DFTBA Short Story Contest

Greetings all!

Enclosed here is the second of our blog posts from the judges. Marcy Collier - A judge who took part in our debut contest, last year. A professional critic for the Western Pennsylvania branch of the Society of Children’s Books Writers and Illustrators as well as being the editor of the Golden Penn newsletter (a blog she regularly contributes to can be found here and her twitter is here).

Applied 21st Century Research Creative Nonfiction - What?
by Marcy Collier

“The prompt for the DFTBA Short Story Contest for 2013 is to write a story about something that was proposed, researched, discovered, developed or invented in the last 13 years. Many of the contest applicants have found the prompt confusing. If you haven’t read a lot or any nonfiction lately, the theme is no doubt daunting. But let me ease your fears and give you a few suggestions.

Having a background in journalism, I find straight nonfiction easier to write and have sold these types of stories to magazines for the children’s market. My current work-in-progress is based off of a lady from a community near where I was raised who accomplished some pretty amazing things in the 1930s.

The possibilities for story topics are endless. Personally, I think the key is finding a subject that holds your interest. Many people don’t read nonfiction books because they associate factual books as boring stories. They think of those awful books their elementary school teachers made them read. But a great nonfiction book is far from boring. It can bring a story and real events to life.

When you read the newspaper today or watch the news, think, really think about the stories you’re hearing. I’ll bet you wouldn’t have been able to make up some of the things you hear.

Now, think about a subject that interests you. Use your favorite search engine to do a little research. What books come up on that particular subject? Go to your local library or bookstore or download a sample of a story that sparks your interest. Delve into many more subjects until you find that particular one which excites you. The best writing stems from a topic that you as the writer will get fired up about because your passion for the subject will show through to your readers.

Here are a few books that have moved me to read more on certain subjects. I write for children, so my picks are from the children’s market. 
We Are the Ship by Kadir Nelson

(Book blurb as noted on amazon)

The story of Negro League baseball is the story of gifted athletes and determined owners; of racial discrimination and international sportsmanship; of fortunes won and lost; of triumphs and defeats on and off the field. It is a perfect mirror for the social and political history of black America in the first half of the twentieth century. But most of all, the story of the Negro Leagues is about hundreds of unsung heroes who overcame segregation, hatred, terrible conditions, and low pay to do the one thing they loved more than anything else in the world: play ball. Using an “Everyman” player as his narrator, Kadir Nelson tells the story of Negro League baseball from its beginnings in the 1920s through its decline after Jackie Robinson crossed over to the majors in 1947. The voice is so authentic, you will feel as if you are sitting on dusty bleachers listening intently to the memories of a man who has known the great ballplayers of that time and shared their experiences. But what makes this book so outstanding are the dozens of full-page and double-page oil paintings - breathtaking in their perspectives, rich in emotion, and created with understanding and affection for these lost heroes of our national game. We Are the Ship is a tour de force for baseball lovers of all ages. Winner of the Coretta Scott King Book Award 2009 – author award and illustrator honor; Winner of the Sibert Medal Home Page Award 2009.

You can find the link here

This book is absolutely amazing. As a kid, I grew up near where the Homestead Grays played baseball. Today, I look out the window of my office and can see the Homestead Grays bridge. Local history is fascinating to me. This book is beautifully written and illustrated depicting the heroes of the negro baseball leagues. I’ve read many books about the Homestead Grays and the story of their struggles of overcoming adversity to do what they loved most – play baseball. You could take any character from this book (players, managers or fans) and start asking yourself questions. Draw up a character sketch and a story outline. Relate their accomplishments to current ball players and the struggles they face. Think of the stories you could come up with!

Strong female protagonists fascinate me. When I take a step back and see how much women have done to progress equal rights over the last 100 years, their stories inspire me. This next book kept me up at night reading.
Amelia Lost: The Life and Disappearance of Amelia Earhart by Candace Fleming

(Book blurb as noted on amazon)

From the acclaimed author of The Great and Only Barnum—as well as The Lincolns, Our Eleanor, and Ben Franklin’s Almanac—comes the thrilling story of America’s most celebrated flyer, Amelia Earhart.

In alternating chapters, Fleming deftly moves readers back and forth between Amelia’s life (from childhood up until her last flight) and the exhaustive search for her and her missing plane. With incredible photos, maps, and handwritten notes from Amelia herself—plus informative sidebars tackling everything from the history of flight to what Amelia liked to eat while flying (tomato soup)—this unique nonfiction title is tailor-made for middle graders.

Amelia Lost received four starred reviews and Best Book of the Year accolades from School Library Journal, Kirkus Reviews, Horn Book Magazine, the Washington Post, and the New York Times.

You can find the link here

I’ve read many stories on female fliers. This narrative is both compelling and interesting with a lot of heart and soul. The accomplishments made by young fliers like Amelia Earhart and many women you’ve never read about are unbelievable. Most of these women died young. The breakthroughs they made for women in aviation in a boys’ only club were compelling and admirable. Consider taking a young aviatrix and placing her into a steampunk story or futuristic encounter. Let your imagination fly away!

The third book on my list is Blizzard!: The Storm That Changed America by Jim Murphy.

(Book blurb as noted on amazon)

With his powerful and intriguing narrative style, Newbery Honor Book author Jim Murphy tells the harrowing story of the Blizzard of 1888. Available for the first time in paperback.

Snow began falling over New York City on March 12, 1888. All around town, people struggled along slippery streets and sidewalks — some seeking the warmth of their homes, some to get to work or to care for the less fortunate, and some to experience what they assumed would be the last little snowfall of one of the warmest winters on record. What no one realized was that in a very few hours, the wind and snow would bury the city in nearly 21 inches of snow and bring it to a ferocious standstill.

