THE FIRST WEST UIST CHRONICLE FLASH FICTION PRIZE

A Happy New Year to all of our readers. We hope that this will be a good writing year for you and we hope that you will consider submitting a story or two to our inaugural Flash Fiction competition.

So get out your quill and pen us a story. To make this easy (or hard, actually!) we are inviting stories of 26 words maximum, excluding the title, on any subject you like. Well, anything as long as it is not rude, racist or nasty about anyone living. So that gives plenty of scope.

You might think that 26 words is an odd number to choose (even though it is an even number), but the reason is simply that there are 26 letters in the alphabet. You can use less if you wish.

While we expect straight forward stories to be the commonest type of entry, if you feel really adventurous you may like to try writing an A-Z story. That is one that uses 26 words, each starting with a letter of the alphabet in the order of the alphabet. That is not easy, so we will allow some leeway with the letters X and Z, the only stipulation being that it still needs to read like a story.

The story element is all important. There has to be  a sense of narrative and we love little twists, if you can get one into a story so short as a 26-worder.

Here is an example of a straight story.

                                               THE TOMB ROBBER
He had expected treasure, but his neck broke when he fell into the tomb. His unseeing eyes stared as his unheard scream echoed into eternity.

An A-Z story  to show that it is possible.

                                   LOST IN TRANSPLANTATION – a case of rejection

Aorta burst causing deadly exsanguination!

Foreign gutter headlines implied jealousy killing, leaving mistress needing oxygen. Police questioned rival surgeon’s technique.

‘Unaccepted vessel was xenograft,’  yammered Zurginski.

ENTRIES

• Submit your stories by sending them to Keith Souter (aka Keith Moray and Clay More) at dr_keith.souter@btopenworld.com   
• Put WEST UIST STORY in your the subject box of your email
• Include your story, its title, your name and address in the email - you will receive a reply to acknowledge receipt of your entry.
• You can enter up to five stories
• Free entry.
• CLOSING DATE - midnight on Sunday 23rd January

RESULTS
We will select the top 10 stories and publish them on this blog, then the winners will be announced on Monday 31st January 2011.

PRIZES

• 1st prize An Amazon.co.uk gift certificate or a Paypal payment of £30, plus a signed copy of Keith Moray's latest crime novel Flotsam and Jetsam.
• 2nd prize An Amazon.co.uk gift certificate or a Paypal payment of £20, plus a signed copy of Dr Keith Souter's book Doctors' Latin
• 3rd Prize An Amazon.co.uk gift certificate or a Paypal payment of £15, plus a signed copy of a western novel by Clay More

It would be worth following Keith on Twitter for any interim announcements.Good luck!

Calum Steele
Keith Souter