overlooked fact.
That's great
Many thanks to both of you. I really enjoyed the May competition, but devoting so much time in such a short period really intruded into other parts of my life.
I might have a go at a Christmas story - that just about gives me time to...
Yea Christmas!
I've got a Christmas story I've been working on for several years, just got permission for a cameo appearance by another author's character right before Christmas last year. Maybe this year, I only need another 3,000-4,000 more words, give or take. :-) I won't be trying for any prizes or anything, just something for the spirit of things.
KJT
"Being a girl is wonderful and to torture someone into that would be like the exact opposite of what it's like. I don’t know how anyone could act that way." College Girl - poetheather
“When a clown moves into a palace, he doesn’t become a king. The palace becomes a circus.” - Turkish Proverb
Horror
My brief submission to the contest: Andrea wakes up on October 31, 2009, hits the Firefox icon on her desktop, goes to Google (family computer prevents bookmark) and searches for BigCloset/TopShelf, hits the top entry, goes to http://bigclosetr.us/topshelf/ and finds the following. "This Domain for sale." NNOOOOOOOO!!!!!
Love, Andrea Lena
Ghost Bust-ers
Sephy, that pictures looks to me just like the scene from Ghost Bust-ers where the teen ghost girl and the teen boy collide. The caption doesn't exactly work with the story, but it sort of does. It's very cool that you posted it here.
Hugs
Ready for work, 1992.
Hugs and Bright Blessings,
Renee
link to find all October TG Terror stories
Hi;
Great stories, I've been reading them as they appear.
Is there a link to find all the October TG Terror stories ?
It's at the top of the Front Page
=^.^=
BigCloset TopShelf
TGLibrary.com
Just threw my hat in
Well. So, I've just posted a story for the contest. I hope this newbie (me) is worthy to be among the stellar cast of writers who have so far posted their own works of fiction.
Judging by some of the earlier comments, I guess the horror genre isn't for everyone. I myself don't like the slasher type of horror fiction, but there are a lot of tasteful and well-done horror-suspense novels out there. For my taste, I like Stephen King, preferably his early works. For those who don't like the genre per se, I suggest you guys be more selective, and it won't hurt if you ask a friend to make recommendations. I think the following works by Stephen King are excellent for non-horror/suspense fans: The Dead Zone, Rita Hayworth and Shawshank Redemption, and The Body. These books were made into wonderful movies (the movie version of The Body was called Stand By Me), and the horror aspect is just a plot element, and just adds to the richness of the story instead of overwhelming it. The book, The Dead Zone, does not have any real parallels to the movie and TV show in terms of the story treatment. The book, more than anything, was actually a love story. The Body, more than an adventure story, was a book about the coming of age of a young man. And Rita Hayworth was all about redemption from hopelessness.
I think the horror genre has never gotten a fair shake, and all the shlock writers and movie makers have runied it for everyone. But I think it's worth it to take a chance, and, if you're lucky, you might just unearth a rare diamond-in-the-rough, like Shawshank.
Just my opinion...
- Bobbie
contests
I really need to work on my self-discipline. I missed the deadline again. I think that makes the last three contests that I haven't been done on time for.
Good luck to all those of you who've entered!
Maybe you could consider
Starting a story for the next contest right about... the moment you finish this one?
And you still have 13 hours! Can you do it?!
Faraway
Big Closet Top Shelf
Where you can fool around like you want to and most you get is some bemused good ribbing!
Faraway
Big Closet Top Shelf
Where you can fool around like you want to and most you get is some bemused good ribbing!
All Hollos Eve Contest
I'm concerned with the many stories that are continuation from one chpt to the next. It would seem that they wont be compete by tonights deadline and for us fans to pass judgement. So much to read. So little time and only one of me :)
The English Teacher
So much to read, so little time and only one of me :)
The English Teacher
The Shut Off time for the TG Terror Contest
Again, princesschelsea inspired me to host this year's October contest and I am deeply grateful to her for her support of me and her friendship, things which cannot have a value placed upon them, but are treasured. ^^
BigCloset TopShelf
TGLibrary.com
oh no!
You mean when it used to say the deadline was 3am eastern on Oct 22, it really meant the 3am that comes after the night of Oct 22? Darn. I stopped writing yesterday at 2am when I didn't think I'd finish in an hour, but I actually had 25. Bummer. I wish I hadn't just spent a late night out.