Here’s where things stand:
1. The deadline for getting a story in has passed and we received more than 350 submissions, which is pretty amazing.
2. The Jury of Awesomeness will now go through the entries and select the most awesome.
3. Probably in August, I (or the site editor, who will be here while I am on my hiatus) will announce the winner of the contest here on Whatever.
I’ve already started to do some light reading through the entries, and I have to say, I can tell already it’s going to be a tough choice to narrow things down to a single winner. There’s some kickass stuff in these submissions.
If you’ve submitted a piece, remember that we’re not claiming exclusive rights to your fiction, so if you feel like showing off the piece while you wait for our decision, that’s fine with us. In fact, we think it’d be cool if you did.
I’ll post further updates as events warrant, but for now the only thing to say to everyone who submitted a piece is: Thank you. You rock.
will you post the winning story here?
No, we’ll be putting the winning story into the electronic chapbook we’re selling to benefit the Lupus Alliance of America, along with stories by me, Wil Wheaton, Patrick Rothfuss and Catherynne Valente. As has been noted before.
I had a lot of fun and it’s for a great cause, so thanks to all the powers that be for the contest!
I for one would love to read some entries if folks would like to share. (I’ll show you mine if you show me yours.)
You’re welcome.
You rock exponentially more. I had a lot of fun writing it, and everyone I showed it too laughed their head off, even the ones who didn’t know what it was for.
If anyone needs me I’ll be off in the corner, jumping up and down and shouting, “Pick me! Pick me!”
:)
Loved this contest, had a great time writing for it and stretching the long-ignored writing muscle which, in itself, is enough awesome to fill a thousand Winnebagos.
And it made a couple friends laugh when they previewed it before I submitted, so that’s already FTW in my book. Now to get it up on my bloggity blog so a few others who have asked can read it!
Thanks again…brilliant fun.
I smell a collection coming on.
My son and I had a writing contest between ourselves, and both submitted an entry. We had a blast writing the stories.
Thanks for such a fun contest. It would be cool to somehow see all of the submissions, although that would probably be a real pain for you guys to set up.
With 350 clever people writing stories, I figure the competition is pretty stiff. If there was only a laser I could get my hands on to reduce the odds.
Thank you for this awesome contest!!! I havn’t had that much fun writing something in years. It made me feel a bit better about myself as a writer and even helped me with other stuff I’m working on.
I had a great time writing my entry. You can read it on my website: http://joebeernink.com/Home/ShortStories
Let me know what you think.
Not a single link to a story yet? Come on people. You won’t jinx it.
All right, here is my entry. I had a great time writing this, whatever the outcome:
http://alexshvartsman.livejournal.com/
I posted mine, too.
I, too, would like to see what other people wrote!
So, with President Scalzi’s permission, I’d be happy to set up a domain and stick a blog on it to collect people’s stories if they wanted to send them in…
We could also put up donation information or the like for the Lupus Alliance of America, and add it into the fundraising pot…?
Mine’s on my blog, just click my name to go there.
Chris, I’d rather not, actually. People posting their own work on their sites is something that’s totally under their own control, where as one centralized site naturally isn’t. I don’t want people feeling as they are obliged to send in their story, even if it’s meant to be voluntary.
Also, in terms of fundraising for the Lupus Alliance, we’ll be able to make a bigger impact with media write-ups and donations with a single large event than a diffuse series of smaller events. I don’t think people posting their own stories on their own sites compromises the fund-raising we hope to do with the chapbook, but a single site before the release of the chapbook probably would.
So thank you, but no, not at this time.
Okie doke, no worries — I certainly don’t want to compromise the sales of the chapbook! But please feel free to let me know if you’d like me to set up something like this in the future, after the sales of the chapbook and whatnot are finished.
Oooh, LOVE Chris @#13′s idea, especially the fundraising link. I’d happily donate money to the cause to have the chance to read so much pegasus unicorn kitten awesomeness! :-) Please bless it into being, oh esteemed Presidente.
Chris:
Thanks! I appreciate the understanding.
Oh boo – just read El Presidente’s decree. Will follow many, many links then. I hate it when people make sense. :-(
No problemo!
I figured I should offer *something* in exchange for the great time I had trying to throw together a story in time for the deadline last night!
Well, that, and for the existence of the image in question.
Here’s mine: The Ballad of Clown Sweater Wil
Thanks for the contest, guys. Lupus is something that’s had a significant impact on my family, so it’s good to contribute in some small way.
@john – have you talked to blizzard about making the unicorn pegasus kitten mount available in game. with blizzard selling it and half the money going to the lupus alliance?
last time they did something like this, they generated a ton of dollars for the charity.
plus, a unicorn pegasus kitten mount would be epic.