You can find the link here

I was fortunate enough to sit in on a five-on-five session last year with Jim Murphy at the Rutgers One-On-One Plus conference. He is as brilliant as he is nice. His books are fast-paced and the stories and characters he brings to life are both compelling and intriguing. I read this particular story during a snowstorm, which made it even more frightening. The what if scenarios are endless. Think of all the weather disasters we’ve had recently. You could take any number of these scenarios and write about what happened during or after the storm.

I hope that I’ve given you some things to consider when choosing your subject for the contest. Don’t allow the theme to scare you. Use it to launch real-life characters or events into an exciting story that only you could write. Let your mind carry you off into new and fascinating worlds. I can’t wait to read what you’ve written!”

Greetings one and all,

I see that we have lots of new followers joining us recently! Welcome one and all. This post comes to you in two parts. Or perhaps, one and a half parts. I say that because the first part is something of an introduction to the second part and… okay lets get to it.

Part One: The Email

Recently, I sent a round-robin email to all our judges that asked them two questions.

1. What are your top three favourite creative non-fiction books that have been published in 2000 or after?
2. What kind of stories could you imagine using those books as a jumping off point?

And so here, in part two, is Aaron Simon’s response to these questions. To see more of Aaron’s work, click here.

Part Two: Aaron Simon

“Creative nonfiction’s not usually my thing.

Scratch that.

Nonfiction’s not usually not my thing.

We’re so inundated with the goings-on of real life - you might say we even live in it - that, man, at the end of the day, you just want to curl into the fetal position, grab a bottle of scotch, and either bawl yourself to sleep or read a book that’s not set on this planet.[1]

That said, I do occasionally venture out of the fiction bubble. I’ll pick up a book on Zen philosophy, or a human interest piece, or, if I’m feeling particularly daring, an incredibly dense - but enjoyable - book on the universe. Reb Trimmer asked for my top three of the 2000s so far, so here they are:

1. Sit Down and Shut Up: Punk Rock Commentaries on Buddha, God, Truth, Sex, Death, & Dogen’s Treasury of the Right Dharma Eye. Long title, right? Well, around the time I was in my sophomore year of undergrad, I was really coming to the point where I knew that my religion up until then wasn’t for me. I knew that Islam and Christianity weren’t for me, either, so I did some poking around and found Soto Zen, then Zen in general. Now, I ain’t saying I’m a good practitioner of it, but I am saying that it makes a good amount of sense, and Brad Warner does a great job of chopping away at the ritual and ornamentation and showing what it is, based on Dogen’s work.

2. The Lost City of Z. It’s like an adventure novel, something you’d see by Arthur Conan Doyle - when he wasn’t writing about spiritualism or detectives - or H Rider Haggard. The catch is that it was written by a New York Times journalist, and tracks a Victorian explorer’s quest to find a long-mythologized lost city in the heart of the Amazon.

3. What Are You Doing Here?: A Black Woman’s Life and Liberation in Heavy Metal. Laina Dawes writes about her experiences growing up as an adopted black woman in the heavy metal scene. The book talks to women like her from the metal and punk scenes, and discusses the genres’ pasts, present, and futures, and what those women have gone through. Obviously, it’s a human interest piece, and you have to be at least somewhat interested in the histories and scenes and cultures of the two genres to get anything out of it.

Second on Reb Trimmer’s to-do list was to to talk about what sorts of stories could be created from these.

Ultimately, I’m a believer in letting a writer stare at something long enough and - hopefully - she’ll come up with a story. However, I tell that to people, and follow up with “It works for me - most of the time,” and, judging from the amount of obscenities and rude gestures I get in return, that doesn’t quite work for other people.

So, personally speaking, I’d probably get the most traction out of The Lost City of Z. Something like a modern-day explorer going through the jungle to track down ruins spotted via thermal imaging, but runs into some really spooky shit. The exploration turns into a fight for survival as his party is hunted down by - something.

At the heart of the trouble, though, isn’t finding creative nonfiction, or journalism, or anything else. It’s making a story into a story. I mean, come on! There’s already a narrative - what else do you need?

Well, let me tell you what I think about real life: It’s boring. Dull. Yeah, even the exciting bits are pretty boring. Life can’t hold a candle to fiction when it comes to excitement. And why? Because there’s always another side. There’s always some logical reason for things to happen why they do, and, when there’s a logical reason, there’s consequences.

You don’t have to think about all of the stormtroopers who died in the first Death Star in the Yavin system, nor do you have to think about their families waiting for them after their tours of duty ended.

You don’t have to think about how severely screwed up the fact that a giant great white shark prowling the waters off a beach in Jaws is. (There’s no way there’s only going to be big sharks. There are going to be big everything. That shit don’t happen without other weird shit happening.)

And you know why? Because it’s fiction. It’s not real. We are free to place ourselves in a universe far, far away, where those dudes are supremely evil, and it, frankly, doesn’t matter what the consequences are. Or, we’re free to go “Yay! The big, mean shark is dead and the two guys lived!”

So, perhaps you should take a look at a piece of nonfiction that you really like and say, “How can I turn this into a rollicking good time? How can I turn this not into a narrative, but a rollercoaster ride?”

Will you run the risk of not being Literary because you’re not writing in a Realist mode? Will you not attain a position in the hallowed halls of academic literature because you’re not another Jonathan Franzen?

