Winners for the 2024 SA Horrorfest Bloody Parchment Short Story Competition

This year, we would like to thank our esteemed judges, who lent us their eyeballs – Mazi Nwonwu, Stephen Embleton, Mandisi Nkomo, and Diane Awerbuck – and we have the results of the 2024 South African Horrorfest short story competition.

So, on to the results: Huge congratulations to Xan van Rooyen for their winning story "Splinters of the Schism". Runners-up are Brett Rex Bruton for "The Hand on the Door" and Dera Udochukwu for "Alkaline Water".

Our finalists are Toby Bennett for "Siren"; Queen Amara for "Red Heels are Bad Omen"; Shaun van Rensburg for "Socialite"; and Damon Yeld for "Lucky Me".

What happens next? If all goes well, we'll have an anthology to put out in the wilds. But more on that later. 

2024 Bloody Parchment short story competition open for submissions

With the release of the SA Horrorfest Bloody Parchment: Weeping Walls and Other Stories, we are pleased to announce that 2024's short story competition is now officially open for submissions. We will consider dark short fiction in the following genres: horror, fantasy, science fiction, and weird. Word count is 1,000 to 5,000 words, and payment is $25 per story. African authors, whether resident in Africa or residing elsewhere but who are in possession of a passport to an African country, are eligible, as are foreign nationals in Africa in possession of a permanent residency permit. Entries close on October 31, 2024.

Submission Guidelines

You are an African author residing in an African country or abroad, with a passport to an African country. Or you are a foreign national living permanently in an African country with a permanent residence permit.

We have a strictly 'no AI' policy. Generative AI or AI-assisted writing is disqualified.

Please use standard manuscript formatting (Times New Roman is fine) and supply your submission as an MS Word document.

We will not consider stories that include gratuitous violence, animal cruelty, racism, sexism, and anti-LGBTI messaging or stories that have an overt ideological agenda (in other words, propaganda or didactic narratives).

Email entries to nerinedorman@gmail.com with "Submission: Bloody Parchment 2024" in the subject line. Please include your name, nationality, and country of residence in your query.

For further information, email nerinedorman@gmail.com

Winners of the 2018 short story competition

Better late than never, SA Horrorfest Bloody Parchment is proud to (finally) announce the winners of the 2018 short story competition. We were able to secure the opinions of such literary luminaries as Efemia Chela, Suyi Davies Okungbowa, Toby Bennett, Mame Bougouma Diene, Henrietta Rose-Innes, Ivor W Hartmann, and Hannah Onoguwe, who helped decide which stories made the final pick.

So, without further ado, first place goes to Stuart Olver, for his short story "At the Mountain's Dying", with joint second place going to Eamonn Naidoo for his short story "The Moth" and Stephen McQuiggan for his short story "Gant's Shortcut".

Our finalists, who have made the cut for the anthology include (in no particular order) Mike Sharlow, Dave de Burgh, Edward Ahern, Janice Gardiner-Atkinson, Mark Towse, Sergio Pereira, SJ Lucas, and Vanessa Buys.

Congratulations! 

2018 Competition now open

With the current issue of Bloody Parchment available on a Kindle near you, the SA HorrorFest Bloody Parchment team is pleased to announce that the 2018 competition is now open. We continue to seek the freshest, most disturbing and disconcerting new voices in SFF, with emphasis on tales that wander into the darker side of the storytelling spectrum (SF, fantasy, GrimDark, horror…you get the picture). While this is chiefly an African short story competition, and is focused on the development of up-and-coming voices of African writers, we are open to international entries. There is no entry fee. 

Our categories for this year include flash fiction (up to 1000 words); short fiction (up to 4 000 words); and novellas (between 15 000 to 30 000 words). A winner and two runners-up will be picked among the finalists, for possible publication in a collection. Further details to be announced at the final selection.

