FLASH CHALLENGE: April '13

[kailhofer]

The "Huntsman's Family" Challenge:


As an added incentive, a donor who wishes to remain anonymous has offered $20 U.S.D. for April's Flash Fiction Challenge winner, to be awarded through Pay Pal or given to their favorite charity.


I'm killing three birds with one stone on this month's challenge: One, the fantasy genre often gets neglected in the challenges and it's time to even things up a bit; Two, in light of a recent "dust up" in the forum, it would be good to remind everyone that relationships even between friends and family can sometimes be contentious and difficult, but those clashing individuals are still part of a working social unit, i.e. a family; And three, interaction between rival, connected characters is often necessary in stories, so let us make something real with that. Plus, every reader has some kind of friends or family or both, so he or she can fill in gaps readily enough for flash fiction to use that.

We've all seen or read fantasy tales where princes and princesses squabble over favor and who will win the throne, but this challenge is all about simple folk trying to live their lives without the intrusion of dragons, invading armies, or evil, magical rings.

Does the blacksmith have less trouble with his daughters just because he is a blacksmith and not a nobleman? Do the sons of the baker fight less for the approval of their pop because he doesn't hobnob with a Pope?

Nope.

The blacksmith loves his daughters and wants them to get along and marry well if possible. The baker wants his boys to make something of themselves, learn the trade, and to win a good woman that can keep the line going. Life, however, generally keeps things from happening from quite so simple a way.

The task this time is to set your story in the family of a simple, fantasy-genre huntsman--but NOT in a romance about the son or daughter wanting to run off with the neighbor. (We can save that for another challenge.) What happens to them is up to you, but the focus must be a simple one--just getting along.


Will you accept this challenge?



REQUIREMENTS: (1) Your fantasy story must be set in the family of a huntsman, trying to get along with each other; (2) No romances; (3) You must have at least two characters that "talk" to each other in some fashion. (4) 1,000 words or less, not counting title, byline, or "The End"; (5) The characters and story must be fictional and not previously published, even in these challenges; (6) One entry per author; (7) Give your story a title and a byline; and (8) 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 tales are literally tossed into a pith helmet and chosen 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, April 21, 2013. The stories will then be posted for voting at approximately 10 p.m. Voting will close on Sunday, April 28th 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]

Ok, I simply couldn't resist, so I already completed my entry today... so, I'm just waiting for some useful revisions/suggestions before sending it...

Why did I have a feeling something like that was going to happen -- ?

[kailhofer]

Two accepted, but one sadly rejected. Still, that's pretty good odds for the twenty bucks.

If I were you, I wouldn't let one of them win so easily. Give them some more competition.

[Lester Curtis]

Always a pleasure Tao!

Stephen, welcome aboard!