The Red Rose Science Fiction and Fantasy Competition:
The Eclipse
School of Humanities and Social Sciences
… and the Sun has perished
out of heaven,
and an evil mist hovers over all
(From Homer’s The Odyssey - said to refer to the total solar eclipse of 16 April
1178 BC)
Competition Brief
In honour of the solar eclipse earlier in 2015, we are looking for short Science Fiction
and Fantasy stories with the theme of an eclipse. The eclipse can be solar, lunar or you
can create one featuring other planets and moons. The story can belong to any subgenre
of science fiction or fantasy.
The word count is between 500 and 3,000 words, offering you the choice between flash
fiction, longer short stories and everything in between. The audience can be adults
and/or young adults.
There will be three categories for entry: UCLan Student entries, UCLan Staff, and UCLan
Alumni. The winner from each category will receive a book token. Extracts from the
winning entries will be published on the university website. We will also be working
with uclanpublishing to produce an ebook.
The deadline for submissions is Friday 15th January at 5pm. Please email your
submissions to Helen Day HFDay@uclan.ac.uk.
Please read this brief, the terms and conditions, and the information on
formatting your stories carefully to ensure that your entries meet our criteria and
that your work gets to the right people.
What Could I Write About?
If you’re struggling to get your creative juices flowing, here are some ideas to stimulate
your imagination:
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An eclipse is immanent but something is coming with it …
You were born during an eclipse and are believed to be cursed …
An eclipse is being used to perform a ritual …
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Someone is rendered blind after gazing at the sun during a solar eclipse but then
find that they can see mysterious after-images …
Aliens visit Earth to view the solar eclipse for tourism
During the eclipse a disaster occurs leaving the world a different place …
People black out during a total eclipse and awake to find themselves on another
world …
A mission to the moon is interrupted when the moon is found to be in an
unexpected position, eclipsing the sun at a critical time …
Watching an eclipse from another planet in our solar system or beyond …
A cult leader uses the eclipse to influence her followers …
The eclipse opens a wormhole to an alternative universe …
Context
To give you a greater understanding of eclipses it might be an idea to do some research.
Some brief points to get you started:
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An eclipse is an astronomical event that occurs when an astronomical object is
temporarily obscured, either by passing into the shadow of another body or by
having another body pass between it and the viewer.
The syzygy effect occurs when three celestial bodies (such as the Earth, Moon
and Sun) come into perfect alignment.
Lunar eclipses happen when the Moon moves into the Earth’s shadow.
As observed from Earth, a total solar eclipse occurs when the Moon completely
blocks the solar disk.
Depending on the geometry of the Sun, Moon, and Earth, there can be between 2
and 5 solar eclipses each year.
Each eclipse is only visible from a small part of the Earth.
A total solar eclipse can happen once every 1-2 years.
The longest a total solar eclipse can last is around 7.5 minutes.
During a total solar eclipse, conditions in the path of totality can change quickly:
air temperatures drop and the immediate area becomes dark.
If any planets are in the sky at the time of a total solar eclipse, they can be seen as
points of light.
On Mars, only partial solar eclipses are possible, because neither of its moons is
large enough but Pluto, with its moon Charon, has substantially more eclipses.
Eclipse: blotting out; blocking; covering; obscuring; hiding; concealing; veiling;
shrouding; darkening; occulation.
Myths and Legends surrounding eclipses:
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Some cultures consider an eclipse a bad omen because birds stop singing,
confused by the apparent sudden transition from day to night.
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The Ancient Greeks believed a solar eclipse was a sign that the Gods were angry,
believing that it heralded disaster and destruction.
In Italy some believe that flowers planted during a solar eclipse will be brighter
and more colourful than those planted at any other time.
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In Vietnam, people believed that a giant frog was devouring the Sun, while
Vikings saw a pair of wolves chasing the sun or moon; when one caught either of
the orbs, an eclipse would result. In ancient China, a celestial dragon was thought
to lunch on the Sun; in fact, the Chinese word for an eclipse, chih or shih means to
eat.
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A popular misconception is that solar eclipses can be dangerous to pregnant
women and their unborn children. In many cultures, young children and
pregnant women are asked to stay indoors during a solar eclipse.
The Navajo believe that a person who looks at the sun during an eclipse goes out
of balance with the universe.
During solar eclipses, the Shintos in Japan had a talisman - a precious stone
studded necklace – which they put on the branches of the scared Clauria tree.
The brilliance of these stones was thought to compensate for the amount of
sunlight lost during the eclipse.
