I have to say I'm actually really excited that this is coming, so much so that I can't believe I have to wait another week to post anything actually official about the contest. It sucks I know, but I think I'm shooting for posting everything next wednesday night.
If you'd like to see what the rule structure is, please go here: Writing Contest Rules & Regs
I haven't posted the themes yet, mainly because one, you'd be starting already and two they aren't concrete yet. So, this is a last chance for you to say anything about the contest as you would like to see it. If you have a problem with any of the rules now is the time to address them. Also, I think its good to have a healthy reminder that this is coming up as we rarely have writing contests.
To avoid any confusion, I'm going to give you a brief overview as to how this is going to work:
Next wednesday I will update the blog post, the blog post will be the most up to date list of rules and have answers to frequently asked questions you might have. There will be a discussion thread. Any discussion of the contest, once it begins will go there. You can post drafts in that thread, you can post ideas in that thread, you can asks for critiques of your writing for this contest in that thread or you can discuss the stories.
The submissions thread will only be for submissions, in fact I'm going to ask a moderator to occasionally look through and delete anything that doesn't belong like what is done for Art Contests or Audio Contests. In the submissions thread you will post a link to your blog that contains your story and a short summary or basic intro. This summary is to serve a few purposes. First, consider it an advertisement for other bbs users to want to read your story. Second, its your first chance to get the judges interested in your work. Play yourself up, with out any of the "I know it sucks, but read it anyway."
You can edit any drafts you submit to the discussions thread, BUT once a submission is added to the submisions thread you can not edit it. If dates are seen to be out of order, and they are displayed at the bottom of a blog, then you will be disqualified. This is to prevent the judges from going insane. We are probably going to have to read upwards of 50 pages or more for this contest over a period of time. If you change your story you not only gain an unfair advantage, but judges will judge you on different sources as judging will begin with the first submission.
So anyway, make sure your work is polished if you are someone who sees a fault, and is like "oh man I really wish I could change that."
As a side note, I sent a pm off to TomFulp, but he never got back to me so I doubt there will be any prizes. Its unfortunate, but who knows, the e-mail may have never been read or he may just be waay to busy to be reading pms right now with pico day coming up.