“With Icarus quill and ink from the blood of nameless things,
I here pen words no mortal should ever speak
Of horrors beyond the ken of man yet in possession of his senses.
Ere the hour of peace dawns upon mankind these abhorrent scratches
Will find their way into the hands of one whose eyes will be consumed
By my accursed remembrances.
It is in that day that all courage will fail you, for your doom is at hand
And things unspeakable will haunt your waking dreams…”

~Calvin Renct, 1698

Thus begins this Tiny Stories Contest, R.I.P. II style! For those unfamiliar with the Tiny Stories concept or for those needing a refresher, the rules are as follows:

Tiny Stories Rules (void where prohibited)

1. Your Tiny Story must be exactly 100 words long, no more, no less.
2. You may only use a word one time in the story.
3. Contractions, for example don’t, only count as one word.
4. You may use different forms of the same word, but (this time) you may not use a word and use its plural. For example, if you use the word haunt you cannot use haunts.
5. This time, your story must have a title and the Title is the one place that you may use words that you used in the body of the 100 word story. The title words do not count as part of your 100 words.
6. Your Tiny Story must be in the vein of the R.I.P. II Challenge. That is, it may be in the scary, spooky, eerie, gothic, mysterious, atmospheric, etc. vein. It can be serious, funny, horrific, etc., but it must fit, at least loosely, into the spirit of this challenge.

Deadline for your story to be emailed to me at cvincent68@comcast.net is Friday October 19th. That will give the judges a week to make a decision so that I can post the Tiny Stories and the Tiny Stories Winner(s) before the end of October!

For this contest, if you do not get a confirmation email from me within 48 hours that I have indeed received your story, please leave me a comment on my most recent post on the blog. My email occasionally acts up and I want to make sure I receive each and every story submitted.

Still confused? Doubting whether or not you can do this?

Let me tell you, you can. For further help, first go here to look at my explanation of the first Tiny Stories Contest and then go here to see all of the entries for the last Tiny Stories Contest. This should give you just the inspiration you need to get started.

Why would you want to participate in this?

“We’re all made of stories. When they finally put us underground, the stories are what will go on. Not forever, perhaps, but for a time. It’s a kind of immortality, I suppose, bounded by limits, it’s true, but then so’s everything.”

~ Charles de Lint

And besides that, there are prizes to be had as well!!! Without further ado, allow me to present:

The R.I.P.ing Yarns Prize Pack:

To break things down a bit more and add some description, this prize pack consists of:

-A lovely hardback copy of Edgar Allan Poe: Selected Poems and Tales. This was produced a few years ago by Barnes and Noble and has gorgeous old-timey woodcut style illustrations by Mark Summers and has an introduction by Neil Gaiman. This volume includes many of Poe’s most well known short stories and poems.

-The audio CD and accompanying illustrated book of Mirrormask by Neil Gaiman and Dave McKean. It is a tiny story in its own way and makes a perfect addition to this prize pack.

-A coffin nail, what every vampire hunter needs plenty of!

-A copy of the deliciously dark Edward Gorey tale, The Gashlycrumb Tinies.

-A copy of Nicolas Mahler’s whimsical, bizarre cartoon tales, Van Helsing’s Night Off. This is a strange little volume that I just love.

-Two, yes two! quote pens, for future Tiny Stories writing assignments.

-An unopened set of photo trading cards taken from the treasure trove of classic Hammer Horror films. I have a whole set of these and they are great, with film photo stills of actors like Christopher Lee, Ingrid Pitt, Peter Cushing, Barbara Shelly…the list goes on and on.

-A vintage February 1975 copy of Creepy Magazine featuring illustrated versions of classic E.A. Poe tales.

-Two mysterious short story books. These are nice little Barnes and Noble red cloth hardback classics with R.I.P. themed short stories by an author/authors who will remain a mystery. These are covered by my own homemade Edward Gorey book covers.

-Your very own Little Black Poppet!

But wait, there’s more!

-From the creative team that brings you all the Poppet goodness, Slaughterhouse Studios, comes a handmade R.I.P. II bookmark, just for you. I have it on good authority that only two of these will exist, so this is indeed a special item. When this item reaches my front door I will make sure and get a picture so that all can ooo and ahhh over it!

-I will also include a handmade book with all the entered R.I.P. II Tiny Stories included.

-And of course, a Stainless Steel Droppings Envelope O’ Doom.

This, my fellow bloggers, is a great prize pack, so I really hope you participate.

Remember, the deadline is the same as that for the Visitation Prize Pack, Friday, October 19th 11:59 p.m.!

Get out those quills, and let the blood….er, ink…flow!!!