The Ides of March are Come: Flash in a Flash Contest Details!

sToday is the day! Our first Flash in a Flash contest. You have 24 hours to write and submit your flash fiction story.

If you haven't entered yet, and today is still March 15th, you can enter at the link below. It is $10 CAD to enter. The winner will receive $100 CAD. We have a small group so far for our first flash only contest, but I know the stories will rock and it will still be a tough choice to pick the top flash!


Rules

1. The Ides of March are come!  The Ides of March simply refers to "March 15" and the "Ides" are the 15th of any month. But mythology and lore has gotten tangled up with the assassination of Julius Cesar, an event that happened over 2000 years ago on the very Ides that a seer warned him about. The Ides of March was also the day when Roman debts were to be settled, and Ides were also days of animal sacrifice. Voila, an omen was born: today "the Ides of March" means a warning. "Beware, the Ides of March."

The human imagination is rich: we are superstitious and love to look for patterns and mystery and meaning, reading signs into all kinds of things. The long history of the Ides of March is really about the making of an omen. The truth is that political assassinations, and all kinds of other ominous events, have  happened on every day of the year. Even so, it is fascinating to consider the concept of an omen, an object, day, or concept that takes on a symbolic meaning as a prophetic warning. Every culture has omens. These range from the Ides of March to the crow to the lunar eclipse to doom foretold in sheep entrails.

Think about any omen that interests you. It may have been one you feared or believed to be true. It may be from another culture's mythology and you are curious. Find an artwork of that symbol, and write a flash fiction inspired by the omen's lore, the painting (or other art form), and your own imagination. 

There are a few paintings below. You can use any artwork that depicts an omen, intended or otherwise. How you interpret that is up to you.

2. 1000 words max. Firm. No minimum.

3. Flash fiction only.

4. Due by midnight EST.

5. Winner and selected stories to publish will be announced and posted on March 30, 2021.

6. Winner will be paid by PayPal.

7. One entry only per person.

8. Submit story to theekphrasticreview@gmail.com. FLASH IN A FLASH in subject line.

​9. No late entries will be accepted.

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By Day She Made Herself Into a Cat, by Arthur Rackham (England) 1920

The despair of the sun-worshipping Peruvian Incas during a lunar eclipse. The people bang drums and tambourines, whip dogs and scream to prevent the eclipse. Handcoloured copperplate engraving by Nasi from Giulio Ferrrario's Costumes Antique and Modern of All Peoples (Il Costume Antico e Moderno di Tutti i Popoli), Florence, 1842

Wheatfield With Crows, by Vincent Van Gogh (Netherlands) 1890