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If you click on 2024-01 January - New Year's Resolution Story Contestabove, you will see a list of the entries.
Contest Closed for entries.
Please post your choices for top three stories and possibly win $50 .
Start the New Year right by participating in Jill, Emma, and Joanne’s writing contest!
BC Staff have been up to their eyeballs keeping the trains running and publishing new eBooks for our community, so Angela (Jill) Rasch and Emma Anne Tate offered to run a little writing contest to kick off the new year, get people’s creative juices flowing, and hopefully bring some new authors and readers as well! Joanne Barberella has pitched in gleefully to supplement the prize amounts. Another author who wishes to remain anonymous has also added to the total prize pool.
Here’s how it will work:
First Prize $300. . .Increased to $500 if choice is unanimous!
Second Prize $200
Third Prize $100
Contest opened on Monday, January 1, 2024 and all story submissions must be posted by Tuesday, February 14, 2024 – Valentine’s Day. Submissions must be new stories that have not been previously published anywhere. For the length of this contest, they must be published solely on BC.
There’s an official tag for contest entries. The fourth drop-down menu under “Add a Story” is labeled “contests.” Scroll down and click on “2024-01 January - New Year’s Resolution Story Contest.”
Also, if you click on that contest tag, you will see every story that’s been tagged for the contest.
Stories must have at least 2,500 words (sorry Bru!) and a maximum of 5,000 words and be posted as a solo (not part of a series or chapter in a longer work). The stories must have a TG element and for legal reasons cannot contain explicit sex or underage (18) abuse of any kind.
Stories must include a plot Element involving a New Year’s Resolution.
Authors may enter as often as they would like, however an author is only eligible to win one prize.
Jill and Emma will judge the contest. Why? Because they are fellow authors who’ve posted lots of stories (and in Jill’s case, published a ton of them). Because they’ve got the time, being ladies of leisure, sort of. Joanne was reticent, so we let her off the hook.
Jill and Emma will send their scores (one to one hundred) to Joanne to be tabulated. She will add them together and announce the winners. If both Emma and Jill award a story their highest score, the winner will receive the extra $200. The winner would then win $500 instead of $300.
Huge offer for Authors “new” to BC
But there’s an extra wrinkle we want to throw in. We’d like to use this opportunity to encourage “new” authors and readers to give BC a try. Please invite your friends or authors you may know from other sites to participate. We are offering an additional prize for the top finishing “new” author (whether he, she, or they finish in the top three or not) of $200.
Therefore, if the winner is a “new” author who both Emma and Jill have rated highest, that author will be awarded a total of $700.
In addition, should the “new” author elect to publish a novel, Emma and/or Jill will beta read or edit their manuscript at the “new” author’s discretion. AND – Rasufelle, who has designed over a dozen covers for Jill and Emma, will design a cover for the “new” author’s work – all at no charge.
A “new” author is one who has not published on BC in the past, under any name.
Another Huge offer for BC members who prompt a “new” author to come to BC for this contest.
If the winning “new” author identifies a current BC member (prior to today’s date) who made them aware of the contest, their “sponsor” will also receive a $100 prize.
A Little Side Action
To make things a bit more interesting for our 2024 New Year’s Writing Contest, if you send Emma, Joanne or Angela Rasch a PM with the names of non-BC authors you have invited to participate in the contest, you will be entered into a drawing for an extra $50 prize. We’ll announce the winner at the same time as the rest of the contest winners are announced.
Help us get the word out, and let’s get 2024 off to a great start!
But Wait!!! There’s More!!!
Authors love comments. The more they can relate to their readers the better they write. . .and possibly the more often they write.
Our goals are to inspire and motivate authors. But we're also hoping to engage readers. To that end, we have added an additional contest to be judged by Joanne. She will choose the best comment. The winner will receive $50. To win the comment must be posted on a Writing Contest story by an identifiable member (not Guest Reader). The comment must be posted before 2/25/2024.
What a "Best Comment" is -- is solely up to Joannebarbarella's discretion.
On February 15, after the contest is closed, we'll post a blog for readers to list their own choices for the top three stories, and why you like them. No negative comments allowed! Anyone who posts a response will be entered into a drawing for a $50 prize. Each person may enter this contest only once. If you list more than three stories your entry will be disqualified.
Entries will have to be submitted by February 22, 2024.
***
So, come on, everyone! Give us all some fun short stories to start the year and spread the word!
