Greetings fellow deviants!
I, ~zefiraelRain, am proud to announce that the Spinechilling Words contest is now officially underway!
YEAHHH!

Right, I’ll stop sounding like a crappy orator on crack now, here are the details:


THEME: Horror
MEDIUM: Literature
CLOSING DATE: 1st July 2009

RULES
The word limit is 2000
Everything in the body of the deviation will be included in the word count
If your entry goes over the word count, I will tell you to edit it or enter something else
One entry per deviant
Must be your own original work, no stealing, etc.
No fanfiction, no collaborations
No extremely disturbing mature-content-containing entries; these will be rejected, so keep the mature content at a reasonable level
No entries that include an image. I’m focussing purely on the words here. Formatting (spaces, bold, italics, etc.) is acceptable. Preview images are okay, so long as they do not include pictures of any kind.
Entries cannot have previously won another contest, or gotten a huge accolade like a DD, etc.
Entries must have been submitted into your gallery on or between April 26th 2009 and 1st July 2009.

I realise that some of these rules you’ll be able to bypass, but I’m trusting you to follow them. 8D


HOW TO ENTER
Send me a note with a link to your entry with “spinechilling words” as the subject.
If you send me an entry any other way, I will ignore it. Well I won’t ignore it, I’ll delete it. Yeah.


JUDGING
Entries will be judged on how good they are. So impress me. (:
Yes, the judge is me. Oh noes.
I will reject/disqualify any entry if it does not follow the rules/guidelines stated here. I will also veto any entry that does something really stupid that is not mentioned here but is nonetheless really stupid.
Though this contest is open to both poetry and prose, all the entries will be judged as one category. I was going to split it into two categories and winners for each category, but I’ve since changed my mind. Now there’s just 1st, 2nd and 3rd for the whole thing.


NOTES
When I say this is a horror contest, I do actually mean the type of 'horror' that you'd find in the horror section in a library... not horror as in so badly-written or sweet and fluffy that it's scary.
Just because I set the word limits at 1000 and 2000, does not mean you have to fill them up. Those are absolute maximum values.
Because I don’t feel like being extremely strict… here’s the actual closing date situation: I’ll check my inbox on 3rd July 2009, and if there are any contest entries there, I will accept those. Anything after that, though, I definitely will not accept. Definitely. XD


And now for prizes! Finally, I shut up and get to the prizes! W00T!

FIRST PLACE
3 month deviantART subscription from ~zefiraelRain
1 watercolour painting from ~Anjellyjoy
1 custom stamp from ~Anjellyjoy
1 custom icon from ~Anjellyjoy
1 custom literature tag from ~Anjellyjoy
1 greyscale screentoned character drawn in manga style from ~3fukutaicho
1 full colour visual artwork from ~zefiraelRain
2 sketches from ~zefiraelRain
2 poems from ~zefiraelRain
1 prose piece from ~zefiraelRain
6 detailed deviation critiques from ~artydude12
1 custom stamp from ~tiannangel
1 custom icon from ~tiannangel
1 custom literature tag from ~tiannangel
1 poem from ~shadowgriffen
Journal feature from ~3fukutaicho
Journal feature from *Aedammair-Feline
Journal feature from ~artydude12
Journal feature from ~bakadeshoo
Journal feature from ~darkvampyressx
Journal feature form ~shadowgriffen
Journal feature from ~tiannangel
Journal feature from *xEmoMuffinx
Journal feature from ~zefiraelRain
Feature in news article


SECOND PLACE
1 month deviantART subscription from ~Anjellyjoy
1 pencil/charcoal artwork from ~Anjellyjoy
1 custom icon or stamp from ~Anjellyjoy
1 custom literature tag from ~Anjellyjoy
1 black and white character drawn in manga style from ~3fukutaicho
1 full colour visual artwork from ~zefiraelRain
1 sketch from ~zefiraelRain
2 poems from ~zefiraelRain
1 prose piece from ~zefiraelRain
4 detailed deviation critiques from ~artydude12
1 custom icon from ~tiannangel
1 custom literature tag from ~tiannangel
1 poem from ~shadowgriffen
Journal feature from ~3fukutaicho
Journal feature from *Aedammair-Feline
Journal feature from ~artydude12
Journal feature from ~bakadeshoo
Journal feature from ~darkvampyressx
Journal feature form ~shadowgriffen
Journal feature from ~tiannangel
Journal feature from *xEmoMuffinx
Journal feature from ~zefiraelRain
Feature in news article


THIRD PLACE
1 custom icon or stamp from ~Anjellyjoy
1 custom literature tag from ~Anjellyjoy
1 full colour visual artwork from ~zefiraelRain
1 sketch from ~zefiraelRain
2 poems from ~zefiraelRain
1 custom icon from ~tiannangel
3 detailed deviation critiques from ~artydude12
1 poem from ~shadowgriffen
Journal feature from ~3fukutaicho
Journal feature from *Aedammair-Feline
Journal feature from ~artydude12
Journal feature from ~bakadeshoo
Journal feature from ~darkvampyressx
Journal feature form ~shadowgriffen
Journal feature from ~tiannangel
Journal feature from *xEmoMuffinx
Journal feature from ~zefiraelRain
Feature in news article

(By "full colour visual artwork" I mean a digital painting, vector or coloured drawing.)


All prizes will be distributed digitally.
If you would like to donate a prize, send me a note. Prize donors may still enter the contest if they wish.


And look, STAMPS! Don't you love stamps?
(much kudos to ~Anjellyjoy for making them!)



In other words, I'd really appreciate it if you could spread news of this contest around like an infectious disease (:


For updates, I suggest you watch me (so you won’t miss any journal edits or other announcements; I don’t care if you don’t watch my art XD) or check my journal for updates.

If you have any questions at all regarding this contest, I suggest you send me a note or comment on my journal. You can comment on the news article if you like (I will be checking it), but if you do that I won’t get a notification of it and there’s always the chance I’ll miss something.


So that’s it! Horror writing contest! You have a month and a bit, now… start writing (: