What’s this mean? Yes, winter can be especially bitter around the new year, but so can size-fetish writers at any time of year. As long as we’re all enjoying a nice round of cabin fever, let’s redirect some of that anxiety into our writing.

Cruel January purports to be a friendly round of flash fiction, open to any size-fetish or size-fantasy writer who’d like to take a shot. Whether you’ve made a career of cruelty or you’ve never ventured into these waters, everyone’s welcome to compose and submit. There’s nothing to lose and little to gain: this is strictly for fun because I was shooting my mouth off at Nyx and she told me to “bring it.” Well, consider it broughten.

The rules are few:

• The writing is limited to a single flash-fiction entry of 2,000 words, no more.
• Deadline to submit is January 31, 2017; judges will evaluate over first week of February.
• The context for Cruel January 2017 is Macro: a giant person in the regular-sized world (but the cruelty can come from anyone in the story, regardless of size).
• What defines “cruelty”? Look it up; otherwise, it’s entirely up to the writer.
• Small children may not be targets for cruelty (if they’re in a city that gets destroyed, well, that can’t be helped). Teens are fair game.

What does the winning writer receive? Congratulations and scene cred, probably.

Who are the judges? You, the fans and readers! Any interested party who sees the notice of the finished stories can read them all and compare them against each other.

Who’s competing?

• Aborigen
• Nyx
• Will Edgecomb
• Miss Kaneda
• Theophilous Bolt
• Giantess Tina
• Mr. Taedis
• Crushed Boy Wonder
• Bellerophon
• JDO
• MidnightUmbry
• QuickSilver
• SalameleonAD
• Lycaon6
• Undersquid

Submissions are closed! Thirteen entries are now up and online for your perusal, with a link to an evaluation form. There will be a two-week reading and review period, with the results unveiled on Monday, February 20. A collection of the stories (PDF/epub) will be released by the end of February, hopefully with artwork…

If you’re a graphic artist who would be willing to contribute art to the Cruel January 2017 collection, based on the submitted stories, please email me.