As I thought about my new release, Passing Strangers, I began to think about the possibility of random strangers I meet who have influenced my life–or vice versa.  For instance, coming home from Kansas City last weekend, I sat next to a young actor from New York City who was working on writing a TV pilot (how could I not interrupt when I’d just finished teaching about plot and structure and I saw he had his laptop open and the word PLOT at the top of the screen?).   I did not try to teach him anything as we talked, but I did tell him about Scrivener, the writing program that has made writing so much easier for me.

I certainly hope I did some small thing to help him with his dream of writing a TV show.  🙂

Which brought me to the idea of other people’s stories about how passing strangers have influenced their lives . . . which brought me to the idea of having a contest . . . which brought me to the idea of publishing an actual BOOK, a collection of these short stories.  Stories that might influence us to reach out to others when we’re traveling or walking or working t0 share a good word, a comforting thought, a personal testimony.  Or perhaps someone has influenced YOU as a passing stranger?

Enter the PASSING STRANGERS short story contest and book, designed to reward those who write the best TRUE stories about passing strangers and how they influenced the writers’ lives.  Here’s the scoop:

If a passing stranger has influenced your life, write the story for us. The finished story should be between 500 and 3000 words.  The best 25 stories (as judged by a group of impartial readers) will be edited and put into a book, which HuntHaven Press will publish and make available for purchase online in ebook and paper book form.  Due to the number of entries, no royalties will be granted, but winners may purchase copies of the book from HuntHaven Press at cost to give away or sell wherever they like.

The GRAND PRIZE WINNER will be the first story in the collection and will have his or her name on the cover.

Interested?  Time to start writing.

All manuscripts must be submitted by September 30, 2014, because we want this book to be available in late October for holiday shoppers.  Send the $20 entry fee through this Paypal button and be sure the name on your paypal account matches the name on your manuscript!  Please email manuscript and pay entry fee on the same day. Thank you!

Please spread the word!  Manuscripts should be double-spaced with name and address in the upper left corner, word count in the upper right corner.  Please number pages. Submissions should be emailed to hhpress@tampabay.rr.com.  Please check email address carefully:  hhpress@tampabay.rr.com.  

That’s it!  We hope to receive an inspirational ‘passing strangers’ story from you soon!