Do you go batty over Halloween? Well, so does your ghostess with the mostest! Will your characters get sheet-faced, or will they summon the spirits? Whether you bring the sexy or the scary, we want your bewitching words! Just remember, pumpkins come, and pumpkins go, but a jack-o-lantern will steal the show! (Every entry must contain a pumpkin reference of some sort!)

Good luck to all entrants!!!

Host

OhgeeFantasy

Secret Keeper

Alice's White Rabbit

Validators

EnchantedbyTwilight
Songster

Banner Maker

Mina Rivera

Judges

Beegurl13

Hadley Hemingway

Cejsmom

CecePrincess1217

All entries must be ANONYMOUS. PLEASE DO NOT divulge any specifics of your story unless it's to your beta, prereader, or the contest secret keeper in confidence, including the word count, and any other clues as to which entry could be yours. Do NOT contact anyone other than the secret keeper. You will be disqualified immediately! Anyone found trolling for votes will be disqualified immediately. We also ask fans not to promote individual stories. You may promote the contest as a whole.

Please do not post or continue your story anywhere until after the winners have been announced on October 31st. After, please feel free to continue your story into a full-length fiction; although, the contest entry must stand alone.

Participants must be 18 or older.

Entries can be any genre, rating, AU, AH, canon, and non-canon pairings.

Entries must be new, original work of the submitting author. One submission per author, although one collaboration with another writer is also permitted.

Entries must be between 3,000 and 12,000 words.

Entries MUST have a pumpkin reference. It can be in passing or a key aspect of the story, but a pumpkin must be mentioned in some way. (Jack-o-lantern is fine!)

Entries must fit within the theme of the contest or they will be returned unposted. You may revise and resubmit as long as it does not violate the hard limits below.

Entries must be betaed. We will be validating all entries for grammar, spelling, etc. If there are a large number of errors or the story has issues with readability, then your entry will be sent back to you so that you may edit and revise before resubmitting.

Content Limitations: NO incest, bestiality, rape, real person fiction, or pedophilia. Offending submissions will be disqualified upon receipt--no resubmissions will be allowed regardless of revisions.

Special Awards Categories:

Skeleton In The Closet: Biggest Surprise Ending

Pumpkin Pie Award: Best Use of Pumpkin

Spell-Binding Award - Most Original Plot

Killer Thriller Award - Best Suspense

Decorator Award - Best Use of Halloween Theme

Candy Land Award - Best Romance

Haunting Award - Scariest Story

DATES AND SUBMISSION

Contest announced August 22, 2019. Submissions should be sent in between September 6, 2019 - October 11, 2019. Public voting begins on October 13th and ends October 20th. Results will be announced on October 31st, time TBD, on Twitter and the FB group - https://www.facebook.com/groups/1468173380147185/

HEADER

All entries should include the following header:

Penname: (will not be published – only known to the secret keeper)

Beta: (will not be published – only known to the secret keeper)

Prereader: (will not be published – only known to the secret keeper)

Title of Story:

Rating:

Pairing:

Genre:

Word Count:

Story Summary:

Standard Disclaimer: The author does not own any publicly recognizable entities herein. No copyright infringement is intended.

Please note: We moderate all guest reviews, so it may take a few days for them to appear. We will not post any mean, hate-filled reviews. This is a contest and is meant to be fun. If you leave any mean, hate-filled reviews under your account, you will be blocked. This is not to say you can't provide honest, constructive feedback. Most writers welcome this type of feedback.