Public Access Writing Contest

THIS CONTEST IS NOW COMPLETE. Congratulations to the winners and runners-up:

Mystery winner - On Strange Wings by Raymond Rich
Mystery runner-up - Pale Horse by Kevin Mackyu
Odyssey Tape winner - "Guerilla Makeover 012 - Pure-White Pretext" by Sarah Bolling
Odyssey Tape runner-up - "Deep Lake Dos & Don’ts 33 The Big Day" by KC

You can read the entries here.

Jason Cordova sat down with the contest judges to discuss the winning entries, as well as to spotlight some other picks. You can watch a recording of that conversation below.

Submission Guidelines

You can submit one entry for each track (Mystery and Odyssey tape).
Each entry should be no longer than 3500 words for a mystery, and no more than 300 words for an Odyssey tape. If you submit one of each, you must submit them separately.
Odyssey tapes can be “sequels” or additional episodes of shows featured in the officially published Odyssey tapes (though please see the Publication and Text Ownership section if you intend to make your Odyssey tape available commercially after the contest is over).
Each entry should take place in the game's default setting.
Submissions must be in a Google Doc, 11 pt. Arial, with no special formatting (bold, italics, and bullet points are fine). Your name should not be included anywhere on the Google Doc.
Send a link to your Google Doc to Jason Cordova, who will be organizing the entries for the judges, via email: jason.cordova@hey.com. Subject line: “PUBLIC ACCESS CONTEST - MYSTERY” or “PUBLIC ACCESS CONTEST - ODYSSEY TAPE.” By submitting, you are representing your entry is a work of your own creation.
When you send your submission email, indicate if you wish to opt-out of the public viewing folder (see Public Viewing Folder section, below).
The deadline for submissions is 11:59 PM Eastern on April 30th, 2023.

Resources Folder

A collection of resources can be found in this folder. The folder contains:

2 sample mysteries (The House on Escondido Street and Slumber Party Summoning Circle).
4 sample Odyssey tapes.
The “Anatomy of a Mystery” section of the rulebook.

While it is not strictly necessary, you may also want to have the full rules of the game on-hand. If you want to participate in the contest but are unable to purchase the game, send an email to the above address and say that you’d like a copy of the rules for purposes of participating in the contest. No further explanation is required.

Discord

You are invited to discuss the contest and solicit feedback on your entry on The Gauntlet Publishing Discord server, via the #writing-contest channel. The server can be found here.

Writing Workshop

Public Access creator Jason Cordova will be holding a special workshop for contest participants. The workshop will be via Zoom on April 16th from 12 PM - 3 PM Eastern. Anyone participating in the contest is welcome to attend; a Zoom link will be sent out via Discord. The workshop will be recorded so it can be viewed later.

Public Viewing Folder

Entries will be made available for public viewing after the deadline for submissions has passed. If you don’t want your entry included in the public viewing folder, you can opt out by telling us so when you send your submission email.

Judging Criteria and Announcement of Winners

The entries will be judged on writing quality, creativity, and playability. The entries will also be judged blind, meaning the judges will not know who wrote which submission. The judging panel will be announced at a later time. The winners and runners-up will be announced in late May during a special podcast episode.

Prizes

While the primary aim of the contest is to have fun and engage in a creative process with like-minded writers, there are also some prizes available.

1 mystery track winner will receive $250 USD.
1 mystery track runner-up will receive $100 USD.
1 Odyssey tape track winner will receive $50 USD.
1 Odyssey tape track runner-up will receive $25 USD.

Publication and Text Ownership

You own the text of your entry and are free to publish it wherever you wish after the announcement of winners. If you publish it commercially, please check in with us before using any of our color (locations and characters), apart from the general setting of Deep Lake and Degoya County, or our trade dress and graphics. Additionally, your commercial publication should say "This product is not associated with Jason Cordova or Gauntlet Publishing, but it is published with their permission" somewhere on the document. We are not actively seeking to publish any entries (again, the contest is for fun) but if something catches our eye that would be a good fit for our publishing plans, we will make a formal publishing offer to the entrant. If the winner or a runner-up receives such an offer, we will pay our publishing rate in addition to their prize money.

Official Mysteries (Published or Planned for Publication)

It’s not a contest requirement, but if you’re writing a mystery, you might wish to avoid writing one that is similar to the ones we have already published or plan to publish. A list of those mysteries, and a short description of each, follows.
The House on Escondido Street: The Latchkeys investigate an extremely evil house, and the missing family that used to live there.

Slumber Party Summoning Circle: The Latchkeys have to figure out what possessing a young woman who participated in a summoning ritual during an adult slumber party.

Xxaagreus: A rare video arcade cabinet connected to the disappearance of a group of teens in 1985 turns up in Deep Lake.

The Deep Lake Lurker: The Latchkeys look into the disappearance of a child from a summer sleepaway camp. Could a legendary lake beast be responsible?

Starlight Kingdom: Strange atmospheric anomalies appear over an abandoned theme park just outside of town.

Greetings, Travelers: An infamous underground roleplaying game reappears in Deep Lake.

The Whisper: A malevolent entity is laying bare the secrets of the people living on an isolated street.

Convergence: A posh wellness resort is the site of a death cult’s final cosmic configuration.

Mirror House: An entity that travels through mirrors is terrorizing a rival group of mystery solvers.

The Void Angels: A group of ravenous beings from the other side of the mountain are threatening the are with violent storms.

The Dream: Killer ice cream (that might also be an alien). Inspired by the movie The Stuff.

All Are Punished: Inspired by the movie Hellraiser, this is an adaptation of a Monster of the Week mystery we published a few years ago.