Probably. But, man, I hate to break it to you, but even the most melodramatic parts of your day-to-day life don’t always have some existential meaning. Sometimes stuff just happens.

Hell, some days go by when you’re not faced with an existential breakdown brought on by… I don’t know. What’s the buzz in the Times best-seller list these days?

Sometimes, you just have to have fun.”

[1] That’s not particularly true. Most of the time, it’s a high-gravity beer.

In response to the claim that there is not enough in the prompt for people who write fantasy or romance stories, here’s something to help those people out. 11 articles that you can access for free from Google Scholar, that deal with both these topics. I hope this allays your fears

Romance

More than myth: The developmental significance of romantic relationships during adolescence - WA Collins - Journal of research on adolescence, 2003

Adolescent obesity, overt and relational peer victimization, and romantic relationships - MJ Pearce, J Boergers, MJ Prinstein - Obesity Research, 2002

Psychosocial adjustment, school outcomes, and romantic relationships of adolescents with same‐sex parents - JL Wainright, ST Russell, CJ Patterson - Child development, 2004

Peacocks, Picasso, and Parental Investment: The Effects of Romantic
Motives on Creativity - Vladas Griskevicius, Robert B. Cialdini, and Douglas T. Kenrick Arizona State University 2006

Sex Differences in Mate Preferences Revisited: Do People Know What
They Initially Desire in a Romantic Partner? Paul W. Eastwick and Eli J. Finkel Northwestern University 2008

Forgiveness and romantic relationships in college: Can it heal the wounded heart? MS Rye, KI Pargament - Journal of Clinical Psychology, 2002

Identity Implications of Influence Goals: Initiating, Intensifying, and Ending Romantic Relationships A Kunkel, SR Wilson, JO Olufowote, S Robson - 2003

EFFECTS OF A DISSOLVED WORKPLACE ROMANCE AND RATER CHARACTERISTICS ON RESPONSES TO A SEXUAL HARASSMENT ACCUSATION - CA Pierce, H Aguinis, SKR Adams - Academy of Management Journal, 2000

Slashing the romance narrative - A Kustritz - The Journal of American Culture, 2003

Red, Rank, and Romance in Women Viewing Men - Journal of Experimental Psychology 2010

The Realness of Cybercheating Men’s and Women’s Representations of Unfaithful Internet Relationships - MT Whitty - Social Science Computer Review, 2005 

Fantasy

YOUNG SCHOLARS IN FIRST-YEAR WRITING ELVES AND EXTREMISM: THE USE OF FANTASY IN THE RADICAL ENVIRONMENTALIST MOVEMENT - S Baldo

“Are You a Good Witch or a Bad Witch?”: Interpreting the Relationships of Propero, Ariel, and Caliban in The Tempest through the Mythology of Northern Europe K Cavanaugh - Shawangunk Review, 2001

The Irish Banshee and the Keen - N Sullivan - 2007

The Fetter, the Ring and the Oath: Binding Symbolism in Viking Mythology
R Enochs - 2004

Futurist Fiction & Fantasy: The Racial Establishment GE Rutledge - Callaloo, 2001

FROM FANTASY TO REALITY IN EPIC DUELS—ILIAD 22 AND AENEID 12. P Mountford - 2007

Zeus’ Missing Ears - FE Brenk 2007

Worlds of fantasy - C Kurkjian, N Livingston, T Young - The Reading Teacher, 2006

The Djinn - T Nathan 2005

Fear and Uncertainty: Local Perceptions of the Sorcerer and the State in an Indonesian Witch-hunt - N Herriman - Asian Journal of Social Sciences, 2006

Greetings fellow Tumblrers

So as you may have seen, one or two people have been asking questions about the prompt, and whether it limits people and how exactly one is supposed to go about writing a story about this. I’d like to take this opportunity to talk about the prompt in some more detail and deal with some people’s concerns. Specifically, what I’m going to do is to write about some potential ways you can use this prompt to write great stories. But before we do that, let’s get into what not to do.

I have said this before, but I will say it again. Avoid tangential inclusion of the theme. The theme isn’t just a background idea. The point is to use it as the centre of the story. The way you test for this is to imagine your story with the theme taken out. If it still works, and doesn’t compromise the fundamental essence of the story, you’ve made a mistake. The theme is meant to be central.

Having dealt with that though, let’s deal with some ways you can use the theme of “21st Century Research” to write some really awesome stories. The first way is perhaps the one I personally find most interesting, but its far from the only one here. I’m talking about extrapolation. This is something science fiction writers do all the time, but it doesn’t have to use the physical sciences to make it work. This is where you take a piece of research, or an invention or a recently discovered social trend etc and imagine “what would happen if this continued?” or “what if this went further”. You take the research, and extrapolate from there. Think of the Google Glasses example. You ask the question “what would the world be like if everyone had these” and then use that as a prompt for a story. Of course, writing a story about the entire world would be tricky, so you focus things for a bit. Maybe you say “what would detective work be like in a world with everyone wearing Google glasses” etc. Since there are thousands of technologies out there, not to mention all the other areas of research and development, the possibilities are endless.

And if you think that the non-physical sciences crowd aren’t getting a look in here, think again. Social research comes out all the time, in all shapes and sizes. For example, there is research that demonstrates that women are outperforming men in colleges and universities in many parts of the world. Maybe extrapolate what a world would look like after several years of this. Or what about the fact that society is ageing, and in a few years there will be more people over 65 than there will be under 25. There has been lots of research done into the consequences of this, maybe write a story set in a world like that. Or how about a world that employs a different voting model? There has been research into what might happen if the US for example, abandoned the electoral college for the presidency, and instead used a simple direct number of voters. Or what if new EU legislation meant that the European Parliamentary elections became more important. Extrapolate from there. Would the US get more divided? Would EU voting become more important? Would people relate to each other differently during elections? Its all there. There are lots of questions out there.

Even history isn’t excluded from this extrapolation style. This is where alternative history comes into play. Lets say you find some research that says that a particular historical figure may have been more/less important than we think. Or that a particular event had a greater impact than we thought. Using that information, extrapolate. How different would history be if that hadn’t happened. What would the world become? How would the modern world look?

But at the risk of getting carried away with these amazing ideas, always remember to bring it back down to earth. A good story has to involve good characters. A story can be set in worlds like the ones we’ve discussed, but the story still needs to be a story, with a clear beginning, middle, end, and above all, people. How does this world affect people? That’s what we’re probably wanting to know above all.

So that’s the extrapolation model, now let’s look at another one, the revelation model. One thing good research does is reveal to us things we didn’t know before, or tells us things we though we knew were actually false. So in this model, what you have is a story set in the kinds of worlds that the research actually describes. Instead of extrapolation, where you expand upon what we already know, in revelation you ground your story in what we do know. For example, there is lots of research out there on the War on Drugs, and how in fact the reality of the situation in South and Central America, where lots of the coca plants are being grown, is in fact very different to how most people imagine it. I bring up this example because I read a lot about it myself in a book called “Shooting Up” by Vanda Felbab-Brown, but there are lots of other sources out there on all kinds of topics. You could have a story about a piece of research that shows us what life was really like to live under the Shogunate in Japan for a woman, or what it was like for Monks on Iona to work and preserve the knowledge that they had gathered for so long. Revelatory stories reveal to us a world that did exist, but we didn’t know about. Find a piece of research and paint a story about what it tells us.

Finally, there is the research model itself. This one is a difficult one, because of these three it is the most limiting probably, but if done well it could be very interesting. This is the story where you actually write about people doing research into this topic and discovering what it is that the research you have found discovered. Or it could be about people actually inventing the device you are talking about. This is definitely the most defined field, but it’s also the most challenging. If you can write a story using the drama of research, all credit to you, and I look forward to seeing what you come up with.

I hope this post gives people some ideas about how to go about writing their stories. Just to be clear, these are not the only ways. You may be able to write a story that uses the theme centrally and doesn’t fall into any of these categories. If you manage that, well done! I look forward to reading your work, as do the judges. I really look forward to seeing what people come up with, and I hope this has been helpful.

God Bless, Best Wishes, and DFTBA.

Logo design number nine! This is by one Becky Powell who appears to have neither a tumblr nor a porfolio website, but we’re very glad to have her work here! Very much liking the classic rotund style!

A reminder, if you’re wanting your design to become number 10 or above, you don’t have very long now. You’ve got until the 28th of this month, which is only two days away! The prompt and link to where to make your submission is forthcoming.

“A clear, fun, bright and bold logo, incorporating the themes of Nerdfighteria (the hand sign, French Llama’s, etc), creative writing, and the specific prompt of this year - applied 21st century research (of any/multiple fields). The words “DFTBA Short Story Contest 2013” must be included.”

Greetings tumblrers, today’s post comes to you in three parts!

Part One - Update about the contest

Okay, so the logo design contest has now been going for quite a while. Specifically, it’s been almost two weeks since the prompt was released, and thus the substance of the contest was first mentioned, and it’s been almost one week since DesignersOfTumblr launched their submission page and we could get people’s designs coming in. And so far we have received… zero submissions.

I have to admit, I’m a little confused on this point. Last year, by this stage, we had almost a dozen submissions, but this year we have none? What gives? I have some ideas, mainly surrounding the fact that it’s possible I promised more prominence for the logo designer than was actually given (we said we’d design a website around it until we realised just how complicated that would be), so people don’t trust my enthusing. So to clarify a number of points, here is a few questions about the logo design contest that you might have asked, and might be why people aren’t submitting.

“Do you have to pay to submit?”

No. This is a little pre-emptive, but I can imagine that people might get confused, as you have to pay to enter the story contest, and this is a competition on top of the contest, but to be clear, no. You DO NOT have to pay to submit a design into the logo competition. That part is free. As is voting on the logos.

“Do I have to be a really skilled designer/have design qualifications?”

No. You can be self taught, a hobbyist, or just like mucking around randomly in photoshop/coraldraw etc. Whether or not your design will win is based on the vote we have at the end. There is no quality standard you have to reach before your logo will be considered. All logo designs are welcome.

“How do I draw ‘Applied 21st century research’? What does that look like?”

Just think about things that modern scientists/historians/doctors/archaeologists/sociologists etc might use/have invented and then draw them. Imagine test tubes, clipboards, textbooks, computers, microscopes, centrifuges, airship hybrids, mobile phones, hybrid cars, microfilm scanners… the list could go on. Maybe imagine the French Llama using some of these, or the nerdfighter handsign astride a history textbook with a microscope in the background. Maybe you want to riff-off of the sci-show or crash course logos. Just some thoughts.

“How widely will this logo be used? What credit do I get for it?”

The logo will be used in all of the following places

- On the Eventbrite page for the Story Contest itself

- On the Tickets that will be emailed out

- As the avatar of this Tumblr

- On almost every post made on this tumblr as part of the contest

- In the anthology itself

And I will be asking you to use elements of the logo you create to design a front cover for the final anthology. You will be credited as the cover design artist, and your tumblr/other website will be linked to from this page and regularly promoted.