First prize is a full assessment and round of developmental edits for a novel-length work or short story anthology. Runners-up to receive a full, developmental edit for a short story or novella other than their submission. The aim of Bloody Parchment remains the upliftment and development of new authors and the promotion of science fiction, fantasy and horror in Africa.

What we're looking for: The SA HorrorFest Bloody Parchment team is looking for short stories or novellas that fall under the horror and dark fantasy/SF genres. If it's dark, we're interested. So, yes, if you've written a GrimDark tale in a gloomy secondary world, we're interested. Hell, we'll even look at your vampires and zombies, so long as they don't sparkle and do something a little different from shambling about aimlessly, dropping limbs. Cleverly executed alien invasions have legs. That being said, if the story's impact relies purely on gratuitous violence and rape in order to deliver its punch, rather don't waste our time and yours. Also, for the love of dog, make sure your story falls within the required word count – at least a quarter of our submissions are rejected each year because of this. While we won't reject a well-written submission that's a few hundred words over out of hand (there is wiggle room), don't expect us to read short stories that are way off the mark. Multiple entries are allowed, but chances are good that if both your stories make it to the final round, we will use our discretion to select the one that is the best possible fit for the anthology.

If you have any questions, feel free to drop the editor, Nerine Dorman, an email at nerinedorman@gmail.com

CLOSING DATE FOR ENTRIES: OCTOBER 31, 2018 

To enter, email your story saved as .doc or .rt format to nerinedorman@gmail.com with "Bloody Parchment 2018" in the subject line of the email. Please include your name, contact details and a short bio so we have an idea of who we're dealing with. Standard manuscript formatting is absolutely fine (12pt Times New Roman, indented paragraphs, double spacing). Please follow this naming convention for your MS: BP2018_[first initial followed by surname] – So if your name is Penny Green, your entry will be titled BP2018_PGreen. If you have more than one entry, number them, so if author Penny has a second MS to submit, it will be named BP2018_PGreen2. Documents that do not follow our submissions guidelines will be deleted unread.

WINNERS of the 2017 short story competition

It’s with the greatest pleasure that we announce the winner, runners-up and finalists of the 2017 SA Horrorfest Bloody Parchment short story competition. As always, there were many wonderful stories shortlisted, and our judges had their work cut out for them. So, a big thank you to our judges Blaize Kaye, Diane Awerbuck, Masha du Toit, Louis Greenberg, Tammy February and Efemia Chela.

Our winner for the 2017 competition is Pravasan Pillay, for his short story “The Boy Racer”. Our runners-up are Mlilo Mpondo and Ajibola Ogundiran. Huge congratulations are in order! Our finalists, who will also be included in the anthology, include AJ Flowers, Toby Bennett, Susan Rabe, Domenico Pisanti, Calvin Demmer, Hayden Robinson, Manu Herbstein, Marcelle van Niekerk, Gina Kukard and Elaine Dodge.

Do pick up our most recent anthology for 13 dark SFF and horror tales to chill and thrill you.

2017 BLOODY PARCHMENT SHORT STORY COMPETITION OPEN

With the current issue of Bloody Parchment available on a Kindle near you, the SA HorrorFest Bloody Parchment team is pleased to announce that the 2017 competition is now open. We continue to seek the freshest, disturbing and disconcerting new voices in SFF, with emphasis on tales that wander into the darker side of the storytelling spectrum. While this is chiefly an African short story competition, and is focused on the development of up-and-coming voices, we are open to international entries. There is no entry fee.

Our categories for this year include flash fiction (up to 1000 words); short fiction (up to 4 000 words); and novellas (between 15 000 to 30 000 words). A winner and two runners-up will be picked among the finalists, for possible publication in a collection. Further details to be announced at the final selection.

First prize is a full assessment and round of developmental edits for a novel-length work or short story anthology. Runners-up to receive a full, developmental edit for a short story or novella other than their submission. The aim of Bloody Parchment remains the upliftment and development of new authors and the promotion of science fiction, fantasy and horror in Africa.

