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.
 

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.