Last Spring I reviewed, commented on, a new seasonal crime noir magazine called NEEDLE edited by Steve Weddle. The debut was really a knock out of the park as far as I’m concerned. Every story really hit the mark and made me a fan.
Another thing NEEDLE, Steve and the community revolving around the magazine, did was to get me writing again. I’ve slacked off the last month or so, life gets the better of us sometimes, but seeing that there’s a new edition of NEEDLE out there has the old juices flowing. Need to write more, want to write more.
More than anything, I want the latest copy of NEEDLE. So I jump over to the order site Friday and precede to order a copy. Then I think, wait a minute I could share this, share it with everyone. OK, maybe not everyone. As generous as I can be, I can’t feed the world. I can give some lucky person a chance at winning a copy of NEEDLE. That’s the ticket.
So I ordered two. One for me, and one for who?
NEEDLE in the Box Contest
I’ve participated in a handful of writing challenges, ones that reward me with nothing more than the completion of a short story, a bit of flash fiction. This is the first time to host one, so let’s get on with it.
Not long ago Richard Kelly adapted Richard Matheson’s short story “Button, Button” into the movie The Box starring the Cameron “not as cute” Diaz and James “I’m a real boy” Marsden. Good story, not so good movie (not horrible mind you). The core of the movie is about making a choice and living with it. That’s not what this writing contest is about.
No, I’m simple. It’s about the box. About receiving a box and the consequences of what is inside. Now what’s inside is completely up to you. How the box is received is completely up to you. The only thing required to be in the story is that your protagonist or antagonist receive a box unsolicited. What you do to them after that, well I’ll leave that up to your devilishly criminal minds.
Now some guidelines:
Length: 2000 words
Deadline: September 10th
Theme: Receiving an unsolicited unmarked box
Genre: Crime, Noir
Prize: NEEDLE: A Magazine of Noir Summer 2010
Post a link to your entry in the comments.
Good luck. I look forward to some good reading.
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Links:
NEEDLE - A Magazine of Noir
Order NEEDLE Summer 2010
Steve Weddle
