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Bloodstorm Ravenblade?

http://www.blacklibrary.com/shortstorycompetition/default.asp

‘HEROES OF THE SPACE MARINES’ SHORT STORY COMPETITION

The Black Library is pleased to announce its 2008 short story competition.

Due to the massive response to Planetkill, we’re breaking with tradition this time, folks, and going for a second successive Warhammer 40,000 themed competition. Warhammer short story fans need not worry though, as we will be doing a fantasy themed competition again next time.

This time around we are looking for submissions for our new anthology, Heroes of the Space Marines. All of the stories in this collection must be about Space Marines. They can be tales of either loyal or traitor Space Marines but have to be Chapters, Legions and Renegades that are already part of Games Workshop’s background. Feel free to make up your own heroes and villains; your story doesn’t have to be about a well-known character. But please don’t write about existing fictional characters (e.g. Uriel Ventris, Justicar Alaric, Ragnar Blackmane, etc).

We’re only looking for stories set in the current Warhammer 40,000 timeline, so please don’t set your story during the Horus Heresy or the Age of Apostasy, for example.

To enter the competition, you need to write a synopsis of no more than 500 words along with a writing sample of between 500 and 1,000 words for consideration by the Black Library editors. To give you a helping hand, we’ve provided a short description of what we mean by a ‘synopsis’ and you’ll finds this just before the Rules and Regulations below.

The entries that show the most promise will go forward to the second stage of the competition where the author will be asked to write a short story of no more than 7,000 words. Any stories we deem worthy of publication after this stage of the competition will appear in Heroes of the Space Marines and the author will be paid for his or her work at the standard Black Library short story page rate.

Entries for the competition will only be accepted through this online form and the deadline for synopses is Monday 3rd March at midday (GMT). No feedback will be given on unsuccessful entries. Successful authors will be notified within eight weeks of this date and then given four weeks to turn their synopsis into a full 7,000 word manuscript. The winning entries will then be chosen from these completed stories.

WHAT IS A SYNOPSIS?
This is a succinct break down of your story, describing in brief what it’s about. Try to think of it as a film pitch – we want to know who’s in it (your characters), where it’s set (the setting) what they are doing and why (the set up) and who or what is trying to stop them (the conflict or confrontation). Some of the best short stories often have a twist, too, so try to work one in to your story (the conclusion).

Remember: keep it short and to the point. All we need is roughly what the story is about, not the whole thing!

Rules and regulations

Successful entrants will be notified via e-mail no later than eight weeks after the closing date. Unsuccessful entrants will not be notified and any e-mails received by us enquiring about the status of entries or asking for feedback on a specific submission will not receive a reply from BL Publishing or its representatives.
The deadline for entries is midday 3rd March (GMT).
Authors who successfully get through the first stage of the competition will be given a period of no more than four weeks to produce a full 7,000 word manuscript of their short story.
Manuscripts accepted for publication will be paid for at the standard Black Library short story rate – 3 pence per published word. We will also supply you with three free copies of the anthology. All published stories become the property of Games Workshop Ltd. to use in any way they see fit.
Only entries received through the proper submissions process (detailed above) will be considered. Any entries deemed incomplete, inappropriate and/or offensive will be disqualified.
We will not make any judgements based upon age, sex or level of writing experience. We are looking for great writing that is true to the Warhammer 40,000 world.
The decision of the judges is final and no correspondence will be entered into.
Entries will not be returned.
All entries must be in English.

3 pence per word? Awesome!

Whats a pence?

Pence means pennies, as in British 100 pence to the pound.

So 3p is about 6 cents.

6 cents a word is pretty good for pulp SF. My friend makes like 2 cents a word. Sounds like a fun contest. To bad I, you know, spend all my time posting here on Dakka.

No royalties though and your work belongs to GW.

It's not an arrangement an established author would go for but as fanfiction it seems like a good deal and you are dealing with established IP.

Kilkrazy wrote:

So 3p is about 6 cents.

...and nowadays 6 cents is worth about half of one used bottlecap.

By US science fiction going rates (am not up on UK rates), 6p a word is a princely sum for a competition of this nature. Work-for-hire sucks, but in this case, what would one do with 40k fan-fic otherwise, anyway? You couldn't make money off it yourself, so it doesn't matter that much that GW takes the rights if you win.

Kilkrazy wrote:Pence means pennies, as in British 100 pence to the pound.

So 3p is about 6 cents.

Sometimes reading spoilers can help you make important life decisions.

The money is probably OK if you are an unpublished author.

It offers a chance to get published and might lead to a contract with BL or another publisher in the future.

If you've never written a story before it's probably quite hard to bash out 7,000 words in four weeks, but you have the advantage of using the 40K background so you just have to think of a plot.

Kid_Kyoto wrote:Bloodstorm Ravenblade?

You absolutely MUST.

From BLOODSTORM! RAVENBLADE! OBLITERATES THE UNIVERSE!

Searching through the vivisected corpses of foul chaos things he spied the glint of starlight on gold sheathed adamanamanamtiumite, the strongest metal in the galaxy. "Emperor's wounds" he did swear for only one weapon had that holy luster, the sacred Ravenblade itself!

