Could you be this years PULP IDOL?

This is from SFX magazine, the top UK science fiction mag:

http://www.sfx.co.uk/features/get_writing!

Get writing!
Could this be the year that you become a published SF author? The Pulp Idol competition begins in issue 140: we want you to send us your words for potential inclusion in a book.

[13 Jan 2006 7:08pm]
Here at SFX magazine we know that everybody has a story inside them. So if you're a previously unpublished author, send your words to us for entry in our inaugural writing competition! Yep, we're planning a book that will be given away with a future issue of SFX, a book called Pulp Idol ' see what we did there? It's a collection we're publishing in association with the good people at Gollancz.

This is a great opportunity to get noticed by SF-mad readers in the UK. So how do you enter? We want to read original SF stories from 1000 to 2000 words long. Email them to us at the address below before 1 April, and we'll take it from there. Terms and conditions apply (see below - please note most recent amendment, paragraph 8, made 24 January).

The competition begins in earnest with a fantastic feature containing tips from SF authors in issue 140 of SFX (on sale Wednesday 18 January). Plus in future issues of the magazine we'll be running articles looking in detail at different facets of writing. You'll also find a section of our forum set apart for budding writers to get together and chat about the highs and lows of creating SF tales: http://forum.sfx.co.uk/viewtopic.php?t=1222

HOW TO ENTER
Stories must be submitted electronically, either in the form of a plain text file, a Microsoft
Word document, standard PC-compatible email body text, or HTML. Entrants should not send
their story in any other program format ' we can't guarantee that we'll be able to open it, and
unreadable files will be considered invalid. All story documents must include the entrant's
name and contact details. The address to email stories to is:

SFXPulpIdol@futurenet.co.uk

THE PRIZE
- The winner will be proclaimed SFX Pulp Idol Winner 2006. Hurrah!
- The winning story will be printed as the lead story in our SFX short story compilation published and distributed with SFX magazine in the summer of 2006, along with 10 runner-up stories. The winner and his or her story will be identified as the winner in that collection.
- The winner will receive six copies of the SFX short story compilation book free of charge for his or her own use.
- The winner will receive an exclusive piece of framed artwork, inspired by or illustrating their story, by a professional illustrator commissioned by the folk on SFX.
- Note: ten runners-up will be identified as such and will have their stories printed in the SFX short story compilation, but will not be entitled to anything else.

THE GENERAL RULES
- Stories must be between 1000 and 2000 words in length. Stories will be considered invalid
if they are longer or shorter than that.
- All stories must be received by no later than 5.00 pm on 1 April 2006.
- Stories must be written in English.
- No fan fiction. The settings and characters comprising the stories must be the entrant's
own work. The entrant must not base his or her story in an existing fictional universe
(eg. Star Trek or Buffy). No material other than that which the entrant has created himself
or herself, without using or being influenced by any other material (particularly no
material owned or created by third parties), may be used.
- No erotica, no slash fiction and no excessive references to sexual or violent practices should
be contained within a story. The tone of each story must be appropriate for a general
news-stand audience.
- No standard fiction, crime or romance to predominate in your story. SFX is a fantasy and SF
publication. Thus: the theme of each story should be science fiction, fantasy or horror.
- Stories must be original work, and must not have previously been published in any form
(no small press, no other magazine or website, no other collection or competition).
- We cannot offer individual feedback on stories.

Cheers,

Mark Brown, Editor (on Leave), www.ABCtales.com