And mine:
http://bonzuko.com/?p=2154
John, thanks again for running this contest. I used to enjoy writing quite a bit, but I haven’t tried writing anything creative in about 15 years. Once I had this story in my head though, I had to get it out. Maybe it’s good. Maybe it’s not. But at least it’s written down. (I happen to think it’s pretty good, but I’m biased.) Now I need to find a good way to post it online for anyone that might be interested.
Me too Me too (and it has ryhmes in it):
http://vetruven.livejournal.com/772.html
Please disregard the hebrew portion above where
i described about the new “Slash” concept i wasn’t aweare of before
Thanks again for running this contest. It was a lot of fun.
Here’s my entry. I’d love to heard what people thought about it: http://www.timboerger.net/stories/the-tale-of-skalzi/
Joe @ 9 –
“pussicornasus”
Still wrapping my brain around that one. Trying to avoid going there.
Cool story.
My very own little piece of wrongness –
http://spaceanjl.livejournal.com/12086.html
Thanks Nick. Glad you liked it.
Thank you all for sharing your work! I had a lot of fun reading your stories! That Jury of Awesomeness seems to be in for a really tough decision!
You can find my story at my blog: http://thebrainbar.blogspot.com/2006/07/my-wil-wheatonjohn-scalzi-fanfiction.html
Wow, 350 submissions!
I put my submission up as well as some of the drafts on the way to get there; skip down to the second version to see the entry in its final form.
Here’s my version…. and don’t you hate it when you grammatically failed somewhere in the piece, but it’s too late to fix it? Yeah, that’s me. http://melimsah.blogspot.com/2010/07/my-entry-into-unicorn-pegasus-kitten.html
I tried to submit yesterday but I was not able.Is there any way to submit a story today?
Hmmm… alright, I relent, submit, capitulate. I was going to wait till after the chapbook came out before I posted mine, but since so many are coming out…. here’s mine:
http://lefthandofdorkness.blogspot.com/2010/07/following-herd.html
I hope it gets in, and I hope you all have a chance to read and enjoy it. :)
I was going to wait to post mine also, but I have succumbed to peer pressure.
(It unnerves me to envision what, by implication, my peers must be.)
http://lolmac.livejournal.com/#item216547
BTW, comments (including anonymous comments) are enabled and welcome.
Thought I’d add my entry to the list:
http://blog.roses-thorns.com/2010/07/01/wil-wheaton-john-scalzi-fanfic-entry/
I agree, this was a totally fun contest for a wonderful cause. I’m not surprised at the number of entries. :-)
For the general amusement, here’s mine: http://tinyurl.com/244ytoc
Good luck, everybody!
Okay, here’smine. It’s a Facebook link, sorry to those who aren’t members, but I had to post it there.
Here’s mine. This was a blast to write. It’s very rare that I get to turn the geek quotient up to 11 while I’m writing. =)
http://bit.ly/b4D1fo
Well, thought I might post mine too. Had a lot of fun even though it’d been a long while since I had written anything. Hope everyone had fun. http://finishing-last.livejournal.com/43675.html
I look forward to reading everyone’s entries! My friend Kasey’s is up on my blog. I have also linked back to here so my friends can see all the other stories.
http://booknerdgirl.wordpress.com/2010/07/01/unipegakitteh/
Cat’s Claw
And here’s mine:
http://members.ozemail.com.au/~laranzu/rants/picfanfic.html
Here’s mine. I make no claims to quality:
http://ellid.livejournal.com/742383.html
Thanks very much for the opportunity to submit a story. It was great fun, and I look forward to purchasing a copy of the anthology and helping out with the fund-raising effort.
my first ever attempt at fan fiction, and only third piece of fiction ever. here’s my entry
http://snowmanonfire.com/2010/words/writing/dont-touch-my-stuff-fanfic-entry
this was a great time, a wonderful writing exercise, a fabulous cause, and most of all, a bunch of laughs when i needed them.
I wrote one too: The Volcanic Reaction
Hal @ 46 –
I read your story. There were two parts that I really liked. The first part was your story. Did I say that I liked it?
The second part I liked was your introduction. This is the part that I liked.
“I’ve never written fan fiction, and haven’t read much of it to get a sense for the range and scope. … It’s the kind of thing that takes years of practice to get character development, voicing, and plot development out of rambling mode and molded into something that others might want to read.”
That part was gold, I tell you. Keep on writing, please.
I tried to post this morning, but I think Web gremlins must have eaten the post (I suppose I could have gotten shunted into the moderation queue, but I’d think that would have cleared by now). So we’ll try this again:
My story is What’s Opera Season, posted on my Web site; I’ve also linked a LiveJournal entry for comments from the story page.