What we're looking for: The SA HorrorFest Bloody Parchment team is looking for short stories or novellas that fall under the horror and dark fantasy/SF genres. If it's dark, we're interested. So, yes, if you've written a GrimDark tale in a gloomy secondary world, we're interested. Hell, we'll even look at your vampires, so long as they don't sparkle. Cleverly executed alien invasions have legs. That being said, if the story's impact relies purely on gratuitous violence and rape for its punch, rather don't waste our time and yours. Also, for the love of dog, make sure your story falls within the required word count – at least a quarter of our submissions are rejected each year because they do not adhere to the word counts. While we won't reject a well-written submission that's a few hundred words over (there is wiggle room), don't expect us to read short stories that are way off the mark in terms of word count. Multiple entries are allowed, but chances are good that if both your stories make it to the final round, we will use our discretion to select the one that is the best possible fit for the anthology.

If you have any questions, feel free to drop the editor, Nerine Dorman, an email at nerinedorman@gmail.com CLOSING DATE FOR ENTRIES: OCTOBER 31, 2017 To enter, email your story saved as .doc or .rt format to nerinedorman@gmail.com with "Bloody Parchment 2017" in the subject line. Standard manuscript formatting is absolutely fine (12pt Times New Roman, indented paragraphs, double spacing).

WINNERS: 2016 SA HORRORFEST BLOODY PARCHMENT SHORT STORY COMPETITION

It is with great pride that I bring you the final round-up for the 2016 SA HorrorFest Bloody Parchment short story competition.

Taking first place, we have Blaize Kaye, with "Remains of an Old World".

Runners-up are Brett Rex Bruton, with "The Out of Place"; and Lester Walbrugh, with "For Better or Wors".

Our finalists, who have the option of going into the anthology, as well as receiving some extremely useful editor notes to help improve their story-telling overall, with guidance from an editor, include Aito Osemegbe Joseph, Shaun van Rensburg, Erhu Amreyan, Jessica Liebenberg, Toby Bennett, Stephen Embleton, Livingston Edwards, William Burger, Mignotte Mekuria, and Janine Milne.

A very big congratulations to all of you!

We would like to thank this year's judges: Cat Hellisen, Dave de Burgh, Diane Awerbuck, Efemia Chela, Lauren Smith and Sarah Lotz, who had the difficult task of evaluating the short list.

BLOODY PARCHMENT 2016 shortlist

We have our shortlisted stories gone through for judging. A huge thank you this year to our judges: Sarah Lotz, Diane Awerbuck, Cat Hellisen, Dave de Burgh, Lauren Smith and Efemia Chela. I'm hoping to rustle up their answers by mid-May, in which we will announce our finalists, runners-up and winner.

Our shortlisted authors are: 
Aito Osemegbe Joseph
Alexander Clark
Shaun van Rensburg
Erhu Amreyan
Jessica Liebenberg
Dhee Sylvester
Stephen Embleton
Toby Bennett
Kingsley Okpii
Blaize Kaye
Livingston Edwards
Brett Rex Bruton
William Burger
Lester Walbrugh
Mignotte Mekuria
Janine Milne

A huge congratulations, folks, and I wish you all the best!
Our next anthology releases soon; we'll keep you posted.

BLOODY PARCHMENT 2016 SUBMISSIONS OPEN

With the current issue of Bloody Parchment available on a Kindle near you, the SA HorrorFest Bloody Parchment team is pleased to announce that the 2016 competition is now open.

Our categories for dark genre fiction this year include flash fiction (up to 1000 words); short fiction (up to 3 500 words); and novellas (between 15 000 to 30 000 words).

A winner and two runners-up will be picked, for possible publication in a collection. Further details to be announced on finalisation of the final selection.

