The fourth annual Baen Fantasy Adventure Award contest opens this month. Entries will be accepted from January 15 through April 1.

We’re looking for blood-pounding, heart-stopping action with heroes you want to root for and villains you love to hate. Whether your heroes win the day with swords or sorcery, fireballs or flamethrowers—or even by their wits alone—all are welcome. Modern, medieval, and otherworldly settings are all acceptable, as long as you tell a rip-roaring good tale with a fantastical element!

Each entry is limited to a short story of no more than 8,000 words, and only one entry per author. Entries will be judged by Baen editors and the award will be presented by New York Times bestselling author Larry Correia at the Writer’s Symposium at Gen Con, which will be held August 17-20, 2017, in Indianapolis, IN.

“Working with the Writer’s Symposium at Gen Con has been an absolute delight, and we’re thrilled to again present this award at their event,” said Baen executive editor Jim Minz. “We appreciate the deep historical link between gaming and adventure fantasy, and Gen Con is the perfect melding of these forms.”

• The Grand Prize winner will be published as the featured story on the Baen Books main website and paid at industry-standard rates for professional story submittals. The author will also receive an engraved award and a prize package containing $500 of free Baen Books.
• SECOND place winner will receive a prize package containing $500 of free Baen Books
• THIRD will receive a prize package containing $300 of free Baen Books.

Finalists will be announced by July 1 and winners will be notified no later than July 7, 2017.

Over a thousand stories from all over the globe were submitted in the first three years of the contest.

[Based on a press release.]