Spectra Magazine Issue 1 competition: Win a new Kindle!
Spectra Magazine launches on the 1st of September on a huge range of digital reading platforms, and it’s looking damn sexy. We’re kicking off the launch with a flash fiction competition, and wanted to find a prize that was just as sexy as Spectra and its sexy readers. As fortuitous happenstance would have it, Amazon will release its sexy new Kindle redesign just a few days earlier. Can you see where we’re going with this?
So it’s not like we had much choice in the matter. Nail our flash fiction competition before September 24th, and you could bag yourself a brand new Kindle! All you need to do is visit the Spectra Magazine forums and start a new thread in the Flash Fiction section, completing a science fiction, horror or fantasy story in 60 words or less that begins with the sentence:
“A sudden echo from the corridor said this place wasn’t deserted after all.”
The word count doesn’t include this opener – you have 60 words all to yourself. We’ll select a winner, based both on the reactions in the forum replies (so please help out and give each other’s stories lots of feedback), and from our own random, skewed editorial opinions.
But that’s not all there is to this competition. For those who fail to win the top prize, we’re dedicating an entire section of the magazine to the the best of the rest. Ten entries will be published in Issue 2 of Spectra Magazine, so there’s a portfolio-building runner-up prize to be had, even if you don’t walk away with a sexy new Kindle on your arm.
The competition rules are as follow:
1. Be as awesome as you can, but please bear our writer’s guidelines in mind – in particular:
Go easy on the FTL travel (faster than light travel), time travel, swords & sorcery, elves and orcs, and gore-nography – if your story contains these elements, make sure they’re absolutely essential. Zombie stories are very welcome, but will need imagination in droves to rise above the tide, so make sure your undead tales are original. Also, take it easy on explicit sex, profanity and violence (the platform operators can be randomly obstructive when it comes to graphic, adult content).
2. If you’re going to offer criticism of another person’s submission, make sure it’s constructive. We’ll take into account entrants’ overall conduct in the competition and we won’t look kindly on anyone who belittles and berates their fellow flash fictioneers.
3. One entry per account and one account per person please. We can and will check so don’t try and and outsmart us – we are the evil that never sleeps, like Sauron, but with better dress sense (and two eyes).
4. Don’t plagiarize – make sure your submission is completely your own work and not cribbed from your favourite obscure Hungarian horror novelist.
5. Have fun with it – be as wildly imaginative as you like. Be funny, be sad, be scary or just downright weird, but do be sure to explore your mind’s most splintered and uniquely formed corners.
All there is left to do is wish all you lovely, lovely people the best of luck. May the best flash fiction fiend prevail!
[...] our flash fiction competition and win yourself a brand new Amazon [...]
Quick question….
If we wanted to end the story with the same exact words as the beginning, will that count in the 60 words?
Hmm, that’s a good question.
A) If you’re asking whether the given sentence could be placed at the end, INSTEAD of at the beginning: Given that there’s been so many entries already, we’d probably better take our own rules quite literally at this stage. As it says “…completing a science fiction, horror or fantasy story in 60 words or less that begins with the sentence…” we’d have to stand by that to ensure we’re fair to everyone who’s already put their entries in. So this should be considered as a required opening.
B) If you’re asking whether you can end your story with the given sentence AS WELL as using it as an opening, then the second use of the sentence would be counted as part of your 60 words.
In retrospect, it’s a very interesting notion that we provide a sentence that must be included somewhere – anywhere – in your flash fiction. In future competitions, we’ll probably do this as it’s a great idea. But in this one, regrettably it seems fairest if we insist on it being an opener. Hope this helps, and thanks for the interesting suggestion!
Heh. Well, technically, my story was going to be a loop recording, which would make sense for the repeat. We’ll see how I can do with 47 words. =D
[...] 1 are very welcome over on our official forums. And don’t forget you’ve still got time to enter our flash fiction competition and win yourself a brand new, third generation Amazon [...]
[...] 1 are very welcome over on our official forums. And don’t forget you’ve still got time to enter our flash fiction competition and win yourself a brand new, third generation Amazon [...]
A sudden echo from the corridor said this place wasn’t deserted after all.
A muffled sob froze me in mid motion.
Choking on the stale air, one hand found the wall just before my knees buckled.
Something passed through me as I struggled to see. An eye for an eye, a voice moaned. And as he reclaimed that which I had taken from him, my soul entered the blackness of the floor.
I don’t think I just entered….how do I do that??? sorry to be a derp!!!
A sudden echo from the corridor said this place wasn’t deserted after all.
Why had I volunteered,anybody could check for radiation.
The first reading is normal,everything is quiet. The noise must have been the security holgram used in deserted space stations. I was right,there it is blocking the corridor. I,ll just walk through it for the next reading. Help I’m trapped. I knew I should’t have volunteered.
[...] recognition. Telling a complete story within a two minuite short film is incredibly difficult (just ask anyone who’s entered our flash fiction competition), but Semenov’s film has just enough of a hint to suggest a fascinating underground robot [...]
[...] 1 are very welcome over on our official forums. And don’t forget you’ve still got time to enter our flash fiction competition and win yourself a brand new, third generation Amazon [...]
A sudden echo from the corridor said this place wasn’t deserted after all.
The din increased. Slowly I became aware of a thousand others, jostling against my smooth skin. All of us, suspended in time, in a thick, amniotic-like environment.
Suddenly, our dark, enclosed corridor shuddered and grated. A great light cast its radiance upon us.
“Wow” I said.
“Bloody hell”, said the form next to me, “a talking baked bean!”