Extended the entries to the contest until 4/17.
Send your book opening paragraphs, up to 50 words to info@markbudman.com. I will accept the entrances until April 13. Beginning from April 14, I will run a reader’s poll. The first place entry will get a $25 Amazon gift certificate, and I will buy your book.
Alternatively, you can enter via Twitter.
Don’t forget the link to your book purchasing information, unless it’s WIP.
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Entry 1: Girl in the Shadows (WIP).
Olly was a quiet girl, not because she had nothing to say, but she learned early on that nobody wanted to hear it. Worse, speaking her mind always seemed to lead to trouble. Her instructors at the Aufbau Academy of Pleasure Arts took her circumspect silence as some kind of merit.
Entry 2: The Shift
As humanity was being thrust into the new era, Jimmy Zarici was working hard at removing the stubborn third clasp of Darlene Maxwell’s bra.
Entry 3: Heroes Of the Shadow. Blue Scar Indeabinito.
The prosperous times, also known as the Golden Period in the history of Indeabinito Kingdom, took place long before The Great Flood, the emergence of the Mages race, and the wars that at one time had sullen the soil of this world with the blood of its inhabitants.
Entry 4: Bits & Pieces
Six strangers trapped in an old mansion. An ancient evil controlled by their host. Blood will flow.
Entry 5: Assault on Devil’s Den
Pelagius sits at a table in the corner of a sparsely decorated tavern. There are only a few weapons on the walls and two hunting trophies: an eagle mounted above the doorway and a black bear standing in the corner. Roughly fifty years old and appearing rather tired, Pelagius stares…
Entry 6: Anna Eva Mimi Adam
Anna Eva Mimi Adam: I don’t remember the beating. Gunther, who believes in the transformative power of therapy, insists I’ve blocked it out, that I’m defending my fragile psyche against the memory. “It’s in there, Mimi, working its slow poison into everything you do and feel.”
Entry 7: Stormcaller
The rolling echo of distant thunder woke the slumbering elemental affinity deep within Seren’s core. She breathed in, savouring the hint of ozone as it sparked inside her lungs as the fine hairs at the back of her neck shivered to attention.
Entry 8: Nacht
These may be the last words I ever write. If all goes to plan then that won’t be the case, but I want to be prepared for any eventuality. All the knowledge I have gained, none of it should be lost to history. It is far too important. I need…”
Entry 9: Bits and Pieces
The screams coming from the house could be heard by the police officers that surrounded it above the loud claps of thunder. The rain was hard and furious, blinding the men who had their guns drawn ready to storm the mansion.
Entry 10: Finneus
My backdoor swung inward as I inserted my key and automatically recoiled from the grinning face of Junior. While I focused on my foe, something struck the back of both knees, and I dropped to the ground…
Entry 11: The Wrong Turn
To say I was at a crossroads was really an understatement. Never before in my two decades and eight years of existence, had I been as confused as to what to do next with my life. In fact, my stint on earth so far, could be aptly described as ‘merely existing,’ and not living.
Please vote for your favorite entry