News

A Cup of Comfort is a series of story anthologies featuring different themes. The editors are actively soliciting true-to-life heartwarming stories about relationships, experiences and situations that inspire and affect our lives. Currently, the editors are soliciting true stories honoring nursing professionals and their experiences helping others.

Five Points is a literary journal that publishes quality fiction, essays, poetry, photographs, artwork and interviews; now, they're looking for poems with an original voice. And significance. And don't forget -- it's not too late to join in for NaNoWriMo and the Darklight anti-fanfic contests.

Have a manuscript that could be summed up by Keats' statement, "Some say the world is a vale of tears,/I say it is a place of soul-making"? This contest is for you. Meanwhile, it's not too late to write a (crummy) 50,000 word novel by the end of the month. Sign up for NaNoWriMo!

Write a 50,000 word novel in thirty days, submit a subversive parody to a real poetry contest, and get the straight dope on the Piker Press Ghost Story Contest.

Cover story. Interview with Vance Whitaker, professional theatrical makeup artist.

Two Writer's Digest competitions, one for short stories, and one for previously self-published novels. In-house, the Piker Press Ghost story competition wraps up this Wednesday.

Good at expressing emotion? Try your hand at writing a poetic greeting card for SPS Studios. In house contests continue to run.

L. Ron Hubbard is looking for the next big sci-fi, fantasy, or horror author, while several in-house contests continue to run.

If you can keep up with the biters, the skaters and the trendies and your words be full of grooviness and butter, then you might want to try the Delacorte Press contest for Young Adult Novels. Meanwhile, the Ghost Story and Darklight contests continue.

Fans of the Sci-Fi channel's cheesy thriller <i>Darklight</i> are getting together to re-write a great wrong, while A.E. Coppard proves that when it comes to fiction, size doesn't matter.

Scare your mama half to death with a ghost story, then finish her off with scandalous poetry or short prose.

Silly haiku wars may be fun, but here's your chance to take a shot at the real thing.

You have three days to crank out ten thousand words. On your mark, get set...

The first Piker Press contest <i>ever</i> has concluded. Cheryl was amused and touched by the entries - but was she inspired?

Tuesday is the last day to submit your "Write Fiction Like Cheryl" entry! Remember, your guess is as good as anyone else's. Also this week, the Writersweekly.com 24-Hour Short Story Contest. Cash! Prizes! Sleep deprivation! It's good to be a writer.

Zoetrope quarterly is accepting submissions for short fiction in all genres. The Mona Schreiber Prize for Humorous Fiction and Nonfiction is accepting entries through December 1, 2004. And here at the Piker Press, the Write Fiction Like Cheryl contest continues through August 31, 2004.

While the "Write Fiction Like Cheryl" contest rages in house, the Mississippi Review 2005 will be accepting fiction and poetry through October 1, 2004.

Contest.

Cover story

Cover story

Nothing says "I love you" like the gift of a hair salon. Nina Gulley, a local stylist in the small town of Ripon, got a wedding present from her new husband that she'll never forget.

Cover story.

Take a peek inside the Iowa Caucus, and learn what <i>really</i> propels a candidate to the front of the pack.

A local coffee shop offers a delicious class to teach people the ins and outs of drinking coffee. Be prepared to throw everything your mother taught you about good table manners right out the window, because slurping and spitting is classier than she thought.

The little church out on Hwy 120 is already overcrowded and dangerously close to the busy two-lane highway. Now the state transportation department wants to take away 28 feet of their property to make the road bigger, faster and much, much closer. What's a parish to do?

Several houses. A successful career. Peter Carota had it all -- and gave it all up to become a priest.

Nick Groen Realty has donated land in a posh $400,000+ neighborhood and others have donated materials and labor so that a humanitarian organization can raise money to benefit orphans and abandoned children in Romania.

They say that if you take a hobby and figure out how to make money off it, you'll never have to work another day in your life. Meet Terry and Lori, two professional pet-sitters who have managed to do just that.

That's not a parade, that's the local herd of stroller mommies stompin' down the street.

Tiffany always wanted her mother to open her own craft store. Tammy Wagner had no idea that wish would save her own life and sanity when her daughter died. A true local news story.