“Havn’t we only got untill the 18th? That isn’t very long”

We’re talking to the people at DesignersOfTumblr and we’re going to extend the deadline if things continue to be so very quiet. So don’t worry, we’re not going to be sticklers here!

“Why are you asking for our name on the submission page”

So that we can credit you when the time comes to do so. That’s the same reason we need your e-mail etc. We promise not to flood you with Spam or anything like that! However, if enough people dislike the name requirement, we’ll change that policy, and just ask for your email so we can sort out your name later.

I hope that’s cleared up some issues some of you may have had. If I’ve just patronised some of you who already knew all of this, I apologise. I just really wanted to lay some more details down, to encourage people to take part in the contest. A reminder, you can submit your logo designs here and the brief is as follows

“A clear, fun, bright and bold logo, incorporating the themes of Nerdfighteria (the hand sign, French Llama’s, etc), creative writing, and the specific prompt of this year - applied 21st century research (of any/multiple fields). The words “DFTBA Short Story Contest 2013” must be included.”

I’m really looking forward to seeing what you guys come up with!

Part 2 - Judges

We’ve got some information on some of the new judges that will be looking over your stories in this 2013 season. Here are their names and some of their credentials

Becky Havens - A student from the Metropolitan State University of Denver, who’s getting her degree in English Writing with a minor in philosophy. You can find her tumblr here

Lies Lanckman - Whose name you may recognise as being credited on the last anthology as being the assistant editor, so she’s got a very keen eye for grammar. She’s a post graduate student from the University of Kent, looking into Gender Studies in 1930s film.

Marcy Collier - A judge who took part in our debut contest, last year. A professional critic for the Western Pennsylvania branch of the Society of Children’s Books Writers and Illustrators as well as being the editor of the Golden Penn newsletter (a blog she regularly contributes to can be found here and her twitter is here).

We have one other judge who’s participation is somewhat conditional, based on the number of entries we receive, so I won’t be revealing their details just yet. Although these three are all great, we still need more! Anyone interested, please email

DFTBA[DOT]Short{DOT}Story(DOT)Contest<AT>inbox[DOT]Com

We look forward to your messages!

Part Three: Numbers

A short note to say “welcome!” to some of our more recent followers, and to say that this tumblr now has almost 500 followers! Wowzer! Thank you everyone for being on board. I’m really looking forward to seeing the fruits of this anthology!

God Bless, Best Wishes and DFTBA!

Dear all

This is very slightly late, but my sleep schedule has been very mucked up lately, for various reasons.

Before I continue though, I see we have a large number of new followers of late! Welcome one and all. So glad you could be here to join us on this great literary adventure.

So, today, we announce the prompt of the DFTBA Short Story Contest 2013. And that prompt is…

No, not drums, it’s -

“Applied 21st Century Research”

At this point, one or two of you may be scratching your heads slightly, and its true that this prompt is a little more elaborate than last year’s one so let me explain.

What I’m wanting you to write this year is a story about, or somehow involving, research or discoveries or inventions or developments that have happened in the last thirteen years. I want you to find an article about something that was discovered, or developed, or researched, or proposed, or invented in the 21st century, and write a story about it.

To give you some idea of what I mean, here are some examples.

A story about interstellar travel based on the warp drive proposed in the following Sci Show video.

A story about how it came to be that Richard III’s body was buried in what became a car park.

A story about people with artificial limbs being allowed to compete in the Olympics.

A story about the cure for AIDS being developed, and what that might mean.

A story about how the conquest of the Mexicans by the Aztec Empire changed them so radically.

A story about just how much you can learn about someone from their face and what that kind of thing could mean.

A story about the Higgs Boson and/or CERN, and how they both might do things in the future.

A story about travel in the Roman world that we can now better understand thanks to research.

A story that looks at immersive, collaborative gaming now, and sees where it could go.

I hope this gives you some idea of what we’re looking for this year. Basically, we want a story that takes something that was invented/discovered/proposed/developed/researched since 2000, and use it to make a fiction narrative.

Just one point of clarification, this does not necessarily mean stories about the research itself. The anthology isn’t looking to be filled with fictionalised accounts of research from this century. Its more looking for stories that take the subject matter of the research (or the applications of the technologies etc) and make stories out of that.

To be clear, this could be any field. Maybe a new interpretation of a particular event was published in this century. Maybe there was a survey that suggested something strange about the way society functions. Maybe there was some proposed political idea, or some way of regulating society that was proposed or researched in the last 13 years. There is a lot of scope here, and I’m really looking forward to seeing what people do with it.

The one rule that this prompt does bring into the equation is sourcing. To prove that your story is based on something that was actually developed/researched etc in this century, you’ll need to provide a source that shows and discusses the topic of your story. Also, Wikipedia does not count. It’s a great place as a hub to find such research, but its no good as an actual source in and of itself. Specifics will be discussed in detail later, but I’d like to think that most of our readers here can tell the difference between a credible and non-credible source.

What is being asked for here could be broadly described as “science fiction” since it is all fiction that is being inspired by new developments. But the crucial point is that those new developments arn’t being made only in the science field. There are all kinds of fields that had made all kinds of advancements in the twenty first century. Sociology, psychology, history, economics, art theory, literature… so many different fields have grown and changed that there is plenty to go out and inspire you. And crucially, you’re not limited to writing about the changes themselves. Those are an important starting point, and depending upon your choice of research, the discoveries themselves may be your principle focus. But equally, you could say “what did these theories mean if applied in X way in the future” or “how does what we see here interact with what we know already?” These, and many other questions, are very possible to discuss with this prompt. 

