Doorknobs & BodyPaint
Guidelines
Issue #67, August, 2012
Hot August Nights

Submission deadline: July 31, 2012--EXTENDED TO AUG. 5, 2012
Publication date: August, 2012

Send Submissions to:
leilarae2@gmail.com
doorknobsandbodypaint@gmail.com
riverbabble@gmail.com
pandemoniumpress@gmail.com
Call for Submissions

The heat has been unbearable, for far too long this August. The governor has issued a State of Emergency Order for the next ten days. He urges the elderly and children to drink lots of water and stay indoors. You've waited through a cold July for this heat. Outside, the sun is setting and with the coming of night, your skin prickles. Overhead the moon is full, bleaching the earth a brilliant white and casting long shadows from trees and buildings. As you step into the shadow, your heart leaps, what was that sound, an owl perhaps. Now, take a moment and write a story within the following guidelines for Hot August Nights:

PLANET BETTY Doug Mathewson, editor (Fantasy and Dystopia)

1. Since emegration began 55 years ago, Planet Betty's climate had been safe and unchanging. The MIT Terra-Forming team programmed Betty’s climate to be the same as Boston in spring (50's during the day, 40's at night). But, now inexplicably, it was heating up. Way up. Most people enjoyed the change. Enjoyed it for a while that is, until there were some very sticky August nights.
2. Maximum length: 250 words.

3.  The sub-theme is:  entrapment.
4. Within the story, you must use this bit of text:  Hotter than  (anything but Hell).

DORSAL Bara Swain, editor

Motherless Brooklyn is Jonathan Lethem's homage to the hard-boiled crime novel. Narrator Lionel Essrog, an amateur detective suffering from Toruette's syndrome, and three other misfits from a makeshift detective agency in Brooklyn, hunt down the murderer of their boss, Tony Mina. In spite of his verbal tics, compulsions and physical twitches, Lionel Essrog resolves to find the killer and narrates this contemporary whodunit literary novel with inventive wordplay. Coney crumpled another Castle wrapper and pointed at the glove compartment. "You take a note. It's six forty-five." I popped the compartment -- the click-release of the plastic latch was a delicious hollow sound, which I knew I'd want to repeat, at least approximately -- and found the small notebook inside. GIRL, I wrote, then crossed it out. WOMAN, HAIR, GLASSES, KEY. 6:45. The notes were to myself, since I only had to be able to report verbally to Mina. If that. For all we knew, he might want us out here to scare someone, or to wait for some delivery. I left the notebook beside the Castles on the seat between us and slapped the compartment door shut again, then delivered six redundant slaps to the same spot to ventilate my brain's pressure by reproducing the hollow thump I'd liked. Six was a lucky number tonight, six burgers, six forty-five. So six slaps.
In 450 words or less, write a story in the first person using the narrator's need to move through life protected by a series of ritualized behavior.

DOORKNOBS Kieron Devlin, editor

1. Maximum length: 250 words.
2. The sub-theme is: Mirror image of you..
3. The year is:  2005.
4. Within the story, you must use this text:  to be given their due.

 HAYWARD FAULT LINE (shake us up) Leila Rae, editor 
1. Maximum length: 450 words.
2. The sub-theme is: Desire.
3. The setting is: New Orleans, LA.
4. Within the story, you must use this bit of text: without consent.

TAPAS  (tiny morsels) Joanne Faries, editor
1.  Maximum length:  250 words.
2.  The sub-theme is:  weariness.
3. Within the story, you must use this bit of text:  they'll burn you.
4. Like seasoning, it is language that makes your story unique. Surprise us.  

 

 CAIRO ROOM
The Cairo Room contains all non-contest and writer's pool selections under 450 words. From the exotic to the post-modern to hypertext to first time writers, this room welcomes all writers. 

 General Guidelines: 
1. Send your submission by email, please include your name, postal address, email address, and bio at the beginning of each story; paste your story into the body of your email and send it in rich text form. 

2. If you send more than one story (four total), send each story as a separate email. 

3. This is important. Put the category DK (Doorknobs), HF (Hayward Fault), DO (Dorsal), TA (Tapas), PB (Planet Betty), CR (Cairo Room), the issue #, and your last name on the subject line. (example: DK, 61, Argure) We use a filter for all email; therefore, if you do not put this information in the subject line, your email will automatically go into trash. 

4. Do not send your story in HTML format or as an attachment. If you send your story in HTML format or as an attachment, it will be discarded.

Contest Prizes for each section (Doorknobs, Hayward Fault Line, Dorsal, Tapa):

A Publication Party with a reading of the winning stories.
We do not pay money for your published work.
The writers retains all copyright to their work.