Oh, my! How marvelous of you to come. What we got here is a contest with some lovely prizes and an exciting challenge. But, don't let me put you off -- have a read of what's asked and what's on offer and know that the Western Contest is now open!
The Contest
All you need to do is write an original story (minimum 1000, maximum 1500 words) that's based in any of the Western genres. This means you can flex your creative muscles and work on Horror West, Weird West, Sci-Fi West, Modern West, Australian West, Memoir West, Classic West -- well, you get the idea.
Any type of Western is allowed here and there is no theme other than that. The idea is to bring the genre to the attention of those who would not normally give it a go. So, watch some Western films, read some Western fiction, have a look in the Western forum, explore the genre in all its wonderful permutations, put your own spin on it and come give the competition a go!
1500 words or less and a foot in the Western genre is all the competition is asking for. Who knows, you might could really start thinking about what the purpose of the Western genre is. You might see how relevant it is, how cool it is and how funny it can be, too. You might even learn to love it -- or, of course, you might could hate the genre and win some prizes anyway!
So what have you got to lose?
The Prizes
1st Place - 30 US Dollars in Amazon Gift Tokens & the following three books:
............... .Valdez Is Coming - Elmore Leonard
...............
............... .The Virginian - Owen Wister
...............
............... .The Sisters Brothers - Patrick Dewitt
2nd Place - 20 US Dollars in Amazon Gift Tokens & a choice of two of these books:
.................Valdez Is Coming - Elmore Leonard
...............
............... .The Virginian - Owen Wister
...............
............... .The Sisters Brothers - Patrick Dewitt
3rd Place - 10 US Dollars in Amazon Gift Tokens & a choice of one of these books:
............... .Valdez Is Coming - Elmore Leonard
...............
............... .The Virginian - Owen Wister
...............
............... .The Sisters Brothers - Patrick Dewitt
Should any of the winners come from countries other than America, the Amazon gift tokens will be (after the exchange rate is applied) rounded down to the nearest currency equivalent available in your countries Amazon store.
Rules
I strongly discourage block voting or using secondary accounts to skew the vote. Please do not do this.
How to Enter
Using the board's private message function, send me your entry by February 29, 2012 at 11:59 PM E.S.T (know your time zones).
The subject line of the PM should be: ENTRY: THE WESTERN CONTEST.
The body of the PM should contain the title of the story and the story itself. Entries will be posted in the order they are received, be submitted anonymously and be assigned a number and use the title the author chooses (if you submit without a title, it will be creatively called Untitled).
Taking into account natural disasters, sudden death and unpaid internet/electricity bills, I will post the entries together in a single thread in the Western SYW forum sometime on March 1st, that thread will then be locked and the voting will open.
How to Vote
Once the entries are posted, give them all a good read and then send me your vote via the sites private message function – one vote (consisting of your top three entries) is allowed per AW member in accordance with the voting rules.
Using the board's private message function, send me your entry by March 15th, 2012 at 11:59 PM E.S.T (know your time zones).
The subject line of the PM should be: VOTE: THE WESTERN CONTEST.
In the body of the message, you vote will include your top three stories in order of preference from first to third. List both the entry number and the title. For example:
9. The Unfortunate Fate of J.R Hartley
2. Gunfight at the Pink Coconut
5. The Night Bernard Hamster's Electronic Chaps Did Him a Fatal Mischief
First-place votes score three points; second-place score two points; third-place score one point.
The three entries with the most points will take Gold, Silver and Bronze. In the event there are more than three entries tied for the first three places I will seek the opinion of a board moderator/admin/owner who has not entered the competition to choose the final placings. If no moderator/admin/owner is available for this task, I shall ask my mother to choose. It is possible she will use the named paper in the hat technique.
Dependant on the volume of entries, the voting period will last roughly two or four weeks. The length of voting period will be announced (and updated in this thread) when the entries are posted.
At the end of the voting period, I will tally the votes, post complete results with vote totals for every entry, and announce the winner and the two runners-up.
If you are in the top three, I'll need a mailing address for the books and email address for the Amazon gift token. I'll then either mail the prize to you myself or have it sent from an online distributor.
Any questions?
If you have any further questions (or -- as is likely -- see any glaring errors in this post) please ask/notify me either by PM, or here in this thread.
Got it? Good.
So now it's over to you. Get those fingers tap-tap-tapping or that pen write-write-writing. The Western competition is go!
Good Luck!
Future Events
The Western Prompt in March will be to work on and workshop entries for the Hillerman contest. The competition is a short story (2,500 words) and novel length contest that seeks Mystery/Western works preferably set in New Mexico and has a 20 dollar entrance fee but some nice prizes, too.
Hope to see you there.
The Contest
All you need to do is write an original story (minimum 1000, maximum 1500 words) that's based in any of the Western genres. This means you can flex your creative muscles and work on Horror West, Weird West, Sci-Fi West, Modern West, Australian West, Memoir West, Classic West -- well, you get the idea.
Any type of Western is allowed here and there is no theme other than that. The idea is to bring the genre to the attention of those who would not normally give it a go. So, watch some Western films, read some Western fiction, have a look in the Western forum, explore the genre in all its wonderful permutations, put your own spin on it and come give the competition a go!
