Revised and Updated Rules

Revised and Updated Rules for the Traveler’s Bi-monthly Short Story Contest
(Last updated January 20, 2010)

Rules are absolute and unyielding. If a story entry is found to have broken one or more of these rules, a Dreaded Email of Rejection shall be sent to the author, with a list of the infractions. A story may be edited and resubmitted after the author receives the Dreaded Email.
Rules are subject to revision and appending at any time, as issues arise and need to be dealt with.
Good luck, authors!


General Guidelines:
1. The story you submit must in some way subscribe to the instructions given at the beginning of the contest. If the contest calls for the phrase “She wept over the broken frog”, you must use it somewhere in the story. If the contest gives a picture to use as a scene, even if it’s a picture of a laughing pink pony, you must use it. No exceptions.

2. All stories must be sent to travstorycontest@gmail.com. Any stories sent to any other address or through a private messaging system will not be accepted for the contest, but rather deleted and sent to wherever it is that deleted emails go. (My money’s on it being the same place missing socks go…)

3. Stories must be submitted by the deadline. If they don’t get posted before then, that’s my fault, and they’ll be posted ASAP and voted on accordingly. But if they haven’t been sent by 11:59PM on the last day of the month, you’ll be tough out of luck. Voting will take place during the month following the contest. (i.e. if the contest is for November, voting will take place throughout December, with the polls opening on the first [or as near-to as possible] and closing on the last day of the month.) Polls will be located on the Traveler’s blog at www.musings-in-a-strange-land.blogspot.com


Content Guidelines:
1. Above all, keep it Christ-honoring. If these stories were movies, they’d be rated PG or better (and by better, I mean lower—like, G). That means:

2. No foul language—period. Not even one little word that you hope will be looked over. If there’s a curse word anywhere in your story—even if it’s not technically used as a curse word—I will reject it.

3. Keep your Characters Clothed. No nudity, sexual content, or anything beyond maybe a simple kiss. Sorry folks, but this is not the place to be writing steamy romance. Find a different market. As for the nudity—same ban. Keep those clothes on, thank you kindly.

4. Keep the violence to a minimum. I understand if you need to have a battle, or there’s an assassin who attacks your Frog Castle and he has to be stopped, but don’t go into details over the gore.

5. No religious stuff unless it’s Christian. And yeah, I see how that might be a bit strict, but deal with it. This is a Christian-sponsored contest, and I will not accept any entries that talk about Buddhism or Islam or Wicca or what-have-you in a positive light. If you’re not a Christian, ok, just keep religion out of the story. My only exceptions would be A) if it’s a conversion from ____ (insert religion of choice) to Christianity, or B) if it’s portrayed as being something “bad”. I realize that a lot of these stories are going to be fantasy and sci-fi, so when I say this, I mean that it’s fine and wonderful if you have an Allfather and a Dark Lord—just don’t make the Dark Lord the good guy, or have an Allmother or anything weird like that. For further questions, email me at the provided address. Try to keep the hate-mail to a minimum.

6. Even the humor needs to stay clean—keep out the potty jokes and such. Think “VeggieTales movie” when it comes to humor. Random is good, toilet gags are not.

7. When it comes to “magic”…use your best judgment. Read books like The Lord of the Rings, the Dragon Keeper Chronicles, the Chronicles of Narnia and Ella Enchanted. If your magic wouldn’t fit into those worlds, it may have a hard time fitting into these contests. Absolutely no Ouija boards, tarot cards, palm-reading, etc. And don’t go into the whole demon thing. Just…don’t go there.

8. While we’re on the subject: no undead. No vampires, zombies, cursed-skeletal-pirates (LOL) or anything in that genre. I don’t do the undead, and stories with such elements are likely to get tossed.


That's all for now, but be sure to check back every once in a while for updates. Toodles, all!
~Traveler