The Cast of Wonders Flash Fiction Contest 2020 will be starting its voting period on October 5, 2020. We received 159 submissions 157 submissions (Edited on 10/05/2020 to note that two stories were withdrawn after groups were made).
The stories have been split into 16 groups with 10 stories in 15 groups 13 groups and 9 stories in the second, ninth, and last groups. Stories are assigned to the groups randomly; authors will not be informed in advance in which group their story appears.
The top three winners of each group will go on the semi-final round, where there will be 6 groups of 8 stories each.
The top three stories in each semi-final group will go to the final round, where there will be one group of 18 stories. The top three stories in this group will be the overall winners.
In any of the groups, if there is a tie for third place, the tied stories will all ascend to the next round. If there is a tie in the final round, the editorial staff will decide whether to consider all tied stories as winners or whether to hold a tie-breaker round.
In each group, you may pick up to 3 stories. You may vote for fewer than 3.
VOTING RULES:
1. This contest is being run by me, Karissa Sluss. If needed, other forum moderators may be brought in, and that will be announced. If one of the moderators submitted an entry, they will not use any of their moderator abilities in the contest forums without disqualifying their entry.
2. Stories will be posted anonymously. Authors of the stories that did not advance will be revealed at the end of each stage. All author names will be revealed at the end of the contest. Please do not try to publicly guess at the identities of the authors. Those posts will be deleted and the poster will be warned. As an author, please do not try to garner outside support through blogs, Twitter, Facebook, etc. If we discover that an author has revealed their authorship of a story before it is allowed (in the contest threads or elsewhere), that is grounds for disqualification of the story.
3. As always, constructive discussion is encouraged about all stories posted in this contest. The key word here is constructive. Normal forum rules remain in place. Be civil and respectful. Rude comments and unconstructive negativity will be deleted or edited, and the offending poster will be warned. Repeated poor behavior could result in being banned from the forums and/or your story being removed from the contest.ADDENDUM. We have a number of story submissions from young authors. Please bear that in mind when commenting on stories - I would encourage you all to be encouraging in your constructive criticism.
4. Creating multiple accounts to vote for a story will get you banned from the forums and your story removed from the contest. If you are sharing a computer, living space, or router with someone else who will be voting or creating an account, make sure to message me—many of you already have noted this in your submission cover letters, so thanks for the heads up. If you have not messaged me regarding shared computers/routers, failure to do so may result in various adverse effects such as account deletion and/or banning.
5. It is perfectly fine to vote for your own story. In fact, we encourage all authors to do so because that levels the playing field. Only avoid voting for your own story if you genuinely believe other stories should win over it, not just to be polite, please.
Please read and re-read these rules before asking questions.
VOTING SCHEDULE:
Polls should open and close just after midnight around 6:00 a.m. EDT/EST on the dates below. Each group will be open for voting for a week. A new group will open each day, for example:
Group 1 will open Mon, October 5, 2020 and close Mon, October 12, 2020
Group 2 will open Tuesday, October 6, 2020 and close Tuesday, 13, 2020
…
Group 16 will open Tuesday, October 20, 2020 and close Tuesday, October 27, 2020
The semi-final groups will be posted on Mon, November 2, 2020 close Mon, November 9, 2020.
The final group will start on Fri, November 13, 2020 close Fri, November 20, 2020.
Happy reading!