Yes! That wonderful time of year is upon us. This is the call for the Third Annual New Author Writing Contest!!

This contest has been a lot of fun the past two years and last year we saw some great poems and short stories in the line up. I believe the winner of the poetry division won by one vote. With that said, here is how it works:
I will begin taking submissions today, March 7th until 8:00 est on April 1st. That should be plenty of time for you to dust off those poems and short stories or write up that new idea you have in mind.

I will read all of them and narrow them down to the top three or five (depending on how many I get) short stories and poems. After I have selected I will notify those moving to the next round right here on the blog on April 4th. I have something special planned but I need to work out the kinks first. The selected stories and poems will then be read by a panel of judges; they will vote on the best short story and poem. The short story and the poem with the most votes will win. As for the rules; here we go:

• You are allowed to enter a total of 2 submissions. They can be a combination of short story and poem or 2 shorts or 2 poems.
• All short stories and poems must be your original work and you must have the rights to those works.
• Poems must be limited to one page with a minimum font size of 10.
• Short Stories must be a Max of 1500 words. Grammar and story structure will be a factor in the judging.
• Once a poem of short story is submitted to the Third Annual New Author Writing contest I ask that you do not submit it to another contest or publication until the contest has concluded.
• You can write about any topic and in any genre.

What will you win? Well, I don't have that portion of the contest nailed down yet but I can tell you that it will be a cool prize package and this will be a lot of fun. Stay tuned for updates!

If any of you would like to be a judge please leave me a comment with an e-mail so I can contact you. Also, if you have any questions feel free to leave those as well.

One more thing - the winners will be announced on April 11th!