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Subgenres of Science Fiction and Fantasy
This list is by no means exhaustive but is intended to give you some ideas:
Alternative history; Post / apocalyptic; Hybrid (crossed with other genres such as
horror, romance, noir etc.); Cyberpunk; Steampunk; First Contact; Hard SF (based on
plausible science and technology); Light/Humorous; Military; Dystopia; Near-future;
Speculative; Sociological / Psychological; Feminist; Time Travel; Space Opera; Alien
Invasion; Dying Earth; Space Western; AI / Robotics; Generation Ship; Dark Romance;
High Fantasy; Low Fantasy; Portal Fantasy; Sword and Sorcery; Mythic / Quest; Urban;
Vampire / Werewolf; Zombie; Weird Fiction …
Above all we want stories that are creative, thought-provoking and well-written.
Good luck!
Terms and conditions
1. This is an internal UCLan competition: only students and staff currently with a
UCLan contract or enrolled on a UCLan course (undergraduate and
postgraduate) or UCLan Alumni can enter. Any member of Staff, Student or
Alumni can enter, regardless of whether they have been published before.
2. Extracts from the winning entries will be published on the UCLan website.
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3. A selection of the best stories will be considered for publication in The Red Rose
Book of SFF by UCLan’s Realistic Work Environment Publishing House
uclanpublishing. The number of entries included will be determined by the
quality of submissions. The editors (students on EN2127 Live Literature project
and MA Publishing students) may request reasonable editorial revisions prior to
publication, where deemed appropriate, and will be available to help make any
such revisions. You must be available from February to May to work with the
editors.
4. The book will only be produced digitally as an ebook. The book will not be sold
to the public until such time as this might be possible or appropriate. The book
will be used to showcase uclanpublishing and Live Literature Projects.
5. The entries should be submitted in prose: we will not accept poetry for this
particular competition. However your story may feature a few lines of poetry if
this is appropriate. (see section 12 on copyright).
6. Stories must be the author's own original work and should not be published
elsewhere. We will not accept simultaneous submissions (work that has been
submitted elsewhere) but we do welcome up to 2 entries from each individual.
7. The deadline for submissions is Friday 15th January at 5pm.
8. Please email your submission to HFDay@uclan.ac.uk. When you have submitted
your work you can expect to receive an acknowledgement email within a week
(and if you don't please feel free to contact us again to check your email hasn't
gone astray). We prefer to wait until all the submissions are in before making our
final decisions, so be patient with us regarding the competition and possible
publication.
9. The results will be announced on the website and through AULookout.
Depending on how many entries we get, we may produce a short list before
deciding the final winners, in which case we will inform shortlisted authors
earlier.
10. The final decision on entries will be made by the judging panel which will consist
of UCLan Literature and Creative Writing Students on EN2127: Live Literature
Project and a guest judge, supervised by Helen Day. The decisions of the judging
panel will be final. No further correspondence will be entered into.
11. We do not want stories that are already illustrated but we are inviting
illustrators and/or photographers to apply to illustrate the finished work. Please
email a sample illustration or photo that meets the brief to Helen Day
(HFDay@uclan.ac.uk).
12. We are unable to use work which contains copyright material (e.g. quotations
from other published work, songs, etc.), or any material which, in the sole
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opinion of the editors, is deemed of a libellous, defamatory or otherwise
actionable nature.
13. Copyright of all submissions by authors and illustrators will remain with the
contributors. If you submit your story elsewhere in the future and are published
you will be expected to refer to The Red Rose Book of SFF.
14. uclanpublishing reserve the right not to publish the final product if certain
quality or other conditions are not met.
15. uclanpublishing / Live Literature projects is unable to offer any payment for
contributions.
16. Contributors will be invited to a student-run event to announce the winners.
Winners and contributors to the Red Rose Book of SFF will be invited to read
their story or an extract from it, or to discuss the process of writing it.
Please be patient with the students who have devised and will be running this live
project as they are still learning. Any problems please contact the tutor Helen Day
HFDay@uclan.ac.uk.
Entering the Competition
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Entries should be submitted by email only. Please email your entry to Helen Day
HFDay@uclan.ac.uk.
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The “subject” line of your email should read “The Red Rose SFF Competition –
Student/Staff/Alumni” (delete as applicable).
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Attach your story as a word document only please (we will turn it into a PDF
when we have coded the entry and anonymised it).
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In the body of the email give us your preferred email and telephone contact
details
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Format the document according to the guidelines below:
Formatting your entry
Documents should be formatted as follows:
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Double-spaced text
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Left and right hand margins of at least 2cm
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12pt font
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First line of paragraphs indented
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Pages numbered
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Indicate whether you are Staff, Student or Alumni in the header
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No mention of the author's name, address or other details on the actual entry
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