Naturally, I expect some of you will have questions and ideas about what to do with this, so please feel free to ask. You can send me an ask, or you can drop me an email at

DFTBA(dot)Short[dot]Story<dot>Contest{AT}inbox(dot)com

Although please make it clear if you send an email if you’re comfortable with me discussing the answer to your question on the tumblr.

Speaking of the email, I’d also like it if you could use it for other things too. We’re still looking for judges, we’ve had one or two people apply, but we’ll need more if we want to make this really work (At least one judge from last year is up for taking part again, so that’s good news)

Also, we’ll be starting the logo design contest soon. I’m attempting to get DesignersOfTumblr on board, and we are discussing the particularities of the deadline as we speak. The brief is as follows:

“A clear, bright and bold logo, incorporating the themes of Nerdfighteria (the hand sign, French Llama’s, etc), creative writing, and the specific prompt of this year - applied 21st century research (of any field). The words “DFTBA Short Story Contest 2013” must be included.”

If you want to submit logo designs right now, please email them to

DFTBA(dot)Short[dot]Story<dot>Contest{AT}inbox(dot)com

and make it clear in the subject line that your submitting a logo. Also, remember, the winning designer will also need to be available to design a front cover for the anthology.

This links into another important point, and I need to say this in bold.

YOU CANNOT SUBMIT STORIES YET!

The reason for this is that since we don’t have a logo (because I couldn’t really ask for a logo without giving the prompt away), I didn’t want to be setting up the events and tickets without one, and so we haven’t got an eventbrite thing up yet, so you can’t buy a ticket, so you can’t submit yet. Rest assured though, when we’ve got a logo, very shortly afterwards you will be able to submit. I am just letting you know now, not to send them to me by e-mail. As some of our newer followers may not know, we raise money here not only through the sale of the anthology, but also through a very small entrance fee that is then donated to the foundation to decrease worldsuck. But while you can’t submit yet, you can definitely start work on your stories. So get writing!

One final piece of news, we are upping the word limit. You now have between 1000 and 5000 words to write your story. To be clear, you don’t have to reach that limit, but this way you have some extra space to really let your story fly!

Thank you all so much for being a part of this. I’m really looking forward to seeing what everyone submits this year.

God Bless, Best Wishes and DFTBA

So in case you’ve been living under a nerdfightastic rock (It’d have to be pretty nerdfightastic to distract you from what’s going on right now), you probably know that today and tomorrow we are in the midst of “The Project For Awesome”. Most of you I expect know what to do and what’s going on. YouTubers from all around the world are making videos about charities, we’re liking, rating, commenting and generally paying these videos attention so that they get up there in the YouTube Homepage’s face. And we’re voting on which of these charities we like the best, so that we can choose where the funds from the foundation to decrease world suck goes.

And just so you know, so far, we have sold 10 copies of the anthology through Amazon, and 4 through Smashwords, and although Smashwords won’t be paying us in time, we have thus far raised $10 through Amazon, which has gone to the foundation to decrease worldsuck, so go us!

But back to the P4A specifically, and I’d like to take this opportunity to support some videos that all focus around a specific cause. The cause of books. If you’re a follower of this tumblr, or if you’re a nerdfighter in general, chances are you love reading and writing and you want to give that ability to as many people as possible. I agree, that would be a most excellent thing, which is why I think we should support the following charities

Books For Kids

Book Aid International

The Book Bus

Books For Africa

First Book

Book Cycle

Reading is Fundamental

Room to Read

Kids Need to Read

Local Libraries

As you can see, there are a lot of reading and book charities out there, all of which more than deserve your support. So get out there, and lets get people reading!

God Bless, Best Wishes and DFTBA

PS. Here again is the anthology link for Kinde and Smashwords.

Dear everyone!

Remember! We’ve got a vote on for the cover design! So far, I see only nine votes, and two of those are myself and my wife! While I’m grateful for those other seven, this is a pretty big decision we’ll be making! The design of the cover of our anthology! So come on people! Use the democratic process. Click on the link that is this paragraph to make your choices!

Thank you, God Bless, Best Wishes, and DFTBA

Michael

Dear fellow writers,

I’m sure many of you are all busily caught up in NaNoWriMo, and in truth I should be getting back to my own current writing project right now, so I won’t keep you long. This post comes to you in two parts

Part one: The scores… so far

This is just a short message to say that we’ve received half of the judge’s score sheets back and the results are looking very very close indeed. I’m not at liberty at this stage to say exactly who is winning, but I will tell you something juicy. The two stories currently toughing it out for first and second place are only separated by ONE point. That’s it. That’s how close this race is. Third place is slightly lower down, twelve points away from second, but there are still more reviewers to come in, so for the top spot it is quite definitely all to play for!

Part two: Other prizes

As I was going over the scores and all the data I’m getting in from all the other judges, it occurs to me that we’ve got a lot of information here. We’ve got a section in the judging on characterisation, a section on interpretation of the prompt, a section on plot, a section on writing style etc. We’ve been so focused on who wrote the best story overall, that I’d completely ignored a whole other possibility, one that very few other writing contests tend to consider. We can have awards for best characterisation, best interpretation of the prompt, most original… etc. This isn’t something that I thought about beforehand, and now that I think about it now, it actually has broader implications. I mean, can you imagine what it’d be like if the Man Booker had a kind of Oscars like system, where there were more awards and categories etc. Wouldn’t that be interesting? It would certainly force the awards to move out of their literary comfort zone, and maybe will perhaps make them invest more in the genre world for the first time. This is just something I’ve thought of now, so more details will emerge soon.

