February

Issue 41

DRAGONS, KNIGHTS & ANGELS is thrilled to announce that our Second Annual Short Fiction Contest opens today, February 20th. Our prizes are bigger and our hopes for finding terrific stories have increased, too.

Please read the following with care, as some of the details have changed since last year.

PURPOSES:

~ To reward high quality Christian SF
~ To raise funds for the 2008 DKA budget
~ To gather more submissions to DKA from a wider field of writers
~ To draw more visitors to the DKA site
~ To please God with our creative efforts and offerings

ENTRY FEE: $5.00

(This is a fund-raiser! Your entry fee will help support DKA!)


PRIZES:

First Prize: $60.00 and publication in DKA
Bonus Software prize: "Character Creation for the Plot-First Novelist" complete bundle (includes system and CharPick, Windows only), writing resources created by former NavPress and Realms editor Jeff Gerke of WhereTheMapEnds.Com

Second Prize: $30.00 and publication in DKA
Bonus software prize: "Character Creation for the Plot-First Novelist" (system only)

Two Honorable Mentions: $20.00 each and publication in DKA
Bonus Software Prize: CharPick

The prize monies constitute the full and complete cash payout for the contest and subsequent publication in the ezine.

THEME:

We have a double theme this year. Choose whichever of these themes inspires you to write innovatively in synch with our magazine's vision statement:

1. Secrets
2. New Life

Or choose both themes and enter twice.

Don't give us predictable or stale applications of these themes. We want fresh. We want surprising. We want deep. We want moving. We want eye-opening.

You can be funny or intensely sober or even somewhat dark, though never lacking in hope. You can do space opera or psychological science fiction or urban fantasy or steampunk or anything that is legitimately SF. There must, must, must be a genuinely speculative element.

Make your prose strong and beautiful and clear, whether it's sparse and transparent or rich and bountiful or ethereal and lyrical or formal and high fantasy or slang and cyberpunky.

Think about style; make it yours. Think about structure; make it balanced. Revise ruthlessly to eliminate filler and add sparkle.

Give us your best. Make us sigh.


DEADLINE: Tuesday, April 10th, midnight EST.

Entries must be received between February 20th and April 10th (inclusive).

We suggest you enter at least a few days prior to the deadline, in case issues come up with the electronic submission from your end or ours. Tech problems will not be an out. So, please give yourself time.

No exceptions to the deadline.


RULES:

1. All entries must fit the DKA Magazine vision and guidelines.
2. All entries must be speculative fiction.
3. All entries must be no fewer than 1,500 words and no more than 4,000 words.
4. Each entry must be an original work(s) by the submitting author and must not be a reprint(s) (ie. cannot have been published elsewhere). The entries must not be currently posted on any website.
5. All entries must be submitted electronically via the special contest submission process set up to allow for blind judging. The cover letter must indicate that the story is for the contest. Do not add your name anywhere on the cover letter or body of the story.
6. Because we have two themes this year, we will accept a maximum of two entries per person. If you choose to submit two stories, one must be on the theme of "secrets" and the other on that of "new life." We will not accept two stories on the same theme from the same writer.
7. Each entry must be submitted on its own, and each must be accompanied by its own entry fee. Two stories = $10.00 total entry fee.


JUDGES: The DKA editorial team

Keesa Renee DuPre
Rosemary McMillen
RV Saunders
Mirta Ana Schultz
Selena Thomason


JUDGING CRITERIA:

1. Quality of prose:
Does the writing offer strong sensory details, insightful imagery, while void of clichés and syntactical awkwardness? Does it balance showing and telling and display clarity of voice? Is it polished, in other words?
2. Inventiveness while focused on the selected theme(s)
How creatively does the author develop the contest theme(s) in speculative terms?
3. Complete sense of story
There is a clear beginning-middle-end, a dramatic progression of events and conflict, with an arc to a satisfactory conclusion. Experimental stories are welcome, but even stories that bend or break traditional storytelling rules must leave our judge-readers feeling satisfied.
4. Excellence of characterization
Is the main character(s) well-rounded and believably conflicted?
5. Avoidance of overt preachiness
A clear moral core consistent with Christian beliefs is fine. We do ask for any message to be integrated seamlessly with the medium. Judges should not feel that the tale is an excuse for making a theological point, but rather that any theological point be beautifully expressed in the form of story (via characters acting and reacting and living).
6. Alignment with the DKA vision of Christian SF

The decision of the judges on the winning selections is final.

ADDITIONAL INFO:

We expect to like more stories than just those that win and place. Any story that suits our guidelines and thrills our editors will likely receive an offer to buy for publication.

Change from last year: No feedback will be given on stories submitted for the contest, with ONE exception: If we like a non-placing story enough to request revisions for eventual possible acceptance and publication. That is the only exception to the no feedback rule.

Winners will be announced by or on Tuesday, June 5th 2007.


HOW TO ENTER:

Use the electronic submissions process we've set up at DKA specifically for contests. Note somewhere on the cover letter that it is an entry for the fiction contest. Go to Author-Artist tools (at the top of the forums) and click the contest entry option.  Then just follow the directions.

We look forward to seeing your work.