Hair Raising Ghost Story Contest Rules

The 2008 First Annual Crash-n-Sewl Spook-a-Rama Hair Raising Ghost Story Contest Rules, Regulations and Guidelines:

Drumroll please . . .(and btw, if you get bored by rules, skip to the cliff notes at the end)

1. You may enter as many stories as you want in 2 catagories:

Catagory A: Fiction and real funny

Catagory B: Non-Fiction and real real (as in spooky, real)

(Photos are a completely acceptable accessory).

In other words your story can be either real or not-real. If it's not-real it has to make us laugh. If it's real it has scare the bajeepers out of us.

2. If you enter more than once, you must promise not to neglect your duties to serving God, your country and 3 square meals a day.

3. Contest will begin right when you wake up on Thursday, October 23rd.

4. Contest will end right when you go to bed on Wednesday, October 29th.

5. October 30th will be spent deliberating with Simon Cowell and Paula Abdul.

6. The top three not-real but real-funny stories will be posted @ Crash Test Dummy Diaries on Halloween Day and, because we love American Idol as much as the Brits, the voting polls will be open to the public, that's YOU, until All-Hallows Evening (Oct 31st--not to be confused with All-Hallows Eve, which is October 30th) at Midnight. Late entries will be docked 10% per day until the winner is announced.

7. The top three real and real-real, stories will be posted @ Art-n-Sewl on Halloween Day and, because we love American Idol . . . yada yada yada . . . see above.

8. Prizes/Winners will be announced on November 1st on both blogs. Prizes will be distributed after Christmas, (just in case I can recycle some gifts) Calm down, I was kidding! You'll get your prizes before Christmas. Sheesh!

9. If you are under the age of 45 and you are afraid of giant snails, you must have a notarized parental permission slip in order to participate. If you're parents are deceased, thus preventing you from gaining the proper notarized signatures, you will not be eligible to participate.

10. Number 8 does not apply to anyone living in the continental U.S., Alaska, Hawaii or North Korea.

11. There is a word limit! YES! I said word limit. Don't moan and groan about it either because really good writers are concise and succinct and get to the point quickly and at once and without any further delay or redundancy. The word limit number is 500! I promise you can do it if you're willing to kill-your-darlings. (You won't get that unless you went to creative writing school). If you go over the word limit, please send us a lock of your hair so we can create a voodoo doll and make your body do silly tricks.

12. There are some requirements:

1.a) You must send your entry to crashnsewl@gmail.com post dated before the All-Hallows Eve-Eve deadline.

1.b) You may (notice I said may and not must) post your story on your own blog if you're an attention addict or you seek after fame and fortune and everything that goes with it (except the bad exciting stuff). But make sure you drop your link in either Crash or Sewl's comment box so we can all read it.

1.c) Besides sending an email, you must also drop a comment in either Crash or Sewl's comment box (extra-credit if you do both) In your comment you must make 3 things clear: a.) When your story is posted on your blog so we can link up and read it. b.) Which prize you prefer c.) Which blog you like better.

1.d) Can we scratch number 2? Or at least amend it? Please don't tell us which blog you like better. It will just make Sewl feel bad about herself. But do tell us when your post is published so we can all link up and read it and then you can get lots and lots of hits. (Tip: If you embed the word Osmond somewhere in your story, you'll get at least 7,000 hits.) And do you really think we're going to let you pick your own prize? (But it doesn't hurt to try.)

We will wave the $50 entry fee for the first 500 entries, so bust a move!

Okay. Let us Review: (for those of you who like lists, but not long, entertaining lists)

• Two Catagories: Fiction and funny or non-fiction and spooky--photos are fine
• More than one entry per person is only acceptable if you continue to feed your children
• Contest will run from Oct 23-29th (midnight)
• Email entries to crashnsewl@gmail.com
• Leave a comment on either Crash or Sewl's blog with the link to your ghost-post. If you're shy and don't want to publish the post, just leave a compliment in both of our boxes so we can play favorites with your entry.

(See how cool succinct concision is!)

Prizes will be given for the top 3 entries in each catagory, (and plus a few special surprise awards too).

TIPS from CRASH: A reach-in-and-grab-you-by-the-throat title, opening line and closing line are shoe-in's for a prize (unless the rest is totally dumb).

TIPS from SEWL: Yea, what she said.