Welcome to
the Third Bewildering Stories Contest
Strange Places
Proceed to the Contest 3 Index...
Our Third Bewildering Stories Contest departs radically from the first two in at least two ways: we’ve adopted a “vote as you read” format; the models are starting points, not examples of finished products; and, of course, the Contest is based on a form as well as a theme.
The object is to write a flash fiction story based on the premise of a scene in Robert A. Heinlein’s Tunnel in the Sky, namely a character who suddenly finds himself in a strange place.
We at Bewildering Stories are well aware that theories abound about the nature of flash fiction. Some of the short stories we receive are flash fiction in structure, while some of the flash fiction we receive resembles a short story. We welcome discussion of literary theory in The Critics’ Corner.
For the purposes of the Contest, Bewildering Stories’ standard — and admittedly arbitrary — definition applies: flash fiction is any prose fiction 1,000 words or shorter, which seems to be pretty generous as word limits go.
The model, from Tunnel in the Sky
A pastiche from the Contest manager
Rules of composition
The submission...
- must keep the general theme of the original, namely that of a character who suddenly finds himself in a strange or unexpected place.
- must not exceed 1,000 words in length. The Contest Manager’s word count is official.
- may change the setting from an alien planet to Earth or anywhere else.
- may change the time from the future to the present or past or to an alternate universe.
- may change the tone of the original from serious to comic or tragic.
- may change the characters’ personalities and introduce new characters, if necessary.
- may be written in the style of another author, whomever you wish to imitate.
- must be a complete story. Vignettes, such as the Contest Manager’s pastiche, will be considered off topic.
Contest rules
The Contest opens now, with Bewildering Stories issue 208, and closes with the appearance of issue 220.
Submission limit: one entry per author. However, you may submit two replacements. Any replacement vaporizes your previous entry.
All submissions must be new to Bewildering Stories. Sorry, the Contest won’t reprint stories previously published here.
- All entries must be sent directly to the Contest Manager, Clyde Andrews. Please do not send submissions to Ye Copy Editor or to Bewildering Stories; the submissions will only be delayed and may get lost.
Clyde will:- acknowledge receipt. If you haven’t heard back within three days, please inquire.
- screen the texts for length, relevance to the topic, and compliance with our Submissions guidelines. Please spellcheck; bad spelling is cause for rejection.
- format the texts according to our Style Manual.
- forward the texts to Ye Copy Editor, who will post them more or less in the order received.
The Contest is “blind”; that is, the entries will be identified by title until the Contest closes, whereupon the authors’ names will be added. The Contest Manager may also enter the Contest but cannot win anything more than an honorable mention.
Voting: each entry will have three e-mail links at the bottom: “Yea,” “Okay,” and “Nay.” (Yeah, that’s cute, but anything else seems too loaded.) In each case you must indicate the title of the text you’re voting on, otherwise Clyde won’t know what you’re talking about and will have to discard the vote.
One vote per person per entry. All votes must be signed or they’ll be disregarded; e-mail addresses are usually too cryptic to identify the sender. Sorry, votes cannot be acknowledged; Clyde will have his hands full.
Authors may vote for their own entries, but that vote won’t count.
What are the rewards and prizes? Besides Bewildering fame, that is? Who knows? We shall see!
Quick references:
- “The Art of Flash Fiction,” in issue 189
- “Writing Pastiches,” in issue 197
And now, writers, please start your keyboards. Zero to a thousand — in a flash!
Submissions link: Clyde Andrews, contest manager
