Have a close encounter of the word kind.
Flash Icon is here at last. We’ve got a handful of usual suspects making their way back into the Top 10, along with plenty of first-timers. This was an especially difficult contest to judge, but the results speak for themselves.
Strap those thinking caps back on for our next quarterly contest, a horror-themed contest titled #FlashFear, the issue for which will run on Halloween. We want you to run the gamut from bleak, sophisticated terror to genre splatter. Guidelines will be up within a few days.
– The Editor
1st Place
The Solstice Shade
by F.E. Clark
2nd Place
The Father of Terror
by Aeryn Rudel
3rd Place
My Own Private Idol
by Fiona Smith
Honorable Mentions
4th – The Further Adventures of Dorothy Gale
by Fred Senese
5th – Boleskine
by Christopher Stanley
6th – Crumbs
by Gabriel Thibodeau
7th – The Stories Hadley Hemingway Lost
by Robyn Ryle
8th – Visitation
by Allison Spector
9th – Post-Inauguration Day
by Shane Gannaway
10th – Trekkie
by Henry Whittier-Ferguson
Don’t you forget about
Flash Icon results announced August 14th
Working hard or hardly working?
Procrastinator’s Special keeps late submissions open
until August 7th for a couple bucks more.
“In becoming an icon,
it is useful to die young.”
– John Updike
Submit to Flash Icon
Icons transcend boundaries, and that’s just what our Flash Icon contest aims to do. For this quarterly contest, we want to see a no-holds-barred throwdown of epic proportions, and to do that all we require from your entry, theme-wise, is that you include an iconic person, place, or thing. The iconic element you choose must play a significant role in the story, but it doesn’t necessarily have to be the main character, setting, or object.
Now, your iconic person, place, or thing doesn’t need to be real. They can be derived from fictional (or folkloric) sources; they simply need to be widely recognizable. Of course, we want you to get creative with how you use these icons. We’re not looking for fan fiction here, but rather taking icons and using them in unconventional and interesting ways that enthrall us, unnerve us, amuse us, or make us think.
Doubling up (or going for the full trifecta) on the iconic person, place, or thing is encouraged, but don’t go too gimmicky with it. We’re not looking for the most bizarre combinations, but rather the most compelling stories that take these icons to dark and strange places. That said, the more imaginative you get, the better. Life’s short, we want you to get real weird with it.
So that means…
• Chupacabra chomping churros with Charo in Casablanca
• Jesus Christ Uber Driver
• David Copperfield makes a statute of limitations disappear
• Cthulhu is too cthoolhu for schoolhu
• Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Bat Spayer
• The Buddha acquires enlightenment at Home Depot
• Alice in Dollywood
• Elvis Costello meets Frankenstein
• Big Bird boards big bus to Big Ben
• Lady Gaga googles Dada
• Van Gogh cuts off an ear of corn
• The mystery of Al Capone’s Dropbox
• Malcolm in the Middle Earth
• Prince Charles Barkley
• Raiders of the Lost City of Atlantis—all fair game!
The top three entries will win cold, hard cash.
$200 for Flash Icon winner
$100 for 2nd Place
$50 for 3rd Place
We also give mad props to 4th-10th place, publishing them as
Honorable Mentions in our Flash Icon mega-issue and annual print anthology!
Submit to Flash Icon
Follow these guidelines, and you could have some extra coin in your pocket, and some bragging rights as the Flash Icon winner:
– All submissions must absolutely be under 1,000 words, and we tend to look more kindly on 750 or fewer because… SQUIRREL!
– All contest submissions will be read blind, so we won’t be playing favorites. Sorry, Mom.
– Please paste your submission into the corresponding field. Do not list your name anywhere in your submission or we’ll assume you don’t know how to read.
– Costs $7 $9 during Procrastinator’s Special, because, you know, gotta fund the prize money somehow. (Sorry, no refunds.)
– We reserve the right to extend deadlines if necessary (and you can expect our patented several-day Procrastinator’s Special, with corresponding increase in submission fee so it’s still fair and all).
– Submissions must be previously unpublished work, and you will retain copyright (duh). If accepted, your piece will be published online and in our print anthology.
– No limit on how many entries you can submit, but you must submit them one at a time. Don’t just mash them all in there.
– Early bird deadline is July 1st, 2016. Contest deadline is July 31st, 2016 at 11:59 PST. Late entries accepted for Procrastinator’s Special until August 7th, 2016 at 11:59 PST. Winners announced by August 14th and we’ll unleash the Flash Icon prize-winners mega-issue on August 15th.
– And, most importantly, this is a FLASH ICON contest, therefore your story must include an iconic person, place, or thing (real, historical, or fictional) as a significant element of the story.
So that means you can go all…
or all…
or all…
or all…
or even all…
Submit to Flash Icon
The Molotov Cocktail 
