FLASH CHALLENGE: February '11

[kailhofer]

The "Love of Your Life" Challenge:



It's a common misconception among people who aren't speculative fiction fans that stories in those genres don't include any real romance. They think it's all about blowing up the alien ship, slaying the dragon, or saving the Earth.

Nonsense. Kirk always got the girl, unless Leonard Nimoy or JJ Abrams wrote the script. Han Solo and Princess Leia fell hard for each other. The Doctor loved Rose, I swear he did. In The Matrix, Neo had Trinity. The Fifth Element would have been rather boring without that last element turning out to be love, not Leeloo herself. (I prefer my romance mixed with explosions, action, intrigue, and/or humor... but that may just be me.)

I say good fiction includes romance, and for a very important reason:

From the king in the castle to the lowly street sweeper, every single one of your audience wants someone to love and be loved by in return. It's a universal drive from genetics that has helped our species to thrive. By showing characters wanting and obtaining love, you as an author both draw on an instinctive need in the audience, fulfilling the reader's fantasy, as well as give added realism to your character.

As authors struggling to master our craft and adapt to market trends, this is a prime skill to master, considering Romantic Fiction is a $1.3 billion per year industry.

I challenge you to tell the story of the moment your character won the love of the girl… or the boy… or the alien… that his, her, or its heart desired in a speculative fiction setting.





REQUIREMENTS: (1) Your speculative fiction story must tell the tale of your main character winning over the love of the character's desired individual; (2) None of the characters are required to be human, but humans are obviously your audience, hint, hint; (3) The individual to be romantically won over and the character trying to win them over must be alive, and not any form of undead; (4) 1,000 words or less, not counting title, byline, or "The End"; (5) One entry per author; (6) Give your story a title and a byline; and (7) This is NOT an erotica challenge, so keep it clean. Rated 'PG-13'. (Yes, I said PG-13. Basically, think, "Could I see this on CSI?" If so, it's ok.)

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 "real life" human being may be used as a character, but can be referred to, as in "President Kennedy had declared it would be so." Except as noted above under non-copyrighted fictional persons, character names may not be copied from fiction or real life, even if changed, i.e. Char-les Darween. 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 two 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. You are responsible for doing your own formatting, and 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.

DO NOT send a regular email to me.

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. All entries will then be reposted in the Flash Archive with the author's byline.

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 will not let you send a PM.

DEADLINE: Stories should be in by 9 p.m. Central Standard Time (GMT-5), Sunday, February 20, 2011. The stories will then be posted for voting at 10 p.m. Voting will close on Feb. 27th at approximately 10 p.m., GMT-5.

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: 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.

[Lester Curtis]

If the recent stuff I've been putting in my novel is any clue, I should be able to come up with something for this . . . dunno, though, gotta come up with fresh characters & setting.

I have a romantic streak a mile wide.

Sorry, ladies . . . it's only a half-inch deep.

Perfect for fiction.

[Lester Curtis]

In the words of Venus, goddess of love, "Submit"!

She didn't really say that -- did she?

[Lester Curtis]

Well, I'm clearly not gonna make this one . . . been having great -- unprecedented -- progress on my novel the last week -- and all of it in, of all things, a love-at-first-sight romance, in which the Good Guy gets the girl, in spite of a lot of problems. Word count up over 8k, I think, just for this chapter.

Anybody want a look? Lemme know.

p.s. -- in my version, love does conquer poverty.

[kailhofer]

Only a few more days on this one. How many entries, Nate?

Curious to see if Michele is the only Aphelionite to know anything about love. . .

BW

There are 4 so far, and Michele is right, folks still have until Sunday. I reworked some of the deadlines to allow another weekend in there.