Category Archives: News

News about the site.

NEWS: Pirate Week Prizes

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Pirate Week has been, I think, the most fun I’ve ever had running a contest. It’s had the biggest prizes, the highest number of submissions, and the most reader involvement, through the Audience Choice Award voting. Thank you so, so much to everyone who sent a story in, commented on and rated their favourites, and voted like crazy in the Audience Choice poll! I’m blown away by the number of votes the poll received.

I want to send out a special thank you to Todd Battaglia and his Grade 7 Language Arts classes. Todd assigned the Pirate Week 50-word story challenge to his classes and sent me the results of what his students came up with. I was only able to pick five stories out of that collection, to avoid flooding the site with too many stories all at once, but I read, enjoyed, and appreciated every story I received. And that goes for all of the other submissions that I wasn’t able to post on the site, too!

The Results

Now here’s the information everyone wants to see! First, the Audience Choice Award, as voted on by the readers, goes to Brandon King for his story Hospitality. Congratulations, Brandon! As a prize, I will be emailing Brandon to get his input on the next Captain Blackbird short story.

On to the Grand Prize winner and the runner-up prize winners. I know this is “the thing to say,” but it’s really been difficult for me to choose a winner from among the five finalists. After deliberating long and hard, however, I’ve come to my conclusions.

The Runners-Up will each receive

The winners of the Runner-Up prizes are… Cameron Boyce for A Golden Opportunity and Brandon King for Hospitality!

The Grand Prize winner will receive

The Grand Prize winner is… Abby W. for Night-Time Stories!

Congratulations to Abby, Cameron, and Brandon, and also to King Kool and John H. Dromey, our other finalists. Your stories were all really excellent! I will be emailing you soon so you can claim your prizes.

Arrr, maties. Thanks for writing in and reading along, everyone!

NEWS: Audience Choice Award Polling

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It’s time to vote!

Help pick the winner of the Audience Choice Award from the five finalist stories that were posted today.

The finalists are

The winner will get the opportunity to help me come up with the next Captain Blackbird short story! (I’ll probably also offer them a free ebook.)

[poll id=”2″]

Voting closes on Tuesday, February 28, at midnight.

NEWS: Pirate Week Prizes and Audience Choice Award

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The five stories going up tomorrow (Friday, February 24) are all finalists for the Grand Prize and for Audience Choice Award voting. Here’s how it’s all going to work:

The five stories will go up over the course of the day. After the last finalist has been posted, I will post a poll for Audience Choice voting. The poll will remain open until midnight PST on Tuesday, February 28. Whichever story has received the most votes by the time the poll closes will win the Audience Choice Award.

On Wednesday, February 29, I will post the Audience Choice Award winner and the winners of the Grand Prize and the two runner-up prizes.

I hope everyone has been enjoying Pirate Week, and I’m sure you’ll all enjoy the finalists!

NEWS: Pirate Week Audience Choice Award

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Did you think the awesome collection of prizes for Pirate Week was big? Well it’s about to expand again!

In addition to giving out prizes to one winner and two runners up, I’ll be making a selection of stories available on Friday for Audience Choice voting. Whoever wins the Audience Choice Award will be given a very special prize: they will have input into the next Captain Blackbird pirate adventure short story I write!

I hope everyone’s looking forward to reading all the great stories that are going to be posted this week. I’ll be posting about six stories each day, so check back throughout the day if you won’t want to miss anything.

Also, since I received so many entries I won’t be posting any stories that I wrote myself this week. I have enough work to do scheduling them all and doing the judging! :)

NEWS: The Pirate Contest Gets Even Sweeter

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Have you entered the Pirate Week contest yet?

If you haven’t, here are some more reasons to do so! In addition to the prizes that have already been announced, the winner will receive a felt eyepatch and a pirate-themed corner bookmark monster, made by my friend Tally Heilke of I Could Make That fame.

More piratey prizes!

I’m also expanding the runner-up prizes to include an ebook of your choice, alongside the Fifty-Word Stories ebook.

That brings our total prize pool to the following:

Read up on the full contest rules and enter now! The deadline is February 17.

NEWS: Pirate Week, and a Contest

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I’ve teased a “Pirate Week” a couple of times over the past few months, and now I’m announcing that it is Officially On.

