Welcome to the first ever Farmpunk Flash Fiction Contest, sponsored by yours truly.
Deadline extension: 24 hours after payout
Original image from Pixabay.
The winner will receive an unopened
Steem Monsters booster pack.
Ordinarily, on a Saturday morning I would post some piece of fiction I've written. Today, I'm going to ask you to write me some fiction, but this is fiction with a huge twist--and I don't mean of lemon.
Okay, feel free to add a twist of lemon if you'd like.
On two previous Saturdays, I published stories that fall into this new genre, which is really a subgenre of cyberpunk, and they were super hits. The original farmpunk story, and the one I like the best, is Altland's Gambit. It begins thusly:
His friends called him Dodge, an homage to Dodge City. He earned it honestly. His real name few people knew.
Dodge might have seemed out of place in a big city, but in Pennsylvania's most rural county, he fit right in. Folks came from all around to buy his guns, all of them printed on the spot. Custom order. From snub pistols to grenade launchers. Pick your poison, he had it.
The second farmpunk story I published was titled Racioppa's Revenge. It kicks off with a farmboy version of the popular game Cornhole:
Sam Racioppa lifted his PVC shooter barrel at a 45-degree angle and pulled the trigger. He watched the shaved corncob fly through the air toward the platform he'd set up in the field. It landed with a solid thud and slid toward the hole at the top of the platform, stopping inches from it and spinning to a stop.
"How's the job treaten ya?" He asked his son Trent, who stepped up to the shooting line and aimed skyward toward the cornhole.
To enter this contest, you'll have to read both of these stories to get a feel for what farmpunk is. Don't bother upvoting them as both stories are past their payouts. But you'll want to read them to get a feel for the farmpunk ethos.
Moving Toward a Farmpunk Definition
While I have attempted to define the farmpunk genre, it's a loose definition. There are some qualities that I think any punk genre should have. For instance, high technology is an element of virtually every type of punk #literature on the market. The difference between them is how that high technology mixes with the other elements of the genre.
For instance, steampunk is set in the 19th century Victorian era, or "Wild West" era, and tries to imagine how the technology of that age might have been had it been more advanced. It's a sort of alternative history type of fiction with high technology elements.
Cyberpunk fiction is usually set in the near future and imagines a period of high technology mixed with elements of a strong counterculture. Dieselpunk is set between World War I and World War II and imagines a world where diesel technology has gone epic.
As I imagine farmpunk, it contains the following elements, which can be mixed and matched at the author's will as long as the story incorporates high-tech farm machinery:
- Juxtaposition of high technology with farming culture
- Most likely dystopian
- Could include strong elements of counterculture
- Can borrow elements from film noir, hard-boiled detective stories, other punk genres, and weird literature
- Can be set during any time period--past, present, or future--as long as farming and high technology are major elemens within the story
- If futuristic, it may play with the development of current technology in a more advanced way or imagine new technologies that might exist
- If set in the past, it may try to imagine how real technologies may have developed in an alternative history setting of the time period, imagine new technologies that did not exist, or take current or future technologies (or past technologies that are future to the story setting) and re-imagine them in the time period in which you are writing
- Its flavor may be retro-futuristic like steampunk or postmodern like cyberpunk, or both simultaneously
In short, all I'm really asking you to do is write a story that mixes farm culture with high technology. Everything else is negotiable.
How to Enter The First-Ever Farmpunk Flash Fiction Contest
The first thing you need to do is familiarize yourself with the genre, so be sure to read at least a part of the two previous farmpunk stories - Altland's Gambit and Racioppa's Revenge. You don't have to mimic my style in your writing. Just tell a good story.
Follow these steps to enter:
- Upvote this post
- Resteem this post
- Write a farmpunk story between 750 and 1,500 words ensuring it juxtaposes farm life with high technology
- Post your story on your own Steemit blog
- Give your story the #farmpunk tag
- Link to your story in the comments below
The winner of the contest will receive an unopened @SteemMonsters booster pack. If there are fewer than three entries, I reserve the right to not pick a winner.
If there are at least five entries, the winner will receive a Steem Monsters booster pack and the runner up will receive a share of Steem Basic Income.
If I get at least 10 entries into the first-ever farmpunk flash fiction contest, then I'll add a third place winner of 1 SBD.
Deadline: 24 hours after payout.
That's it folks! Have fun. Write a good story. And show your farmpunk style.
While you're here, check out the backside 5 (my five latest posts):
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