Guidelines and rules: 

Word count: 3500-6000

Genre: Young Adult Romance

Theme: 
Masquerade
A Masquerade can be a false show or pretense, someone pretending to be someone they aren’t. It can be a ball, a fancy dress party, it can be a mask. Open to interpretation.

Submissions accepted: September 5 – November 4, 2018

How to enter: Send your polished, formatted (Double spaced, no page numbers), previously unpublished story to admin @ insecurewriterssupportgroup.com before the deadline passes. Please include your contact details, your social links, and if you are part of the Blogging, Facebook, Instagram, or Twitter IWSG group.

Judging: The IWSG admins will create a shortlist of the best stories. The shortlist will then be sent to our official judges. This year, we are honored to have seven incredible judges:

Elizabeth S. Craig, author
Elizabeth is the bestselling cozy mystery author of the Southern Quilting mysteries, Memphis Barbeque mysteries, and Myrtle Clover Cozy Mysteries for Penguin Random House, Midnight Ink, and independently.

Elana Johnson, author
USA Today bestseller Elana Johnson writes young adult and adult contemporary romance. She is an inspirational adult romance author under the pen name of Liz Isaacson, and her work includes the young adult dystopian romance series Possession, published by Simon Pulse (Simon & Schuster). Learn more at Elana Johnson.

S.A. Larsen, author
S.A. Larsen is the international award-winning author of the middle grade fantasy-adventure MOTLEY EDUCATION and the young adult contemporary-fantasy romance MARKED BEAUTY. When she’s not chasing her characters around a graveyard or antagonizing them with young love, she can be found in Maine with her husband and four children. Visit her cyber home at S.A. Larsen Books.

DL Hammons, Write Club founder
When DL isn’t running the online writing contest WRiTE CLUB on his blog, he splits his time crafting YA and adult Mysteries, with a little bit of Paranormal/Sci-Fi on the side.

Gwen Gardner, author and previous IWSG anthology winner
Gwen Gardner writes lighthearted, cozy mysteries with a few ghosties thrown in to “liven” things up. Since ghosts feature prominently in her stories, she has a secret desire to meet one face to face—but will run screaming for the hills if she ever does.

Kelly Van Sant 
Kelly Van Sant has nearly a decade of experience in the publishing industry and is a literary agent with the Red Sofa Literary Agency. She is a teaching artist at the Loft Literary Center and blogs about writing and the publishing industry at Pub(lishing) Crawl and co-hosts the their weekly podcast.

Kristin Smith, author
Kristin Smith is the best-selling young adult author of the Deception Game series and a former Pitch Wars mentor. When she’s not writing, you can find her dreaming about the beach, beating her boys at Just Dance, or belting out karaoke (from the comfort of her own home). She currently resides in the middle-of-nowhere North Carolina with her husband and sons.

Prizes: The winning stories will be edited and published by Freedom Fox Press next year in the IWSG anthology. Authors will receive royalties on books sold, both print and eBook. The top story will have the honor of giving the anthology its title.