For the week of February 20 to 24, 2012, every story posted to 50WS will be pirate-themed. I’ll be looking for as many submissions as I can get. Forget one story per day, or even two stories per day: I’m going to post as many stories each day during that week as seems appropriate, so get writing and send your work in!


And guess what: there will be prizes! Here is the updated full prize list:

Fine print re: t-shirts: Shirts with stories on the back are only available up to size Large right now, but shirts with blank backs are available in more sizes. Shipping inside North America is included with your prize; if the winner lives outside North America I’d appreciate $5 to help cover the additional postage costs.

Contest Rules:

  • Each entrant is free to submit up to 5 separate stories.
  • Each story must be exactly 50 words long, not including the title.
  • Every story must have a pirate theme to be considered for publication and/or a prize.
  • If any runner-up winner already possesses an ebook copy of Fifty-Word Stories: Volume Two, the prize may be exchanged for a different ebook.
  • All entries must be received by February 17, 2012.

I’m looking forward to seeing what lands in my inbox. Arr, maties!

NEWS: New Store; Bundle Deals Ending

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I’ve set up a new store for selling my writing, 50WS products included. Until the end of the month, you’ll still be able to buy books and t-shirts using the existing 50WS Store, but once January rolls around I’ll be shutting down the store on this site and running all sales through the new TScom store.

When I transfer things over to the new store, I’ll be discontinuing the bundle deals, so if you want to save money by buying both books, getting a shirt and book together, or picking up both books and a shirt, do it before the end of December!

NEWS: Christmas 25% Off Sale

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Still haven’t picked yourself up a 50-word stories book or t-shirt? Well now’s the time!

Starting today, until the month of December, all FiftyWordStories.com products and bundles are 25% off when purchased online! That means you can save $3 off a book, $5 off a t-shirt, or up to $10 off a package deal, like the Big Bundle!

This sale is in support of the Diaper Fund.

Since I’m running kind of a cobbled-together PayPal store setup, I’ll be applying the discount as a refund after your purchase. Just make your order normally and, to help  me out a little, put the phrase “Christmas Deal” into the “Any special instructions or requests?” box. I’ll refund 25% of the order price (excluding shipping) to you.

Note: Story shirts are sold out in sizes above Large. There is one XL shirt with a logo but no story; email tim@fiftywordstories.com if you’re interested.

Buy Now for a Free Personal Story

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Have you ordered yourself a copy of Fifty-Word Stories: Volume Two yet? If not, then here’s a bit of added incentive.

Everyone who buys Volume Two in print between today and November 5, 2011, will receive a free personal story written into their book! This will be a completely unique story, based on your title suggestion, that will never be posted anywhere else. Normally a personal story is worth $5, but for the next week and a bit, you get yours free.

This offer applies to all bundle purchases, as well, as long as the bundle includes a copy of Volume Two.

After November 5, personal stories will go back to being $5, so don’t miss out!

NEWS: Special Guest Week in Review

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I want to extend a big thank you to my special guest writers this week. They are all great, creative people, and their own work deserves your support!

Alex Steacy and Jeremy Petter both work with Loading Ready Run, though Jer has just taken a leave to go back to school. Alex just released a collaborative graphic novel project called Shards. It costs $20 + shipping; send him a message on Twitter to find out more. I’m hoping to convince my wife to let me pick one up, myself!

Greg X. Graves just released a new book called Codex Necromantia. Learn more and buy it on Kindle here. I’m looking forward to reading my copy.

Justin Boyd has two webcomics going, and has dabbled with others in the past. I’ve been reading both Left-Handed Toons and Invisible Bread for quite a while, and they’re both hilarious. Plus, LHT just reduced the price of their book to $6, which is an amazing deal. Go pick it up! My copy keeps my toilet very good company.

Nathaniel Towers runs Bartleby Snopes, an online literary magazine. I haven’t had anything accepted there yet, but I’ll be doing some more submitting, I’m sure! Nate’s first novel, A Reason to Kill, can be purchased here.

Thanks again to all of these guest writers for contributing over the past week.

And don’t forget, Fifty-Word Stories: Volume Two will be released on Monday, September 12! It’ll be in the Kindle Store for $2.99, and print orders will be shipping out as soon as I get the books and shirts from their respective printers. If you haven’t ordered yet, go ahead and grab your copy!