What we're looking for:
The SA HorrorFest Bloody Parchment team is looking for short stories novellas that fall under the horror and dark fantasy/SF genres. If it's dark, we're interested. While we're obviously looking for Africa's best, this competition is open to folks from further afield. If you have any questions, feel free to drop the editor, Nerine Dorman, an email at nerinedorman@gmail.com

CLOSING DATE FOR ENTRIES: OCTOBER 31, 2016
To enter, email your story saved as .doc or .rt format to nerinedorman@gmail.com with "Bloody Parchment 2016" in the subject line. Standard manuscript formatting makes me happy (12pt Times New Roman, indented paragraphs, double spacing).

Beachfront Starter Homes and Other Stories

Finally, despite a few obstacles cast in our way, we're proud to present the cover of the 2013 South African HorrorFest Bloody Parchment finalists. This volume is goes with the title of the winning story by Ruth Browne: Beachfront Starter Home, Good Bones.

Many thanks to Thomas Dorman and Ronnie Belcher of award-winning BlackMilk Productions for their part in creating this year's cover. Do go check out BlackMilk's short surreal horror film La Mia Carne over on YouTube.

This issues's contributors are:
Liam Kruger – “The Phenomenology of Iceland: A Romance”
Michelle Barry – “Toast”
Chris Limb – “Scratchmind”
Morgen Knight – “Gods of Old, Anew”
Arno Hurter – “A Place in Time”
Abigail Godsell – “Ordinary Sound”
Matt Hayward – “No One Gets Out of Here Alive”
Doreen Perrine – “Foul Things”
Icy Sedgwick – “Something Wicked This Way Slithered”
Monique Snyman – “Tokoloshe”
Joshua de Kock – “Aquarium”
Ruth Browne – “Beachfront Starter Home, Good Bones”

Bloody Parchment: Beachfront Starter Home, Good Bones will be released soon by Crossroad Press. Submissions for the 2016 competition will open on June 21, 2016, and close on October 31, 2016. We will accept submissions of dark speculative fiction in two categories: short fiction (up to 3 500 words) and novella (between 15 000 to 30 000 words). Although this is primarily a short story competition geared towards promoting and developing African speculative fiction, we accept international entries. Email nerinedorman@gmail.com for further information.

BLOODY PARCHMENT 2015 COMPETITION NOW OPEN

While 2014 resulted in some unexpected challenges (and with the upcoming anthologies from the past two competitions still in production), the SA HorrorFest Bloody Parchment team is pleased to announce that the 2015 competition is now open, only we're about to see some changes afoot.

We have decided to shift focus from short stories to the novella form, and this year we are looking novella entries of between 15 000 to 30 000 words. If you're not sure of what a novella is, go check out this link.

A winner and two runners-up will be picked, for possible publication in a collection. Further details to be announced on finalisation of the final selection.

What we're looking for:

The SA HorrorFest Bloody Parchment team is looking for novellas that fall under the horror and dark fantasy/SF genres. If it's dark, we're interested. While we're obviously looking for Africa's best, this competition is open to folks from further afield. If you have any questions, feel free to drop the editor, Nerine Dorman, an email at nerinedorman@gmail.com

CLOSING DATE FOR ENTRIES: OCTOBER 31, 2015

Bloody Parchment 2014 is officially open

While the anthology of last year's winners is still in production, I hereby am pleased to announce that the 2014 short story competition is officially open. Do check out our existing volumes. Volume 1 (available as a free read at Goodreads), 2 (Hidden Things, Lost Things and Other Stories) and 3 (The Root Cellar and Other Stories).

The aim of the Bloody Parchment short story competition is to help develop talented, fresh voices in the horror, dark fantasy and weird genres, by offering a platform and signal boost for finalists. Every year we assemble a kick-ass panel of judges who are all movers and shakers in the publishing industry, with such notables as Sarah Lotz, Joe Vaz, Cat Hellisen and others who have helped in the selection process during the past. While we’re yet to announce which publisher will be picking up where eKhaya left off, there is a fantastic first prize up for grabs for the winner: a comprehensive round of edits and manuscript assessment. The two runners-up are each awarded a round of comprehensive edits and assessment of a short story or novella-length work. The winner, runners-up and finalists then have the option to be included in the short story anthology to be released mid-2015.

