Writing Contest (+ Giveaways!)

I'm sponsoring a writing contest for the Steam Gifts community. I will be the judge (so expect my biases), and the contest will close Friday, January 31st. The rules for the contest are:

At least 500 words per entry to qualify. No length limit, but the distinction between short and long for this contest is 3000 words.

One entry per person. You may submit one shorter work and one longer work if you want twice the chances to win, but unless it's good, don't expect anything.

There will be four prizes. The first prize is 10 Zedbucks, where I will buy you up to ten USD in one transaction from any gaming webstore that accepts Paypal and send you the steam codes/gifts. Please allow time for delivery, and you can hold on to this for up to a month (EDIT: March 5th, sorry about my slowness in processing the results) in case something you want goes on sale. Please remember that I live in the US, so region locks may complicate things, and that I will only buy you digital games, no hard copies and nothing but games (and maybe ebooks, if you beg hard enough.)

Second, third, and fourth place get 5 Zedbucks, which translates to one BTA bundle, or $5 in a single transaction; see above.

Everyone, whether or not you enter the contest, can enter the giveaways below.

http://www.steamgifts.com/giveaway/Xdfv4/magicka

http://www.steamgifts.com/giveaway/UFTNo/the-kings-crusade

http://www.steamgifts.com/giveaway/fhChx/europa-universalis-rome-gold-edition

http://www.steamgifts.com/giveaway/60kA3/hearts-of-iron-iii

http://www.steamgifts.com/giveaway/0FYFc/sword-of-the-stars-complete-collection

http://www.steamgifts.com/giveaway/lljaP/europa-universalis-iii-complete

I will be looking for good grammar and spelling, and also that you don't just copy paste someone else's work. In addition, try not to just summarize or copy someone else's story. While your work can be referential, parody, etc., I value some degree of original work and thought.

The restrictions: English language. I don't have high enough reading comprehension in any other language to weigh those entries properly, and Google Translate would not be your friend in the grammar category. No erotica; adult elements are fine, but if your work is just smut, I'm not interested. Preferably no fan-fiction, though if it's done well, I guess I'll consider it. You may use works that you've written before, but remember to format them properly. For the sake of keeping the thread clean, I will not judge submissions that are simply posted in as text to the thread.

How to submit: Make a clickable link to a Google Document, which is viewable with the link, or share the document with me using the address "squirezed@gmail.com". You can do this whenever you want, but remember that I will be judging the works based on how they are over the weekend after January 31st.

Have fun, and get writing.

Edit: This is not to get rights to your works. There are no contracts, you keep your work, I'm just interested in seeing it. I don't want to publish it (though I will contact the winners about links here if they do not post public links) or make money from it, and all rights will remain with the author. Thanks to schalart, for pointing this out. That said, your submissions should still be your original works which you own distribution rights for. Legalese is hard, so unless you are the original author of an otherwise unpublished work, please do not submit the work.

Edit 2: I've narrowed the entries down to four. Look for a Steam friend request so I can ask you about permissions to share your stories. If not, that's fine, but I'd like to contact you to confirm.

Edit 3: Now announcing the winners! I've selected one first place winner, and then three secondary winners, because all of the submissions were excellent and I have no clue how to compare them fairly.

First Place: chuckie001, with N O T R U S T

Other Winners (in alphabetical order)

dymoblade, with The Hero's Slaughter

linminhtoo, with an essay titled The Internet

sujansh, with Room 334