FLASH CHALLENGE: February '13

[kailhofer]

The "Who Could Love a Monster" Challenge:



The Blues Brothers taught us in song that "Everybody Needs Somebody to Love." In this month's Valentine's challenge, we're going to take a different look at that love.

It seems all the rage today that the classic monsters, vampires and werewolves and the like, have become all touchy-feely, boo-hooers. They whine and cry about needing love and court the young ladies instead of eating them like they should.

Well, I can't in good faith totally dismiss the marketplace and what it wants. So, let's tell a story about someone in love with a monster—but let it be a hard-core, evil creature straight out of horror or the other speculative fiction genres, a creature that still wants to kill or devour all of humanity instead of dating it.

Consider a few examples: Take a sailor and make him jump into the open ocean to be with his beloved mermaid, but entertain the audience in so doing. Why did he do that? How did she entice him, and why was he receptive to it? Does the kraken like girls? Jill sure hopes so as she walks toward the cliff overlooking the churning sea where it lurks. Megan is enraptured with the mummies in the museum where she curates, especially the one in Amen-Suh's sarcophagus. His story fascinates her so much she spends hours each night next to it, telling him stories of the modern world. What makes her tick? The elders say the scarecrow in Dan Toban's field comes to life and prowls the dark corners of our village every night. Why does young Kathleen keep fixing his clothes and putting his stuffing back in every morning?

Are these people future victims, or are they in on it? Do they love being close to the power or does something else about the villains draw them in?

Will they live?

You decide.


Oh, and don't even think of using a vampire or werewolf in your story. They're forbidden.



REQUIREMENTS: (1) Your story must tell the story of a human in love with a non-copyrighted, generic (or invent your own), horror or speculative fiction-style monster; (2) You must have at least two characters that "talk" to each other in some fashion. (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?" That allows a lot, really.)

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-less 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 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, February 24, 2013. The stories will then be posted for voting at approximately 10 p.m. Voting will close on Sunday, March 3rd 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.

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 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]

Go, Mark!

You've got an advantage this time -- no more spam-parody distractions!

[Robert_Moriyama]

What about a werewolf-vampire?

well thought...

And Zombies should be off the list too because a) Ewww! and b) Apparently, that's a thing now.

Yes, I agree...after they concluded the horrible Twilight Saga...now it's time of zombies in love...the next stage is about loving Brownies and (boy)friendly Krakens, why not...

Loving Brownies? Mmmmm, especially the kind with walnuts.

[Robert_Moriyama]

"Is your Lemonade made from real lemons?"
"Are your Girl Scout cookies made from real Brownies?" (girl scouts= Brownies who are pre-G.S.s - see what I did there?) Where is this quote from???

Wednesday Addams (Christina Ricci) in one of the Addams Family movies. (Although I think the line was "...made from real Girl Scouts?").

[Robert_Moriyama]

Amazing as it might seem, I've written, voted, and already won! Hooray for Bottomdweller! I won with 15 perfect 10s in fact - yeah, that's the ticket. And a publishing house already saw it and offered me 1000$ to print it, no 10,000$ - yeah, that's right. And Beyounce has been hired to do the movie version...yeah, that's right...that's the ticket, and Jude Law has a walk-on role (goes without saying).

And he insisted that Michele be on set during his big nude scene...

[Lester Curtis]

Beyounce has been hired to do the movie version...

How about Angela Merkel and Peewee Herman -- ? It'll keep the audience guessing which one is the monster . . .

[kailhofer]

And then after I said that, I saw the ghost of Kailhofer past telling me the same thing several years ago. Then I was quiet so no other writing coach ghosts were listening in.

Boo!

February is an extraordinarily busy month for me. Challenges, work, life and also 'tis the season for ice carving, my other hobby. Hauled about 6,000 pounds of ice (15 400-lb. blocks) out of a lake 2 weekends ago. Carved about 2,000 lbs of that this past weekend, 1,200 lbs less than my goal, before a freak rain storm flooded my workspace. (Can't run those power tools in water.) Have only 1-3/4 days of working time left before the event, which is 2-1/2 hours away from my home, so I'm freaking out a little. Should have stayed and carved that first Sunday instead of resting and watching Superbowl commercials. There's going to be some things that don't get carved, dammit.

Anyhow, I don't know how I would manage the 1 per week. Right now, I usually get about 1 hour a day to unwind before I go to bed and get up and do it again. I tried not sleeping enough but that ulcer thing really slowed me down.

[kailhofer]

4 stories accepted so far. It's a good batch, so bring your A-game.

[kailhofer]

Does "generic monster" cover mythological creatures like Selkies or Furies or Kitsune ----monsters with class names but without individual names?

Sure, those would work.