FLASH CHALLENGE: July '11

[kailhofer]

The Devil Within Challenge:



Just this morning I received an angry email at work from one of our customers, totally unhappy with the job we had done for them. Now, I should mention that I'm on vacation today, so I'm kicking myself already for even looking to make sure things are ok. An important thing about the newspaper printing business is that every edition you print for someone is different: different number of pages, different number, type, and size of advertising inserts, different number of subscribers, which means it's sorted differently each time... You get the picture. There isn't a consistent way you do the work each day. You have to change constantly. Anyhow, this particular job had been a nightmare: much bigger product, harder to handle and process (wouldn’t even fit through our machinery as called for), was started late because of other delays in the plant, and had several changes they wanted in their specifications. Tight, tight post office deadline. Took a Herculean effort to get it out. I mean really, all my guys worked damn hard to get it done, and I pushed them that hard all day to do it.

The bitingly caustic email was to complain that we hadn't packaged the job to their old specs, or put them in the size bundles they wanted (the ones that wouldn't even fit through our machinery).

I had notified them in writing (email) of the bundles being a different size than their spec. 2-3 hours in advance of our arrival, so they'd have time to adjust anything on their end. I figured I'd done that right, especially since I had verbal permission from them to do that any time we need to get the job out. And the packaging difference, I had that in writing from them to do it that way.

I was furious. I mean, we'd really gone out of our way to satisfy the needs of this customer... and I knew my upper management wouldn't care. I'd just get reamed because "we clearly don't know what we're doing." They never stand behind us when a customer complains.

Another important thing to this story is that there is a running bet on me at work—to see when I finally lose it and start yelling. No one can believe I'm as calm as I am, day after day, month after month, big problem after big problem. (For extremely long hours and very low pay, but I digress.) Well, if I'd been at work instead of at home, someone would have won that bet.

It occurred to me that internal struggle for a character, to not let the evil within out, may make a great horror story, a genre we haven't done in a while.


I challenge you to write a horror story of a character struggling to hold a great evil within themselves, one that they dare not reveal.



REQUIREMENTS: (1) Your Horror story must tell the tale of one character trying to keep a great evil within themselves; (2) The character must be desperate to not let "the evil" out; (3) 1,000 words or less, not counting title, byline, or "The End"; (4) The characters, setting, and story must be fictional and not previously published, even in these challenges; (5) One entry per author; (6) Give your story a title and a byline; and (7) Keep it clean. Rated 'PG-13'. (Basically, think, "Could I see this on CSI?")

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, 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 before 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 pith helmet 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-6), Sunday, July 24, 2011. The stories will then be posted for voting at 10 p.m. Voting will close on Sunday July 31 at approximately 9 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: 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]

"I challenge you to write a horror story of a character struggling to hold a great evil within themselves, one that they dare not reveal."

Can the character lose the struggle and the evil is revealed at the end?

Yes. All I require is that the character be willing to do anything to not let it out or let is show. Actually winning or losing is up to the author.

[Megawatts]

I might not make it this month for my computer's hard-drive went belly-up!!!

Lost many things but I do have back up files. Yet, believe me when I tell you this, if you think you have enough back-up file, you don't!

I was surprised at the stuff I never backed-up.

The only good thing is----- I got rid of all the juke I had!!!

[kailhofer]

5 stories submitted so far. Still plenty of time before Sunday night for more!

[kailhofer]

And one more!

[Megawatts]

I agree Bill, where did they go?

[kailhofer]

It was deleted for a reason I don't know. I had an ok to do it that way. I'm trying to find out if it can be brought back from the dead or if I have to do it over.

[Robert_Moriyama]

Mea culpa. Nobody told me Nate would be cloning or cross-linking the challenge results in Administrivia as well as in the usual Fun & Games area, so I thought it had been done by accident. Unfortunately, deleting the topic from Administrivia deleted it from BOTH folders... and I can't find a way to bring it back.

Sorry, Nate -- looks like you will have to try to reconstruct things from memory (unless Rob knows something I don't about where backup info might be found).

RM

[kailhofer]

It's reposted. Luckily this time I had it all in 2 word files so it could be redone.

Although, I did have this paragraph at the top of the thing explaining it was a test sanctioned by Rob and everything...