The 2011 Horror Hounds Celebration and Contest Guidelines

[EFCollins]

First, before you begin reading I want to take a minute of your time.

The Hounding After Hours Cafe opened in May of 2009 here in the Horror Section of AW. We're celebrating being a horror hound, even if you are new to AW or a regular. We have to put as much of ourselves into our genre as we do our words. We're horror writers and this is our little spot on AW. So let's write.

Well, you guys will. I won't. I get to torture you...

Old town legends have been around since fire was discovered. So you know... I think it is time we build some of our own.

One thing that always puzzled me is that horror songs are rare. Not Hope diamond rare, but rare. The only horrific song I can remember actually giving me the creeps was this one.

Link to youtube:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nP49QY2dNto&feature=related


As you can see, the song is about a town Legend (now how did that happen, I wonder) and how it goes wrong for disbelievers. Listen to this song carefully before you continue reading on. It's a horror story set to music. It's a legend.

Now... about this contest.

"Build your own town legend".

The entire town must be fictional and populated beyond the protagonist.

There can be creatures, ghosts, phantoms, specters, whatever in the legend... but it must be original beyond that - no werewolves or vampires or zombies.

Ghosts and such are so easy to make personally different that they're okay.

The legend has to be age old (dating back a good few decades at least) and the protag must encounter it. Everything else is up to the writers.

And guess what, Houndies? It's a novella contest! Aren't you excited? I am.

Word Count Requirement: 15,000 up to 30,000 words

You have two months to write and polish your manuscript starting March 1, 2011.

Submissions open May 1, 2011 and close on June 1, 2011.

Formats accepted: .doc, .rtf, .txt

NO DOCX or PDF

Send submissions to evil.chihuey@gmail(dot)com, the (dot), obviously being replaced with, you know, a real dot. Period. Full stop.

Please put in subject line: Horror Hounds AW Contest Entry - Last Name

Please also be sure to include your AW username with your contact info

Emails received before May 1st or after May 7th will be deleted.

Each submission will be confirmed as received, stripped of author identifiers and passed on to the judges after submissions close. Only Haggis and I will know the author names and their correlating stories and we aren't judging. The judges are basically getting a title and a story.

Kinda the same way we did it last year guys but this time... no reading and voting. Because of the length of the stories, we thought it would be unfair to ask you guys to read all those stories. And plus, it'll help you learn patience. Good practice.

The judges will review each submission and make notes on it. Amongst them they will discuss and decide on our finalists. The finalists stories will be passed on to Alice, who will decide our winner and runners up.

Winners will be announced in Mid to Late June, depending on the volume of submissions. This may change if a large or small number of writers participate.

Each author will receive the notes on their stories, so everyone gets something, even if it's just free feedback.

What are you waiting for? Go start writing a legend.

Before we get to our prizes, let's meet our judges.

slcboston
arkadia
a mystery judge

And judging the finals will be callalily61 (Alice Loweecey)

(Prizes are subject to growth.)

Prizes:

Winner:

1. A Publishing Contract with Black Label Books (authors must agree to allow edits)
2. Choice of New Release from Black Label Books (pdf copy)
3. Signed Copy of Force of Habit by Alice Loweecey
   
4. $30.00 cash
5. Crash Boom Girl a book of poetry by DL Hegel
   

1st Runner Up:

1. A Reaper's Tale ebook by Adam Slade
2. The Complete set of SNM Horror's Bonded by Blood Anthologies
3. $20.00 Cash
4. The Awakening by Donna Boyd
5. Crash Boom Girl a book of poetry by DL Hegel
   

2nd Runner Up:

1. A Reaper's Tale ebook by Adam Slade
2. On Writing Horror A Handbook by the HWA
3. More of Me Disappears - A Book of Poetry by John Amen
4. $10.00 Cash
5. Crash Boom Girl a book of poetry by DL Hegel
   

[Debbie]

O.M.F.G. Effie.

*whips out nightmare notebook*

You finally get some attention, my little bad dream. While it might not work out, I’m gonna enjoy this fucking ride. Muah!

*yes, I just kissed my notebook *

Effie your awesomeness is blinding...oh,

Very, very excited. Good Luck everyone!!

[Angie]

I dunno if I'll have time for this (as we talked about on FB), but it's an awesome contest and I wish all participants luck.

[Haggis]

Write about zebras. There's nothing more horrific than zebras.

[Rhoda Nightingale]

This sounds like a really cool idea! I won't be participating, but only because my existing plot bunnies would eat me alive if I decided to dump them for a contest.

[Haggis]

Write about evil plot bunnies.

[Calla Lily]

Write about dog-devouring mutant sheep.

[EFCollins]

I will add details of the judges and such to the original post when I get straightened out how the judges will work together. And prizes TBA soon. I have a couple of issues... I'm trying to steer clear of mag subscriptions because I gave away a NT subscription to a contest winner last year and now they're closed and I have no idea if Soapy got her entire subscription. So I'm working on something to replace that. Soon, I promise.

