Greetings and Excited Felicitations,

I am pleased and proud to announce that Holy Worlds will be having a Christmas Contest, with the prize being a free book from Thomas Nelson Publishers.

They have kindly given us five copies of The Skin Map to give away to you all. This is Stephen Lawhead's latest book, and highly recommended by me and the others who have read it. You can read my review of it here, and our very own Robert Treskillard's review series of it over here.

The contest will have five categories, one for each book. You will have to pick your category, because you can only enter once. Here are the five categories:

1. A short story consisting of exactly 100 words. No more, no less. This is known as a Drabble, and you can read more about them over here.
2. A poem consisting of not more than 1500 words.
3. A short story consisting of 1000-2000 words.
4. A story hook, consisting of no more than the first 2560 characters of a story.
5. A description of a fantasy creature consisting of not more than 1000 words. You can choose one of the following creatures to describe:
   
   • Kraken
   • Dragon
   • Unicorn
   • Werewolf
   • Griffin

We have judges right out of our very own Honor Roll Members and Forum Team, ready to judge these categories, so make sure you do a good job on those entries!

Submissions should be submitted by email as attachments (in .doc, .odt, or .rtf format) to [email protected], or by private message as attachments (in one of the same formats as above) to me, Sir Emeth Mimetes, on the Holy Worlds Fantasy Forum. If you submit it via email, make sure you mention your username on the forum, so we know who you are.

This is open to members of the forum only, so if you aren't a member yet, register now!

The deadline is Christmas day (December 25th), so you better get moving with those writing utensils.

Make sure that your entry is clean, Christian, and fantasy based, or we will disqualify it. The judges reserve the right to disqualify any entry for any reason (we won't be mean about it though, haha). We want to be able to publish the winners (and maybe even Runners Up) all over the place, so we don't want stuff that we wouldn't want our little siblings to read.

Speaking of which, if you are worried about copyright, you retain all rights and ownership of your entries, just we get permission to post the entries for promotion purposes and whatnot.

And it's all free! We will even pay the shipping costs to get the prizes to y'all!

So here is what you need to do:

1. Get excited! Well, you probably already are, so check that one off.
2. Register for the forums. Of course.
3. Pick your category.
4. Start writing!
5. Tell everybody about it!

Yes, even though it might mean more competition, we want as many people as possible to participate. The main point of this contest is to get more people on the forums and to encourage you guys by giving you something to participate in.

If you have any questions at all, email them to [email protected], or to me at [email protected], or private message a Marcher Lord on the forums.

The lines are open, get started! Have fun, and I can't wait to see what you all come up with.

With joy and peace in Christ on behalf of the Holy Worlds Forum Team,
Jay Lauser aka Sir Emeth Mimetes

This contest looks great.

I'm trying to do a word war contest at my blog on Saturday. I'm new the forum and still trying to figure stuff out. Is there a way I can post about the contest? And if so, where?

Thanks!

Try the Quests room. Welcome aboard!

For the description of creatures, is it limited to those five? Also Are you looking for a general description or can it be specific to a certain fantasy world?

Thanks for asking!

Yes, you can only pick out of those five. And you can describe it either way you like.

That help?

Hello again!

Here are some more details about the contest. Pay close attention if you want to earn your copy of The Skin Map.

Please include the words “Contest Entry” in your subject line when you are emailing or private messaging your entry to us. Every entry must include the following: your name, Holy Worlds username, phone number, mailing address, and age, as well as the title of the story, its word count, and the category you are entering it into.

The winner, if all goes well, will be announced on January 1st, 2011. If we get a huge flood of entries, then we might have to move that date out further as we go through them.

And make sure to consider entering and letting everyone know about this!

With joy and peace in Christ,

Jay Lauser

I was thinking that too, WR.

He's already planning on doing that.

Not sure how that didn't get into the contest info, but yeah. I don't know who the third party is, but I know it's going to be a blind judging.

*nods* That makes sense.

