Is anyone/everyone up for another Shadowrun fiction contest?

Do people want to read submissions?

Are there potential authors out there?

Can we get it done in time for me to deliver prizes at GenCon? It would be nice to avoid the shipping expense and it would be nice to meet the author. The problem being, will the winner even be attending the con? And is just over a month enough time to get a number of submissions and pick a winner?

If I do this, are there any suggestions for doing it better than past contests? (See the link in my sig.)

i'd put something together for it, and i'd like to read the submissions. i'm not hitting GenCon, this year, but i'll hopefully be there next year.

I would like to join this fiction contest, if it gets off the ground. I saw the link in your sig before and wondered to myself, I wonder if he is going to be doing another one of these things sometime? It seems my wish like wonderings actually work and here one has the possibility of coming up.

I may have something submit...

I might be able to submit. Any specific guidelines?

Well, I don't think I'll submit anything this time around. Tisoz doesn't like my style at all.

Guidelines...

In the past, I have asked it to be third edition, but I do not think that really matters.

I have asked that the story conform to SR rules, but that has been kind of ignored and/or sidestepped by at least one prize winner.

I asked them to be long enough to make their point and short enough not to lose our attention, but I think I'd like them long enough to tell a story. To be eligible for a prize, I have asked that the story be original and not posted elsewhere on the 'net, and have only noticed one that I had read before. (There are a lot of Dumpshockers surfing the net, hungry to read fiction, and you had better believe they would love to rat you out. )

Multiple submissions are ok, but I have heard that if you enter 2 strong pieces and there is another contender, you tend to hurt yourself by splitting your vote.

I have asked that submissions be Titled. And that the PM you send me have the title in the Message Title box. It makes it so much easier to keep track of them, to find them when you send me an edited version, and to represent in the poll so you can get a vote.

Yes, edits will be accepted until contest is concluded. (Meaning even after I have posted them and established the poll. The earlier you get them, the better chance people will understand you.)

I have asked that you Personal Message submissions to me here at Dumpshock. Include the Story title in the submission (or as the message header.) The Personal Message Function can be quickly reached by clicking on the new messages button at the top of the page. One of the features is automatically saving a copy for yourself when you send the PM (I suggest doing this.) I should be able to use the quote function to easily cut and paste without having to go through and format things like paragraph breaks and italics.

It looks like there is interest. GenCon starts August 16th, so I think a deadline for entries will be the 12th. This gives more than a month to create a story, a few days for everyone to savor them, and time for me to deliver the prize in person should the winner be attending the convention. (I may even make a production out of awarding it so you can meet fellow Dumpshockers, and they can see what a freak you really are. Ok you may not think your freaky looking, but I have been a bit surprised to put faces to names, and to find Critias actually does not have horns and cloven hooves. ) In the pleasant event there are many submissions, I will either stop the contest when I get 10 entries (meaning if you quickly submit 10 stories, you are guaranteed winning, I will list them in separate polls and we will have more than one winner. The whole reason of having the 10 limit is that is the most poll entries the site accepts. If this optimistic situation occurs, I will divide multiple entries between polls.

I post the submissions without the author's name, hopefully to avoid bias and/or cronyism, and create a poll for the DS community to help choose.

And I am open to suggestions for improvement.

I'm going to ask a friend if he's interested in finally finishing up a SR piece that he's left hanging for a while; while the first bits of it are already on the 'net, the rest would obviously be new; would that be acceptable?

Well, I just sent him an email letting him know about this thread, so we'll see if he's even interested.

i'm up for it, my only question is the following:

is it just a general SR story or is it going to be type specific

Sounds fun. Not sure I have a story in me at the moment though. I enjoy reading the entries though, so s'all good anyways.

I might look into tossing something together.

I'll submit a story to your contest. I don't need or want no prizes (unless they're really cool, of course), but I'll submit for the fun of it.

And if you e-mail people, please, for the love of god, don't try to contact me at the e-mail address on this user account. I use it for spam catching.

That's pretty cool.

