Hey, buttnutts, how’s every body doing today?
Yeah, you guessed it, I’ve decided to roll out this old whore of a column that Lindenmuth and I have been passing around like a cheap bottle of rotgut for the past couple of years now that Spinetingler is back in full swing.
The reason, you ask?
Well, simple enough, I think that short crime fiction deserves to have critical attention, even if it’s half ass critical attention from the likes of my fat pulp writing ass.
I am going to be doing things a little differently this time out.
I’m going to try and post a weekly column, but what I’m going to do instead of writing them all myself is I’m going to assemble a team of writers to help me out, because guess what, writing a weekly 600-to-1000 word column is a pain in the ass.
Once a month, though, not so much.
But for my second Short Thoughts, I’ll be writing it and should be up by some time next week.
But for today, I’m going to keep it short and not do any reviews; instead I thought I’d point you in the direction of a couple of contests and challenges that are floating around the interweb.
You know, I don’t know if it’s just me, but has anyone noticed that the web has been inundated with flash fiction challenges and contests lately? Don’t get me wrong, I don’t think it’s such a bad thing, some great writing has made its way onto the web because of them (The Drowning Machines Watery Grave contest produced some amazing stories and the Wal*Mart flash fiction challenge was the strongest and most popular to date.) and then again, they’ve produced some so-so results as well. (the Bathroom—oh, I mean, the Airport flash fiction challenge.) But with so many of them going on, it can be tough to keep track of all of them.
So, I thought for the first Short thoughts at Spinetingler, I’d track ‘em all down and make you aware of them.
Okay, first up is Patti Abbott’s newest flash fiction challenge. Patti, Gerald So, and Aldo Calcagno more or less originated these little flash fiction challenges and in my opinion, they still produce the best stories. Here’s the rules to the latest challenge in Patti’s own words:
It begins in a food/drink establishment of some sort. The radio/juke box/band is playing “Sweet Dreams” by the Eurythmics. A red-headed woman in an electric blue dress comes through the door. And then what?
The story doesn’t have to center on these elements. I’m just giving you the initial setting.
You can take it from there.
Stories under 1000 wrds. End date: May 3. If you don’t have a blog, Mystery Dawg will post it on Powder Burn Flash. Please advise if you’re in. It’s only fun if we have at least ten writers. Let’s see how much interest there is before we fire the gun.
I already plowed through mine and waiting it’s waiting to post. If you’re interest in participating, you can do so right here at Pattinase.
Next up is from fellow Needle issue #1 contributor, Chad Rohrbacher, and it’s a contest, so here’s what Chad has to say:
Since I’m such a nice guy and I love Gischler’s writing, I decided to do something out of character for me: give something away for free. Well, let me qualify that since it’s not quite free.
Don’t change the channel yet, because all I’m looking for is to see some good writing. In a flash fiction crime or superhero piece, this means under 1500 words .
I will post a poll once all the entries are in and the winner will receive:
Victor Gischler’s work on Marvel Comics’ Deadpool: Merc With A Mouth and the newDeadpool Corps and The Deputy. This means prelude 1-5 and Issue #1 of the Deadpool series and the novel for a little emotional sweat in a flash fiction piece.
So if you are a fan of comics, this gives you an opportunity to check out his novel; or if you’re a novel reader and think comics have nothing to offer, this gives you a chance to check them out and see how wrong you are. The best thing is writers don’t get to have all the fun, because everyone who loves crime and comic writing gets to vote for the winning entry.
Rules:
1. Sign up by Monday, April 19th 5 pm in the comments.
2. You have 1 week to write and post your entry to your blog and share your link with us.
3. This entry must be posted and linked by Monday, April 26th at 5 pm EST.
4. Vote – The poll will remain open until Monday, May 3rd at 1 pm EST.”
I’m a big fan of Herr Gischler, so if you’re interested, go right here to Chad’s Site.
Okay, so I’m assuming everyone knows about Jason Duke’s competition? Yeah, the winner gets a hundred bucks, 2nd place gets fifty, the stories get potentially read by two of the most renowned literary agents in the business, and they both get published in Crimefactory. Check out the details at my blog, Bloody Knuckles, Callused Fingertips.
And last but far from least, Naomi Johnson informed me that the Drowning Machine will be running the Watery Grave invitational again starting on May 5th. This also has a cash prize associated with it for the top three stories and like I said earlier, the competition produced some amazing stories, including Sophie Littlefield’s Spinetingler nominated, “At least I felt something.”
So anyway, gang, that’s it for this time, so stop reading and get writing!
Well, I’ve pretty much finished my story for patti’s contest and I’m in for Chad’s. That’ll do me for a while.
Thanks, Keith. It’s becoming impossible to keep up with them!