NOTE: EXTENDED DEADLINE

The short story competition is launched!

Conflux loves encouraging writers, and this is a fabulous opportunity. You can win large cash prizes and publication!

The Conflux 9 Short Story Competition is now open and will close on September 15, 2012. The competition is only open to amateur writers ie those who have not made a professional sale. For the purposes of this competition, a professional sale equates to either being paid more than 5c per word for a short story sale, or having sold a novel to a publisher. Size of publisher doesn’t matter. Self-publishing does not equal a professional sale. We welcome and encourage writers who are yet to be paid for their writing to enter.

The theme is ‘Steam, Angels, Junk’. All entries will be judged by a panel of esteemed writers – Dirk Flintart, Jenny Blackford and Joanne Anderton.”

The competition is administered by writer and editor Elizabeth Fitzgerald.

First prize is $500, second prize $250, third prize $100. Stories will also be published in the Conflux 9 con book, under the priviso that the story is either already of a publishable standard or the author is willing to work with an editor to polish it.

To enter, you must be a member of Conflux 9 (either a full, attending membership or a supporting membership). Note! To be more inclusive we are opening in the competition up to non-members for a $5.00 entry fee. You can pay this by paypal and write the receipt number in your entry. If you do take a membership up, we will deduct this $5 from your membership. Here.

We would also like to acknowledge the support of the Australian Science Fiction Foundation, which can be found here.

Guidelines:

  • Stories must be no more than 3000 words
  • Stories must be speculative and fit the convention theme ‘Steam, Angels, Junk’
  • Stories must not be previously published, no simultaneous entries
  • Writers can enter more than one story, but only one story per writer can win a prize
  • Stories must follow usual formatting eg 12pt Times New Roman, double spaced, one inch margins
  • The stories will be blind-read so please ensure your name is not present on the story, in either the body or the header
  • Stories must be submitted by RTF attachment to conflux9storycomp@gmail.com by midnight August 30, 2012
  • The judges’ decision is final and no correspondence will be entered into
  • The judges are unable to give feedback on submissions