contest: submit your story about love (good or bad)

I interrupt regular programming this week to announce a call for stories about love.

Good love, bad love, first love, hearts-ripped-out-of-chests love, hateful love, love lessons, The One, The One That Got Away, betrayal, soul mates, whatever. It just has to be good. Moving, raw, honest, aching, dreamy... whatever tells your story.

My colleagues and I are building an anthology and we're looking for new authors. It can be a blog post you've already written or something you're composing in your head. You can also be anonymous if you'd like. Or not.

• Prize: $100 (That's half an iPhone!!)
• Deadline: October 31, 2009. (Isn't Halloween a fitting deadline? Better than Valentine's Day....)
• Spread the word: blogrollandroll@yahoo.com

Authors will be notified by November 30, 2009 if they've won. A panel of judges will make the decision.

Desired format:

• Email your entry with the subject line "LOVE story submission" or something along those lines so I can tell you're not selling me "bigger stick" pills for my manhood.
  
  
• You can submit more than one entry, but only one entry per author can win.
  
  
• Must be a true story, not fiction. We're looking for first-person memoir type accounts. Diary entries. Soul rendering on paper. TMI, no holds barred raw emotions.
  
  
• The story can be in the text of the email, or an attached PDF or Word document (not .docx).
  
  
• Please include your contact info so we can notify you if you've won.We will respond to let you know we've received your submission, and then again by the first week of December to let you know if you've won or not. If you have won, we will also keep you updated on publishing information.
  
  
• Let us know if you would prefer to remain anonymous.
  
  
• Bonus if your piece has a title but it's not absolutely necessary.
  
  
• Length: no more than, say, 10 pages. No shorter than, say, 1 page. But we're flexible on this.

More details on the panel's selection criteria:

Raw emotion should pour out of the story. What details could you add that you would be embarrassed to share with your family, friends, the public? Writing that makes you cringe and say, "wow, that was TMI and really hard to get out but it's the truth, it's what was happening to me inside." You can tell if you're going in the right direction if you would be embarrassed to share the details pouring out. Diary stuff. And one of the reasons anonymity or refuge under a pen name is offered.

cartoon from Jason Love

I'll be traveling this week so see you as soon as I get back online!