What are we looking for? 
Bloody Parchment is looking for short stories of up to 3 500 words in length, in the horror, dark fantasy and weird genres. Yes, this includes flash fiction. Yes, you may enter multiple stories. Yes, we like flash fiction too. LGBT authors of genre fiction are welcome. Stories set in locations other than the US or Europe would tickle us pink. We love diversity. We want to know what moves you, what mysteries fascinate you, what frightens you… So long as your story clearly falls within the horror, dark fantasy and weird genres, you’re good. We want to be unsettled

What we DO NOT WANT.
Fan fiction with the serial numbers filed off: When the Saw movies were popular, my inbox was flooded with torture porn; during 2012 it was various permutations of popular zombiepocalypses. 2013 for some reason saw gratuitous violence against women used as a cheap literary device. Mercifully vampires seem to have gone into remission. Please folks, I know you’re excited by whatever’s currently trending on your Twitter feeds, but if you absolutely MUST play with the tropes, DO put a fresh spin on your offering that will be amazeballs. We want you to dig deep and find something that is truly your own. Content that is clearly aimed to deliberately shock for the sake of wiggling your jollies will be rejected out of hand.

In addition, stories that do not follow the brief will be rejected too, so no, we do not want your Christian inspirational fiction, 30 000-word novellas, chick lit or poems. (Every time an author doesn’t follow the submission guidelines, a small gremlin curls up and dies.)

Right, now that we have that out of the way, this is how you enter: mail your short story saved as a .doc file (not exceeding 3 500 words) to nerinedorman@gmail.com before October 31, 2014. Remember to put “BLOODY PARCHMENT 2014” in the subject line. In the body of your email, please give me your real name, pen name, nationality and word count. Good luck! And if you have any questions, feel free to drop me a mail. I don’t bite…much.

Winners, runners-up and finalists for the 2013 short story competition

Okay, the moment we've all been waiting for. First off, a HUGE thank you to this year's judges, who represent a range of bookish folks, from an avid reader like Barry Gill, to author and bookseller Dave de Burgh, editors and authors Tracie McBride and Louis Greenberg, and author Cat Hellisen. I am indebted to author Carrie Clevenger, who helped read submissions, as we had a record number of entries.

A huge congratulations to our winner, Ruth Browne, whose story Beachfront Starter Home, Good Bones takes top honours.

Our runners-up are Chris Limb, with Scratchmind, and Joshua de Kock, with Aquarium.

Then our finalists (in alphabetical order): Michelle Barry, Mary Finnegan, Abigail Godsell, Matt Hayward, Arno Hurter, Morgen Knight, Liam Kruger, Doreen Perrine, Icy Sedgwick, and Monique Snyman.

We'll be opening submissions for the 2014 competition on June 21, and if you wish to keep in touch with developments, feel free to stalk me on Twitter. I'll be posting regular progress bits and bytes there as things progress.

This year Dark Continents Publishing will be bringing out the anthology, to be released in time for the 2014 South African Horrorfest, but more about that later...

Bloody Parchment on YouTube

With judging of the 2013 short story competition currently underway, we thought it only right and proper that we share some of the authors who read at our event that was held at the Book Lounge in Cape Town last year.

Present were S.A. Partridge, Joe Vaz, Zane Marc Gentis, Nerine Dorman, Rachel Zadok, Carine Engelbrecht, Diane Awerbuck, Toby Bennett, and Henrietta Rose-Innes. Go check out the clips on YouTube. Due to a technical difficulty, we were unfortunately unable to put up Toby's video. 

