Looking to a Brand New Year!

Well, we've almost finished 2012, and 2013 is looking so sweet, for Adelaide Plains Chapter and Verse!

At our meeting last Thursday (20/12/12), the members present discussed the proposed plan for the group to run our first short story competition. There were ideas thrown around, shot at, hugged and kissed. The final result is one that will, we hope, appeal to a vast number of people!

For 2013, the Adelaide Plains Chapter and Verse group will run a national Short Story Competition, with rules and guidelines, and a theme. The rules and guidelines may not be finalised until after this seasonal madness/ Christmas fun is over, but in general these are the important points that have been decided.

• There will be a maximum word limit for each short story of 2,000 words. Shorter stories are fine, but stories longer than 2,000 words will not be judged, and there is no refund for such entries. The judge's opinion is final, as are the opinions of the competition secretary.
• It will be a competition for adults, with no student or child sections, adult only.
• Australians only please, because the competition secretary is somewhat compromised in regards to numeracy and needs to have Aussie money only or her head might explode, and we son't want that, do we? If people from overseas know ways to get around that without causing confusion, then hey, why not have a go! No promises though.
• The fee for each story entered in the competition will be $10. If you want to write more than one entry and can afford to pay the money for each entry, then go for it! The wonderful news is that after the first entry at $10, the cost goes down to $8 per story entered.
• There will be 1st, 2nd and 3rd place prizes, with selected other entries awarded as the judge sees fit, with the best of the stories received being published in a book. Everyone with a story in the book gets a free copy of the book, with further copies available for purchase if those published want to get something great for gifts next Christmas or birthdays!
• Most important point of all is the theme for this competition is. So, drum roll please, the theme of this inaugural competition is  . . . Fairy Tales Twisted Sideways! This means the stories we want for this competition are Fairy Tales that are not sweet or good or necessarily meant for children. We want bad arse fairy tales!
• There will be an example of such a story written by one of the group members posted on this site soon, but in the meantime think perhaps about Little Red Riding Hood selling drugs and getting busted by Detective Woolff. Or maybe the Ugly Duckling grows up to be even uglier, leading to some confessions from Mama Swan. Or you can tell a story from a different point of view, not Cinderella, but one of her stepsisters. As long as you take a Fairy Story we know and give it a big twist sideways, then you're getting the idea!

That's it for now, except to say, Merry Christmas, and I hope all of your hopes and dreams come true!

I'd like to say a big thank you to Nick Champion MP and his staff for their offer of assistance in the publishing of this fantastic fairy tale book!