This contest is dedicated to our sister writers who have passed away in the past year: Darla Raspberry, Kim Em, Nanomage, Prairie Girl. We will never forget you.

Rules for the contest are as follows:

• Theme - Romance (sweet, sentimental, both, or bittersweet)
• Story Length - any length.
• Characters - the romance must involve at least 1 character who is 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!
• Time period - any era, fantasy, sci-fi, any environment in which the author wishes to place her/his characters.
• Fiction - May be fiction or non-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, and as such please do not use anything recycled from other sites.
• Contest Duration - 6 weeks - no extensions.
• Starting Date - 3:00am Eastern US time July 1, 2008
• Closing Date - 3:00am Eastern US time August 12, 2008.
• Marking Your Story - There will be a selection in the +fiction page under CONTESTS entitled "Summer Romance Story 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 August 12, 2008 on the Posted Voting Box on the front page of BigCloset TopShelf until 3:00am Eastern US time August 24, 2008. Voting is limited to REGISTERED site users only.
• Tie-breaking - In the event of a Tie for any position, Erin, Sephrena, Edeyn 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 - $35, 3rd place - $25. All money prizes are awarded in US dollar value via money order mailed to the designated winners.