Contests

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The Ultimate Flash Fiction Package

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Hint Fiction: An Anthology of Stories in 25 Words or Fewer hits bookstores on November 1st here in the United States, and to celebrate, we're having a contest!

First, what is Hint Fiction? Inspired by Ernest Hemingway's 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. The anthology features 125 stories by writers worldwide, including such luminaries as Joyce Carol Oates, James Frey, Peter Straub, and Ha Jin. Here is what people are saying already:

“The perfect story collection for all of us with too little time on our hands is a brilliant reminder of the magic that happens when you string the right words together. A must-read for anyone who is or wants to be a writer.” — Jodi Picoult, New York Times bestselling author of House Rules

“Some of these stories suggest entire novels in just few words. So, in this small book, you have a whole library. It’s reading at the speed of light.” — Robert Shapard, editor of Sudden Fiction and Flash Fiction

“The stories in Robert Swartwood’s Hint Fiction have some serious velocity.  Some explode, some needle, some bleed, and some give the reader room to dream. They’re fun and addictive, like puzzles or haiku or candy. I’ve finished mine but I want more.” — Stewart O’Nan, author of Last Night at the Lobster and Songs for the Missing

The anthology is currently available for pre-order at:

You can follow Hint Fiction on Twitter, "like" it on Facebook, and even add it to your shelf on Goodreads.

Now what's the Ultimate Flash Fiction Package? These eight wonderful anthologies of course!

The total cost for these eight books is $120.00, and it can all be yours.

How?

By simply linking back to this contest. Put it on your blog, Facebook, Twitter, etc. Then paste the URL in the comments section of this post (if on Facebook or any other password-protected site, paste your profile URL). The contest runs until midnight, October 31st, EST. A winner will be picked by random and notified by e-mail and announced here November 1st. Five runners-up will receive a copy of Hint Fiction. Have fun!

(Note that the website may hold your comments for moderation, so don't worry if it doesn't appear right away.)

4th Annual Micro Award Open For Submissions

Alan Presley, the new Micro Award Administration, asked me to pass along the following information:

The 4th Annual Micro Award will be open for submissions from Oct 1 - Dec 31, 2010. The Micro Award is presented annually for flash fiction of any genre, not exceeding 1000 words, published in 2010. Editors may submit two stories; writers may submit one. The winner of the $500 prize and all other finalists will be announced on Feb 17, 2011. Visit our website for official rules and submission guidelines: http://www.microaward.org.

By the way, in case you didn't know, it's already October 1st, so send in those submissions!

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In The Land Of The BEST NEW ZOMBIE TALES

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My story "In the Land of the Blind" (which won the Chizine contest, like, a decade ago) is reprinted in volume one of Best New Zombie Tales edited by James Roy Daley. Really, it's in there, as can be seen from the back of the book:

Yes, that's my name there, along with "Micro Award Finalist," which I guess is something special even though the Micro Awards are no more (three years is the normal longevity of an award, right?).

Anyhow, it's not your common zombie story. I like to call it a "non traditional" zombie story, because yes, the living dead are in it, but they do not eat humans. In fact, they're actually scared of humans. Here's a little bit from the opening:

Like everyone else he knew, Steven’s heart did not beat. Instead it lay dead in his chest, as docile as his brain and his lungs and his soul. So when he first heard the faint beating sound coming from outside his bedroom window, he didn’t know what to think.

He considered telling his parents. He’d been hearing the beating for almost a week now. Somewhere in the trees and bushes beyond their backyard. Its continuous thump-thumping sounded not outside of his head, but rather in.

When his friend Jimmy came over to the house one day, Steven took him out back.

“Do you hear that?”

“Hear what?”

“Nothing.”

If Jimmy couldn’t hear the beating, Steven knew his parents wouldn’t either. They’d just stare down at him with dead eyes and say, Oh Steven, don’t make things up. You know what will happen if you do.

He knew. It dealt with something only the zombies had, something called imagination. It was dangerous and evil and those who had it were hunted down and put out of their misery.

But one night the beating became too much for Steven. He snuck outside with a shovel — why the shovel, he didn’t know, except that he would need it — and followed the sound until he came to a spot beneath a willow tree. He placed his hand on the dirt where the thump-thumping was the loudest and felt the earth vibrating. He began to dig.

The anthology is available as an e-book (for $2.99 at Amazon and Smashwords) and as a trade paperback (for a slightly higher price at Amazon). I actually got my contributor's copies the other day and they're really nice. A thick book, too, over 300 pages (mostly because Ray Garton's story "Zombie Love" is about 100 pages long). Yes, the book is mostly filled with reprints, even though it's called Best New Zombie Tales. But hey, as they say, if you haven't read it yet, it's new to you.

Now, I have an extra copy here. Me thinks it's time for a new mini-contest. And here's how we're going to do it. In the comments section, write something that has to do with zombies. Your favorite zombie movie, book, video game, whatever. Or your least favorite zombie movie, book, video game, whatever. Or be creative and come up with a new mash-up. Whatever, as long as it has something to do with zombies. The deadline? Until ten people have entered. It could be a day, a week, a month, but when the tenth person has entered, I'll pick a random name and that person will get a free copy. Cool? Cool. Now I'm not great at farewells, so uh ... that'll do, pig.