Anthrofiction Network's Short Story Contest, Fall 2007

[ScottyDM]

Greetings!

The new contest is ready to go and the theme is Pumpkins.

You know... in Cinderella there was a pumpkin TF.

Scotty

[ScottyDM]

Greetings!

There is one month left to write a story for Anthrofiction Network's short story contest. The entry deadline is October 31st at midnight GMT (in England). The judging period will be the month of November.

Stories may contain transformation. They must have at least one important character who is anthropomorphic and often your anthro can be the TF character too.

And here's a bit of news. I desperately need to upgrade the site code. To have the time to do so I am seriously thinking of not holding the contest for the winter quarter. If you were thinking of watching from the sidelines this quarter and participating next, think again...

If I decide to skip this winter, the contest will be back March 1st 2008.

Scotty

[ScottyDM]

More Contest News

First: only eight days left to enter the contest for this quarter. It's anthrofiction so anthropomorphize (give human characteristics to) something that isn't human. TFs are terrific.

Second: I definitely will not be holding the contest next quarter so I can update my site's code. Back on March 1st 2008.

Third: I (finally) have a prize theme for 2007. Here's the official announcement:

I Have the Rocks!

Why a rock? Because to want to be an author you pretty much have to have rocks in your head. So as a contest prize I feel authors deserve a rock. However, if your writing is terrific enough to win a contest, then you deserve a terrific rock as a prize.

Announcing (very late) the award theme for 2007:

The Blue Sky Award

Blue skies are for dreamers. And who is more of a dreamer than an author of fiction? And what better rock to embody the blue sky than turquoise--the holy stone, the thread that connects the sky, earth, and sea.


I have my stones... cut and polished too. Monday afternoon I drove to the the Bad Boy's Mine in Cripple Creek and met with the mine owner David Graham. He didn't have as big a pieces in blue as I'd like (his mine produces a lot of green, including mint green and something he calls sea foam). So we pawed through a collection of rough stones in a tray and a bucket, then touched promising pieces to a diamond wheel to get an idea of the colors within. After going through about two-dozen stones I had three I liked and we flattened one face on each and polished them. The color isn't ideal, but it's close. Also note that this photo was taken indoors under artificial light and they look greener in the photo than they do in reality. See the stones Left to right: spring, summer, fall. The scale is in inches. The distortion is due to the craptastic quality of the macro lens and cheap digital camera.

David's mine produces some of the hardest turquoise in the USA and he does not "stabilize" (inject them with a plastic resin) or color his stones. These are 100% natural, as they came from the earth. The September 2001 issue of Rock and Gem magazine had an article about David's mine (Cripple Creek Turquoise: There's gold in that there turquoise! by Bob Jones). A very tiny percentage of his stones have yellow gold inclusions within the turquoise itself, not just the matrix. This is the only mine in the world producing such stones. Plenty of his stones do have either yellow gold or gold tellurides in the matrix. I did inspect these three stones under magnification and the middle stone has what looks like two tiny grains of telluride on the backside. Very tiny grains. More about turquoise and judging quality.


I will order the little brass name plates Tuesday.

So... finally trophies for this year. The winners from spring and summer will get theirs as soon as I get the name plates and can finish making the trophies. For 2008 I'll switch rocks to something else.

As always, there is never a fee for entering this contest. All entrants get scores and comments on their stories.

Fourth: The details: This is the Anthrofiction Network's Short Story Contest for Fall 2007. The theme is Pumpkins, so feel free to anthropomorphize a pumpkin (I don't know that anyone is) or to a pumpkin TF. The full rules, but in short: original story, between 1000 and 3500 words, at least one important character must be anthropomorphic, no stronger than PG-13, and you must use the theme.

Scotty

[ScottyDM]

Contest Results!

The Pumpkin Patch by Vixyy Fox won with a total score of 4.46

Children Shouldn’t Play by Virmir had a total score of 3.80 (Hey, transformation!)

Under the Shadows of Orange Sentinels by Vaperfox had a total score of 3.56

Thanks to all the authors for some really great stories and thanks to all those who read and scored the stories.

I'll will be working on a whole new site design during the winter 2007 - 2008 quarter, so there will be no contest for this quarter. Anyone who wishes to be on the site beta test team (maybe in February) go to the contact me page and send me an e-mail. The new site is on a different URL and I won't be posting the test URL except to e-mail.

Thanks again, and the next contest starts March 1st.

Scotty