If fantasy is your game . . .

On August 7, an incident occurred in Southern Africa. We’ve all heard the jokes, the usual human reaction to disaster: “I was tremortised when the President dropped his wallet”; “Did the earth move for you, too?”, “It was all over in 90 seconds. Just like my husband”, and so on and so on. These comments trivialise the serious implications of which few people are aware: Seconds before the earthquake, NASA detected an EMP coming from the underground alien base hidden on the far side of the moon.
Exactly why the aliens aimed at Orkney, or how the pulse travelled through the centre of the moon, are known unknowns. Some say they were targeting the two mermaids found in the fire pool at Nkandla. Others say it was a premature emission from an uncompleted death ray. And there are more questions we’re not even aware of: the unknown unknowns, as Rumsfeld would say.
If this sounds fantastic, it’s because it IS fantastic. If your readers think they can do better; if fantasy for your readers means more than fifty shades of monochrome; if fiction for your readers has a strong scientific slant; if your readers are inspired by the fantastic tapestry of daily life in South Africa, then perhaps they should enter the Nova short story competition run by Science Fiction and Fantasy South Africa (SFFSA).
Prizes totalling R2000 are on offer in the South African section of the competition (sponsored by the WorldWideWorx-renowned Arthur Goldstuck), with an additional R1500 on offer in the General section. This annual competition is intended for budding writers of science fiction and/or fantasy short stories, and is open to everyone, even to international and extraterrestrial aliens, as long as they can write in English.
But the end is nigh! The deadline for Nova 2014 is 30 September 2014. So write right now. Details can be found at https://www.sffsa.org.za/Nova.html, or by emailing nova.sffsa@gmail.com, or by contacting Gavin on 084 830 0608.

GAVIN KREUITER
Gauteng