Deadline: December 31st, 2015
Payment: 1 cent per word or 1 dollar per accepted drabble and a contributor’s copy

Guidelines

A “drabble” is defined as a short story containing exactly precisely no more and no fewer than 100 words. It has a title, which can be from 1 to 15 words–but no more than 15. That’s a drabble.

You have to count each word. Hyphenated words, such as tete-a-tete, count as one word. Don’t use your word count tool to count the words, because that tool will count . . . as three words, which really should be counted as one word. It will also count dashes as words, which is wrong. So count each word by sight, not by tool.

Our drabble contests will have themes. For each contest, we will simply throw the theme out there. Whatever the theme inspires you to write, that’s what you write.

The theme of this contest is: Confessions of a Shapeshifter. Basically, we’re looking for stories that are a bit off-beat, quirky, unusual. I mean, face it, what would happen if you went to bed with your lover and woke up next to an octopus…or a three-antennaed alien from Betelgeuse VII? And if you have a Little Green Man who somehow gets addicted to little blue pills, that could be cause for humor as well.

This contest is open from 1 October 2015 through 31 December 2015. You have three months to write 100 words. Easy!

NEW SUBMISSION ADDRESS:

Ah, but once you have written them, where do you send them? You send them to the contest editor, Terrie Leigh Relf, at tlrelf at gmail dot com. You’ll have to combine that address–sorry, but we don’t want her to be spammed. Send your submission in the body of the e-mail, please. If you want anything italicized, please indicate by * before and after the word[s] to be italicized.

Pay for drabbles is 1 cent a word, which means one dollar per drabble.

A couple of other notes.

One, please include your contact information in your e-mail. Submissions that do not include contact information–name and mailing address–may be deleted arbitrarily.

Two, the first and second place winners will each receive one of our publications.

Three, winners will be announced in the February 2016 View from the Lake.

Four, we will publish the 20-25 best submissions around February 2016, and this will also be announced in the February 2016 View. Each contributor will receive payment and a contributor’s copy, with the option to buy additional copies at a discount.

And finally, if you have any questions, please ask Terrie.

Via: Alban Lake.