The Stories:

Must be complete story 1000 - 2500 words. NO EXCEPTIONS. Word count must be posted on the bottom or top of your story.

Story must be newly written for this contest.

Must be rated 18+ or lower.

Must be relevant to the prompt. If I deem the story did not satisfy this requirement, I will disqualify it. I'm fairly liberal on connections, however.

Any genre is fine.

Absolutely, positively, no way, no how... NO POETRY!

Timeline:

- All entries must be received by midnight WDC time February 29th (Leap Year Day!).

- Stories may NOT be edited after the deadline.

- After the deadline, I will email you a request for your votes.

- Peer voting must be completed by Midnight WDC time on March 15th. I will do my best to send out reminders but I expect entrants to show some responsibility in this. There will be no extensions.

- I will award group winner prizes soon after the peer voting has closed.

- Grand prize winner will be announced and awarded on or around March 31st or when all the judges have cast their votes (whichever comes first).





Grand Prize: A Merit Badge of my choice and 10,000 GPs.

Group Winners: 10k awardicon to each.

Honorable mentions: 5,000 GPs each, if any.

And now...for the prompts:

Theme: Remembering Sticktalker .

On December 30, 2011, the WDC community lost a valuable member. To many of us, it meant the loss of a magnificent friend, as well. This round I would like to use Sticktalker as inspiration.
The stories need not be about him or his specific deeds. They don't have to be tear-jerkers or letters of condolences. There is no genre restrictions for your stories. I only require that you somehow use him as your inspiration. The exact definition of 'relevance' will be obscure for this round. Here are some things that may help you:

Prompt One: "Shadows Express Home Page"  [13+] --- This is the magazine our beloved Sticktalker was passionate about. He edited it for a long time and it was dear to his heart.

Prompt Two: "The Paper Doll Gang Home Page"  [13+] --- This is the PDG group in which our friend Sticktalker invested so much of his efforts. You will find many writers in there that he took under his giant wings.

Prompt Three: http://www.andersonvalleypost.com/news/2012/jan/10/amlin-73-loses-battle-cancer/... --- This is an obituary published in his local paper. You can see some of his career accomplishments, as well as some of the charitable work he did. His efforts didn't stop there as many can attest to on WDC.

Prompt Four: "Short Stories"  [E] --- Here is a folder, from his port, showcasing some of Sticktalker 's short stories. He was not only a great mentor to many, but a pretty good writer as well.

Also, here is a forum where you can read fond memories and touching goodbyes for our our friend Sticktalker : "In Fond Remembrance of Our Friend, Lyle"  [13+]. Thank you for creating this beautiful page, Hannah ( Challenge Continues, Alumni! ).
Please feel free to add your own memory or farewell to him.
You can consider this the fifth prompt

Donations:

Donations are welcome and appreciated. Please send via the forum or direct to "Last Pen Standing Bank"  [E].
Any donations over 30k will recieve an MB and my humble thanks.

List of generous donors:

1. Creativity5(Maggie Michael)
2. Bonnie Stick♡RIP
3. A member who wishes to remain anonymous.
4. Myst~dealing with loss
5. SoCalScribe
6. HuntersMoon - Gone4Awhile
7. Demon Squee
8. Gabriella
9. Silonch
10. LJPC - the tortoise


This round's entries so far:

"Resistance is Futile"  [18+]
"The Bottle"  [13+]


Conragtulations to last round's winners:

Grand prize:
Jonas -- "Power of The Gods"  [13+]

Finalists:
gutguzzler -- "The God Plant"  [18+]
Demon Squee -- "Auronium"  [18+]













Curious on past results? Click here: "LPS entries and winners"  [E]