# SDMB Short Fiction Contest, September 2011 edition - Logistics Thread. **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [September 28, 2011, 3:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sdmb-short-fiction-contest-september-2011-edition-logistics-thread/597892 "2011-09-28T15:56:59Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Le\_Ministre\_de\_l\_au-dela](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/le_ministre_de_l_au-dela/32/12181_2.png) [@Le\_Ministre\_de\_l\_au-dela](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Le_Ministre_de_l_au-dela)\ **Post date:** [September 28, 2011, 3:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sdmb-short-fiction-contest-september-2011-edition-logistics-thread/597892/1 "2011-09-28T15:56:59Z")
Hello and welcome. We’ve had six Short Fiction contests so far, in May 2010, September 2010, over the holidays between 2010 and 2011, February 2011, April 2011 and June 2011. They’ve been tremendously fun, and there has been interest expressed in doing another. I’d like to again congratulate our past winners - **The Hamster King** , [May 2010](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=563348), for _Quarrantine_ **Spoons** , [September 2010](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=577967) for _Homeward By Polaris_ **Spoons** , [Holiday Edition 2010](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=591295) for _He Knows a Lot of People_ **Justin Credible** , [February 2011](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=599219) for _Happy Valentine’s Day, Sweetheart!_ **MsWhatsit** , [April 2011](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=607505) for _The Brickites_ **Savannah** , [June 2011](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=615807) for _The Summer Place_ So, I’d like to suggest the following - the contest will run from 9 AM EDT, Friday, September 30th, 2011 until 10 PM EDT, Tuesday, October 11th, 2011. That’s an extra-long, 12 day period. Any writers interested in participating somewhere within that time can send an e-mail to sdmbpoetrysweatshop at gmail dot com - the required photo and the obligatory three words will be in an out-of-office auto reply. The writer will then have 60 (sixty) hours from the time and date of that auto-reply to submit a story of no more than 2,000 words. The story can be any style or genre, but it must centre around 3 randomly selected words and one randomly selected photograph. (These requirements are partly to ensure no one dusts off a story they’ve been working on for months, and partly because it’s really interesting to compare what different writers do with the same source material.) No specific theme this time - let your imaginations run free. Sorry, but the contest is open only to Dopers - Guests, Mods, Administrators, Members, Charter Members, Goats, Squids, people with funny titles - but contestants must have the right to post here. I will start an Anthology Thread of all the stories I’ve received before the close of the contest - I can’t give an exact time, as that will be a holiday weekend. At 10 PM EDT, Tuesday, October 11th, 2011, entries will be closed and I will establish a multiple-choice poll in the Anthology Thread. A week later, the poll will close and we will declare a winner. A couple of editorial/logistics points to bring up. I will be doing some very minor editing - just for appearance on the computer screen, I will ensure that there are double returns between paragraphs. I would also strongly prefer that all the stories have a title, and if they don’t come with a title, I’ll refer to them as Untitled (First few words of the opening sentence.) If you use special text (italics in particular, but also bold face and underline.), please mention it in the return e-mail - the codes don’t always come through properly in gmail and I do try to respect writers’ conventions. Sometimes this means doing a search word by word to make sure the codes get written correctly. Also for legibility and appearance, I would like to post the first ~ hundred words or first paragraph, whichever is most coherent, in the open reply. Then, I will put the rest of the story in a spoiler box. Then I’ll have another spoiler box with the author’s name. The reasoning here is to avoid the Gigantic Wall of Text effect. I’m open to other people’s suggestions here, though I thought this worked very well the last few times. I quite like the multiple choice polls and I would like to keep that as a feature of the Short Fiction contests. Placing the writers’ names in spoiler boxes also seems to be a good compromise between giving credit where it is due and keeping the voting based on the merits of the individual stories, to the extent that is possible. I think that’s everything - I’m hoping many of you will be interested in giving it a go sometime in the next few days. Best wishes, Le Ministre de l’au-delà ---
**Author:** ![Le\_Ministre\_de\_l\_au-dela](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/le_ministre_de_l_au-dela/32/12181_2.png) [@Le\_Ministre\_de\_l\_au-dela](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Le_Ministre_de_l_au-dela)\ **Post date:** [September 28, 2011, 4:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sdmb-short-fiction-contest-september-2011-edition-logistics-thread/597892/2 "2011-09-28T16:17:07Z")
And there - I just sent some PMs to regular contributors to point out this thread to them. ---
