Posts Tagged ‘contest’

Announcing BashinginMinds' first giveaway: two Dollhouse Season One DVD sets!

Season one of Joss Whedon's controversial series Dollhouse will be hitting the streets on July 28, but you can win one a week early. All you have to do is tell me this:

Why would you hire a doll?

Please keep comments under 50 words or so, and relatively PG-13. Otherwise, go wild. Please use the form below; entries posted as a comment to this post will not be entered.

Entries must be received by midnight EST on Friday, July 17, 2009, and there will be two ways to win. First, I'll select the best 10 and put those up for a vote, winner gets a DVD set. And I'll select a name at random from all the entries for the other set. Winners will be announced Tuesday, July 21, so folks going to Comic-Con will know if they should be trying to buy one or not…

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And here's my first entry into the 2009 Creative Writing Championship short story contest. Each group of writers was given a genre, a location that must be integral, an item that must be featured, 1,000 words to do it in, and 48 hours to write it. My group received "Suspense / indoor swimming pool / piggy bank." Fair enough…

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Put Not Your Trust in Banks

by C. A. Bridges

He heard the terrible crashing sound, and the screams, and the rapidly approaching clatter.

Nestled deep in the darkness, the old stagecoach breathed a deep sigh and waited for the inevitable, which arrived moments later in a sudden slice of harsh white light.

“C-coach?” came the voice, sweet, high and shaking.

“Go away.”

The pig pushed her way into the closet and past the luggage to find him. “Coach! You have to help us!” She spun around to look behind her, making a noise like… there is no noise quite like a full piggy bank. She sloshed, metallically.

“It’s Christmas time, this is what happens,” he grumbled, and began to roll backwards to hide behind the shoes. “I’d advise closing your eyes. It’ll be over faster.”

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Actually, that pretty well explains it.

Meatcards.com, a new startup offering business cards laser-etched onto strips of beef jerky — because, why not? — is offering sample cards to the first people to send decent live re-enactments of one of three classic Frank Frazetta paintings. But you have to be sincere.

The FIRST TEN NON-HALFASS PICTURES RECEIVED are winners. The definition of "non-halfass" is entirely, solely, and irrevocably up to the judges, and our judgment is final. And when we say "non-halfass", we mean it. You better have a halberd and a bikini and a RIGHTEOUS expression on your face if you're going for "Fire and Ice", and SOMEBODY better be in a bikini.

Since not everyone can hustle this up that quickly — it's a pain trying to rent a dinosaur during rush hour — they're also picking the five best entries submitted before 9 am next Monday, June 22.

Everything about this appeals to me, and I hope they display every entry they get. Go read the rules just to get an idea of the true, horrible scope of this contest. And if you enter, good luck!

I won the audience award! You like me! (sniff) You were shamed, guilted, and/or pressured into admitting you really like me!

Thanks, everyone, for voting for me.

Didn't get the judges' prize but I did get into the top ten, which means I also won entry into NYCMidnight's 2009 Creative Writing Contest, which starts this Friday night. Forget Father's Day, kids, daddy has to get his write on.

The new contest is a bit different, and only slightly less complicated than a March Madness betting chart made with a Spirograph. It works on a points system.

Once again I'll be in one of several writer groups. Starting this Friday night, we'll be given a location that must be featured, an item that must be included, and a specific genre, and we'll have 2 days to write a 1,000 word short story.

The judges will read them all, put them in order of preference and award points for our placement (#1 gets 25, #2 gets 22, etc). We get more locations, items, and genres and we write another 1,000 word story in July. Our points get added together, and the top 10 writers in each group move on to the next round.

We get reassigned to new groups, do it all over again in August, and the top ten from each group gets points but only five writers from each group move to the next round, based on the top three stories along with the next two highest point-total writers.

The last round is in September, all the writers left get a location, an object that must be in the story, and a genre. The judges choose the best 15, points get assigned, and then a variety of prizes get awarded to the top writers and the top points-holders. More details here.

Got all that? Me, neither. I plan to just write whenever they tell me to and see what happens. The prizes are decent, the challenge is a fun one, we get critiques on everything we write, and we get our own forum to tear each other apart help each other out.

I'll keep you posted, whether you like it or not, and continue posting my stories here. So, heads up.

Remember NYCMidnight's "Tweet Me a Story" contest? Hundreds of writers wrote stories of 140 characters or less, using a supplied word? And then some of the writers made it to the final round, and we all got the same word? And I posted my entries here?

One of them made the top 25, chosen by NYCMidnight's judges, and now the final vote begins. So I'm shamelessly asking for votes.

Head to http://www.nycmidnight.com/2009/tweet/tweet.htm and vote for me (if you feel my story deserves it, of course). You can also vote for any other of the entries you like. No registration required, no e-mail, nothing. Mine's the 4th one down:

"Aren't you skydiving?" "Yup." "You're calling from midair? That's sweet!" "I love you…" he said, watching the tear in the fabric spread. CREATED BY Chris Bridges

Voting ends Wednesday, 9pm EST. Thanks!

