ChiZine Publications is celebrating the launch of Napier’s Bones by Derryl Murphy with a contest.
Co-publisher Brett Alexander Savory tells us: “To honour the death of Scottish mathematician John Napier and celebrate the release of Derryl Murphy’s new novel Napier’s Bones, ChiZine Publications has announced the Napier’s Legacy Contest, which seeks submissions of short stories, jokes and inventions inspired by John Napier.
“Launched 4 April, the date of John Napier’s death in 1617, the contest is looking for creative works related to John Napier’s interests, which include mathematics, the occult and alchemy. Winners will receive a limited hardcover for the best ‘undiscovered’ invention by John Napier, a trade paperback for an original short story where numbers play some role in the plot, and an eBook for the best numbers-based joke.”
Co-publisher Sandra Kasturi says: “Derryl’s novel presents a world where numbers are the basis of magic. It’s such an unusual take on magic that we wanted to run a truly unique contest where people can have some creative fun and enter in different ways. I can’t wait to see what kind of cool stories and wacky fake ‘inventions’ people come up with, not to mention all the terrible jokes!”
Full details on the contest, the deadline for which is 4 May, are on this page.
John Napier (1550-1617) is best known for discovering the logarithm, popularizing the decimal point, and the abacus known as “Napier’s Bones”.