He drew the muck encrusted blade from the pile of burnt corpses and pressed the activation stud, but, nothing happened! His once great sword was completely impotent. Desperate, Bloodstorm tore a scrap of soft silk from the body of an androgynous Eldar prettyboy and began to vigorously rub the shaft up and down, up and down, sometimes slow and gentle, sometimes fast and rough he stroked it again and again grunting with effort until sweat poured down his brow, but he did not stop stroking and rubbing and pounding and beating until finally...

SWEET RELEASE!

His flacid weapon throbbed and hummed with power almost catching his hands as it rose up to full magnificent power!

Or should I go with his softer side?

Here's BLOODSTORM! RAVENBLADE! with the elven maiden Liv'Tailah...

As they walked her full luscious lips talked about how she had majored in Mon-Keigh literature in college and was 'like really into' mon-keigh culture. She expressed great interest in what the Eldar called Bludd'On'or but was known in human speech as Bloodhonour.

Bloodstorm Ravenblade froze. How did this woman, this xenos come to know the unknowable principles of Bloodhonour?

"How do you, a woman, a xenos, know the unknowable principles of Bloodhonour?" he asked in shock and awe.

The writer looked at him crossly, Bloodstorm just flipped him the bird. So the writer was like, fine, be that way, I'll stop narrating and you can up with your own damn dialogue. So he did.

"I know only a little of the ways of bloodhonour, but I would welcome it if you could teach more, I ache to learn from you."

"I shall teach you more" Bloodstorm Ravenblade slayer of 1000 Exodites replied "for you ache to learn from me."

The writer rolled his eyes and left in frustration.

He returned several hours later as Bloodstorm Ravenblade was putting on his autoreactive cerimititanium boots while Liv'Tailah lay beneath the thermomesh sheets of his all-weather survival cocoon.

I'd go with the first one. There's a chance the BL editors won't notice the, er, subtext.

Anyway, Spase Marinze are supposed to be gay, aren't they?

Second one, but it should be several seconds later. Space Marines are shock troops after all. And he has to fit it into his 15 minutes of free time.

Five minutes.

So 42,000 cents if you write the entire 7,000 words? Can't they just hand you some Forge World product directly?

KK, I wonder if they'll go for your Spaz Emporer stories. They're more entertaining than a lot of the stuff BL puts out.

Ozymandias, King of Kings

Yep, KK makes the most awesome stories. I was actually thinking about this contest.

See, when I started playing 40k I used to make gakky stories about how the whole universe was a sham. I think it was just in response to all the 'LOL LOOK AT MY HEROES AND THEIR AWESOME ADVENTURES' and "IN THE DARKEST GRIM DARKNESS OF GRIMNESS" crap that every fanfic had. The stories were pretty awesome.

There was one story where this firewarrior wakes up in a holding cage with soft walls. He goes insane because everything is black. Then he somehow finds a way out, feels the wind in his hair, and jumps down onto this hard surface. He sees mystical writing on the floor. The view pans out and it's the cover of a warhammer 40k rulebook and he screams in existentialist agony about how he's been living a lie. He looks back and his prison was just a gigantic storage case.

There was this other awesome story about how this emo space elf wanted to kill himself and as he's about to he gets transported to a slaanesh demon world afterlife, since that's where all space elves go. He learns the truth, that the 40k universe is not at all harsh and unforgiving, that it was made that way so you could truly appreciate the friendly company of former foes afterwards. He sheds a tear as he runs off to high-five his fellow orcs, taus, and tyranids. I guess you can add a twist and that that slaanesh world is just a matrix virtual reality and that the universe is really a harsh and unforgiving bastard with no afterlife.

Now, I'm not an English major and my stories suck. But those are the gists of what I was going after and it might be cool if BL accepted something like that rather than yet another "spaz mariners lol hero". If someone wants to take these ideas and actually make a nice story out of them, adapted to fit the space marine theme, be my guest. I only ask that if it's accepted, I get one of the copies they give you.

Well BLOODSTORM! RAVENBLADE! OBLITERATES! THE! UNIVERSE! is submitted.

So there's really no point in submitting now, I mean what you got that matches its awesomeness?

Nothing.

That's what.

Kid_Kyoto wrote:He drew the muck encrusted blade from the pile of burnt corpses and pressed the activation stud, but, nothing happened! His once great sword was completely impotent. Desperate, Bloodstorm tore a scrap of soft silk from the body of an androgynous Eldar prettyboy and began to vigorously rub the shaft up and down, up and down, sometimes slow and gentle, sometimes fast and rough he stroked it again and again grunting with effort until sweat poured down his brow, but he did not stop stroking and rubbing and pounding and beating until finally...

SWEET RELEASE!

His flacid weapon throbbed and hummed with power almost catching his hands as it rose up to full magnificent power!

I'm disconcerted, yet aroused.

/Lights up a smoke and leans back

Kid_Kyoto wrote:the awesome

Have my children.

I would totally buy an anthology with BLOODSTORM! RAVENPECKER! in it! You hear that, Marc Gascgione?

Hellbird Ravencoque always makes me hard as a yew-stave.

On a lighter note, I carry a thruppence coin in my wallet. It's tough, yet warm, just like an englishman.

Jester wrote:Hellbird Ravencoque always makes me hard as a yew-stave.

On a lighter note, I carry a thruppence coin in my wallet. It's tough, yet warm, just like an englishman.

It used to be called a thrupp'nee bit. They went out of use in the early 70s. Very cool coin with 12 sides...

http://www.ukcoinpics.co.uk/three.html

Well, I just submitted my synopsis/sample, anyone else doing it?