Announcing the 2015 Storming the Short Story Contest

2015 Storming the Short Story Contest

Writers on the Storm (ACFW – The Woodlands) 

& Houston Christian Authors (ACFW – Houston)

in partnership with Chalfont House Publishing’s fiction imprint HopeSprings Books

Eligibility: 

The Short Story contest is open to all authors, published or unpublished, 18 years of age or older.

Entries & Fee: 

An original 4,000-6,000 word short story. Entries must not have been previously published in any form.

Entry fee $25.00 via PayPal.

Entry fees are non-refundable. Entry fees are used by the local ACFW Chapters to finance the contest, as well as fundraising for local chapter events.

Theme: Dancing

Your short story can be about anything as long as it fits into the one of the genres listed below, contains the theme mentioned above, and has a clear faith element (Christian). The theme should be obvious to the reader. For instance, if the theme was “Storms” there would need to be a storm in your story somewhere. Metaphorical storms would not count.

Categories and definitions:

• Contemporary
• Stories set in year 1960 or after that do not fit in one of the other categories
• Historical
• Any story with a setting prior to 1960
• Mystery/Thriller/Suspense
• Contemporary 
• Romantic suspense would fit here
• Romance
• Contemporary
• Speculative
• Any type of science fiction, fantasy, horror, or combination.
• If it’s weird, it goes here.
• Young Adult/Middle-Grade
• contemporary, Earth-based, regular fiction
• Protagonists younger than 20 years

The Contest Committee reserves the right to combine categories if a minimum of 5 entries are not received.

This is a Christian fiction contest. No objectionable content allowed. 

Judging:

Category Coordinators will determine whether the entries meet the required theme, content, and formatting requirements. Entries that do not meet the requirements will not pass to judging.

First Round judging: Panelists will score entries based on 5 categories. Scoring results will be returned to the contestant as feedback. Panelists can only vote in categories they have not entered as a contestant.

Final Round judging: HopeSprings Books will select stories for publication from the highest rated entries and will award at least a first prize in categories with 5 or more entries.

Prizes: 

Winning entries will be edited with the cooperation of the author prior to publication. Winners retain copyright to their work, but the publication contract will be a 7-year license of the paperback, ebook, and audiobook rights. 

Proceeds from the sale of the anthology will be donated directly to the ACFW Scholarship Fund, but authors can receive a report each quarter upon request.

Winners from the 2014 contest are published in the Out of the Storm anthology. 

Timeline:

June 1st - Contest is open for entries.

June 30th - Submissions closed (Midnight Central Time).

August 1st - Scoring begins.

August 15th - Scoring ends.

August 31st - Winners announced.

Formatting Requirements:

1. Name should not appear anywhere on the entry
2. Bible verses must be referenced in a footnote or endnote
3. Manuscript pages must be in standard format:
• Double spaced
• 1-inch margins
• Size 12 Times New Roman or Courier font (Including the header)
• Unjustified and aligned left text with no extra space between paragraphs
• Begin one third the distance from the top margin 
• Scene breaks should be indicated with a single (#) or triple pound sign (###) as their own line with a single blank line above and below
• Header should contain the category and title aligned left and the page number aligned right.