From the press release:
Cross Words Horror Stories Writing Contest, $100 in Prizes
Innersins.com is pleased to announce a writing contest for a new kind of horror story. A horror story in the form of clues in a crossword puzzle. You have probably never seen or read anything like it, and most assuredly haven’t written anything like it, but a chance at up to $100 should make it worth the effort.
“Cross Words” first appeared in issue 3 of the webzine Inner Sins as “Crossword Anxiety” by Reed Beebe and has been a steady feature ever since.
“We recognized the creativity of Beebe’s submission right away even though we felt it needed a little work to polish it up,” said Co-founder and Publisher Michael Martin. “We worked with Reed on some details and got a feature we were proud to publish.”
“It didn’t take long to imagine the possibilities,” said Co-founder and Managing Editor, J. Scott Kunkle. “In that same issue we told everyone to stay tuned for a new recurring feature, which turned into our “Cross Words” feature each month.”
The basic structure is rather simple; there are two stanzas or paragraphs, labeled strangely enough, “Across” and “Down.” Each stanza should start with a number, like a crossword puzzle clue, and have at least 10 lines but not more than 15.
“It seems simple enough, but to build it into a coherent story can be quite challenging,” said Beebe. And he should certainly know, having created this format originally.
“This is why we’ve decided to have a contest with a significant cash prize,” said Kunkle. “We want to expose this interesting and challenging new story format to as many readers and writers as we can and what better way to do that than with a contest and cash!”
Go to www.InnerSins.com for info and your chance at pocketing up to $100!
