MicroHorror

Good morning! Sorry about the delay, but Kevin G. Bufton and I are ready to announce the winners for the 100 Horrors contest. We got a lot of terrific entries, so it wasn’t easy to whittle the list down to three, but whittle we did. The winning stories are:

Congratulations, TJ, Jennifer and Joshua! Each of you is a proud owner of a brand-new paperback copy of 100 Horrors: Tales of Horror in the Blink of an Eye! Check your e-mail for the next step.

And who are the lucky folks who get free copies of the Kindle edition? Let me just roll the bones and find out… why, it’s Wendy Maier, Bob Eccles and John L. Campbell! Congratulations, you three! Bob and John, check your e-mail. Wendy, I’m afraid I don’t have your address, so please drop me a line at microhorror@gmail.com and we’ll get you sorted out.

If you weren’t one of the lucky ones, don’t be sad. You can still get the Kindle edition for the bargain price of $2.99, or the paperback from Amazon or CreateSpace for only $9.99. As a special bonus from Kevin to MicroHorror readers, if you order from CreateSpace just enter the voucher code B5NW36BX and save $2.00 off each copy you buy!

Thanks to all of my dear fiends who entered, and extra special thanks to Kevin G. Bufton for publishing a terrific anthology and kicking the whole thing off. I strongly suggest you support this man and buy his book; you won’t regret it. That wraps up this minicontest, so until next time, stay scary!

The deadline for the 100 Horrors contest has passed, and I still have quite a few entries to post. Thanks for sending me so many great stories! In the meantime, you can see all of the posted entries right here.

Great news, fiends! Recidivist MicroHorror contributor Kevin G. Bufton has edited a brand new anthology, and he wants to share it with you!

100 Horrors: Tales of Horror in the Blink of an Eye, from Cruentus Libri Press, contains 100 stories by 100 authors, and each story is exactly 100 words long. The Kindle edition is out now, at the low price of $2.99, and the paperback edition is slated for February 20 at only $9.99.

And if that’s not good enough for you… it’s contest time! Kevin and I are going to judge a minicontest right here on MicroHorror, and we want to see exactly the sort of thing that’s in the book: horror stories of precisely 100 words, no more, no less (not including the title). The stories have to be new; reprints are no good for this one. E-mail your submissions to microhorror@gmail.com, as per normal, and be sure to include “100 Horrors Contest” in the subject. All submissions will be treated as ordinary MicroHorror submissions, and all submissions that meet the usual standards for publication will be published on MicroHorror.com. Contest submissions will be accepted until 11:59 PM EST, Friday, February 24, 2012.

After the deadline, Kevin and I will select three winners, who will each receive one copy of 100 Horrors: Tales of Horror in the Blink of an Eye in paperback! So what are you waiting for? Count your words carefully and get scary!

But wait, there’s more! Kevin also has three Kindle editions to give away, and because we know that not everyone owns a Kindle to read them on, we’re just going to let you claim the chance to win one, no submission required! If you want one of the Kindle editions, just post a comment right here saying so. We’ll pick three winners at random at the end of the contest. Good luck!

I thought you all might like to see the trophies that are now winging their way to their rightful owners. These acrylic beauties were designed by me and brought to reality by LazrArt. And of course, as promised, they’re accompanied by the DVDs of Ninjas vs. Zombies and Ninjas vs. Vampires, as well as the Ninjas vs. Zombies comic book issue #1, all courtesy of Justin Timpane and Endlight Entertainment. Here’s a candid photo of the packing carnage:

One last time, congratulations to Jasmine Gould, Michelle King and Justin Pollock. Enjoy your prizes!

Here’s the news, kiddies. A few days ago, Jennifer, Oonah and I convened in the secret MicroHorror lair, with strict orders to the homunculi not to let us out until we came to a consensus on the three winners for the 2011 Halloween story contest. I assure you, it wasn’t easy. We received over fifty entries, each of which addressed the theme of water in a different frightening fashion. But in the end, after extensive debate and minimal bloodshed, three winners emerged, and so did we. Read on, my fiends.

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Great gibbering gargoyles, it’s November already! That means the deadline for contest submissions has come and gone. There’s quite a pile in my inbox, and I’ll continue posting them as quickly as I can. I’ve never let you down before, have I?

Check it out, kiddies! I announced this last week, but here’s the photographic proof. Ninjas vs. Zombies and Ninjas vs. Vampires on DVD, along with issue #1 of the Ninjas vs. Zombies comic book from Azure Press. That’s one prize pack for each of the three winners of this year’s story contest!

Thanks again to Justin Timpane and Endlight Entertainment for donating these great prizes. And remember, they still need your help on their Kickstarter page to produce their next opus, so don’t delay! In the meantime, I’m going to put these DVDs and comics in a nice, safe crypt to await the final judging.

EDIT: I’ve just been informed that the DVDs are encoded for Region 1, i.e., North America. If you live elsewhere, you’ll need an unlocked or region-free DVD player to watch them. I’m very sorry for any inconvenience.

Good news, my fiends! The prize pool for the story contest just got a little bit deeper: Each of the three winners will receive the award-winning horror comedies Ninjas vs. Zombies and Ninjas vs. Vampires on DVD, courtesy of Justin Timpane and Endlight Entertainment!

The ninjas need your help, though. They’re wrapping up the trilogy with the biggest stunner yet, Ninjas vs. Monsters, and we all know that independent filmmaking is tough even in the best of economic times. So please, visit their Kickstarter page and pitch in if you can!

In the meantime, keep sending me your best watery horror, and watch this space for more prize news.

I hope I’m not dampening any spirits when I remind you all that it’s October once again. That means MicroHorror’s annual story contest returns, as reliable as the tides, so whether you’re washed up or still wet behind the ears, now is your opportunity to make a splash and win some lovely prizes.

Is a notion starting to seep into your mind yet? For any drips who haven’t figured it out yet, this year’s theme is…

Interesting stuff, water. Dihydrogen monoxide humor aside, it’s one of the most common chemicals on the planet. You can find it under the ground or literally falling from the sky. We need it to live, but too much at once will kill us. History and legend are full of water-related disasters, from the Great Flood to Kevin Costner’s Waterworld. And even when water is behaving itself, have you seen some of the creatures that live in it? Anything could be down there, and it probably has huge teeth.

So put on your drinking caps, kiddies, and get started. As always, you have the whole month to send in your entries to microhorror@gmail.com, and you’ve got the whole 666 words to explore your best watery horror. The complete rules are here. Cast your nets into the depths, and let me see what you dredge up!

MicroHorror favorite Maria L. Castejon sent me a new batch of stories, and it’s taken me far too long to sit down and translate them. I’m finally done, and they’re all up. I hope you enjoy them as much as I did.