HOLIDAY ROMANCE WRITING CONTEST

Do you like writing?  Here is a new chance for you to get published or win money! Meryton Press is conducting a contest to find the best short stories. The theme of the contest, “Holiday Romance,” represents the season from Thanksgiving to New Year's Day. The interpretation of the theme is left to the writer’s imagination; the story may have the season as an incidental backdrop or may highlight the warmth and goodwill of the holidays. It may be a romance set entirely before a fire on a cold winter’s night, the plight of a young couple hosting their first family Thanksgiving, or the mystery of an anonymous holiday philanthropist with a reporter hot on his tale. So many holidays, so many stories: Thanksgiving, Christmas, the Winter Solstice, Kwanzaa, Hanukkah, Boxing Day, New Year's Eve…

Any genre is acceptable as long as there is ROMANCE. Austenesque is a plus but is not required. In other words, so long as there is a commonly accepted or acceptable interpretation of the theme embedded in the plot, it works for us. However, this contest is not for children’s stories. Our target audience is readers over 18 years old.

The contest will be open for submissions from 9:00 a.m., June 15, 2015 (US Pacific Time) until 11:59 p.m., July 15, 2015 (US Pacific Time)

The contest will be judged by a panel of independent judges, and the results will be announced around Labor Day 2015.

A long list of entries will be selected for final judging by a panel of expert editors and reviewers. All entries on the long list will receive a letter with constructive criticism on how the story could have been improved. Four winners will be selected from the long list and will be awarded prizes.

First Prize:

• US$150
• Professional editing of entry
• Blog tour inclusion
• Priority submission of a longer work
• Four copies of published anthology

 3 Runners up:

• US$100
• Professional editing of entry
• Blog tour inclusion
• Publication in the anthology
• Two copies of published anthology

In addition, all four winning entries will be published in an anthology planned for late autumn 2015. The anthology will include not only the four winners but stories from Meryton Press’s popular and award-winning authors. The Summer Lovin’ Short Story Contest volume resulting from the contest held earlier this year has now been published as Sun-Kissed: Effusions of Summer.

For detailed guidelines and rules, please refer to http://merytonpress.com/anthology/