That’s all I’ve got for now! Hope you enjoyed your weekend and all have a great week ahead of you.

God Bless, Best Wishes and of course, DFTBA!

Michael

Greetings all! So the following post is coming to you in three parts. They’ll cover what has happened, what is happening, and what’s happening next. So, let’s get to it.

Part 1: What has happened!

It’s all very exciting! After checking everything, and going back and forth through the contest’s email inbox several times, it’s now pretty much confirmed that we have twenty one stories. Their titles are, in alphabetical order: -

A Loss of Hart
A Strange Kindness
A Twist of Fate
An Evening in Soledad
Berkenshire
Blind Hope
Charity
Folie á Deux
Ghosts Live in Eggs and Monsters Occupy Small Rooms
Indianapolis Awaits
It Goes On
No Good Deed
Reformation Through Deception
Squaring the Circle
Still Reading
The Body
The Good Night In
The Machines are Talking
The True Spirit of Christmas
To Live Forever
Your Story

As I’m sure you’ll agree, they all sound fascinating. I just wanted to share a small cross section of the creative tidbits that Nerdfighteria has produced for this event.

In the process of reaching this stage, we’ve managed to raise $165 for the project to decrease worldsuck. I’d like now to say a big thank you to everyone who took part in any way.

Part 2: What’s happening now.

Now you might have expected me to say at this point, that all the stories will be winging their way off to the judges right now, and that all is under way for their final processing. But the truth of the matter is that things are a little more complicated.

See, there was an extra reason I gave out the list of titles to everyone. It’s because I want to make explicitly sure that everyone who thought they have submitted a story has in fact had their stories received. Now, if you did submit, you should have received a manual receipt email from me, but as at least one person who submitted a story to us can tell you, sometimes that takes me a little while. Also, there are all kinds of technical issues that could be a problem, etc etc etc.

That, coupled with the phenomenon I didn’t expect, which is there being far more ticket sales than there were actual stories submitted, and I want to make one more extension. If you submitted a story before the 3rd October GMT, but you don’t see your stories title on that list, please get in contact with me before Monday 8th October via the contest’s email address. For those who don’t remember, it’s

DFTBA[DOT]Short{DOT}Story(DOT)Contest<AT>inbox[DOT]Com

And just to be clear, I am not being a soft touch. If you get in touch with me this way, I need specific proof that you attempted to send an email to me before the specified time and failed. A screen grab, a delivery failed message dating to the apt time, etc. I just don’t want anyone who wanted to take part to be left behind, but at the same time, I’m not going to give people any more extra time to write their stories than I already have.

Part 3: What’s happening next…

On Monday 8th October, I’ll be sending all the stories I have received off to our esteemed judges. Just to refresh your memory, they are, once again,

Marcy Collier - A professional critic for the Western Pennsylvania branch of the Society of Children’s Books Writers and Illustrators as well as being the editor of the Golden Penn newsletter (a blog she regularly contributes to can be found here and her twitter is here).

Katie Biela -  English Literature teacher in one of America’s top ten preparatory schools.

Sean Totterdell - Co-editor in chief of DFTBA News a tumblr with such accomplishments as an in-depth and intriguing interview with Hank Green on the subject of Education.

Jonathan David Lim & the Bullet Reviews team - The writers and editors of a website providing insightful, succinct and clear reviews of books, films and games.

I’ll be in communication with them over the next few days, but our aim is to have all the judgements done in approximately one month (But don’t quote me!).

A number of people have asked how many of these stories will be going into the anthology, and I’ve been hesitant to answer that question, generally deferring to the answer that “it depends on the number we get”. But the truth is now, with all the stories in, it kind of depends on what the judges think. It will be clearer to them where the cut off line of “anthology standard” should or should not be, and I don’t want to speak on the subject without consulting them. But, as I always do with this contest, I’ll be letting you know details as and when I know them.

Thank you all so much for your participation and contributions. I look forward to being able to let you know more soon!

Best wishes, God Bless and, of course, DFTBA!

Greetings writers! Today’s post is coming to you in one part. That’s right, just one, and you all, I think, know what it is.

Part one (and only): Countdown!

That’s right. The deadline is October 2nd, aka DFTBA day, and that means you’ve got approximately five days to get your thoughts and words together and write us out some wondrous story somehow centred on “An act of charity”.

For those of you who perhaps have needed reminding, this might come a little late, and for those who didn’t, you might be thinking “yes, we know! And we’re scared.” Well I’m here to let you in on a little secret. The deadline is “functionally” October 2nd but I shall be lenient to anyone who submits a story up to midnight GMT on October 3rd. This is because I’m aware people are in different time zones, things are difficult in different parts, so I’m sure I’ll get some people who come in a little later.

However, you should know that due to the way that eventbrite sets up the ticket sales, you will still need to buy a ticket before October 2nd ends. I’ll let you submit a few hours later, but if you’re planning on submitting at all, your best bet is to buy now.

We’ve got 24 tickets bought, so we’ve raised $120 so far for the various charities that the Foundation to Decrease Worldsuck shall be supporting. But there’s still time to improve that figure! So if you’ve got a great idea, or your trying to build one, get to it! You’ve got 5 days!

Best wishes to one and all, and God Bless

Michael

Greetings all, this post is going to come to you in three parts. Let’s go

Part one: New members!