**Author:** ![Spoons](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/spoons/32/3141_2.png) [@Spoons](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spoons)\ **Post date:** [September 28, 2011, 10:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sdmb-short-fiction-contest-september-2011-edition-logistics-thread/597892/3 "2011-09-28T22:55:43Z")
Is there a theme this time, **Le Ministre**? ---
**Author:** ![jackdavinci](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jackdavinci/32/3259_2.png) [@jackdavinci](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jackdavinci)\ **Post date:** [September 29, 2011, 12:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sdmb-short-fiction-contest-september-2011-edition-logistics-thread/597892/4 "2011-09-29T00:41:36Z")
Yay! ---
**Author:** ![Le\_Ministre\_de\_l\_au-dela](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/le_ministre_de_l_au-dela/32/12181_2.png) [@Le\_Ministre\_de\_l\_au-dela](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Le_Ministre_de_l_au-dela)\ **Post date:** [September 29, 2011, 1:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sdmb-short-fiction-contest-september-2011-edition-logistics-thread/597892/5 "2011-09-29T01:35:30Z")
> [@Spoons](#): > > Is there a theme this time, **Le Ministre**? No; in the last one, there was some talk that the theme was unnecessarily restrictive, in some people’s opinion. I’m game either way but I thought maybe I’d give it a try without one this time and see what the writers’ reactions were like. We’ve still got 36 hours for suggestions, if anyone would like… ---
**Author:** ![cmyk](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cmyk/32/3353_2.png) [@cmyk](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cmyk)\ **Post date:** [September 29, 2011, 3:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sdmb-short-fiction-contest-september-2011-edition-logistics-thread/597892/6 "2011-09-29T03:57:54Z")
Schweet! Not gonna miss out on this round. I’ll refrain from suggestions… I’d be too influenced my my own tastes. Maybe punch up a random dictionary word, but I’m game for a themeless round as well. ---
**Author:** ![elfkin477](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/a9a28c/32.png) [@elfkin477](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/elfkin477)\ **Post date:** [September 29, 2011, 4:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sdmb-short-fiction-contest-september-2011-edition-logistics-thread/597892/7 "2011-09-29T04:22:07Z")
You know, **Le Ministre** , I almost IM’d you yesterday to ask when the next challenge would be but I decided that maybe you were waiting until October to do a story for the hopes of a Halloweenish flare. ---
**Author:** ![Le\_Ministre\_de\_l\_au-dela](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/le_ministre_de_l_au-dela/32/12181_2.png) [@Le\_Ministre\_de\_l\_au-dela](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Le_Ministre_de_l_au-dela)\ **Post date:** [September 30, 2011, 1:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sdmb-short-fiction-contest-september-2011-edition-logistics-thread/597892/8 "2011-09-30T01:17:00Z")
All right, just under 12 hours until we start… ---
**Author:** ![jackdavinci](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jackdavinci/32/3259_2.png) [@jackdavinci](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jackdavinci)\ **Post date:** [September 30, 2011, 8:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sdmb-short-fiction-contest-september-2011-edition-logistics-thread/597892/9 "2011-09-30T08:04:28Z")
> [@Le\_Ministre\_de\_l\_au-dela](#): > > All right, just under 12 hours until we start… Don’t taunt the writers. 😃 ---
**Author:** ![Barkis\_is\_Willin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/a183cd/32.png) [@Barkis\_is\_Willin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Barkis_is_Willin)\ **Post date:** [September 30, 2011, 6:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sdmb-short-fiction-contest-september-2011-edition-logistics-thread/597892/10 "2011-09-30T18:02:46Z")
**Le Ministre de l’au-delà** , my story has been sent. ---
**Author:** ![Le\_Ministre\_de\_l\_au-dela](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/le_ministre_de_l_au-dela/32/12181_2.png) [@Le\_Ministre\_de\_l\_au-dela](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Le_Ministre_de_l_au-dela)\ **Post date:** [September 30, 2011, 7:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sdmb-short-fiction-contest-september-2011-edition-logistics-thread/597892/11 "2011-09-30T19:22:03Z")
Frankly, I’m astonished - I got the words and the picture set up in the auto-reply, went off for a piano lesson and schlepped through some thoroughly unenjoyable shopping afterwards. I just arrived home, and two! Two writers have already finished and submitted their stories. **Barkis is Willin’** and **Puddleglum** , I salute you both! ---
**Author:** ![Barkis\_is\_Willin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/a183cd/32.png) [@Barkis\_is\_Willin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Barkis_is_Willin)\ **Post date:** [September 30, 2011, 8:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sdmb-short-fiction-contest-september-2011-edition-logistics-thread/597892/12 "2011-09-30T20:49:16Z")
Luckily(?) for me I’m confined to bed today and just ripped right through that story. Believe it or not, it came out to almost 2400 words, so I had to trim it quite a bit. ---