A big thank you to the awesome Ric Shields for catching us on film. And once again a very big thanks to the Book Lounge for having us over, and to Paul and Sonja from the South African HorrorFest for arranging yet another awesome festival. With thanks to Leopard's Leap Family Vineyards for the wine sponsorship, as well as Penguin SA and Dark Continents Publishing for the prizes that we handed out on the night.

For those of you who're yet to read the 2012 anthology published by eKhaya, go feed your kindle with this super collection of short tales of horror. Bloody Parchment: The Root Cellar and Other Stories brings a fresh crop of horror and dark literature from the most recent South African HorrorFest Bloody Parchment short story competition. From dreary subterranean chambers and angelic visitations to the many-legged horrors of alien invaders and a meeting with the Devil himself, this collection of tales offers readers the opportunity to acquaint themselves with the likes of Toby Bennett (winner), and runners-up Anna Reith and Chris Limb. Finalists include Diane Awerbuck, Simon Dewar, Zane Marc Gentis, Stephen Hewitt, Benjamin Knox, Lee Mather, Glen Mehn, S.A. Partridge, and Icy Sedgwick.

Bloody Parchment event 2013

It’s time to haul out your wizard’s hat, carve your pumpkin and dust off those fake spiders – the SA HorrorFest Bloody Parchment event will once again manifest in the basement of the Book Lounge. With the likes of S.A. Partridge, Diane Awerbuck, Toby Bennett, Henrietta Rose-Innes, Zane Marc Gentis, Carine Engelbrecht, Rachel Zadok and Nerine Dorman offering their particular brand of strange tales on the night, you’ll be in for a spooky, Halloween treat. And there will be prizes for the best costume, so come be our best Frankenstein!

When? October 30.
Where? 71 Roeland Street, Cape Town.
What time? 5.30pm for 6pm.

For further information about the South African HorrorFest, see www.horrorfest.info.

2013 Bloody Parchment submission guidelines

As the editor of the SA HorrorFest Bloody Parchment short story competition, I am pleased to announce that I’ve opened submissions for the 2013 short story competition. For those of you who’re curious to find out more about our previous finalists and winners, do consider picking up copies of our existing anthologies:

Volume 1 (free download) 

Bloody Parchment: Hidden Things, Lost Things and Other Stories 

Bloody Parchment: The Root Cellar and Other Stories 

The aim of the Bloody Parchment short story competition is to help develop talented, fresh voices in the horror, dark fantasy and weird genres, by offering a platform and signal boost for finalists. Every year we assemble a kick-ass panel of judges who are all movers and shakers in the publishing industry, with such notables as Sarah Lotz, Joe Vaz, Cat Hellisen and others who have helped in the selection process in the past. While we’re yet to announce which publisher will be picking up where eKhaya left off, there is a fantastic first prize up for grabs for the winner: a comprehensive round of edits and manuscript assessment. The two runners-up are each awarded a round of comprehensive edits and assessment of a short story or novella-length work. The winner, runners-up and finalists then have the option to be included in the short story anthology to be released mid-2014 by Dark Continents. Authors whose stories are included in the anthology will receive US$20 flat rate payment plus one paperback contributor copy.

What are we looking for? 
Bloody Parchment is looking for short stories of up to 3 500 words in the horror, dark fantasy and weird genres. Yes, this includes flash fiction. Yes, you may enter multiple stories. Yes, we like flash fiction too. GLBT authors of genre fiction are welcome. Stories set in locations other than the US or Europe would tickle us pink. We love diversity. We want to know what moves you, what mysteries fascinate you, what frightens you… So long as your story clearly falls within the horror, dark fantasy and weird genres, you’re good. We want to be unsettled

What we DO NOT WANT.
Fan fiction with the serial numbers filed off: When the Saw movies were popular, my inbox was flooded with torture porn; last year it was various permutations of popular zombiepocalypses. Mercifully vampires seem to have gone into remission. Please folks, I know you’re excited by whatever’s currently trending on your Twitter feeds, but if you absolutely MUST play with the tropes, DO put a fresh spin on your offering that will be amazeballs. We want you to dig deep and find something that is truly your own. Gratuitous violence or content that is clearly aimed to deliberately shock for the sake of wiggling your jollies will be rejected out of hand.

