Q: Do you ship internationally?

A: Yes. I'm not discriminating against anyone based on geographic location. If you earned the prize, you're going to get it, barring lost mail.

Q: Does the prompt have to appear in my entry?

A: Nope. I'm not really sure how you would work a dictionary definition into a story, to be honest. Anyway, the purpose of that quote is simply to define and qualify the theme of this contest. Fantasy is about challenging the limits of reality, is it not?

Q: Can I make changes to my entry before the deadline?

A: Of course! I'm giving you all of this time to work on your entry, and that time can be used not only to write your story but also to polish it up. As long as the editing you do is your own effort and not based on feedback from other people (reviewers, betas, editors, etc.), it's perfectly fine and definitely encouraged. I won't be reading the entries except for the foreword and first chapter (for the non-oneshot entries) until after the deadline. As I said in the rules, it's okay to get feedback from other people after the contest deadline has passed (but you cannot change anything during the judging period, of course).

Q: Can you give me feedback on my story and advice to improve my writing?

A: For the sake of this contest, I will only be evaluating the stories and assigning them point values for my own reference, and none of that will be made public. If you want me to give you feedback in the form of a review (whether graded or not), please request that separately after the contest ends. You can request these services from me at Asterisks: Review Service.

Q: I'm writing a story inspired by ___ and I'm using ___ from it. Is that okay?

A: Plagiarism can be a little tricky because it's not 100% straightforward. Word-for-word copying is definitely plagiarism, as is paraphrasing. However, when it comes to things like ideas and plotlines, that's where the gray areas lie. Usually, taking a single idea by itself is not considered plagiarism, but copying something like an entire alternate universe or system of magic would be considered plagiarism. For plot, having a single event in common usually isn't plagiarism, but copying an entire sequence of events, particularly using similar characters, is. If you are writing a story inspired by some existing work and are not sure whether what you're writing is considered plagiarism, please contact me, and we can discuss it and figure out whether or not it counts as plagiarism and, if so, how you can avoid plagiarizing.