The Writing Show is looking for two holiday-themed short stories to feature as podcasts in December. The stories will be read by the authors or readers of the authors' choosing. Here are the submission criteria:

• The December holidays must play a significant role in the story. The story doesn't have to be about the holidays per se, but there must be some connection with them. Having one character say "Jeeminy Christmas" somewhere in the story is not a significant connection, but featuring a department store Santa Claus as a major character is. You can write about Christmas, Chanukah, Kwanzaa, the winter solstice, New Year's Eve, or Boxing Day.

• The story must be no longer than 4000 words. You'll be reading it aloud, so it shouldn't be too long.

• The story must be in English.

• Any genre is okay, including children's and young adults.

• Your ability to tell a compelling story is the most important criterion. Be sure to hook the reader!

• Please make sure your spelling, grammar, and punctuation are clean. The fewer errors in your manuscript, the better your chances of being selected.

• You must hold the audio rights to your story. If the story has never been published and you haven't signed a contract to publish it, you own all the rights. If the story has been published but you haven't given away the audio rights, you own them. If you've given away all rights, you shouldn't have, but if you did, we can't consider the story.

• You must submit your story no later than October 15th. Send it as an email attachment to paula@writingshow.com. Please use a standard format like .doc, .rtf, or .pdf. Do not send stories in Final Draft format or in the body of your email message.

• Please include your name, snail mail address, email address, phone number, word count, story title, and log line (one-line teaser) in your email. Do not put identifying information on your story itself! We use these contact details only for correspondence about the stories. We do not send you unsolicited mail, call you, or share your contact information with anyone.

If you don't want to read your own story on the show, you can select someone else, or you can let me select a reader for you. If I pick your story and you want to do your own mp3 recording, that's fine. Otherwise, we'll do the recording the way I do interviews: over the phone or Skype. Don't worry if you're outside North America. I can reach anywhere in the world.

We will pay $75 for each of the two stories accepted! Checks will be mailed as soon as we've recorded the stories.

-- Paula B.