Welcome, flash fictioneers, to Microcosms 112. Sincere apologies for the late posting today; the contest deadline will be put back to 02:00 am tomorrow SAT New York time (EST)
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Before we get down to the details of this week’s contest,
a plea for your help to make the administrator’s workload that little bit easier…
As most of you will know, Microcosms Contests are judged blind. This means that the administrator forwards to the judge all the entries stripped of all identifying details: entrant’s name, entrant’s Twitter ID, entrant’s blog address, etc.
All that is forwarded to the judge is word count (excluding title), prompt elements (Character; Location; Genre), Title and Story.
So it makes cutting and pasting so much easier if EVERYBODY uses the following format – with the exact same punctuation – when keying in an entry:
Put optional stuff — name, twitter ID, blog address, hashtag — first.
XXX words (in this format – not “Word Count: XXX”, “WC: XXX” or some other variation)
<CHARACTER>; <LOCATION>; <GENRE> (no need to say “prompts used” or “elements chosen”; we can work that out!)
blank line
<TITLE>
blank line
<STORY>
So, for example, if I were entering:
Twitter: @GeoffHolme
#FlashDogs
299 words
Art Collector; Victorian London; Mystery
My Fabulously Clever Title with Capitalised Words but No Full Stop/Period
Blah blah blah…
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Today – 02-MAR – is the anniversary of the birth of some notable people:
- 1545 – Thomas Bodley, English diplomat and scholar, founded the Bodleian Library ;
- 1842 – Carl Jacobsen, Danish brewer, art collector, and philanthropist
- 1886 – Willis H. O’Brien, American stop-motion animator: ‘King Kong’ (1933)
- 1900 – Kurt Weill, German-American pianist and composer: ‘The Threepenny Opera’ (1928)
- 1931 – Tom Wolfe, American journalist and author: ‘The Right Stuff’ (1979)
- 1942 – Lou Reed, American singer-songwriter, guitarist: ‘Perfect Day’ (1972)
Geoff
(If YOU have an idea for a future contest and would like to be a guest host, please contact us.)
Our contest this week begins with THREE things: character, location and genre.
We spun, and our three elements are – character: Art Collector, Location: Victorian London, and genre: Mystery.
Write a story using those OR feel free to click on the “Spin!” button, and the slot machine will come up with a new set – character, location and genre. You can keep clicking until you have a set of elements that inspires you.
*** HEY! Remember to include which THREE elements you’re using AND a title for your entry – not included in the word count.
*** NO FAN-FICTION, PLEASE, and NO USE of COPYRIGHT CHARACTERS **
- Diplomat
- Art Collector
- Animator
- Criminal
- Astronaut
- Drug Addict
- Library
- Brewery
- Film Set
- Victorian London
- Planetary Orbit
- Park
- Romance
- Crime
- Horror
- Memoir
- Sci-Fi
- Mystery
Last week’s Judge’s Pick, Vicente L Ruiz, has kindly agreed to act as the judge this time around.
REMEMBER: all submissions should be a maximum of 300 words in length (excluding the title).
You have just 24 hours until midnight, today (Friday) New York time (EST) to write and submit your masterpiece.
*** If you are new to Microcosms, remember to check out the full submission guidelines. ***
All being well, results will be posted next Monday.
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