Hint Fiction Contest Reloaded

Last year the term "hint fiction" was born in the essay "Hint Fiction: When Flash Fiction Becomes Just Too Flashy" published at Flash Fiction Chronicles. To commemorate the occasion, a retrospective essay, "Hint Fiction: One Year Later" appears at FFC today. A lot has happened in the past 365 days, and I want to thank each and every person who has supported the concept of Hint Fiction and has helped spread the word. And to celebrate Hint Fiction's birthday, we're having another contest. What is Hint Fiction? Inspired by Ernest Hemingway's infamous six-word story -- "For sale: Baby shoes, never worn" -- Hint Fiction is a story of 25 words or fewer that suggests a larger, more complex story. These are complete stories that hint at a larger story, not a first sentence or random sentence plucked from a larger work thinly disguised as a story. To see examples, look at last year's winners and finalists, or check out examples of my own Hint Fiction.

This year's judge:

Last year Stewart O'Nan was kind enough to act as the final judge, and I'm thrilled to announce that this year the final judge will be the one and only James Frey. Author of My Friend Leonard, A Million Little Pieces, and Bright Shiny Morning, James's story "The End or the Beginning" will appear in Hint Fiction: An Anthology of Stories in 25 Words or Fewer, being released this November (and which, hint hint, is now up for pre-order at Amazon and Barnes & Noble at a very affordable price).

Prizes:

• The first place winner will receive $100; the second place winner will receive $50; the third place winner will receive $25. The first place winner will also receive a slew of  journals and anthologies donated by a handful of publishers:
  • a copy of The Best of Every Day Fiction Two, donated by editor Camille Gooderham Campbell
  • a copy of The Los Angeles Review, donated by fiction editor Stefanie Freele
  • a copy of Sententia, donated by editor/publisher Ryan W. Bradley
  • a copy of Space and Time, donated by editor/publisher Hildy Silverman
  • a copy of [first year] an mlp anthology, donated by editor/publisher J. A. Tyler
  • a copy of PANK, donated by editor Roxane Gay
  • a copy of Fox Force 5, donated by editor/publisher Barry Graham
• My own publisher has also been kind enough to donate ten copies of Sudden Fiction Latino, edited by Robert Shapard, James Thomas, and Ray Gonzalez. A copy will be awarded to each of the winners and finalists, as well as to some random contestants.

Rules:

The contest starts now and will take entries until midnight April 30th eastern time. You are allowed to submit up to two stories in the comments section of this post. Any writer who submits more than two stories will be disqualified. If submitting two stories, submit them at the same time. At the end of this contest, all submitted stories will be deleted from the comments section. No reprints. Titles are not required but encouraged, as they can create an extra layer to the story. Winners will be contacted by e-mail and announced here. Have fun!

A Penultimate Paragraph Winner

Let's be honest here -- a Penultimate Paragraph Contest is pretty absurd. But it's one of those things that's just so absurd it's awesome (or so I'd like to think). I received fourteen entries to the contest. They were all so great, and it was really impossible to choose (just how does one go about judging a penultimate paragraph -- which, by the way, means second to last), but in the end I went with my gut. The winner of the world's first Penultimate Paragraph Contest goes to Ravi:

Buntz and I get floggings from our parents. Buntz is grounded for four weeks and his parents put him on a low dosage of Yidalin—the kosher stimulant. I get six weeks—three for the accident, three more for keeping them in the dark and bothering poor Mr. Smothers instead. Mrs. Buntz bakes Mr. Smothers one of her famous Buntz cakes. Buntz gets no Buntz cake.

I laughed out loud every time I read that paragraph, and so I just had to award it as the winner. Ravi, e-mail me your address and which journal you'd like at robert (at) robertswartwood (dot) com.

For the runner-up, I asked the Twitterverse to pick a number between one and fourteen. @everydaycamille answered the call immediately with the number four. So there you go. The random prize winner is our fourth entrant Sophie Playle. Sophie, e-mail me your address, and whichever journal Ravi doesn't take will be sent to you.

Thank you to everyone who participated in the contest. It was a lot of fun. In many ways, it reminded me of a contest I had about a year ago. In fact, tomorrow is Hint Fiction's birthday. It'll be one whole year old. And while my lips are sealed at the moment, I am grateful to everyone who reads and visits this blog, so I'll simply say this: have you been practicing your hints?

Gimme Your Penultimate Paragraphs

Next week is Hint Fiction's birthday, so it makes some weird sense that my most recent publications are hint pieces (well, one is a hint piece, the other is slightly longer). "Terms and Conditions" (25 words) appears in issue 7 of The Los Angeles Review, alongside work by Benjamin Percy, Rick Bass, and a slew of other great writers. (My deepest thanks to Stefanie Freele for being kind enough to accept the story in the first place.)

