2012 Golden Donut Short Story Contest is OPEN!

2012 Golden Donut

 

The Writers’ Police Academy is pleased to announce the opening of the Golden Donut short story contest. The rules are simple—write a story about the photograph above using exactly 200 words, including the title (each story must include an original title). The image in the photograph MUST be the main subject of the story. All stories are to be polished and complete, meaning they must have a beginning, middle, and a twisted surprise ending. Again, all stories must be exactly 200 words. Not 201 or 199! So read the word count rules carefully.

The contest winner will receive the prestigious Golden Donut Award.

All entries will be screened by a panel of authors who will select their ten favorite stories and then forward their picks to the contest judge, editor Kristen Weber. Ms. Weber’s decisions are final and may not be contested or appealed. After reviewing each of the entries, she will present the winning story title to the appropriate Writers’ Police Academy staff member and the winner’s name will be announced and award presented at the WPA banquet. The contest is open to everyone, not just attendees of the academy, and the winner need not be present to win.

Submission Guidelines:

Submissions are a two part process. Please read carefully!

1. All submissions MUST be submitted electronically via email to >lofland32@msn.com< (You’ll need to copy and paste the address, omitting the >< symbols). Each entry will receive a confirmation email. If you do not receive a confirmation with two business days, please feel free to contact me.

2. Write: Golden Donut Entry in the subject line of the email.

3. Please include your story within the body of the email. Attachments will not be opened.

4. Additionally, a twenty dollar ($20) entry fee and a hard copy of the story/entry must be mailed to:

Writers’ Police Academy

P.O. Box 60091

Savannah, Ga. 31420

– Contest opens at 12 noon on April 1, 2012 (Please do not send any entries before this date).

Submission Deadline: Midnight August 19, 2012

– Any entry not meeting the exact 200 word requirement will be disqualified.

– Hyphenated words, for the purpose of this contest, will be counted as two words.

– Every single word will be counted as a word – this includes: “a,” “and,” and “the.” To be very clear…if it’s a word, count it. If it’s part of dialog and you think it may be a word, count it. If it’s a stand-alone letter or group of letters, count it as a word. If it’s a smudge on the page, count it as a word.

– Be sure to include your name, address, email address, telephone number(s), and title of your story in an opening paragraph above your story (in both the email and snail mail entries). Then, please include your story, headed by the title.

– There is a $20 entry fee. You may submit the fee by money order or check. There is no Paypal option for the contest. Entries received without the appropriate entry fee will be excluded from the contest.

Please submit the entry fee and your story(s) in the same envelope. It is far too confusing to receive an entry one day and the entry fee weeks later. Entries received without the proper entry fee will not be considered. Also, you must submit the electronic submission to be considered.

– There is no limit on the number of entries by any author. But each individual entry must be accompanied by its own $20 entry fee. ( One entry = $20. Four entries = $80, etc.)

– Any entry not meeting the exact 200 word requirement will be disqualified.

– By submitting an entry to this contest authors agree to allow The Graveyard Shift/Lee Lofland/the Writers’ Police Academy, Sisters in Crime, and affiliates to publish/reprint the story as a part of The Graveyard Shift blog and/or as advertisement for the Writers’ Police Academy or Sisters in Crime, or in other publications and media, including, but not limited to, books, magazines, newspaper, blogs, ebooks, online outlets, etc. *Sisters in Crime is not a part of the Writers’ Police Academy.

*All rights to all work/short story shall remain the property of the author. The Writers’ Police Academy reserves the right to exclude or delete any entry without cause, reason, or explanation.

– No refunds. Proceeds go to the Writers’ Police Academy fund to benefit the GTCC criminal justice foundation.

So there you have it. Now get busy and take us on a journey that’d scare the pants off Poe himself. Did I just hear a scream coming from inside? Has someone been murdered? Or, was it the howl of a troubled spirit? Perhaps, the ghosts of former mobsters are using the old house as a hideout. Maybe desperate bank robbers drove to their hideout and…well, who knows?

Good luck!

* Image courtesy of photographer Sunday Kaminski

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