Weird Tales, like everyone else, is fed up with spam e-mail. But unlike the rest of us, they’re turning it into an opportunity. They’re running a quick contest for short-short stories. Specifically, they’re looking for stories of 500 or fewer words based on “the latest wave of spam—you know, the faux outrageous news headlines: ‘Osama trains goats for tactical bombing.’ ‘Laika the Russian space dog returns to Earth.’ ‘Children admit to being little shits: Video.’ Isn’t it a shame the headline is all we get? So here at Weird Tales we’re inviting you to turn this spam into… um… spam-ade!”
Stories, along with the headlines that inspired them, should be emailed to contest at weirdtales dot net by 9AM on Monday 4 August. The three winners will be announced on Friday 8 August at WorldCon. All three winners will be published on the magazine’s web site the following week. The first- and second-place stories will earn their writers three free issues of Weird Tales, and the winning story will also get an autographed copy of Ekaterina Sedia’s new novel, The Alchemy of Stone.
The editors warrn, however, that “entries from Nigeria will be examined very closely.”