I'm going to sleep, and therefore officially
closing the submission period! There are
151 currently accepted submissions, with two that were over the word count. Those two authors have been notified and are allowed to resubmit with a lower word count, since I've allowed other people to resubmit with lower word counts.
Again, if you feel you have submitted your story before the deadline and have not received a confirmation, please let me know via PM or email, and we will work it out.So, assuming those two authors resubmit their works, that leaves this contest with 153 entries! With this number, I think the best way to divide them up would be into groups of 11 stories.
That means 13 groups of 11 stories, and 1 group of 10 stories (all randomized, of course, except for making sure that an author does not compete against her/himself in the first round).
I will release a new group every other day starting on
Sunday, March 3rd, hopefully at or around 12am EST. Voting for a story group will take place over the course of a full week to give everyone enough time to read through the stories! With 15 groups, that means that
all stories should be posted by March 28th.
If you are an author and believe there to be an error in the posting of your story, please either PM me here or email me at bdoomed@gmail.com. I will see email faster, as it goes to my phone. I will judge author pleas on a case by case basis
. Upon editing of a story thread, I will make a post detailing the reason for the edit. (ex. Edited for missing italics)
After all voting is done, author bylines will be released for each story, unless the author messages me with explicit instructions not to do so. Last year, I removed a story thread upon request from the author for publication reasons. Note that stories on this forum are not considered published, as they are hidden from the general public.
Edit: I should mention that I am absolutely blown away by the turnout for this year's contest! Last year we had 88 entries, which means we almost doubled our story count. You are all wonderful people, and I offer you my deepest thanks for your participation! This contest would be absolutely nothing without our fearless authors! So good luck, all of you, and apologies for the stories that end up in the last group! The wait must be terrible.