Comments
Date formats
YYYYMMDD is the international standard (ISO-8601) and is superior to both ddmmyyyy and mmddyyyy because in a flat file, you can sort on yyyymmdd and the dates will be in order. There's no ambiguity at all (who would do yyyyddmm??). Calling ISO-8601 standard date format backwards is rather amusing.
(And twenty past four is obviously 20:16 not 20:04)
Read more of my works on Patreon .
Or as my grandmother would have had it
25/1-24Ten to half five.
Four
Trust me, I am VERY familiar with 0400 hrs!
LOL
Text removed to be turned into a story
.
New story
Number nine is underway
The First Eight. . .
. . .have set a high bar.
Jill
Angela Rasch (Jill M I)
Nearly done
Not as dark as some of the others, but there are moments
"Well done" instead of "bloody"?
OK, I'm a bit silly today.
It's up
'Reading the Room'. A gentle piece.
I’m glad
I find writing the darker pieces can really take it out of me; writing gentler stories — or humorous ones — is a sometimes much-needed tonic. So I’m glad your muse gave you that gift. And, of course, we got another fabulous story to savor!
Emma
A Little Update
I've settled on spreading stories out to every three days.
I have two ready to post that will appear in the coming week. The first is trying something different, a genre piece with sci-fi and action elements. The second one is going for something lighter and comedic.
There's a third one that's written, but with others ahead of it, I'll keep looking at it, make tweaks as they come to me and then do the final proofing go-over.
After that, we'll see. I do have one outlined that will be my last contest entry.
I’m lovin’ it!
Thank you for participating so enthusiastically!
Emma
Quantity. . .
. . .and quality.
Jill
Angela Rasch (Jill M I)
Just started story number 10,
Just started story number 10, 'False Alarm'
Real Genius
It may show my age, but I am suddenly reminded of the movie Real Genius, where Lazlo wins a huge mail sweepstakes by building printers to churn out entries like crazy:
"'No purchase necessary, enter as often as you want' - so I did."
Wow and good luck!! :)
Love That Movie
"Sir, let me take this moment to compliment you on your fashion sense, particularly your slippers."
And I look forward to your next story, Steph!
IIRC
That was said to a professor.
The sweepstakes scam was based on a real live version at Caltech.
-- Daphne Xu
Technical Roadblock
I have a story ready to post, but I keep getting a Captcha pop-up when I try to post a comment or content here. Both browsers I use (Firefox and Chrome) on my laptop.
Then it tells I get a prompt claiming "unsupported browser" and a redirect to a url that starts with "blob."
I ain't downloading a spammy link, so I tried logging out. Now I can't log back in because the Captcha pop shows up again.
It just started doing this is the middle of the night and, if it's not a site issue, I'm at a loss trying to get it back to normal.
It's not doing it on my phone browser, but this isn't practical for posting actual stories, so who knows when/if you'll see anything new from me.
Just when I was really enjoying it here. Sigh.
Clear Browser Cache
Sometimes clearing your browser cache will work. The site was a little slow this morning, but I was able to do a post.
Emma
As Quickly As It Began
I got a backend fetch fail, but then went back, it let me log in.
And I was able to post the new story (about the eggiest egg finally cracking). No problems at all.
I'm quite glad to see that annoying little problem disappear!
Breath of Fresh Air
There's no accounting for computers.
I've been posting here for three decades and have had only minimal problems.
I'm sorry the goddess of glitches picked you to harass!
Your stories have been exactly what we hope to attract to this contest.
Jill
Angela Rasch (Jill M I)
It's Been a Blast
Thanks to every one of you!
To Jill, Emma and Joanne for the idea of the contest and the work you've done with it! I hope y'all enjoy a rest after all this.
To Dorothy for kindly inspiring me to start posting stories here.
To everyone involved in starting and running this site. It took a while for my muse to emerge, but she was well-fed with a lot of stories here over the years
To everyone else who's posted contest stories for making me laugh, cry and think with your characters and settings. Whether you're someone whose work I've read here as a lurker for years or another newcomer, I've enjoyed so much of it. I've tried to keep up with everything and I know it's going to be difficult to narrow my fan votes down.
To anyone who's read, whether you've left a comment, kudo or not. Thank you so much for taking the time to read!
Just in general, thank you all for being kind and welcoming.
I'm not going anywhere, I've been putting some ideas and fragments into a separate file. With the contest over, I have time to let my muse tell me what to tackle next (since there isn't a St. Patrick's Day contest. ;) )
Bottom line, if you're reading this comment, thank you. And have a lovely day/night, wherever you are on this planet.
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