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The Sky is Falling Short Story Contest


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On May 18, 1980, a major volcanic eruption occurred at Mount St. Helens, a volcano located in Skamania County, in the state of Washington, United States. The eruption (a VEI 5 event) was the only significant volcanic eruption to occur in the contiguous 48 U.S. states since the 1915 eruption of Lassen Peak in California. However, it has often been declared as the most disastrous volcanic eruption in United States history. The eruption was preceded by a two-month series of earthquakes and steam-venting episodes, caused by an injection of magma at shallow depth below the volcano that created a large bulge and a fracture system on the mountain's north slope.

On August 29, 2015 Hurricane Katrina made landfall on the gulf coast. This was the costliest natural disaster and one of the five deadliest hurricanes in the history of the United States. The storm is currently ranked as the third most intense United States landfalling tropical cyclone, behind only the 1935 Labor Day hurricane and Hurricane Camille in 1969. Overall, at least 1,245 people died in the hurricane and subsequent floods, making it the deadliest United States hurricane since the 1928 Okeechobee hurricane. Total property damage was estimated at $108 billion (2005 USD) roughly four times the damage wrought by Hurricane Andrew in 1992 in the United States.

From now to August 29, 2017, we will honor all the natural disasters that we have endured and recovered from, with the announcement of a new short story contest. The Theme you guessed it, natural disasters. Give us a story that pushes the characters beyond their personal and natural limits, tests their mettle and forces them to reach to new heights. Show us desperation, failure, loss and follow it with courage, sacrifice and sheer grit.

You can use any type of Natural Disaster, set it anywhere in the World and during any time period, but it must be man vs nature, man made disaster are not accepted.

 

Here are the rules

  1. Natural Disaster Focused. Any story that uses something other than a Natural Disaster as the focus will be forwarded to our website submissions team as a standard posting and will not be included in the contest.

  2. The story must contain at least 25,000 words but nor more than 50,000 words.

  3. The story should start as close as possible to the actual disaster. The characters should be given little to no warning of the impending disaster.

  4. The Story must be original, sorry but if you have a story you posted previously we cant use it for the contest but we could highlight it during the contest reveal.

  5. Submission is open to anyone and everyone.

  6. Submissions will be accepted from now til 8/1/2017

  7. The submissions will be posted on the Castle Roland Community Forum on 8/3/17 for MEMBERS only to read and vote.

  8. Voting will end on 8/18/17

  9. The three stories receiving the most votes will be posted on the website in a special edition update on 9/4/17.

  10. Approximately 6 months later all the submission will be posted on the website.

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So who is thinking they are going to jump on this challenge.

I can see some super exciting adventures coming our way.

Don't forget only forum members will be able to read all the stories and vote so sign up if you haven't already.

I know of a couple authors that are blowing the cobwebs out from between their ears and sharpening their Pencils. (does anyone even use pencils anymore)

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I'm about to set off a collective gasp that may alter weather patterns.  I have not read Drummer Boy yet.  None of it.  Have no idea what goes on it.  I haven't even read the comments about the story, although I do see there are many.  I'm guessing it's... good?

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1 hour ago, D'Artagnon said:

I may have one already written, but it is not A. gay themed, B. regular sort of fiction (comic book kinda stuff) and C. part of a writing universe i abandoned years ago.

Will see if I have any ideas along this line. 

A. The story does not require a gay theme
B. The only requirement for type is that it be focused on a natural disaster
C As long as it wasnt published you are good.

Polish it up and send it in cant wait it read it

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Logical assumption: if all are dead, and Zergrinch is within subset "all", and postulating that subset "all" incliudes every possible writer as well as every possible reader, thereby as "all" are dead it can be assumed that Zergrinch shall not be reading, since he falls withing the subset of "dead" and therefore is incapable of even replying to queries about "dead yes/no" status.  Subsequently, it can also be logically assumed that the writers with the subset of "all" which includes the overriding condition of "dead" cannot write.  Similarly, as "all" falls within condition of "dead" and the subset of "readers" dwelleth within the subset of "dead" simultaneously as the subsets of "writers" and "Zergrinch", one can accurately predict that no writers shall write, that no readers shall therefore read, and that Zergrinch shall do neither.

Query: Is this cleverness, or simply a dodge of the original question?  Similarly, if everyone is dead, as postulated above, does this mean that Zergrinch simply does not want any further reading materials?  Much meditation and internal review must be performed to determine these answers.

Then again, we're all dead, so why bother, right?

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  • 1 month later...

I tried to write one, but a lot of real life came up from the bottom and sank my battleship.  Had an idea for a natural disaster in space, meteors slamming into a moon colony and how those living there would survive.  It grew into a very large story, but I just didn't have the time to get into the meat and milk of the story.  Sorry guys.

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