Yes, I should mention prizes. They consist of a choice of Shadowrun book. I ask the winner to pay shipping, so if someone international wants to enter, I don't go in debt shipping it. In this case, I hope to be able to deliver it in person at GenCon for no charge. Critias won the first contest and chose Native American Nations Volume 1. If Luke Hardison is listening, he needs to remind me which book he chose. warrior_allanon, do you remember what you requested? I recall that on the default win where there was but a single submission I limited the choice to 3 books, if Wounded Ronin or hyzmarca recall what was chosen I am not going to deny it. Critias won the last contest and IIRC, or from another post, he chose Bug City.

We have a couple of former winners stating interest, so polish those stories well.

I just got the first submission, so what are the rest of you slackers waiting for?

To suddenly develop anything which might resemble the abilty to write?

I always have tons of ideas for writing. It's the actual process of taking those ideas and turning them into something more concrete than ideas that stymies me. No worries, though. I'm excited about this, and that always helps jumpstart the creative process.

I'll have something turned in before the due date. I swear it!

Anyone remember this?

Where are the promised entries?

Is everyone waiting until the very last minute?

So far I have one submission, and I think people remember how cranky a one horse race makes me.

I remember, I do. I swear, you'll have something from me. It's just that I got hit with a freelance web dev project until two days ago, and I also promised a big piece of vector art to a friend of mine, so I've been doing that.

I was a liberal arts major. Can you tell?

I just saw this thread today

I have an idea for a novel, but I could make it a short story, but not before the 12th...

Any chance the deadline has changed? If not, any chance you could let me know if you do this again?

Been busy writing for Spinespur. I'll see what I might be able to fling together in the next few days that's not Spinespur.

I'd give it a shot, but I doubt my writing skills are up to snuff. That and the prize would basically be redundant

Is anyone any author dead set on keeping the deadline? So far I have one submission and the author has graciously agreed to extending the deadline.

I am considering extending the deadline until I have at least 5 entries. This removes a specific date, but still keeps the pressure on to hurry up and get your submission in before the last slot is filled. Hopefully, 4 authors were going to submit a story in the next 2 days anyway, rendering this change moot.

I think I will let those that submit a story by the original deadline, August 12, vote on whether or not they care to extend the deadline.

Whichever case may prevail, hurry up and get those stories written.

i really apologize. i'd like to submit, so i vote to extend the deadline.

The second story has been received and again the author graciously agreed to extending the deadline. Do you want to rely on the kindness of others? Let's get those submissions in!

I didn't notice this thread at all as I rarely come down to the third edition forum. I think the admins here should really sort out the topic headings as although I know this is supposed to be the general Shadowrun forum, the 4th edition is the place that really meets that definition these days.

Anyway, rant over, I would like to enter this competition if the deadline has been extended. I don't think I'll be able to complete anything until next weekend, so if you haven't reached the requisite number of stories by then (which is a good idea for a fair way of managing this), then I'll see if I can get something in.

I read through the entries last time and they were really enjoyable. I'm looking forward to this time around, whether I manage to get in or not.

Meh. You should put fiction contests in the place where people will read them the most.

It used to be that the General SR Forum was primarily about the current edition, and it got the most traffic. Now the current edition has been split off into its own thread, and the cheese stands alone.

Regardless, while I had also forgotten about this contest, I did get my submission in. I think it would have been better if this thread had been in a more often looked at forum (hint), and therefore received more attention from me. I'm sure others are in the same boat.

-Frank

My preferred solution would be to write a Firefox plugin that would auto-PM every single board member just to be sure that everyone knows about the contest.

I have received 3 stories.

i hope this is still going, but i think i'm gonna bow out. i've been working at it... but honestly, it's hard to summon up enough interest in SR anymore to put anything together.

Yes, still going. Waiting for 2 more submissions.

i forgot about that tiz, i'm just gonna have to track him down and beat it out of him....on the other hand i am working on something will have it to you this weekend for this, "Oh, i'm sorry Lieutenant, but it seems your training isnt quite up to standards anymore."

This may seem like a silly question but: is anyone ever going to send in two more submissions?