Contest #2:
Short Stories for the original anthology, “SHOCKWAVE: Tales of Artificial Intelligence Written in Year Zero, 2024 C.E.”
Contest dates: 1 January 2024 through 15 December 2024
First Place Prizes: 12 cents/word
Second Place Prizes: 10 cents/word
Third Place Prizes: 8 cents/word
(The rates are commensurate with the rates for The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction.)
Rules:
1) Contestants retain ownership of the intellectual property of their entries.
2) Contestants agree to allow the use of their entries and derivatives of their entries for publication and promotion of the original anthology, “SHOCKWAVE: Tales of Artificial Intelligence Written in Year Zero, 2024 C.E.” via media such as e-book, web, print, etc., for a period of 5 years, that is, until 15 December 2029. Contestants will retain the merchandising, film, TV and dramatic performance rights for their stories. During the five-year period (15 Dec 2024 through 15 Dec 2029), the editor, Tom Cool, will split any revenues among the participants, equally, with one share as editor equal to each share as contributor (e.g., if published as a mass market paperback for print sale, with 9 stories by nine contributors, the earnings will be split 10 ways, one for the editor, and one each for the nine contestant winners.)
3) I, Tom Cool, will be the sole judge in this contest. All of my decision-making will be final. I retain the right to extend the deadline of the contest up until 15 December 2025, if I do not receive the quantity and quality of stories required to meet my editorial standards. I retain the right to decide which of the submitted stories are used for publication and promotion purposes and to modify the stories as required for publication and promotion purposes. In the case of modification, I will consult with the writer of that story, who will have the options to approve the modification, submit a new version that addresses the editorial requirements or withdraw from the project. In the case of withdrawal, the winner will retain the prize money. That is what makes this a contest and not a solicitation for work-for-hire.
4) Stories should address dramatic, social, economic and spiritual aspects of the rise of artificial intelligence in the light of what we are learning due to the real-world emergence of Artificial General Intelligence (AGI) in systems such as OpenAI’s ChatGPT and DeepMind’s Gemini. The story should be set on Earth (and, if desired, the Moon, Mars and space stations) sometime in the years 2024 C.E. through 2054 C.E. Robots are fine. So are transgenic humans, especially those that have been bioengineered to interface with AGIs. No aliens, please. I am interested both in wholly original stories and in reworkings of classic artificial intelligence stories, re-imagined in the light of what we are learning from the real-world emergence of AGI, particularly by the original authors. For example, if James Cameron wants to write a story about SKYNET, re-imagined based upon what we are learning about AGIs as they emerge, I would love it. Completely fresh imaginings are welcome, especially by technologists who are currently working on real-world AGIs. I intend to include at least one story written by an AGI itself, so I ask that each story submitted include a blurb about the process of the creation of the story. For example, "59 Seconds to Live" was written pen-to-paper, transcribed by the author, and grammar- and spell-checked using Microsoft Word. Follow your own process, but please be honest about what that process is, especially with regards to the use of any artificial intelligence. We are collaborating on a collective work of art written in a pivotal point of history, which may imbue the collection both with artistic and historical interest.
5) Stories should be between 1,500 and 6,500 words, submitted in Microsoft Word .docx format or in Adobe PDF. The filename should follow this convention: TITLE_by_AUTHOR_NAME_vXX, where XX = the version number, using a leading zero as applicable. No special characters or blank spaces, please. Upload your submission to the contest folder or email to me at WritersEditorsArtists@mail.com.
6) The submitted file should include a blurb with the following information:
word count
author(s) name(s)
author’s email address(es)
a short list of publishing credits
a short description of the author’s process, e.g., “Written by hand, transcribed to Word and spell-checked” or “First draft by author, with edits suggested by ChatGPT 4.5.”
7) The editorial standard is professional-grade storytelling. While the cherub-faced editor may hope for a collection as seminal as Harlan Ellison’s DANGEROUS VISIONS (1967) or Bruce Sterling’s MIRRORSHADES: The Cyberpunk Anthology (1986), we can trust that the stories will be be at least as good as those in Isaac Asimov’s I, ROBOT (1950). Toward this end, I’ve uploaded a work-in-progress, “59 Seconds to Live,” which may provide some indication of the editorial bar.
8) Profanity in the title is discouraged, unless your name is Kurt Vonnegut.
9) Please, one submission per author, unless your initials are WG, CJC, NS or BS.