I always have my eyes peeled for legitimate sounding writing contests and this past weekend at Armadillocon I ran across one that seems promising. It’s called the 8 Minutes Anthology Contest. The theme for the contest is “Something has happened to the Sun. In 8 minutes, everything changes!”
The website offers up the following information about the anthology:
The Earth is 8 light minutes away from the Sun. Something has happened to the Sun. Maybe it’s gone nova, been transformed, been replaced or stolen or…? But in 8 minutes everything will change for life on Earth.
Restrictions: The story must take place on Earth or on the Moon, or on a human-built satellite, ship or station orbiting the Earth or the Moon. Story must include the 8 minutes between the time the Sun is affected and Earth feels the effects of it. Story may include prior to and subsequent after the 8 minute window.
Submissions will be accepted between July 1st, 2009 through December 31st, 2009 and may not exceed 5,000 words in length. All entries will be judged by Mike Resnick, an established science-fiction author who has been nominated for numerous literary awards (Which is good because if your hard work is going to be judged, it might as well be by a professional in the field).
As a final note: this writing contest is NOT free. A $15 fee is charged for all entries.
When entering a contest that requires a fee, keep in mind that there are bad people out there in the world who are trying to scam you out of your hard earned money. Do your homework and find out everything you can about the company before you decide whether or not to enter their contest.
This particular contest doesn’t appear to have anything in the fine print that is hazardous to your health, but PLEASE read the terms for yourself here as I am not an expert when it comes to legalese.
Even if you aren’t planning on entering the contest (I’m not, personally. When you earn as little as I do, every entry fee has to be carefully considered in terms of 1. how lazy I’m feeling and 2. if the potential reward outweighs the cost), you can still use the prompt to fuel your own story idea.
At any rate, it’s interesting to think about what could possibly happen to the Sun that would change life on Earth as we know it.
Photo credit: Fr Antunes
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