In addition, stories that do not follow the brief will be rejected too, so no, we do not want your Christian inspirational fiction, 30 000-word novellas, chick lit or poems. (Every time an author doesn’t follow the submission guidelines, a small gremlin curls up and dies.)

Right, now that we have that out of the way, this is how you enter: mail your short story saved as a .doc file (not exceeding 3 500 words) to nerinedorman@gmail.com before October 31, 2013. Remember to put “BLOODY PARCHMENT 2013” in the subject line. Good luck! And if you have any questions, feel free to drop me a mail. I don’t bite…much.

Bloody Parchment buy links

Well, gang, there's a whole range of wonderful buy links to choose from for this year's Bloody Parchment: The Root Cellar and Other Stories. You can go feed your Kindle here. Or if you're South African, you might prefer Kalahari. And, for those of you who're using Kobo, you can splash out here. Lekker, hey? (As we say here in South Africa).

And, never fear, we'll let you know when submissions for the next short story competition open (soon). Start thinking up some dark, dreary and mysterious tales in the meanwhile.

Bloody Parchment: The Root Cellar and Other Stories

eKhaya, the digital imprint of Random House Struik, is delighted to announce the publication of Bloody Parchment: The Root Cellar and Other Stories.

Bloody Parchment: The Root Cellar and Other Stories brings a fresh crop of horror and dark literature from the most recent South African HorrorFest Bloody Parchment short story competition. From dreary subterranean chambers and angelic visitations to the many-legged horrors of alien invaders and a meeting with the Devil himself, this collection of tales offers readers the opportunity to acquaint themselves with the likes of Toby Bennett (winner), and runners-up Anna Reith and Chris Limb. Finalists include Diane Awerbuck, Simon Dewar, Zane Marc Gentis, Stephen Hewitt, Benjamin Knox, Lee Mather, Glen Mehn, S.A. Partridge, and Icy Sedgwick.

"You'll be hard pressed to find a stronger anthology of horror stories this year. There's a staggering number of original ideas and talent on display here, as well as several stand-out stories that easily hold their own against work in any genre. And most importantly, they will creep the hell out of you." - Sarah Lotz, author

eKhaya e-books are available in two formats, ePub and PDF. ePub is compatible with most e-readers on the market and is converted for sale in Amazon’s Kindle format. The PDF is a non-reflowable format that reads well on iPads, other tablet devices, PCs as well as the Kindle. The e-book will be available from 1 June 2013 for instant download at a recommended retail price of R70 at Amazon.com, Kalahari.com and Exclus1ves.co.za, among other online retailers.

BLOODY PARCHMENT: THE ROOT CELLAR AND OTHER STORIES
ISBN: 978-1-920532-31-4  (e-pub) I ISBN: 978-1-920532-32-1  (PDF)
RRP: R70 I CATEGORY: Horror Fiction

Congratulations to 2012's winner and finalists

Wow, what a bunch of stories to have gone through. First off, a big, hearty congratulations to Toby Bennett. Not only is he the winner of the 2012 SA HorrorFest Bloody Parchment short story competition with his story The Root Cellar, but another of his submissions was selected as a finalist—Wants and Needs. He wins a comprehensive round of edits for a novel-length work.

Our runners-up are Anna Reith, with Counting Seraphs, and Chris Limb, with Alibi. Each receives comprehensive edits for a short story or novella-length work or, alternatively, edits for the first three chapters of a novel.

