Win $500 in the Editor Unleashed/Smashwords Flash Fiction 40 Contest

Write 1,000 words or less, win $500. Top 39 runner-ups earn $25.00. Entry fee: FREE.

It sounds too good to be true. It isn't.

I've always been wary of writing contests that require an entry fee because they're sometimes (but not always) money-making scams in disguise. So imagine my glee when Maria Schneider of Editor Unleashed approached me with the opportunity to co-sponsor a writing contest that would be free to all participants, and where actual readers would have some say in the contest's results.

And thus the Editor Unleashed/Smashwords Flash Fiction 40 contest was born. No entry fee, no strings attached or services to buy, cash prizes to the top 40 entrants, and a publication credit in the free Editor Unleashed/Smashwords Flash 40 ebook anthology.

Mark your calendars with these important dates:

• May 18th - June 14, 2009: Post your story on the Editor Unleashed forum.

• June 15 - June 26, 2009: The Popular Vote. Stories ranked by members of the Editor Unleashed forum. Maria, herself the former editor of Writer's Digest Magazine, will be joined by an expert panel of judges (editors and agents), will evaluate the entries and help select the final winners.

• June 30, 2009: 40 winners announced! We'll publish the 40 winners in a free ebook anthology at Smashwords, offering great exposure to all the winners. All the winners will get plugs on the Editor Unleashed and Smashwords blogs, and the grand prize winner (in addition to receiving $500!) will receive a Q&A interview right here on the Smashwords blog. What more could you ask for?

We briefly considered having me serve as one of the judges, but we decided it would be best for me to bow out because we expect many Smashwords authors will participate and it would be difficult for me to judge our authors' work fairly against others (of course only the most brilliant writers publish on Smashwords, I'd find myself tempted to tell myself!).

So there you have it. The contest is completely independent. Fire up your keyboards, fill your virtual inkwells, guzzle some coffee and get busy today writing the most brilliant, mind-blowing 1,000 word-or- less masterpiece ever to touch a digital screen near you.

For additional contest details, please read the announcement for the Editor Unleashed/Smashwords Flash Fiction 40 Contest.

A Recent History of Writing & Drawing

Whenever I travel, I enjoy exploring down random streets, much in the same way I walk a library or book store.

Yesterday, as my wife and inlaws toured Buckingham Palace here in London, I wandered down The Mall, a main thoroughfare that leads toward Trafalgar Square and The Strand (famous for its many used bookstores).

Along the way I stumbled across an exhibit at the Institute of Contempory Arts entitled, "A Recent History of Writing & Drawing." How could I resist? I paid my two Pounds ($4.00) and entered a small single room filled with various odd writing contraptions.

The exhibition, produced by programmer-artists Jurg Lehni and Alex Rich, utilizes complex technology and mechanics to produce unexpectedly simple forms of writing and art.

One interactive exhibit that caught my eye was a computer terminal that allows you to type in a limited number of letters and words, and then when you pressed print it printed your creation on a large format printer, but instead of ink on paper the words were formed by a predetermined number of hole punches.

My masterpiece is shown at left (hanging chads and all), kindly displayed by my unwitting co-collaborator, the friendly docent manning the room.

Another interesting exhibit consisted of a large chalkboard, with small motorized pullies mounted in each of its four corners. Through the pullies ran cabling, which met in the the middle of the chalkboard attached to a contraption with a large piece of chalk. The purpose here was for the four independent pullies to work in unison to move the chalk in such a way that it drew a picture. The system's output is shown at below.

What's the purpose of all this?

According to the handout, "The themes of the installation are the untapped potential of everyday technologies, their capacity to execute functions not foreseen by their designers, and the unintended poetic qualities of certain means of communication. "

Like most modern art, I suppose it also intends to touch you in some way, or maybe make you think about something in a completely new light.

The exhibit runs through the 31st of August. Click here for more information.

I'm in London for a few more days, so if any Smashwords members out there want to meet for cool drink in the Covent Garden area, drop me a line at first initial second initial at you know where dot com.