Contest Apri-May 2019 Short Story Contest, entries closed

The theme for our 18th seasonal short story contest provided by @Y'ttar Scaletail is "Doom and/or Destruction." Two of my favorite things.


The Rules
-We would like you to try to keep your story between 500 and 2000 words. I am requiring that entries do not exceed 2400 words. This is counting title, poems, quotes, any add-ons. If I get a submission that exceeds 2400 words, I will trim it till it meets the limit, and you may not like what I choose to cut.
-Your name must appear nowhere with the story. There is no point in having an anonymous competition based on skill if we know whose entry is whose.
-You must send your story via private message to Scalenex before midnight (US Central time) on April 30th.
-The story must be new. No dragging up a story you wrote months or years ago.
-No plagiarism. This means no stealing a story verbatim. You are free to use characters or settings from other works including other writer's fluff pieces and past short story contest entries.
-The story must involve Lizardmen (or Seraphon or Salamanders or Saurian Ancients), at least a little
-The story must stick roughly within the theme, at least a little.
-No comics or illustrations. This is a short story contest. Visuals are limited to fonts and text colors.
-Only one entry allowed per person.

I will do my best to providing proofreading and general advise to writers who ask for it though real life is full of many challenges for me right now. If you wish me to provide a detailed edit, please try to get your draft to me as muc before the deadline as possible. You are welcome, nay encouraged, to ask anyone else you wish for help or advice.

Once again, the winner of this contest has the honor of choosing the next contest theme if they so choose. This time because I do not want to be saddled with coming up with a last minute topic. If the winner does not give me a topic, I will pass this burden honor on to the runner-up.

If you want to talk about the theme or your eagerness to write or read something. Please do so below!

 

For the January-February 2018 contest, "Doom" was sort of the unofficial theme so the appetite is there.

I haven't noticed a voting trend though. Gloomy pieces and cheerful pieces seem equally likely to be top vote getters. Not ike Under-Empire where the winning piece is nearly always the piece with the most artful betrayal.

Also, lets see if we can get a new entrant or two or at least a returning entrant who hasn't written in a long time.

 

I think I've got an idea…

 

Good! I know well over half of the entries I get are typically within the last 48 or 72 hours but I haven't gotten any early bird entries to read.

My own entry is probably 20% complete. I will probably do most of the work in the last 72 hours because I sort of need deadlines.

 

When I write a story that differs from my usual, I don't comment on that beforehand. I like to stump the author guessers.

 

Not a single written word .
I wonder if tomorrow i can make it...