Events

Deadline: February 15th, 2025 Prize: First prize winner receives a cash prize of 400 BGN. (Currently that’s 200 Euro or 223 USD, but conversion rates fluctuate.) Theme: Gothic Stories About Extremely Cold Weather Writing Contest Without AI Why no AI? In a world dominated by bots and fakes, I value authenticity. I want to  encourage real writing by real writers with real skills. Real readers deserve real stories. The Theme: “Extremely Cold Weather” Whether the story unflds during a peaceful winter journey or a ferocious blizzard, whether the characters are trudging across a glacier or huddling around a wood stove, whether the temperature is normal for the season or caused by climate change, what matters is that the cold weather plays a significant role in the plot, and that you let the readers feel the chill. Genre: Any – but with a Gothic touch Your story can be of any prose genre – Romance, Horror, Historical, Western, Steampunk, Noir, Adventure, Fantasy, Science Fiction, Humour,  Literary,  Mystery, Thriller...   as long as it has Gothic elements.  For ideas how to give your story a Gothic plot and atmosphere, see my blog post here. What does ‘NO AI’ mean? You may not use any Artificial Intelligence app, nor the AI tools of other apps, for any part of the story’s creation. Not for story prompts, not for plotting, not for structuring, not for writing, not for revising, not for editing. That’s the purpose of this contest: show how well you can craft a story. Not how well you can use AI. You may use a word processor and spellchecker. "But I like using AI for my writing!" Then enter contests for AI-assisted writing. "How do you know the story was not AI-generated?" As part of the submission process, each competitor has to formally...