Hello fellow blog readers! As many of you know, LIT SOUP was "born" on April 24, 2006. We're coming up on the blog's third birthday, and as is my custom, we're having a contest! =)

This year, we're going with a microfiction theme, a la Twitter.

The contest for this year is as follows:

I will give you a random word on April 24, 2009, which you must incorporate into a coherent Twitter piece of microfiction. That's 140 characters flat, including all punctuation and spaces. Entries over the limit will be disqualified. I suggest you compose your entry at Twitter, since it gives a more accurate character count than most word processors.

On April 24, 2009, I will open a thread for the microfiction pieces. You will have approximately 24 hours to comment on that thread with your microfiction, and include the character count in parentheses at the end of your entry.

For example:

Jenny is having a Twitter microfiction contest.

(47)

At the end of the twenty-four hours, I will close the comments to the thread, thus not allowing any more entries. Then I and my minion judges will pick the top three microfiction pieces and award prizes!

Remember, the contest thread won't be open until April 24th!

The prizes this year are the following "packages" of books. I will ship them internationally. The first-place winner gets to choose first, the second-place winner gets to choose next, and the third-place winner gets whatever is left. =)

Package #1:
THE MIRRORED HEAVENS by David J. Williams (mass-market paperback)
THE BURNING SKIES by David J. Williams
RED by Jordan Summers

Package #2:
FEDERATIONS edited by John Joseph Adams
OFF LIMITS by Jordan Summers
RED by Jordan Summers

Package #3:
LIBYRINTH by Pearl North
CRIMSON by Gord Rollo
RED by Jordan Summers

Please note that if you pick Packages #1 or #3, I will have to wait to ship you the books, once I get my agent copies of THE BURNING SKIES and LIBYRINTH, respectively.