So, I made the final round of NYCMidnight's "Tweet Me a Story" contest. So, the remaining writers all got the same word last night to use in our 140-character stories. So, the word was "tear."

Here's what I submitted, with titles added afterward for fun:

Last Call

"Aren't you skydiving?"

"Yup."

"You're calling from midair? That's sweet!"

"I love you…" he said, watching the tear in the fabric spread.

Father Knows Best

"But I loved him, daddy!"

"Wipe that tear away, honey. Other boys will respect you more."

"How do you know?"

"Because they'll see his body."

Anything for You

"You said you were too happy to write tear jerking songs?"

"Yeah?"

"I just stole your truck to go sleep with your sister."

"Oh, I love you!"

Interestingly, all of them are about love, one way or another. Noticed that after I submitted them. Here's what I didn't submit, and why.

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Sony's having a contest to promote the new Blu-Ray edition of The Ghostbusters, and it can get you to Comic-Con! Just head here and enter for your chance to win roundtrip airfare, 3 nights at the Embassey Suites, 2 days for 2 people at the San Diego Comic-Con, and more! Or lots of Ghostbuster-related merchandise; shirts, hats, the usual.

You can also head to the main Ghostbusters movie site to put yourself into the team, or upload a video of your Ghostbuster tryout.

The Ghostbusters Blu-ray edition is coming June 16th.

So NYCMidnight.com is holding a contest for writers to craft Twitter-sized stories of 140 characters or less, which must include a supplied word.

So all of the entrants were split into 20 groups, with a different word for each group, and we all wrote (my word was "heaven").

So the first round now has been judged, and the best 15 stories of each group have been chosen, and now everyone gets to vote on their favorites out of each group.

And of the 15 chosen in my group, 2 of them are mine.

And now it's time for you to vote. I'd appreciate it if you voted for mine (although there are some excellent competitors there). You can even vote for both of mine, if you've a mind to.

Go to the first round page and click on Group 1. Mine are the top two stories in the list, the ones by Chris Bridges. Vote!

Voting goes on till next Monday night. The writers of the 5 top stories of each group will go on to the finals, and I'd sure like to be there. I hear it's nice. Thanks!

The first round of the "Tweet me a Story" writing contest from NYCmidnight was last night. Entrants were assigned a word at 7 p.m. and had 5 hours to come up with up to 3 stories, under 140 characters each, including that word in proper usage.

My group got the word "HEAVEN." Here's what I submitted (titles added for fun afterward, not included in submission):

SUBMISSION #1: "Watching the Fur Fly""

"I don't think 'All Dogs Go to Heaven' was a suggestion, Bill."
"Just keep feeding me cartridges," Bill said. "This is gonna take a while."

SUBMISSION #2: "Sacrificial Yammering"

"What do you mean I can't come in," he said. "I gave up everything to get to heaven."
"Exactly," said St. Peter. "You're too boring now."

SUBMISSION #3: "Afterlife Is a Bitch, and Then You're Dead"

Listen: Sometimes Heaven and Hell swap, as a lesson to the saved and damned souls alike.
Where will you go if you die tonight? Depends…

Granted, they're more like scenes than actual beginning-middle-resolution stories, but those are a pain to cram into a tiny box.

On June 1st, 15 winning stories from each group get posted for online voting, and the winners progress to round two. I expect slavish, devoted voting for me from all of you.

Steve 'Frosty' Weintraub over at Collider.com is clearing out his closet and offering giveaways of a pile of pop culture goodies clogging up his life. "Land of the Lost" stuff, promo shirts, a "Family Guy" DVD set, "Weeds" Season 4, a $100 Banana Republic card… and one of the promo Dollhouse dolls that was sent to media outlets.

Here's how to maybe win it:

So you’re probably asking how you can win something. Here’s what you need to do….

Email thecollidermailbox@gmail.com

In the headline say COLLIDER’s NEW SITE MEANS I GET FREE SWAG

In the body of the email please provide the answers to the 3 questions plus your mailing address. If you win, you’ll get an email from me and soon after you’ll get something in the mail.

Finally, this contest ends June 20^th at noon Pacific Time.

Here are the three questions and further down are images and info on what you can win. Of course this contest wouldn’t be possible without the PR firms and the various studios that make it happen. So a big thanks to them. Also, a big thank you to all of you for continuing to read the site.

Question 1 – What day did J.J. Abrams “Star Trek” get released here in America.

Question 2 – What was Steven Seagal’s first movie? His character’s name was Nico Toscani

Question 3 – What NHL game did I recently rave about on my Twitter account? It’s for the Sega Genesis.

More details here. Good luck!