~Feature Story Contest~
Don't Be a Hero: A VILLAINthology
And the winner is...
First of all, we want to thank each and every author who participated this year. We received an overwhelming response to our 2nd annual contest - over TWO AND A HALF times as many as we did for our inaugural contest! There were many really wonderful stories. The genres and themes ranged in subject from historical to far future, science fiction to fantasy, from literary to humor, and countless others. The ideas crossed the globe and the cosmos, including magic systems and science systems we'd never read about before.
Of all the stories we received, the editors had a really tough choice this time around. We narrowed it down to 21 semi-finalists, and would have been pleased to publish any of these stories. From those top 21 stories, we came up with our top 10 stories - our 9 finalists and 1 winner. We would like to acknowledge these finalists for their outstanding work. In alphabetical order by author's first name, they are:
Of all the stories we received, the editors had a really tough choice this time around. We narrowed it down to 21 semi-finalists, and would have been pleased to publish any of these stories. From those top 21 stories, we came up with our top 10 stories - our 9 finalists and 1 winner. We would like to acknowledge these finalists for their outstanding work. In alphabetical order by author's first name, they are:
Fred McGavran - "Going Home"
Hannah Saal - "Thou Shalt Not Suffer"
Jamie Lex Collins - "Inheritance"
Julia Byrd - "Ruthless"
Min Y Kim - "My Regrest Follow You to the Grave"
Randy Gross - "I Am No Clown"
Sarah K. Krenicki - "Panic"
Teasha Seitz - "Me and My Shadow"
Vijay Varman - "Rebirth"
Hannah Saal - "Thou Shalt Not Suffer"
Jamie Lex Collins - "Inheritance"
Julia Byrd - "Ruthless"
Min Y Kim - "My Regrest Follow You to the Grave"
Randy Gross - "I Am No Clown"
Sarah K. Krenicki - "Panic"
Teasha Seitz - "Me and My Shadow"
Vijay Varman - "Rebirth"
So without further ado, the winner is...
Michael Robert - "Only Okay at Bad"
"Only Okay at Bad" is a story about the lengths someone will go to in order to break into the villainy gig. It's a truly funny tale about how not everyone is cut out to be an A-lister, especially when it comes to evil. The editors of the Fairfield Scribes are excited to include it as the feature story in Don't Be a Hero: A VILLAINthology.
* * * * *
Michael Robert (row-bare) is an author of speculative fiction hailing from the Pacific Northwest where he lives with his wife, two daughters, and entirely too many cats. He has a head filled with a nigh-encyclopedic recall of 80’s cartoons, a Kindle filled with unread books growing at a rate exponentially faster than he can read them, and a garage filled with little toy robots. Now that he has finally realized his lifelong ambition of achieving full-fledged super-villainy, he will likely go out to Thai food to celebrate. You can call him Mike Bob Squarepants at your own dire peril and ignore him on Twitter at @WordsOfRobert.
* * * * *
We will be sending out personalized feedback within the next several days to each and every entrant, so look out for an email from fairfield.scribes@gmail.com. If you entered the contest and haven't received an email from us by Tuesday, June 11th, after checking your spam folder, please contact us and we will get back to you ASAP. During the submission process, at least one acknowledgement email bounced back to us because of an author's full mailbox, so we want to make sure that our communications can reach every entrant.
Thank you again to everyone who participated in our contest. We were honored to read your stories.
Thank you again to everyone who participated in our contest. We were honored to read your stories.
~The Fairfield Scribes
DON'T BE A HERO.
Heroes are boring. Standing up for weaklings, defending the status quo, reacting instead of acting. Villains are the go-getters, the ones who put grand plans into motion, the ones who change the world.
For their own benefit, naturally.
Villains are complex individuals with tales of their own to tell, and it's hard to have a great story without them. There's the dark figure cackling in the shadows, the grinning businessman behind the desk, the evil emperor sending forth his legions, the jerk down the hall who deliberately parks too close to the line every day . . .
