Flash Fiction Challenge - On the Frontiers of Madness

In 1845 Sir John Franklin left the ice-bound hulls his ships, the Terror and the Erebus, and led his men into the arctic wilderness carrying a sled-load of button polish, handkerchiefs, curtain rods and a writing desk. Why?

One theory posits that the men of the expedition were poisoned by the lead solder used on their canned food, and became completely delusional.

Imagine it. You're cut off from the world you know, pushing forward into a hostile and alien landscape, exploring territory never before mapped...and then you start seeing things. Without the grounding of familiarity how would you know what was real and was was illusion?

That's the essence of this challenge. Write a story in less than a thousand words about someone losing their grip on reality in a place where they can't be sure what reality is.

Send submissions to hepodcast @ gmail.com with "On the Frontiers of Madness" in the subject line with the story attached (we prefer .doc files if possible). We also prefer double spaced and with a clean font. Comic sans will get you an instant rejection.

The contest winner will be awarded ten dollars and have their story featured produced in audio form on the Human Echoes Podcast. Check out some of our other audio stories to get a feel for what we like.

The contest will end on November 15th, 2013.

Short Echoes Writing Contest: Arachnopocalypse

Are you tired of the same zombie apocalypse over and over again? Want to make a fresh one? Do you want to have a story recorded for the whole world to hear, and make ten bucks doing so? Well then hit us up with an original piece of fiction on what we have dubbed the Arachnopocalypse.

What we are looking for:

1,000 word or less story on the Arachnopocalypse, or an end to the world by spider. They could be tiny, massive, and anywhere between. You can choose to have swarms or single spiders. Just make sure that the end comes from these eight legged freaks.

Over at Al's blog, he posted a longer summary on what we are looking for.

We will ask for one time audio rights, and will record your story. It will be featured in the episode and as a singular download through iTunes, as well as featured on YouTube.

The winner will receive $10 dollars through paypal, or other means if necessary.

You have until February 9th to get your submission in. We will provide a quick critique of every story submitted, regardless of acceptance. Send all submissions to HEPodcast@gmail.com.

The format should be easily readable, and can be a .doc attachment or in the body of the email. Please offer a short author bio.

Good luck!