Flash Fiction Contest - Aliens Invade History

Aliens. What's up with these guys anyway? They're always flying across the unimaginable interstellar void to conquer earth, and somehow, despite being vastly outgunned, those plucky earthlings always manage to blow them out of the sky. It's like, guys, if you have the technology to travel the great gulf of darkness, how do you not have the ability to terraform Mars? Or one of the other planets in your own system for that matter?

What? Oh, right the prompt. See, Aliens are sort of a recent idea. You can probably trace alien invasion genre back to H. G. Wells and the War of the Worlds, and you could argue the whole flying saucer sighting thing got kicked off with the Great Airship Scare in 1896, both pretty recent on the scale of human civilization. But what if the flying saucers had shown up earlier? How would the fictional aliens of today fare against the Roman Empire or the Genghis Khan's Mongol army? That's the idea we want to explore in this month's flash fiction challenge.

You get a thousand words. Your deadline: Christmas Day. Send your entries in to hepodcast@gmail.com with "Aliens Invade History" in the subject-line of your email. We prefer ".doc" attachments.

The winner of the contest will receive ten dollars and have their story produced in audio form to air on the podcast. Good luck and happy writing!

The deadline for this contest is December 27th, 2013.

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.

HEP - 52 - On Vengeance and Vampires

In this, the fifty-second episode of the Human  Echoes Podcast, Tony and Al pay off a long-running joke and review Man on Fire (Albert felt cheated by this title as Denzel Washington is not immolated by the end of the film). Also featured in this title is the wonderful story "Suspension" that won the Vampires in Space flash fiction contest.

Download!
RSS!

Tony Scott suicide

BBC One "Drama" trailer

Breaking Bad Insider Podcast

People of Sand and Slag (via the Drabblecast)

[Retraction: Tony stated during the discussion of Tony Scott's suicide but, according to the coroners official report Tony Scott had no such illness at the time of his death.]

The Eaters of Earth

geophagy  [jee-of-uh-jee]:
noun
the practice of eating earthy matter, especially clay or chalk.

Some people eat dirt. Yes, really. It is weird, it is widespread, and it is not well-understood. Which for our money makes it perfect fodder for this month's flash fiction contest. We're looking for a story of no more than 1,000 words that explores this strange custom. The story does not necessarily need to focus on real examples of geophagy, though it is worth remembering that the best lies stories contain some kernel of truth.

The deadline for entry is October 4th of 2013. Send entries to hepodcast@gmail.com and include "Eaters of Earth" in the subject line. Word documents are very much preferred.

The winner of the contest will receive ten dollars and the story will produced in audio form and published on the Human Echoes Podcast. Good luck, and happy writing! 

In Space No One Can See You Sparkle

In this month's flash fiction challenge we're taking mythological creatures from mankind's dark past, and asking what would happen if they inhabited the darkness between the stars. It's vampires...IN SPACE.

What we're looking for is a story of a thousand words or fewer that puts everyone's favourite bloodsuckers in a place you'd never expect to find them: outer space. As always we're looking for something that takes us by surprise, something that makes us think, something that makes our blood run cold. So grab your wooden stakes and take a stab at it.

The deadline for submission is August 16, 2013. Send your entries to hepodcast@gmail.com. Happy writing!

The winner will get $10 through paypal.

HEP - 34 - The Jabberwock and other Monsters

This week the guys try to open the stuck drawers of Jan Svanmajer's Alice. Then they bash Tim Burton, muse on the greatest monsters of history, and announce the winner of the Hacking the Time Machine flash fiction contest.

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Links:
Alice's Adventures in Wonderland

Through the Looking Glass and what Alice Found There
The Walrus and the Carpenter
Shisha
HabitRPG
Jaberwocky
H. H. Holmes
Elizabeth Báthory
Rebecca L. Brown

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!