Date: Thu, 26 Sep 1996 14:50:27 MDT From: Robyn Meta Herrington Subject: WOW: Halloween contest fast approaching... It's a dark, musty room I sit in. I can smell the dust of ages past, mixed bitterly with. . . decay. Before me, a mirror, it's gilded frame reflecting my face in a twisted, distorted reality. . . or so I hope. The mirror itself is dark. I speak the words, and the surface pools with quicksilver. Letters rise for me to read. . . >And speaking of things to do, start planning now to participate in The >Third Annual Writers Halloween Short Story Contest. The submissions >start next tuesday (wow, that's less than a week away!) and end just >a fortnight after that (well, okay, maybe it's 15 days?) so GET >WRITING! Ah yes. *That* Halloween contest. I flex my fingers, feeling the itch beneath my skin, willing words wanting to be written. But no -- this year, I will not enter. For lo, I Am She Who Runs The Contest. >1. Your story must be no longer than 4,000 words. Poetry, songs, >all are well come to the ghostlie fest, but no longer than 4,000 words. >(is aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaarrrrghkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkklunk one word or two?) I smile at this. In case anyone wonders, it's one word. >2. Mail your entry to Robyn Meta Herrington >(NOT to WRITERS, check that To: address before you hit send, remember, >mail your entry to rmherrin@ACS.UCALGARY.CA. Put SUB: HALLOWEEN: in >the subject line to help our fiend sort out the myriads and millipedes >from the microforms, okay?) Amen. My microforms are making me meshugennah. >3. Submissions must have a fitting theme for Halloween. >4. Submissions start October 1st, and end October 15. >5. Voting takes place from October 15 to 30. >6. On All Souls Day, October 31st, the winner will be announced. > >And the grand prize is a glass orb, cast by the queen of the frosty >northern lands herself, our own RMH! Touched and tainted with colours >(not those wimpy American colors, but true northern COLOURS, with U >inside!) > >Start now, to compose those masterpieces of spiney horror... > >A starting sentence? Certainly, certainly... how about: > >>From the shadows, bent, fetid, tumultuous and lonely, squealing and >whistling now and then with exhilaration, it watched. OOooooOOOOOOOOH. I shiver in the dark, in the cold. I feel a breeze though the hair on the back of my neck, but there is no door nor window open. . . I wait, in my darkened room, for the submissions to start. Robyn -------+++++++-------+++++++ +++++++-------+++++++------- Robyn Herrington Operations Manager, Microforms Services University of Calgary, MacKimmie Library Ph: (403)220-6903 http://www.ucalgary.ca/~rmherrin rmherrin@acs.ucalgary.ca -------+++++++-------+++++++--------------+++++++-------+++++++-------