[Del]

Sounds like fun.

And I'll just love the new BMW when I win

[EFCollins]

Sounds like fun.

And I'll just love the new BMW when I win

BMW means Big Male Walrus, right?

[Del]

[QUOTE=EFCollins;5875778]BMW means Big Male Walrus, right?[/QUOTE

Do I get fries with that?

[EFCollins]

Sure. Might be a little soggy and wet, but... sure.

[Fallen]

Damn, no voting. I likes this comp too...

[CACTUSWENDY]

Wow. What a super topic. Nice choice. This sounds like fun.

BMW? Wow. The prizes sound great also. lol

<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<gets all excited.

[Del]

BMW means Big Male Walrus, right?

BMW? Wow. The prizes sound great also. lol

<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<gets all excited.

It never ceases to amaze me how many people have a thing for walruses.

[LaurieD]

Patience?

Patience?!

[EFCollins]

Patience?

Patience?!

I know. Bites a big one, doesn't it?

[LaurieD]

No one can ever say you don't know torture, there Effie Girl.

Sheesh...

Patience!

[SWickham]

Exciting stuff!!!

[soapdish]

Wha--

I was all anxious to get the details on this and then somehow I missed this thread yesterday. DANG IT!

Sounds amazing, Effie. I don't think I can participate this year. With two novels and a novella begging my attention and a monthly short story challenge, and it being my most busy 2 mos at work...yeah...likely not going to happen. But I'll help spread the word!

[curio]

OoooOOooo.... what a fun idea. I have a novel cooking (not to mention a baby that thinks sleep is for suckers), but I will see what I can come up with.

[LaurieD]

Lyrics to Effie's youtube link...

Legend of Wooley Swamp ~ Charlie Daniel's Band

Well, if you ever go back into Wooley Swamp,
Well, you better not go at night.
There's things out there in the middle of them woods
That make a strong man die from fright.
Things that crawl and things that fly
And things that creep around on the ground.
And they say the ghost of Lucius Clay gets up and he walks around.

[Chorus]
But I couldn't believe it.
I just had to find out for myself.
And I couldn't conceive it
'Cause I never would have listened to nobody else.
And I couldn't believe it.
I just had to find out for myself
There's somethings in this world you just
can't explain.

Spoken:
The old man lived in the Wooley Swamp way back in Booger Woods.
He never did do a lot of harm in the world,
But he never did do no good
People didn't think too much of him
They all thought he acted funny
The old man didn't care about people anyway
All he cared about was his money.
He'd stuff it all down in mason jars
And he'd bury it all around
And on certain nights
If the moon was right
H e'd dig it up out of the ground.
He'd pour it all out on the floor of his shack
And run his fingers through it.
Yeah, Lucius Clay was a greedy old man
And that's all that there was to it.

Cable boys was white trash
They lived over on Carver's Creek.
They were mean as a snake
And sneaky as a cat
And belligerent when they'd speak.
One night the oldest brother said,
"Y'all meet me at the Wooley Swamp later
We'll take old Lucius's money
and we'll feed him to the alligators."

They found the old man out in the back
With a shovel in his hand,
Thirteen rusty mason jars
was just dug up out of the sand.
And they all went crazy
And they beat the old man,
And they picked him up off of the ground.
Threw him in the swamp
And stood there and laughed
As the black water sucked him down.

Then they turned around
And went back to the shack
And picked up the money and ran.
They hadn't gone nowhere
When they realized
They were running in quicksand.
And they struggled and they screamed
But they couldn't get away
And just before they went under
They could hear that old man laughing
In a voice as loud as thunder.

And that's been fifty years ago
And you can go by there yet.
There's a spot in the yard
In the back of that shack
Where the ground is always wet.
And on summer nights
If the moon is right
Down by the that dark footpath,
You can hear three young men screaming.
You can hear one old man laugh.

[FOTSGreg]

Effie, does it have to be a modern town or could it be one from fantasy, SF, or, for example, the Old West?

[FOTSGreg]

Never mind. My muse decided to visit me this evening (must have something to do with certain impulses regarding certain people at work).

I've got my theme and my opening scene written (and outlined using iCard Sort) I'm retreading an older failed short story intro I did awhile back, but this idea is pretty decent and fits right in with the theme (though it originally would not gave).

Gotta' do some editing for mood and tone, but I think the original short story idea was too self-limited by the need to be 5-10k words. It just wouldn't have worked at that length IMNSHO.

The story's starting to unfold now too so I'm going to go work on the outline some more for awhile (relax, drink a couple brews, and just let the muse run free for awhile).

See ya'll later.

[EFCollins]

Laurie, thanks for posting those lyrics! I hadn't even thought of that.