FLASH CHALLENGE: July '10

[kailhofer]

"That New Car Smell" Challenge:



Chances are, you know someone ultra-sensitive to something, like the distinctive smell of a new car. Maybe that person is allergic to cats, or milk, for example. Fewer of us may know someone with a heightened sense, like a blind person with extremely good hearing.

That extra ability is a little bit frightening to us. After all, they can do something we can't. We rationalize it by telling ourselves it's compensation for losing another sense. But the truth is that you can have a person with all their senses, and one of them may be hyper-sensitive.

We usually lump characters like this into three categories: heroes, villains, and tragic monsters. Sherlock Holmes trained ability to notice minute details with his senses is part of made him part of a fiction franchise still going strong over a hundred years later. Conversely, Hannibal Lecter smelling Clarice's brand of skin cream from across the room creeped everyone out and helped make him one of the most feared villain characters in literary and movie history. Then again, some old woman locked away in a her house because she's hyper-sensitive to noises is tragic, but also makes you not want to go over there. Some part of us fears it might be catching. As I said, extra abilities make us a little uncomfortable, and not all of them are good.

So, for the first part of this challenge, you need to invent a character with one hyper-aware sense. But this challenge is also about voice, so I challenge you to write a 1st person story from the point of view of your "sensitive" character's assistant, henchman, or (if you're more daring) the character's opponent.



RULES




CHALLENGE REQUIREMENTS: (1) Your science fiction or fantasy story must be told in 1st person from the perspective of an assistant, henchman, or opponent to the character that has super-human ability in only one of their senses; (2) The extra sensitive character must be a human; (3) One entry per author; and (4) This is a Rated 'PG-13' challenge.

FORMATTING: 1,000 words or less, not counting title, byline, or "The End". Give your story a title and a byline. Leave an extra line between paragraphs, just like when you see them in the 'zine. I will allow different colors, but not changed fonts or sizes, artwork, or any other embedded or external links. You are responsible for doing your own formatting.

CHARACTERS & SETTING: No copyrighted characters or settings, or references thereto. Famous, non-copyrighted fictional characters like Santa Claus, or religious figures such as the Devil, named angels such as Gabriel, or gods like Thor, etc. as supporting characters at best and at my discretion. The Wicked Witch and Dracula may be in the public domain, but don't expect me to allow them. No person that was ever a human being may be used as a character, but can be referred to, as in "Ethelred the Unready had declared it would be so." Characters, except as noted above, must be used in their original appearance only. All non-copyrighted settings are ok. Famous, unique sites like Stonehenge may be used over and again. No fan fiction or sequels, so don't bother putting your story in the Land of Oz or that great place you thought up three challenges ago.

DISQUALIFICATIONS/REFUSALS: If, in my judgment, any requirement or rule is missed, I won't post the story for voting, but authors are free to resubmit with changes until the deadline. Should a story be initially accepted and posted in the challenge, but then later judged by me to be in violation, the story may be disqualified and removed from contention at any time prior to contest end. Authors who feel a story may be in violation should send me a PM and state their case.

HOW TO ENTER: Stories must be sent by PRIVATE MESSAGE, and NOT posted into a thread. Just click the 'PM' button at the bottom of this post and paste your story in the message.

DO NOT send a regular email to me.

CONTEST PROCEDURE: Stories will be posted "blind"--without the author's name on them. All the story titles are literally tossed into a hat and chosen at in random order. When the poll closes after the voting week, I'll post a list of the stories and who wrote them. The winner is chosen based on total points scored. All entries are reposted in the Flash Archive with the author's byline included after the challenge is concluded.

Entries from new authors are strongly encouraged. C'mon. Give it a try!

NOTE: ONLY REGISTERED MEMBERS who have posted at least one message may submit a story. Without that one post, the system may not let you send a PM.

DEADLINE: Stories should be in by 9 p.m. Central Standard Time (GMT-6), Thursday, July 22nd, 2010. The stories will then be posted for voting at around 10 p.m. Voting will close on July 28, 2010 at approximately 10 p.m., GMT-6.

VOTING: Stories are rated on a scale of 0-10 in whole numbers in 6 different categories by filling in scores in a form that is posted by me immediately following the post containing the stories for this challenge. Voters copy and paste the form into a PM and send it to me for tallying. One vote per user (that is, per ip address), and authors may not vote for their own story.

Every effort will be made to keep the voting fair. In the past, some voters have abstained from voting for some of the stories while voting for the others. Since total points scored decides the winner, this put the stories that weren't voted on at a disadvantage. Should this happen again, the skipped stories will be given marks equaling whatever the story's average is at the time of contest close. IF YOU WISH TO SCORE A ZERO FOR A STORY, YOU MUST ENTER A ZERO IN THAT POSITION ON THE VOTING FORM. A challenge entrant who does not vote for the other stories will receive a 10% deduction in their own score at the time of contest close, and the other stories will be given marks equaling whatever their story's average is at the time of contest close.

If more than two stories are tied at the end of voting, there will be a succession of one-day runoff votes until a single winner is chosen or the number of winners is reduced to two.

WHAT YOU WIN: Writers get improved short fiction skills, increasing their chances in the marketplace, without the lengthy investment in time a longer story would take. That, as well as bragging rights and pride--there is stiff competition each month amongst some great stories.

LEGAL STUFF: Aphelion will not try to make a dime off you or your stories. Really. We want to see you succeed but nothing about that will line Aphelion's pockets. We love fiction and we love seeing authors get better to the point where people do pay them for their stories. That's why we're in this.

I'll try to do my best lawyer impersonation: By entering this or any challenge you are technically granting Aphelion: The Webzine of Science Fiction and Fantasy perpetual electronic rights only to post and archive your challenge entry. Aphelion would rather not lay any claim on them at all, but by posting them on a public site, they'd legally count as being published no matter what.

Ok. A real lawyer would have been less interesting. I tried.

[kailhofer]

OK, I know that in every other challenge we've done, this is where I've posted an example.

I don't have one.

Between real life and my new job calling me at night, I'm kind of a zombie. (They called twice last night alone, and I found another problem myself in the company emails at 5:30 this morning.) The challenge seems like a good one with the right level of difficulty, but I'm drawing a flat blank zero so far.

If I can get one done soon enough, it will be the example. Otherwise, I'll put it up against yours. Feel up to the challenge? Can you beat me?

Nate

[kailhofer]

This might just be a hard one. 2 in, 2 rejected.

[kailhofer]

Only 2 have passed the gauntlet so far. (And no, I don't have mine done yet, either. I've been flopping between being stuck and procrastinating horribly.)

Plenty of room for more.

[Lester Curtis]

Eye don't think eye'm gonna make it in time for this one . . . eye had an idea, but . . . just couldn't get it focused, see?

[kailhofer]

Only 2 have passed the gauntlet so far. (And no, I don't have mine done yet, either. I've been flopping between being stuck and procrastinating horribly.)

Plenty of room for more.

Any more? And I gotta' tell ya', Nate. This one is tough.

Bill Wolfe

Now up to five. I'm still failing so far, myself. No good excuse, just too damn tired when I finally get home from work, and out of town too many weekends with commitments. Kind of embarrassing, really.

[Lester Curtis]

Well, I think my entry was a few minutes late, but I got one in . . . last-minute rush . . .

[Lester Curtis]

rats, I got rejected . . . wrong character POV . . . oh, well . . .