I agree with Nick @ 48.
Nice job Hal @ 46 — I really enjoyed it!
Adding my link:
http://wp.me/pOUrX-5
One more try, from a completely different axis:
http://www.sff.net/people/jcbunnell/sf-operaseason.htm
Be warned that it is very silly.
I only just saw this update but here’s my entry I sent in near the beginning of the contest, a one act play:
http://www.stepto.com/Lists/Posts/Post.aspx?ID=618
S.
Mine can – and should – be sung to the tune of “The Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald.”
I’ll post it on my blog soon and report here when I’ve done so.
Mine was equal parts Minus, Cthulhu mythos, and Clash of Titans, with a dash of Alien.
As an aside -
My wife wanted to contribute a bit to the thread here. She is both an amateur writer and a longtime Lupus survivor who would certainly not have survived this long without the last 8 years of new autoimmune drug developments.
Some time ago, the sun sensitivity (particularly acute in her case – she’s gotten severe sunburns indoors from fluorescent lighting…) caused her to come up with a few lines comparing lupus sufferers to Vampires. This led to the T-shirt:
“Spontaneously Combustible:
Do not expose to Sunlight.
Do not expose to Holy Water.
Severe garlic allergy.
If found at crossroads with stake through heart,
do not resuscitate.”
Not all of these literally apply to her – she in fact loves garlic, and doesn’t burst into flames when exposed to holy water (the unlucky / foolish clergy, however….). However, sun sensitivity requiring SPF60 indoors in most public buildings is pretty good.
Just wanted to share my own little story that I wrote for this, hope everyone enjoys it!
http://mastercharles.wordpress.com/2010/07/07/episode-i-the-shortpants-menace/
I have finally posted my entry on my blog: http://ambug666.livejournal.com/159708.html
“Enjoy!”
This is a little late, but here’s my story. Enjoy.
Aaaaand I lost.
Well, it hasn’t been announced or anything, but I strongly suspect misspelling the name of one of the main characters is likely cause for disqualification.
Sigh. Wish I noticed before I sent in the story.
George @54, wow, it’s really got to be sucky to have to worry about SPF while indoors!
Thanks for sharing! I like the T-shirt, but not so much the actual discomfort that inspired your wife’s creation. Sorry to hear.
One (well really more than one) definitely wonders if folks suffering similar symptoms in history contributed to sections of Vampire mythology.
(Garlic is yummy!)
Deb
I had a lot of fun writing my little opus. My daughter-in-law has lupus, and it was my daughter who sent me the contest link. I hope that the chapbook produces a lot of cash, awareness, and support for lupus research.
I’ve posted my entry on my LiveJournal blog.
Thanks for the opportunity to do this. It was a blast.
I posted my entry at:
http://tinyurl.com/2fwlb98
This was a great contest! I had fun brainstorming and learning more about John and Will. Here’s the story my girlfriend and I wrote. Hope you enjoy it.
https://docs.google.com/Doc?docid=0AdRUvHOc8ulAZGZtd20yNnZfMTM3Y3Y3djYyY3A&hl=en
Thanks to all who have posted their stories it’s been fun reading all the different takes on the painting! :D
Me too! Me too! Me too!
http://anticontrarian.blogspot.com/2010/06/my-entry-for-scalziwheaton-fanfic.html
(someday I will learn to write in html; first I hope to master English)
Here’s my submission – http://www.neatinformation.com/fiction/A%20Dark%20and%20Stormy%20Night.html
I want to thank everyone for sharing their stories. It is a kick seeing all the creative ways to fill in the blanks about a picture.
Here’s a better link for my story.
http://wp.me/pYb53-1
I was going to wait to post mine, too, but I loved reading all of yours, so here’s mine!
http://beeyochkitty.livejournal.com/32594.html
Yes, I’m a huge “Killer Klowns From Outer Space” fan. ;)
Here is mine, hope you guys enjoy it. I had a great time writing this story.
http://joshuadevans.blogspot.com/2010/07/battle-of-tragon-keep-part-1.html
And here’s a little something I like to call “Forge Camp: Fear and Loathing in Azeroth” — http://cartoonlad.livejournal.com/324794.html
Guess I might as well share mine too. This was a hoot to write, and a challenge as I tend to have trouble keeping stories short!
http://saganth.livejournal.com/15399.html
Did anybody else get an automated message a couple weeks ago saying their submission was too late even though they’re quite sure that it wasn’t? I even got a confirmation email saying that it landed in the right box at 809am on 6/30. I was so sad!