Scare Me Silly Hallowe'en Contest

Excellent! I've been wanting to dip my toes in the 'ATS writing' waters for a while. This is an excellent opportunity to do so. Let me dust off the ol' brain and get to work.. not much time left

Go for it, the water is nice and warm here in this tepid pool. I know it's difficult to see far into those inky depths, but don't be afraid...the piranhas have been fed recently.

Please, DCFusion...if I may ask? Why do you leave your brain where the dust can collect? I leave mine in a bright yellow jar, right beside the fish tank. I swear my little finned friends keep it company on those long nights when I walk empty-eyed through the streets of dear old Hogtown.

Be kind to your brain and it will be kind to you...



[edit on 12-9-2006 by masqua]

Hmmm.... horror was never my best genre, but I guess I could give it a shot. I generally do better at either humor or technical writing, so I warn you ahead of time, my story might read like The Zombie Survival Guide rather than something by King...

For me, being of the male gender, an 37 page assembly manual in 8 different languages is the ultimate horror... especially when the nuts and bolts are both Standard and Metric.

There's hope for you there yet, thelibra...

The Zombie Survival Guide sounds like a great title for a story.

BTW King doesn't scare me, he just ticks me off, always trotting those old rock and roll lyrics out and being as predictable as 'all get out' (interesting phrase).

Can I submit someone else's writing as long as I give them the credit? The rules don't state otherwise.

I can submit something that's a slam dunk to win this thing. All other submissions will be girly men in comparison.

Peace

This contest is open only to members of ATS, so, no you can't use some-one else's
writing...sorry.

Are you quoting a certain west coast polititian with the 'girly men' thing?

That's what I figured..............oh well! No harm in trying I guess. I was going to post the true story of Annabelle the rag doll from Gerald Brittle's book The Demonologist.

I'm not much into writing things. I'm a lover, not a writer.

Peace

Now that shows you have talent...what a great turn of phrase.



Hope you get something together anyways, there's plenty of time.

And, since you brought it up, here's the story of Annabelle the rag doll

(for inspirational porpoises only)

Thank GOD!!! I didn't think there was anyone but me who doesn't like King...

The only two books of his I've ever liked were "Through the Eyes of the Dragon", which wasn't even a horror novel, and "The Talisman", which also wasn't a horror novel.

The problem is King is just too damned formulaic and rehashes his own stuff all too often.

Now, someone once tried to convince me that King has been establishing his own specific genre world, in much the same way that H.P. Lovecraft's stories of strange cults and Elder Gods all tied together and generally focused around the New England area...

...But Lovecraft did it so much better.

But... too be fair, Lovecraft was one of the first, and is considered classic literature, so really the best anyone could really hope for is to be considered "as good as" Lovecraft, rather than better, since you pretty much have to be dead, and your works taught in High School, before you can be considered "better" than another classical author.

Errr.... sorry... odd tangent I just went off on. Anyway, yay Lovecraft. w00t!



Oh, it is actually already one. I highly recommend it. The author is Max Brooks. And you can find it in the humor aisles of Barnes & Noble... not sure where other stores would put it, but it basically reads like an army field manual/boy scout handbook. Someone went and put a LOT of thought into how, exactly, to survive a zombie outbreak.

OH!!! Sorry, I only just now thought to ask the following questions on rules:

1.) What's the max word/character count?

2.) Does it need to be fiction or non-fiction, or either?

3.) What are the restrictions on content, such as profanity, sexual situations, graphic violence, etc...?

4.) What weight will be given to what areas (ie. Spelling, Grammar, Content, etc...)?

5.) Are there sub-genres (ie. Historic Horror, Horror Sci-Fi, Horror Comedy, etc...)?

6.) Can we use multiple posts in the same thread if our story uses more than 8000 characters?

I think that's it for now...

Boy this sounds like a lot of fun!

Actually, you can use several posts to enter a large story and it will only count as one.

Here's the rule from the OP

Long stories which exceed character limits and require more than one post are considered one (1) story

My bad, sorry masqua.

DE

No problem, DE...an easy mistake to make.



Thanks for answering all of thelibra's other questions, because they were very good ones.

There are already 7 stories entered into (SMSHC) and that's great.

Keep them coming, members, because none of them have turned me pale yet.

I know there's a boot quaker out there, just waiting to raise the hair on my neck.

Get 'er done.

Great idea masqua. My problem may not be finding a story line to scare You, but writing 500 words or better.
That's a formitable task for a To the point type of person. I'll have to think on it..there's still lot's of time till Witching hour.

Dallas

Sharp points...
Witching hour...

I think you've got a start there already, Dallas...

I really do have to think on it and I will. But a superb idea and someone will be happy with the prize for sure. I used to be not bad at writing poetry.. but again poetry I feel is a bit more to the point than a story. We'll see masqua.

Dallas

Poetry?

Oh, poetry is great for Halloween...

But see, amid the mimic rout
A crawling shape intrude!
A blood-red thing that writhes from out
The scenic solitude!
It Writhes! - it writhes! - with mortal pangs
The mimes become its food,
And angels sob at vermin fangs
In human gore imbued.

From The Conquering Worm by Edgar Allan Poe

And the rule from the original post;



... means poetry is more than acceptable, I sop it up like a thirsty wampyre does warm blood.