Fantasy Adventure short story competition

Baen Books is running an open fantasy competition with a generous word-count allowance of 8,000, so this may be your chance! You have a good six weeks... plenty of time to build a world or two.

Deadline 30 June. See this link – the gist of which is below:

Baen Books is proud to announce the inaugural Baen Fantasy Adventure Award, to be given at this year’s Gen Con* to the best piece of original short fiction that captures the spirit and tradition of such great storytellers as Larry Correia, Robert E. Howard, Mercedes Lackey, Elizabeth Moon, Andre Norton, J.R.R. Tolkien, David Weber and Marion Zimmer Bradley.

Contest Rules

· Write a short story of no more than 8,000 words. It must be a work of fantasy, though all fantasy genres are open, e.g. epic fantasy, heroic fantasy, sword and sorcery, contemporary fantasy, etc.

· No entry fee. But only one submission per person...we suggest your best one!

· No reprints.

· All entries must be original works in English. Plagiarism, poetry, song lyrics, settings and/or characters from published gaming worlds or another author’s works of fiction will not be considered.

· E-mail submissions only. Send entries as .RTF attachments to: baenfantasyaward@baen.com

· Please put the word SUBMISSION in the subject line when sending a contest entry and QUESTION in the subject line for questions to the contest administrator.

· Please include the following in the body of your email: The title of the work, the author's name, address and telephone number, and an approximate word-count. The manuscript should be a RTF attachment, in standard manuscript format and should be titled and numbered on every page, but the author's name MUST BE DELETED to facilitate fair judging.

· Employees of Baen Books and Gen Con are not eligible.

· Contest closes for submissions June 30, 2014 at 11:59pm EDT.

 

What We Want To See

Adventure fantasy with heroes you want to root for. Warriors either modern or medieval, who solve problems with their wits or with their sword--and we have nothing against dragons, elves, dwarves, castles under siege, urban fantasy, damsels in distress, or damsels who can’t be bothered to be distressed.

 

What We Don't Want To See

Political drama with no action, angst-ridden teens pining over vampire lovers, religious allegory, novel segments, your gaming adventure transcript, anything set in any universe not your own, “it was all a dream” endings, or screenplays.

 

Judges

Judging will be by the Baen editorial staff, with final entries also being judged by Larry Correia.

 

Prizes

· The GRAND PRIZE winner will be published as the featured story on the Baen Books main website and paid at industry-standard rates for professional story submittals. The author will also receive a handsome engraved award and a prize package containing various Baen Books.

· SECOND and THIRD place winners will receive a prize package containing various Baen Books.

· Winners will be announced and notified no later than July 31, 2014. (Only the winners will be notified.)

· The winners will be honoured as part of Gen Con's Writer's Symposium. (We would prefer the winner attend the conference, but it is not required.)

***

Gen Con – ‘the best 4 days in gaming', August 14-17, 2014.

 

Good luck!