Short Story Contest: A Surprising Market & The Merry Sisters of Fate!

If you don't know WHO they are, I will say one word: Lament. Yes. That's my connection, Maggie Stiefvater, the author with whom I'm most familiar in the three-woman short speculative fiction dynamo that is The Merry Sisters of Fate, is the reason I started reading -- and then, wow -- her cowriters are made of awesome, too. And so, you should go -- now... just... check them out.

It's their one-year anniversary as well, and all of you who want to write short speculative fiction should really, really, really play. Not just for the prizes, either.

Look, it's an excuse to write. Just -- take it, all right?

(Writing group, I am so looking at YOU.)

---

via Powell's Book News:
Esquire magazine's Fiction Contest is open to one and all. The catch is, the story must be based on one of the following titles:

1. "Twenty-Ten"

2. "An Insurrection"

3. "Never, Ever Bring This Up Again"

Says Esquire: "A date, a thing, and a statement. No exceptions. Make of them what you will, do with them something great. But no taking an old story and slapping one of our new titles on it. We'll know, and we won't be happy."

Powell's blogger Brockman brings up a good point: lots of excellent writers have written for Esquire, and they're a very high paying market, if you can a.) write adult fiction and b.) make it through their all-seeing, all-knowing won't-b-happy gates.

Good luck!