Sometimes, it just feels good to be bad.
Submissions are open between March 1st and May 1st, 2019. Original stories only, please – no reprints will be accepted. Simultaneous submissions are fine, but please let us know immediately if your story is accepted for publication elsewhere. Word length can be between 2,000-10,000 words, which includes the possibility of a flash series of 2-4 pieces (as long as the total word count for all pieces together is between 2,000-4,000 words and the stories are all related in some way).
The winning story will be featured in the collection, and the winner will receive both an electronic and hard copy of the anthology. The author will also be promoted on our website, and invited to participate in any reading events that will be scheduled (located in the Connecticut/New York area). The Fairfield Scribes asks for first publication rights of the winning story for print and eBook; all other rights remain with the author.
We will respond to every submission we receive within a couple days to let you know we received it – if you don't hear from us within 5 days, please email us again, as that means your submission was lost. We will also offer personalized feedback on each submission. The winner will be announced on our website on June 1st, 2019, and the anthology will be released on October 1st.
Limit 1 entry per writer. Please follow William Shunn's guide to formatting stories and send all entries in .doc, .docx or .rtf format to: fairfield.scribes@gmail.com. In the subject line, write "Villain Anthology" or "VILLAINthology." Include a link to your website, if you have one, and a short writing bio – if you don't have either, don't worry. It won't affect your chances in the contest.
If you're looking for more info on what we publish, check out our previous anthologies, Z: Tales from the Zombieverse and When to Now: A Time Travel Anthology. We also have a list of our group's individual writing in our Scriptorium. If you have any questions about the contest not answered in these guidelines, please email us at: fairfield.scribes@gmail.com and we'll get back to you as soon as possible.
Thank you, and happy writing!
***MWA HA HA HA HA HA!***
DON'T BE A HERO.
Heroes are boring. Standing up for weaklings, defending the status quo, reacting instead of acting. Villains are the go-getters, the ones who put grand plans into motion, the ones who change the world.
For their own benefit, naturally.
Villains are complex individuals with tales of their own to tell, and it's hard to have a great story without them. There's the dark figure cackling in the shadows, the grinning businessman behind the desk, the evil emperor sending forth his legions, the jerk down the hall who deliberately parks too close to the line every day . . .
Sometimes, it just feels good to be bad.
Submissions are open between March 1st and May 1st, 2019. Original stories only, please – no reprints will be accepted. Simultaneous submissions are fine, but please let us know immediately if your story is accepted for publication elsewhere. Word length can be between 2,000-10,000 words, which includes the possibility of a flash series of 2-4 pieces (as long as the total word count for all pieces together is between 2,000-4,000 words and the stories are all related in some way).
The winning story will be featured in the collection, and the winner will receive both an electronic and hard copy of the anthology. The author will also be promoted on our website, and invited to participate in any reading events that will be scheduled (located in the Connecticut/New York area). The Fairfield Scribes asks for first publication rights of the winning story for print and eBook; all other rights remain with the author.
We will respond to every submission we receive within a couple days to let you know we received it – if you don't hear from us within 5 days, please email us again, as that means your submission was lost. We will also offer personalized feedback on each submission. The winner will be announced on our website on June 1st, 2019, and the anthology will be released on October 1st.
Limit 1 entry per writer. Please follow William Shunn's guide to formatting stories and send all entries in .doc, .docx or .rtf format to: fairfield.scribes@gmail.com. In the subject line, write "Villain Anthology" or "VILLAINthology." Include a link to your website, if you have one, and a short writing bio – if you don't have either, don't worry. It won't affect your chances in the contest.
If you're looking for more info on what we publish, check out our previous anthologies, Z: Tales from the Zombieverse and When to Now: A Time Travel Anthology. We also have a list of our group's individual writing in our Scriptorium. If you have any questions about the contest not answered in these guidelines, please email us at: fairfield.scribes@gmail.com and we'll get back to you as soon as possible.
Thank you, and happy writing!
***MWA HA HA HA HA HA!***
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