"NSFW" (34 words) appears in the premiere issue of Sententia, alongside work by Roxane Gay, Adam Robinson, and a slew of other great writers. (My deepest thanks to Ryan W. Bradley for accepting the story in the first place.)

I'm thrilled to be included in both publications, and to show just how thrilled I am, I'm having another giveaway/contest, this one in honor of Holden McGroin.

You see, because Narrative didn't seem to want to hire Holden as an intern (I can't imagine why not), his Penultimate Paragraph Contest idea has not seen fruition. So I figured I'd help him out and host the very first Penultimate Paragraph Contest!

What do you need to do to enter? In the comments section simply post the penultimate paragraph of one of your short stories. The stories don't have to be published, but if they are published online, please provide a link so we can check out the rest of your story (note that if you do provide a link, my site might think it's spam and hold it for moderation, so if that does happen, don't fret, it will appear shortly).

Deadline is Friday midnight eastern time, with winners announced at some point during the weekend. This giveaway/contest will have two winners: one person whose penultimate paragraph I'll pick as my favorite, and another person selected randomly. (Note that if you're reading this on Facebook and want to enter, please do so at the main website.)

Come on, people, this will be fun. Get crack-a-lackin!

Two Contests

For you VSF writers, here are two contests worth checking out. The first is presented by Ben White at Nanoism:

A TWITTER-FICTION CONTEST FOR HAITI

Nanoism just passed its first birthday, and to celebrate we’re doing a big contest. This time, we’re doing it to raise money for Partners in Health, a fantastic NGO that is a major healthcare provider in Haiti. We have both free and paid entries, cash prizes, giveaways from some great independent publishers, and a most excellent judge, Ethan Canin. The details:

What we want:

• Twitter-fiction.
• Really. A story must be 140 characters (spaces included!) or less, no titles.
• Read our submission guidelines and archives if you’re unfamiliar with the premise. There are a surprising number of  different approaches to this form.
• Every submission will be considered for publication. We wear glasses; it will be okay.
• Contest ends Friday, April 30 at midnight.

The cash prizes (+ publication/fame):

• 1st:  $50
• 2nd: $30
• 3rd: $20

The second is presented by J.A. Tyler at Mud Luscious Press:

the first Mud Luscious Press bookmark contest:

anyone who has ordered from us in the past knows that we have already made some slick looking ephemera bookmarks with cover designs & excerpts from forthcoming novel(la)s, but we plan on giving all of our back-stock of those away at AWP & will need something new to send in June with our next two novel(la)s & our chapbook subscriptions.

the guidelines:

150 words or less, no genre restrictions, $5 per entry or $8 for two. paypal & submit your entry(ies) here.

winners (x2) will each receive one quarter of the total entry fee pool + c. copies of the bookmarks to share as they see fit.

So what are you waiting for? Go submit!

An "Incomplete" Contest

The Best of Every Day Fiction Two is now available, which features my story "Incomplete" along with 99 other fine stories published last year at Every Day Fiction. I'm honored to have been included. My thanks to Jordan Lapp, Camille Gooderham Campbell, and Steven Smethurst for not just putting together this collection of stories, but for keeping EDF running strong into the future. You can order a copy of the anthology here; it comes in two formats, trade paperback and hardcover.

Or, if you'd like to test Lady Luck, you can win a free copy signed by me.

In the past, I've asked readers to put something in the comments section of a post and then picked a random winner. This time around I've decided to mix things up. This particular contest will be strictly done via Twitter.

I like Twitter a lot. It's a great platform when used correctly. The best part about it is you can get information out to a large amount of people very quickly. And how is this done? Why, by the almighty retweet button, of course.

So here's what I'm going to do. Some time Monday I will post something on Twitter (you'll be able to tell when it's for the contest). All I'm asking is for you to retweet that particular post (preferably the "new" version retweet, as it'll be easier to track). The contest will end Tuesday at midnight here on the east coast. Then I'll pick a random winner from everyone who retweeted and announce it here Wednesday. That person will receive a free signed trade paperback copy of The Best of Every Day Fiction Two.

But wait -- there's more!

Right now I have almost 300 "followers" on Twitter. You have to figure that at least 90% of them are spambots. So that leaves about 30 people who are actually paying attention me. So if at least 30 people retweet my particular post (they don't even have to be "followers"), then I'll up the ante and send the winner a signed hardcover copy instead.

Yes, yes, there is the chance that nobody retweets, but that's a risk I'm willing to take. In the past year I've been playing around with different forms of self-promotion, and maybe this will work, maybe it won't. Guess we'll see come midnight Tuesday, huh?