So I’ve noticed a steady influx of new followers over the last few weeks, and I thought I’d take this opportunity to say welcome properly! We’re very glad to have you all on board here, and I’m very excited to have as many followers as possible, because the more followers we have, the more people (I hope!) will be taking part! And receiving great stories is what we’re all really looking forward too, so thanks for coming out!

Part two: Countdown…

As many of you may have noticed, October 2nd, the final deadline of the contest, is now only a few short weeks away. Thus far, we’ve got fourteen tickets bought (including my own) and two people (neither of them me) have submitted their stories. So if you’re like me, and you haven’t started yet, get cracking!

Remember also, and this is an important point. You MUST send your ticket in with your story. You can’t submit your story and then retroactively buy a ticket. The ticket has to come with the email you submit your story in. There are more details about the exact format etc in the submissions section. This is one part of how we’re going to be raising money for the foundation to decrease worldsuck (the other being sales of the anthology).

So here’s a fancy free HTML countdown timer to let you know just how long you’ve got! Hope it encourages you along! Looking forward to seeing submission emails soon!

Part three: My submission

I’ve mentioned a couple of times that I myself do intend to be taking part in the contest, but I felt like it deserved talking about out in the open. Let me be very very clear on this point. I don’t intend to give myself any advantages at all as the organiser of this contest. The rules have been designed very very specifically so that the contest is judged blind. No one will know who wrote which manuscript during the judging process. Although I have personal associations with some of the judges, no one is going to know which story is mine. I am not looking for any special treatment of any kind, and I wanted to lay that on the table. Each story will be judged on merit and merit alone.

That being said, this is a community project, and I don’t want to do something against the will of the wider group of nerdfighters who make up this project. If a substantial number of you have issue with me taking part in the contest directly, I’ll not enter. I’ll still leave my ticket money in the pot, but I won’t write something to go into the anthology. If people would be more comfortable with that, please let me know (although I would request that you do not do so as an anon, simply because it makes it easier to respond to your issues directly). Of course, if you have no problem with my participation, let me know that too, so I can judge the balance of opinions!

Thanks for your attention. I look forward to hearing from you all, and God bless as you go forth into your writings!

Best wishes

Michael

PS. My personal website is under redevelopment atm, so if you go to the previous links I posted, you won’t find anything. It will hopefully be sorted soon!

Greetings all! Today’s post comes in two, quite brief parts, so lets get right to it

Part 1: FIRST!

I’m pleased to announce that today, in the contest’s email inbox, I received our first submission. Complete with all the procedural requests I made. For privacy/confidentiality reasons, I won’t be revealing the writers identity, but I just wanted to announce it as I’m very very pleased this has happened! This is the beginning of something much bigger!

Part 2: Where is everyone else?

So far, since the launch of the contest’s eventbrite account, we’ve had ten tickets bought, and that’s including mine. By contrast, we’ve got over 400 followers on this tumblr. Now before I continue, please don’t misunderstand me. I’m not trying to have a gripe here. I’m not trying to say “Blarghhhh! Y U NO BUY TICKTS!!!”. I just want to get a rough handle of how many people are actually definitely planning on taking part, and I want to make sure that everything’s okay.

I know this lack of picking things up isn’t for the traditional reason. There’s a horrible myth about internet charity/activism that says that all it involves is changing your facebook profile picture to show “support” for some cause or other, without actually doing anything of use. The people who perpetuate that myth, clearly havn’t seen JustGiving.com or Kiva.org, and they certainly haven’t heard of Nerdfighteria. We know that it takes more than platitudes and pictures to solve the world’s problems, and we’ve taken up that mantle.

I guess I’m just making this post to remind people about everything, and to ask “hey, is everything okay?”. I’m kind of thinking right now that the main reason for this lack of pickup is the same reason my University department gets a lot of essay scripts come in a few hours before the deadline! But still, if you’ve got any questions, or if there’s anything I can do to make things easier, or you need something clarified, please don’t hesitate to ask. If you’re having an issue with the prompt, and don’t want my answer to your question broadcast all over Tumblr, drop me an email

(the address is DFTBA[DOT]Short{DOT}Story(DOT)Contest<AT>inbox[DOT]Com).

If there are lots of you that have problems with the specific date of the deadline (you’re going to be too busy etc) send me a message and I’ll see what I can do. And also, if you’re in the process of working on something, I’d love to hear about that too! It’s encouraging to know that everything’s working.

That’s all for today, God bless and of course DFTBA

PS. If you are wanting to buy tickets, go here

What is this?

This is the DFTBA (Don’t Forget To Be Awesome) short story contest. It’s being run out of the Nerdfighter community, a group that started with Hank and John Green of the Vlogbrothers and now is made up of over 200,000 people worldwide.

What’s it about?

The stories all have to be on the subject of “An Act of Charity”

What’s it for?

It’s for charity. We’re donating money to the “Foundation to Decrease Worldsuck” a fund that is set up every year around the time of the “Project for Awesome”. In this project, Nerdfighters come together to make YouTube videos about charities and charitable projects . These videos all have the same thumbnail, and swamp YouTube’s most commented/liked listings. The community then votes on the best videos, and the top five charities in those videos get equal portions of the total money donated to the “Foundation to Decrease Worldsuck”.

How does it work?

You buy a ticket from Eventbrite.com for $6.12 (using paypal), send it and your story (of between 1000-3500 words) to

DFTBA(dot)Short(dot)Story(dot)contest(AT)inbox(dot)com

Where?

Dftbashortstorycontest.tumblr.com is the contest’s base of operations.

When?

The deadline is 2^nd October 2012 

I have more questions!

Go to Dftbashortstorycontest.tumblr.com for more information!