A New Contest

by

In Today’s Journal

* Quote of the Day
* A New Contest
* Of Interest
* The Numbers

Quote of the Day

“The art of writing pulp is the art of writing sentences that do more than one thing at a time.” Raymond Chandler

A New Contest

Hint: Read some Raymond Chandler. It isn’t the same as watching the movies.

Raymond Chandler was a master at pulling the reader into the scene and the story with the characters via his vivid description of setting. In other words, he was a master at creating depth.

Echoes of Chandler Contest Rules

1. Everyone is eligible.

2. No Entry Fee for TNDJ paid subscribers. $5 entry fee per story for everyone else (to help feed the cash prizes).

3. Stories must be new and unpublished. Submit up to three stories between 1000 and 7000 words.

4. Deadline: Midnight Arizona Time, August 2nd.

5. Any genre is fine.

6. All entries must come via email to me at harveystanbrough@gmail.com as a .doc, .docx, or .rtf attachment.

7. In the body of your email, provide a short author bio (say up to 200 words) for use in the possible anthology. Be sure to include your website and/or social media URL. (I will only include your email addy if you put it in the bio.)

Cash Prizes

$125
$100
$75

I will also pay $15 for each non-prize-winning story that I accept for publication. The prize and-or the $15 payment constitutes full payment for non-exclusive rights to publish your story in the potential anthology.

All payments will be made via PayPal (you do not have to have a PayPal account to access your payment).

If I publish an anthology, every writer whose work is included will also receive a free ebook of the anthology in .pdf, .epub, and .mobi.

Notes

  • No Rights Grab. You may publish your story(ies) separately whenever you want even before the anthology comes out. No waiting period.
  • Format: Please format your manuscript like this (free PDF download).
  • Also, instead of using the tab bar to indent the first line of paragraphs, please use the Paragraph Formatting Tool.

Any questions, email me at harveystanbrough@gmail.com.

Tips (Not Requirements)

  • Strive to make every sentence do more than one thing.
  • Enable me to see, hear, taste, smell, and feel the setting, physically and emotionally.
  • Let the characters write the story and lead you through to the end. If you trust them, they will.
  • Let the story sit overnight, then cycle through it the next day to be sure any dialogue or description is presented as it happened or occurred.
  • You do not have to write in anyone’s style but your own. Don’t channel some other author. Channel your characters.

The Fine Print

  • I am solely responsible for judging all entries. I reserve the right to withhold prizes if in my judgement the stories are not of prize-winning quality.
  • Writers retain the copyright to their story(ies).

Of Interest

How to Add Value With a Prologue 

The Numbers

The Journal…………………………… 480

Writing of

Day 1…… XXXX words. To date…… XXXX

Fiction for July..………………………. 2590
Fiction for 2025………………………. 523397
Nonfiction for July…………………….. 11210
Nonfiction for 2025…………………… 162840
2025 consumable words…………….. 678623

2025 Novels to Date…………………….. 13
2025 Novellas to Date…………………… 0
2025 Short Stories to Date……………… 31
Novels (since Oct 19, 2014)…………….. 117
Novellas (since Nov 1, 2015)…………… 10
Short stories (since Apr 15, 2014)……… 301
Short story collections……………………. 29

If you’re new to TNDJ, you might want to check out these links:

Questions are always welcome at harveystanbrough@gmail.com. But please limit yourself to the topics of writing and publishing.