Feel Like Writing a Short Crime Story?

Last month (Or was it the month before? Damn, I think it was actually in February.), I wrote a short story entry for a contest I unfortunately didn’t win. As the publication that threw it maintain short-term publishing rights regardless, I won’t mention it again for some time, but I bring it up now because another contest came up recently.

And this one, I thought I’d share.

See, this isn’t the normal kind of writing contest. Sure, there are winners and prizes and whatnot, but with this one, there’s also peer review. Any stories submitted for judging will be posted online and available for reading and commenting.

Since this has the potential to be incredibly helpful to budding authors even without a win, I encourage you to check it out.

You’ve got until July 1 to submit. The basic requirements are rather simple, too:

• The story must be crime-related (noir, hardboiled, cozy, heist, espionage, locked-room mystery, etc.)
• Your word count has to stick between 3,000 and 5,000 words
• It cannot contain the following: Italian mafia, hitmen (or hitwomen), sex crimes or serial killers

That last bullet pretty much nixes the sole crime-related piece I’ve written (Sanity's Flaw isn't exactly a short story, either), so between working on my other projects, I’m crafting a fun little tale you’ll soon be able to freely read. It’s sort of the dessert of the day after I’ve taken my fill of the children’s book, or Trezka, or my fourth novel or Sanity’s Flaw. Sometimes, it's the sort of thing that's exactly what’s needed.

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