Petroglyph came up with a great suggestion in Forums: http://www.literalminded.com/discussion-forums/-writing/cellphone-novels , and this is going to be the basis for our March Contest. The rules are as follows:
-Submit a complete “novel” using 200 characters or less. Characters include letters, spaces, and punctuation marks.
-Post your entries here as a reply in this thread by Friday, March 21st.
-Vote one time for top 3 entries.
-Winners will be announced on Monday, March 24th, and posted in our April 2008 newsletter.
Good luck!

Congratulations to the Winners:
1st Place- Bud Budderly 
2nd Place-Icononclast
3rd Place-JennyWren
Wear your medals in style!

The April Contest for a story set in a medieval castle has closed, and Quaeritata is the clear winner.  Not merely because she was the only one to enter, but because all the comments have agreed that the story was excellently done, with good research and the dramatic flair required.

Well Done, Quaeritata!  There’s a gold medal for you.

 Contest:

I chose this exercise for a couple of reasons. The first, is that there is no exposition allowed. This means that any writers out there who feel shy about submitting their work will have an opportunity to post without the pressure of being able to precisely capture the mood of a stormy sunset. The second, is that writing dialogue is a true challenge, and it can be difficult to give the reader a clear sense of who is speaking, when they are speaking, and what they are speaking about.

I hope you take up the challenge!

• Please check your work — while it is possible to miss a typo, a submission full of spelling and basic grammar errors makes us all look bad.
• We cannot publish fan-fiction works that have copyrighted characters or settings (e.g. Harry Potter, Star Trek, etc.) in any publication we produce.
• Works detailing extreme violence, espousing hatred/cruelty or involving erotica will be rejected, and the administration will use discretion on what we feel and think constitutes these when considering submissions. These are classed as illegal content which would jeopardize the site.

This notice is for those people who have subscribed to the Literalminded newsletter and who may have been upset by some typographical errors. I must assert that I was not inebriated at the time of sending the newsletter.

The following typographical errors were found in the Literalminded newsletter and must be corrected immediately. I would appreciate your help in editing the following in either Word or Open Office.

Already have a finished novel? Amazon.com is holding a contest for the Amazon Breakthrough Novel Award, open to the first 5,000 submissions. The winner, to be announced in April after a series of stages, will receive a full publishing contract with Penguin Group (USA), one of the sponsors. Finalists will be chosen based on amazon.com customer feedback, and reviews in Publishers Weekly. The submission deadline is November 5, 2007. You can read more here: Amazon Breakthrough Novel Award.

Next Saturday, December 22nd at 2pm EST will be the first meeting of Literalminded’s Saturday Writer’s Circle.

The Saturday Writer’s Circle will be hosted through Yahoo’s Instant Messaging Conference feature. The purpose will be to discuss the members’ works-in-progress, flesh out ideas and give general support.

You must be a registered user of Literalminded.com and have downloaded Yahoo’s Instant Messaging service. Please send Spastica a private message on this website if you are interested. Once approved, you will receive a conference invitation via Yahoo! Instant Messenger every Saturday at 2pm EST.