Then, our finalists in no particular order:
Diane Awerbuck, Duiweltjie
Zane Marc Gentis, Heirloom
Stephen Hewitt, Kiss the Butcher's Daughter
SA Partridge, Jethro Mackenzie and the Devil
Icy Sedgwick, Protection
Glen Mehn, The Next Big Thing
Simon Dewar, The Kettle
Lee Mather, Jamie's Song
Benjamin Knox, Strands

Then, a huge humungous thank you to our judges. Sarah Lotz, Joe Vaz, Carrie Clevenger, Kelly (It's a Book Thing blog), Shaun Swingler and Cat Hellisen all offered their time to read over the entries and help in the decision-making process. And this year was tough. Trust me. Also, once again, many thanks to Louis Greenberg of eKhaya, for yet another year, and, as always, to Paul Blom and Sonja Ruppersberg, who bring us the SA HorrorFest annually, without fail.

Lastly, though I'd love to send out personal responses to everyone who entered, due to the volume of entries we received, I will not be able to notify those who didn't reach the final round. Many thanks to all those who submitted stories. I'll announce the opening for the 2013 contest later this year.

Brett Bruton's Hidden Things, Lost Things #guest

First a news update for those of you wondering what the status of this year's Bloody Parchment short story competition is. November was my reading period during which I graded the entries and made up the selection that went through to the judges. 

What were my criteria? First off, I had to ask myself whether the story could fit the bill for horror or squeak through on the tailcoats of dark/urban fantasy. And you'd be surprised at how many authors clearly ignored the fact that horror/dark fiction was the theme. (No. Really.) Then I looked at originality. Torture porn, stories that were derivatives of movies/TV series that are currently popular, or stories that had absolutely no point, these didn't pass muster. Perhaps the most telling reason for rejection was stories that technically still needed a lot of work (as in, if you use ampersands instead of the humble "and" and structurally need a lot of work mastering the mechanics of writing).

That being said, I think the judges are going to have a tough time this year. I'm overwhelmed by the high quality of writing. The judges will be sending in their scores by the first week of January, by which time I'll be sending out the rejection letters... And will be mailing the lucky 13 who'll make it through to the anthology.

And now, without further ado, I'd like to welcome the author of the current anthology's title story, Brett Bruton.

So, Brett, tell us a little about yourself.

Born and raised in the Eastern Cape. Studied fine art, English and modern fiction at Rhodes University. Played in one rock band, then another. Occasionally, I blog. Am currently living in Cape Town, South Africa, and working in advertising. It was the only industry that offered me free beer.

Tell us a little about the background of your story.

I have a love/hate relationship with sci-fi. Much like pulp fantasy, too many authors use sci-fi as an excuse to get away with wildly improbable scenarios. Character stuck on a roof surrounded by ray-gun toting goons? Suddenly his boots have jet-boosters and his belt doubles as a gyroscopic stabiliser, because fuck logic, this is science fiction.

Good sci-fi, however, makes logic work for it. It carefully and subtly layers the sciences involved until you’re forced to look at it and go, “Yeah, that’s plausible.” It takes small bits of things you know and carefully reorganises them to create something that is both familiar and yet entirely alien.

That’s what I tried to do with Hidden Things, Lost Things. Rather than write a scary story built on everything the reader didn’t know (‘horror of the unknown’ and all that), I wanted to create something so familiar that, when he or she sits down to watch television, or curls up next to a loved one, they can’t help but wonder. I didn’t want to tell readers that monsters exist; I wanted to suggest how they could.

Are there any interesting anecdotes relating to its creation?

Nope. Sorry.

What do you like about horror as a genre?

The characters. The horror genre is built on good characters, people in the story that you can empathise with. The simplest story can be made terrifying with the right players, and if you can convince your reader that your character is scared, you’re far more likely to scare your reader.

What scares you?

Taxes. Death I’m kinda okay with.

Where can people find you online?

You can read my humour blog, These Creases, although it’s in desperate need of an update.
You can also follow my private ranting on Twitter at @BrettRexB.
You’ll have to decide which is scarier.

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