**Author:** ![bup](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/6bbea6/32.png) [@bup](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bup)\ **Post date:** [September 30, 2011, 8:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sdmb-short-fiction-contest-september-2011-edition-logistics-thread/597892/13 "2011-09-30T20:54:42Z")
I see that the contest already started at 9 am - is it too late to enter? ---
**Author:** ![Le\_Ministre\_de\_l\_au-dela](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/le_ministre_de_l_au-dela/32/12181_2.png) [@Le\_Ministre\_de\_l\_au-dela](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Le_Ministre_de_l_au-dela)\ **Post date:** [September 30, 2011, 9:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sdmb-short-fiction-contest-september-2011-edition-logistics-thread/597892/14 "2011-09-30T21:27:39Z")
> [@bup](#): > > I see that the contest already started at 9 am - is it too late to enter? No, it isn’t too late - the contest doesn’t close until the 10 PM Eastern Daylight Time on Tuesday, October 11th. There’s lots of time in there in which to find a maximum of 60 hours to write a story. Heck, if you can write 2,000 words in an hour, you can enter at 9 PM on the 11th… ---
**Author:** ![Spoons](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/spoons/32/3141_2.png) [@Spoons](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spoons)\ **Post date:** [September 30, 2011, 9:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sdmb-short-fiction-contest-september-2011-edition-logistics-thread/597892/15 "2011-09-30T21:55:57Z")
I must say, I do like the wider window of opportunity for entering the contest. I’m unsure how my schedule will shake out over the next number of days, but I’m sure I can find some time in which to write something. ---
**Author:** ![elfkin477](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/a9a28c/32.png) [@elfkin477](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/elfkin477)\ **Post date:** [October 1, 2011, 4:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sdmb-short-fiction-contest-september-2011-edition-logistics-thread/597892/16 "2011-10-01T04:54:02Z")
Oh crap. I just remembered, some of us are supposed to write bad erotica this round. Werewolf erotica in my case. ---
**Author:** ![bup](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/6bbea6/32.png) [@bup](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bup)\ **Post date:** [October 1, 2011, 11:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sdmb-short-fiction-contest-september-2011-edition-logistics-thread/597892/17 "2011-10-01T11:55:16Z")
> [@Le\_Ministre\_de\_l\_au-dela](#): > > No, it isn’t too late - the contest doesn’t close until the 10 PM Eastern Daylight Time on Tuesday, October 11th. There’s lots of time in there in which to find a maximum of 60 hours to write a story. Heck, if you can write 2,000 words in an hour, you can enter at 9 PM on the 11th… Cool - thanks! > [@](#): > > The story can be any style or genre, but it must centre around 3 randomly selected words and one randomly selected photograph. (These requirements are partly to ensure no one dusts off a story they’ve been working on for months, and partly because it’s really interesting to compare what different writers do with the same source material.) So, where do I pick up these? ---
**Author:** ![Le\_Ministre\_de\_l\_au-dela](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/le_ministre_de_l_au-dela/32/12181_2.png) [@Le\_Ministre\_de\_l\_au-dela](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Le_Ministre_de_l_au-dela)\ **Post date:** [October 1, 2011, 12:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sdmb-short-fiction-contest-september-2011-edition-logistics-thread/597892/18 "2011-10-01T12:14:58Z")
> [@bup](#): > > Cool - thanks! > So, where do I pick up these? > [@](#): > > **Le Ministre de l’au-delà** , in the original post - Any writers interested in participating somewhere within that time can send an e-mail to sdmbpoetrysweatshop at gmail dot com - the required photo and the obligatory three words will be in an out-of-office auto reply. The writer will then have 60 (sixty) hours from the time and date of that auto-reply to submit a story of no more than 2,000 words. Looking forward to hearing from you, **bup**! ---
**Author:** ![bup](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/6bbea6/32.png) [@bup](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bup)\ **Post date:** [October 1, 2011, 1:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sdmb-short-fiction-contest-september-2011-edition-logistics-thread/597892/19 "2011-10-01T13:37:39Z")
Oh. There it is. Thank Og it’s a writing contest, and not a reading one. :o ---
**Author:** ![Le\_Ministre\_de\_l\_au-dela](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/le_ministre_de_l_au-dela/32/12181_2.png) [@Le\_Ministre\_de\_l\_au-dela](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Le_Ministre_de_l_au-dela)\ **Post date:** [October 2, 2011, 1:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sdmb-short-fiction-contest-september-2011-edition-logistics-thread/597892/20 "2011-10-02T13:20:29Z")
And there’s a story in from **DMark**. Still finishing mine, so I haven’t read through the submissions at all… [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sdmb-short-fiction-contest-september-2011-edition-logistics-thread/597892.md?page=2)