That is a good idea. I didn't think about that... I would have still judged based on merit though. However, no one can say we picked someone's entry for biased reasons.

This sounds great! If I have time, I'll try to do the dragon.

What if you are the only person in a category? (which hopefully should not be an issue ) Do you automatically win?

If your submission fits the criteria, yes, I would say so.

But hopefully that will not happen.

Just wondering ... is it all right to enter something that was written a while back and posted on the internet? I don't have any problem at all with writing something new (this looks like a fabulous contest ) but as soon as I saw the categories I remembered an older piece of mine that would be perfect.

This is a great idea.

I am going to submit my soon to be famous (he, he) short story entitled "Of Dwarves, Goblins, and a Pickle"

Chaplain

Yes! I can't wait to see all these fabulous entries! I just ask for future reference not to post what you will submit here. Now the judges know who wrote "Of Dwarves, Goblins, and a Pickle," so it is biased.

Lady Meriwen, I have not consulted the judges about this, but I would say it's not. What if one of them has read it before, and they recognize it? They would either recognize it as yours, or assume plagiarism. Wait on Jay, though, for the final answer.

We prefer freshly written entries, though of course it is almost impossible to actually enforce that as a rule.

Sorry about that! Just trying to get the judges on my side. he he he

I will change the title or submit something else!

Chaplain

That's entirely ok. The judges are trying to be unbiased at any rate. Jay, should they include the category of entry with the subject line?

Yes. Though it is generally pretty obvious which it was intended for. If they actually follow the instructions that is.

Erm, I think some of the people could recognize mine, but I don't know who's judging. Should I submit something else?

Almost all the MLs are, I think.

You can replace your previous submission with a new one if you want, yes.

That way if you make a mistake you don't ruin your chances of winning.

I'll look for something, then.

The entries are coming in!

But we need more Drabble entries, so if you haven't entered yet, try whipping up a drabble and enter it! Looking forward to reading them!

Has the winners announcement date been pushed back further? I thought I saw on the blog that the date was originally January 1st.

Due to technical difficulties we have pushed it back to Saturday. Sorry.

Holy Worlds is awesome. It is teaching me patience! Looking forward to it, all the same!

*dies* Oops, I mean. . .

. . . that. Right. I mean that.

Hang on a sec all you! We're getting it done, slowly but surely. At least now I'm done with my part.

Like BushMaid said, it's teaching us patience.

lol, well, it's gonna be a BIG lesson.

That sounds kind of scary.

*evil laugh* Good. It was supposed to.

*sits quietly in corner and tries to look patient*

Look at it this way... when you get into pitching your writing, there's going to be a LOT of waiting. Trust me. Weeks. Months. Never mind the follow-ups.

And then when you finally make the connection... it's the most beautiful thing ever.

Every day until the announcement I shall come on here with a patience quote.

"He that can have patience can have what he will.”
~Benjamin Franklin

I've been trying not to think about it.... but ... <smile>

Patience, young Jedi.

(never mind this is a fantasy forum, not a sci-fi one, and I think I misquoted Yoda slightly...)

Here it's patience grasshopper.

But Patience leads to suffering, and suffering leads to anger, and anger leads to suffering, and suffering leads to pain, and pain leads to hunger, and hunger leads to steak, and steak... leads to stir frying!!! (and never letting anyone else talk.)

::shakes head::

That's....strange.

In a good way, I think! XD

Vorm. . . you've had too much. . . coffee. Or something. Maybe just too much HW.

For your second patience quote:
A handful of patience is worth more than a bushel of brains.
~Dutch Proverb

*gives away a bushel of brains to receive a handful of patience*

*Happily trades patience for brains* Yay! *gives brains to zombies...* You'll notice with my loss of patience I'm no longer on topic...

OMW winners are announced tomorrow.

"If I have ever made any valuable discoveries, it has been owing more to patient attention, than to any other talent."
~Isaac Newton

*cough* maybe.

That was fast. I'm kidding, you know.