1500 words or less and a foot in the Western genre is all the competition is asking for. Who knows, you might could really start thinking about what the purpose of the Western genre is. You might see how relevant it is, how cool it is and how funny it can be, too. You might even learn to love it -- or, of course, you might could hate the genre and win some prizes anyway!
So what have you got to lose?
The Prizes
1st Place - 30 US Dollars in Amazon Gift Tokens & the following three books:
............... .Valdez Is Coming - Elmore Leonard
...............
............... .The Virginian - Owen Wister
...............
............... .The Sisters Brothers - Patrick Dewitt
2nd Place - 20 US Dollars in Amazon Gift Tokens & a choice of two of these books:
.................Valdez Is Coming - Elmore Leonard
...............
............... .The Virginian - Owen Wister
...............
............... .The Sisters Brothers - Patrick Dewitt
3rd Place - 10 US Dollars in Amazon Gift Tokens & a choice of one of these books:
............... .Valdez Is Coming - Elmore Leonard
...............
............... .The Virginian - Owen Wister
...............
............... .The Sisters Brothers - Patrick Dewitt
Should any of the winners come from countries other than America, the Amazon gift tokens will be (after the exchange rate is applied) rounded down to the nearest currency equivalent available in your countries Amazon store.
Rules
- Entrants must be members of AW in good standing and have a join date on or prior to January 15, 2012.
- One entry per member.
- Entries Must be the authors own work
- Word count for entries is 1000-1500 words -- though a 10 percent overspill either way will be allowed.
- Entries must be a new and previously unpublished work.
- Entries from WIP's are not allowed.
- Entires will be posted exactly as entered – except that they will all be posted in the same font. Please make sure your spelling and formatting are exactly as you want them before you submit. (Use Preview Post before you send). Other than checking word count, I will not proofread or edit the entries. You are responsible for everything at time of sending -- from content to format.
- All AW members in good standing who have a join date on or prior to January 15, 2012 are allowed to vote.
- Entrants are not permitted to vote for their own entry.
- To avoid any shenanigans, promote honesty and bring Western Books to the masses, if you are a winner, but decline the books you won't win the Amazon gift token and will be disqualified. For example, if the first place drops out, each subsequent entrant will move up a place thus: Second would become first. Third becomes second and the fourth place person will move into the prizes and become third. Anyone disqualified will still have the glory of being voted best, but not the prizes or placing.
I strongly discourage block voting or using secondary accounts to skew the vote. Please do not do this.
How to Enter
Using the board's private message function, send me your entry by February 29, 2012 at 11:59 PM E.S.T (know your time zones).
The subject line of the PM should be: ENTRY: THE WESTERN CONTEST.
The body of the PM should contain the title of the story and the story itself. Entries will be posted in the order they are received, be submitted anonymously and be assigned a number and use the title the author chooses (if you submit without a title, it will be creatively called Untitled).
Taking into account natural disasters, sudden death and unpaid internet/electricity bills, I will post the entries together in a single thread in the Western SYW forum sometime on March 1st, that thread will then be locked and the voting will open.
How to Vote
Once the entries are posted, give them all a good read and then send me your vote via the sites private message function – one vote (consisting of your top three entries) is allowed per AW member in accordance with the voting rules.
Using the board's private message function, send me your entry by March 15th, 2012 at 11:59 PM E.S.T (know your time zones).
The subject line of the PM should be: VOTE: THE WESTERN CONTEST.
In the body of the message, you vote will include your top three stories in order of preference from first to third. List both the entry number and the title. For example:
9. The Unfortunate Fate of J.R Hartley
2. Gunfight at the Pink Coconut
5. The Night Bernard Hamster's Electronic Chaps Did Him a Fatal Mischief
First-place votes score three points; second-place score two points; third-place score one point.
The three entries with the most points will take Gold, Silver and Bronze. In the event there are more than three entries tied for the first three places I will seek the opinion of a board moderator/admin/owner who has not entered the competition to choose the final placings. If no moderator/admin/owner is available for this task, I shall ask my mother to choose. It is possible she will use the named paper in the hat technique.
Dependant on the volume of entries, the voting period will last roughly two or four weeks. The length of voting period will be announced (and updated in this thread) when the entries are posted.
At the end of the voting period, I will tally the votes, post complete results with vote totals for every entry, and announce the winner and the two runners-up.
If you are in the top three, I'll need a mailing address for the books and email address for the Amazon gift token. I'll then either mail the prize to you myself or have it sent from an online distributor.
Any questions?
If you have any further questions (or -- as is likely -- see any glaring errors in this post) please ask/notify me either by PM, or here in this thread.
Got it? Good.
So now it's over to you. Get those fingers tap-tap-tapping or that pen write-write-writing. The Western competition is go!
Good Luck!
Future Events
The Western Prompt in March will be to work on and workshop entries for the Hillerman contest. The competition is a short story (2,500 words) and novel length contest that seeks Mystery/Western works preferably set in New Mexico and has a 20 dollar entrance fee but some nice prizes, too.
Hope to see you there.
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