After some discussion I have decided to host a "Late-Halloween" contest (because the due date will be sometime after Halloween) to encourage you all to write some Halloween themed stories with Gorgonies in them. So here are the rules.

Rules:
1. In order to submit your story you must join the Gorgony Group and submit your story in the Gorgony "Late Halloween" Contest 2017 folder.
2. Your story must have a minimum of 1,000 words. Other then that write as much as you want.
3. Your story must feature a gorgony, a pony like creature with snakes for hair and the ability to turn ponies and other such creatures into stone. Having the lower body be that of a snake isn't necessary but can be included if you wish. Feel free to look at the Gorgony Characteristics List in the group for ideas.
4. There must be a Halloween (aka Nightmare Night) theme to the story, feel free to use your imagination when doing this.
5. You must also sign in: Here. That way I know who is participating.
6. I will allow stories to have the sex tag so long as the sex in the story isn't explicit (or clop in other words).
7. No trollfics. These will be removed.
8. While it isn't necessary having a proofreader or editor look at your story before you submit it will increase the odds that it will win.
9. All submissions must be received by November 26th, hence why this is called the "Late-Halloween" contest, because I want to give everyone plenty of time to enter. Of course I will try to check around October 30th to see if all those who signed up have entered their stories. If so then we would be... on time.
10. Have fun writing your story.

To answer an unasked question, yes, I did merely copy and modify some of the text from my previous contest.

As for prizes, DeshLune did say they would offer a Steam Gift card as a reward. I am also willing to try to draw on my computer an image of the Gorgony OC from the 1st place winning story (costume or without costume is winners choice). Just don't expect my drawing to be too good.

How a Winner is Decided

The two other judges and I will read the stories and rate them by the following, with a 1-5 point system (5 being the best and 1 being the least).
-Was the story enjoyable?
-Did the story follow the guidelines of the contest?
-Did you enjoy the characters?
-Did the story have a good Halloween/Nightmare Night theme?
-Was the story well written?
-Would you like to see a sequel?

---

I hope you all enjoy this contest and I hope you all have a good day.

I have what I think is a fantastic gorgony idea, but I'm so swamped in commissions and other paid projects that I don't know if I'll make this one. I hope you keep hosting gorgony contests so I can eventually manage to write the thing. I'll have a stab at it this time, but I make no promises.

6131024 Sounds great. I hope things work out.

So far we have six contestants signed up. At some point I will be posting a promotion in the self promotion group, however if any of you know anyone who would be interested feel free to invite others to join.

6130978
Gift cards run for twenty minimum... so there is a $20 Steam Gift Card in the prize box for first place. I'd get a few more (of bigger sizes or one fifty and two twenties) for second and third... but I've run low on money as is. Ah well, how it is works well.

So how is everyone doing on their stories?

6183857
Alas, I am swamped in commissions still, and there's a TwiLestia contest I reeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeally want to enter, so I think this isn't going to be the one where I use my idea. It's not a super great idea for a holiday fic anyway. Next time, maybe?

6183857
It’s going alright. It’s not too Halloweeny, but it’s still fun.

6183857
I ended up needing to restart... so I have next to no progress. Hopefully I get enough time to work on it; as it is November I'll be focused on something else.

Oops, I actually forgot about this contest. How is everyone doing with their stories?

6215836
Finishing touches. Then I'll upload.

6130978
The folder is locked.
But if it weren’t, I’d post this story there.

6218346 That is weird. On my screen it is unlocked. You are trying to put it in the Gorgony "Late-Halloween" Story Contest folder, correct?

6218550
Yes; you're also the admin of the group so all folders are unlocked to you automatically. Most new folders have contributor level permissions or higher by default, so you'll have to edit the folder (from edit group, folders tab) so we users can add to them.

6218581 that is what i am saying. I checked the folder and it is set to user permission so you should be able to submit to the folder.

6218771
I just checked and I can't add stories to it either, so something has gone wrong somewhere.

6218771
Still can't add it to the contest folder. I can add it to the other folders, though.

So I went back and messed with the folder and it should work now. However, in an attempt to also make sure things worked, I upgraded some of your member statuses so that those of you who are submitting stories are now contributors. Hopefully, this solves all the issues, if not let me know and I will figure something out.

6219090
Still nothing.

6219248 Oh I think I know what the issue is. For some dumb reason unless there is already a story in the folder the folder will not have a button to add a story. As a result you have to go directly to the story and add it to the folder from the story. I will go ahead and add your story to the folder, hopefully that will solve everything.

EDIT:

The button should be up now. It is a weird bug that I have to remember. I hope the FiMFiction admin fixes it at some point.

6219252
That is very strange, but yeah, button is there now. Thanks!

6219263 No problem. I hope everyone else is able to submit their stories.

I feel like I might need to extend the deadline due to this bug though.

6219265
Ack! I wasn't able to finish... I got caught up in a few things... ugh... anyway, prize still stands.

6219553 I actually might have to extend the deadline. Currently we have only one person who has entered there story, and that was largely due to some dumb bug that the FiMFiction Admin needs to fix.

6220063
I read about that. If I checked sooner I could have mentioned something, but it has been around for about two and a half months now. But an extension is good!

I am thinking of extending the deadline to December 3rd, merely because of this dumb glitch and that we only have one story so far. So congratulations everyone you get one more week.

6220343
So j'ai pose une question. So we have a story with a gorgony, but its not Nightmare Night, does that make it no go for this contest?

6221401 Well, it was technically supposed to be a nightmare night/halloween themed story, so I would prefer for it to have at least some connection to those events. While you most certainly could enter it, there would be a penalty for not adhering to the theme.

That should make sense.

Considering that the contest has been expanded a week, that might make things easier.

So now that the contest deadlines have been extended, how is everyone doing with their stories?

Well, it is December 3rd and so far the only one who has competed has been bahatumay, so unless anyone else decides to post a story with the next 3 and a half hours (by then it will be midnight here in Eastern Washington), it would seem that we have 1 winner.

Unless of course said winner really wants some competition, in which case we might extend the deadline again, however since I already did that I won't do it unless they say so (of course this will be mute if someone posts before midnight tonight).

6228660
I feel a bit lame winning by default; I'm not opposed to another extension. I've needed my share of extensions for other contests.

6228675 Okay, like I said I will wait until midnight tonight to decide. If it is still just your story tomorrow, I will provide one Final extension. Maybe I'll extend it to sometime in January (or if you have a suggested day we can move it to that will be fine), we will have to wait and see.

6221623
(Whoops x3)
I finished with a day to spare Count me in!

So we now have two entries into the contest. Since I am tired and busy working on a few projects right now (like trying to finish the youtube readings for all the contest winners of the previous contest) I am willing to extend the deadline to January 3rd. But that is it and that is final. Meaning that if nobody else submits their story in time, then they are out of luck.

Sorry if I sound like a jerk.

6247871
I've had to restart once again. I'm glad there is an extension.

6247871
Not so, but hazaa I was afraid that I was late! You rock.

6249833 It is past January 3rd but if you have a story I am more then willing to accept it before the day is over. Hope to hear from you soon.

6271224
Sorry, I have become too busy to finish. I'll still give the gift card.

6271434 Okay, then I guess I need to start judging then.

6271447
Yea! Merci!

6271434 Now since you had expressed an interest in judging would you like to help me judge the two stories. We can compare our scores via PM to determine a winner.

6279805
Yeah, that's fine! Think you could PM me a little more detail on the judging system?