Welcome to The Spinoff Contest, where each round's prompt is the story that won the last round. In addition, even stories that don't win an awardicon can still win a merit badge! So how does it work?

RULES:

Entries must be at least 1,000 words long, but no longer than 20,000 words in length. This does not include the title. And PLEASE put your word count in your entry.

Keep entry ratings 18+ or below, please

Entries must follow the prompt provided below and be submitted prior to the deadline.

One entry per person per round

Stories which have been entered into other contests may be entered into this one, regardless of whether they have won awards or not. However, stories which have been entered in previous rounds of this contest may not be re-entered in subsequent rounds.

You may edit your entry as much as you desire prior to the deadline. However, once the deadline has passed, please do not edit your entry until the judging is completed.

Use the bItem format to post your entries in this forum. If you don't have room in your portfolio to post your stories, email me and I'll put them in mine. (If you don't know how to create a bitem, you can learn at "Newbie Hyperlinking 101 - Bitem Format" )

PROMPT:

For the prompt of the fourth round, we go to the winner of the third round of The Spinoff Contest:

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Each entry must have at least a tenuous connection to the prompt story. So your story can be anything from a story set in Love City, Arkansas (the setting of the prompt story listed above) to one of your characters reading a chapter of a novel about a police chief in the fictional town of Love City, Arkansas. Or anything in between!

DEADLINE:

11:59 pm WDC time, Janusary 12th, 2009

AWARDICONS:

The number and type of awardicons given each round will depend on the number of stories entered. However, the winning story of each round will get at least a 75K awardicon and a merit badge, as well as becoming the prompt for the next round.

The exact award schedule can be found at

ID: 1400931   (Rated: E) Spinoff Award Schedule  Awards to be given to my Spinoff Contest by Jenn - Hopeful for the Future

In addition, each story that wins an awardicon and/or a merit badge will win a unique bonus clue for the:

ID: 1401940   (Rated: ASR) The Review Puzzle  Solve the puzzle, do the review and win prizes by Jenn - Hopeful for the Future

AND

Every entry for each round will receive a raffle ticket for

ID: 1411419   (Rated: E) Angel Cookie Raffle  Looking for donations and contests to support by Jenn - Hopeful for the Future

BONUS MERIT BADGES:

Each round, three genres will be selected randomly. It is not necessary for any submission to fall into one of these genres. However, any story that does fall into one of these genres and does not win an awardicon is eligible to win a genre specific merit badge (along with a 10K awardicon), upon the recommendation of one of the judges. The bonus merit badge genres for the fourth round will be:

1) Legal
2) Home/Garden
3) Ghost

JUDGES NEEDED:

If you'd like to volunteer to be a judge, please send me an email. I would prefer judges who have some experience judging other contests, are registered authors, and/or are experienced reviewers, and I'm afraid that if you volunteer to judge a round, you can't participate in that round.

JUDGES EMERITUS:

A very special thank you for the following writers who have volunteered their time and abilities to judge my contest in past rounds:

Acme
Kristi

And any time they wish to volunteer their outstanding judging skills again, I'd be elated to have them!!!

DONATIONS:

A special thank you and for the following donaters:

Acme
Crissy~Back!!!
Kaya

I'm always so amazed and overwhelmed with just how generous people at WDC can be!

THIRD ROUND WINNER:

First Place:

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ET CETERA:

I'm still new to the contest running business, so some fine tuning will be necessarily, which includes tweaking and adding to the guidelines, etc. If you see something that I missed, or that would help clarify things or just make my contest better, please, PLEASE send me an email!

For the winners of past rounds, as well as other awardicons I've given, please check out

ID: 1383670   (Rated: ASR) TinyGirl's awardicons  Awardicons given for various categories by Jenn - Hopeful for the Future