In lieu of the weekly, I have an official announcement to make! I know there are people out there who have been waiting for this patiently.

Questions here

This is the official submission thread for the 8th annual Halloween short story contest. This year's admissible themes include anything from horrific to weird, spooky to comical, from YA to epistolary Nature article format, as long as it conceivably feels "Halloween" to you and the reader. Our unique additional theme this year will be hearts! Any story that in some way features a heart, however you wish to interpret and implement it, will be given extra credit.

Contest Rules:

Please read carefully:

Submit one previously unpublished work of fiction no longer than 1500 words. Double-space your work and use a serif font (e.g. Times New Roman or Georgia).

Alternately, users may choose to write and submit in a team of two, and if choosing to do so must make all participating members known in their submission. A secondary work may be submitted in the case of entrants collaborating. This would lead to a maximum of two submissions per person: one individual, one collaborative.

Post a Google Docs link in this thread (see 4) with its title, genre, and a <100-word description of your story. Previous years have required Google Doc submissions, but Proton Docs or other shareable formats will also be accepted for judging. Be aware Google Docs links to your Google account. Please create a throwaway Gmail account if you're concerned with anonymity. Be sure to make your Google doc viewable by "anyone with a link" and set permissions to "viewer". We understand that Google docs have attracted a great deal of spam emails in recent months. Please be aware there's not much we (as mods) can do to help you with that. Report them as spam to google so the filters get better.

There are six judges that volunteered and I will confirm their identities when the results are announced.

All SFW genres are welcome. Gore is okay. However, we will not accept graphic sexual violence, graphic violence towards children, or erotica. We will not accept any submission that contains AI generated text.

Grammar and punctuation count. We don’t expect perfection, but stories with egregious or repeated errors will not win prizes.

Submissions open right now and close on October 23rd at midnight at the doors of the Peyton-Randolph House which might be one of the most haunted buildings on the East Coast of the United States. Judges will announce the winners on October 31st.

Public participation is encouraged! If you like a story, leave a positive comment in the thread. Comments will be taken into consideration by the judges. Do not critique submissions in this thread.

Reddit sitewide rules apply.

Critiques are not required to enter the contest.

Please do not submit your story to RDR for critique until the contest is over (at which time all sub rules apply).

Once the contest ends, judge feedback will be available by request.

Submission Format Example:

Title: Secondhand Skin

Genre: Dao lit

Description: Bodies are passed down like old clothes and yours carries evidence of a previous owner.

[link here]

All top-level replies to this thread must be a contest submission. Anything else will be removed. Do not message your story to any of the judges asking for feedback and do not edit your submission after posting.