Holiday Pinata - holidays of first quarter (Jan-Apr) February 10, 2012 - February 13, 2012

Reading and Deliberating

Details

Max word count of 500 (try free wordcounttool.com/), which is approximately 1+1/4 pp of single space text. No nonfiction. Please try and run spell/grammar check on entries (see free Paperrater.com or grammarly.com). If work has glaring grammar issues, I might have to bypass to save time and use on reading more reader-friendly work (contract editor may be used later).

Black History Month; Valentine's Day; St. Patrick's Day; Women's History Month; -- content relevant to respective holidays. I do not want to see negative, horrible misery writing. This is an effort to mainstream good vibes for commercial endeavors of literary artists--the pop trend that has gained momentum as backlash to regular diet of bad news, etc.

For St. Patty's themes, limericks, etc. are acceptable. Any content should not be overly graphic, offensive, gratuitously violent, sexist. Ditto for other holiday themes.

Valentine's day/love/romance can have intimacy, erotica such that it's not xxxtremely gratuitous or smutty but important to story for a purpose. Please put a "Mature" filter if applicable to submitted text. Valentine themes, genres, etc., with diversity, something different or new voices or perspectives, not mainstream, are acceptable.

Love letters, prose, poetry, haiku, experimental, and other types of writing are accepted.

All genres across themes accepted. For example, perhaps a St. Patrick's horror story? or vamps punch drunk heyday on St. P's day? Valentine's love letter from a stalker? Instant messenger text love story involving 2 people? 2 people 1 phone? etc. Humor?

No previously published (print) work. You can enter work submitted for other contests on this site. Only submit what is your writing, and for which you have copyrights. Previously published is allowed to the extent that you have copyrights that allow republishing. Advise of same in private email message so this is clear from outset.

Entering contest grants publishing rights with attribution as stated below, details can be worked out, rights for negotiating same remain with authors. Envision a type of virtual publishing co-op of writerscafe scribes who wordstorm, collaborate, publish and market book(s), participate in ebook design decisions, for example.

I will create Kindle ebook(s) in Amazon (maybe others) based on this contest. The ebook would include works, bylines and links to respective website/writerscafe profile per author choice. Any proceeds, if any, to contributing authors.

For this contest, to receive prompt payment for winning, please either have PayPal or obtain same before contest ends. PayPal is based on having an email address, which can be a free service like Yahoo, Google, Hotmail, etc., or getting paper check payment mailed (standard shows it takes about 5 days USPS).
**Please do not enter if you disagree with guidelines.**
I do NOT want to see misery writing, predom negative text. Please submit that work elsewhere and save our time, or start your own contest. It's a generic industry expectation across all professions that guidelines provided are guidelines followed. In fairness to compliant authors, entries blatantly not following guidelines will be excluded. It's not personal, just business of writing, widely practiced in publishing industry. Please read and follow guidelines.

May you continue to develop as a writer, and your work reach its wider audience.