In a break-in at the Pulp Net offices bang on the deadline for the Douglas Coupland short fiction award, (ie overnight on 6/7 January) the hard drive containing most of the entries was stolen. Only 150 of an estimated c1000 entries are still here since the majority arrived over the Christmas period by email and had not yet been backed up offsite. The entries were due to have been processed the following day.

Pulp Net is requesting all writers who entered the competition (regardless of when they sent their entries) to resend their entries as soon as possible but no later than 31 January 2003. If two entries are received from the same author, only the later one will be considered.

In order to facilitate immediate off-site back-up of new entries, Pulp Net requests that authors this time submit their entry as an rtf file to comp@pulp.net, including their name, postal address and email address on the document. Entries on the standard form may also be made of this is easier.

Pulp Net extends its apologies to authors for any inconvenience this may cause.

This info may be found at Pulp Net

Amusing way for some do-or-die wannabe author to boost his/her chances of winning something.

Amusing that is, unless you're one of the people who's entry was stolen.

Oh Bug...no! shi... no! bol... no! tish tash tosh!
I entered that!
Cheers for the information.

So, who nicked it? Come on own up. Serves him right for posting such uninspiring photos.

Well, I certainly agree about the uninspiring photos. It seems an odd theft though. And Anna, I noticed you said Only 150 of an estimated c1000 entries are still here... Here? Is WW affilliated to Pulp?

More likely Anna simply copied the news from Pulp's website, as I believe her post indicates...

Yep, copied straight from Pulp as they requested. They're obviously keen to get this sorted and at least everyone has a chance to re-send their entries. No, we're not affiliated in any way with Pulp, we'd have declared that if we were. We just like them, that's all. If anyone's worrying about theft of stories, I really wouldn't.... I've worked a lot with burglars, and trust me, they ain't after stories... just a random break in, they were after computer equipment I guess. So re-submit, do.

Maybe it's all part of an anti-Coupland conspiracy - are there dark forces at work here?

I've worked a lot with burglars,???????

<Added>

How can we trust you Anna, after saying that?!

Nell, should perhaps have put that in context, ahem. I have worked on arts projects and as writer in residence in quite a few criminal justice settings where chatting about these kind of things is inevitable. So in my opinion, I don't reckon the burglars I've known are very likely to be trying to pinch stories.

Verry sad for those who have netered and dont see the warning

as for stealing the ard drive yes the only bits that are of much use normally are the pentium chip and the hard drive but why break into an office and steal a second hand drive and chip of unknown size when for the same effort they could have broken into the local computer shop and taken new unused

just a thought, having worked for a while for a company that distributed computers new was much more attractive than 2nd hand.

Anna, I guessed it was something like that, but couldn't resist.

David, do you mean to say that they open up the computer case and actually remove the hard drive and pentium whatever?

In accordance with Anna's 'instructions' I re-submitted my entry as an .rtf file to comp@pulp.net, and got two automated email replies. One says that there was a defect in the address and that the mail was not - and could not be - delivered; the other said that it has been received, and thank you very much with an apology for having to re-submit the piece.!

I'm now even more confused!!

John

I got the same thing. I reckon that the rubbish email is an internal thing where the emails go after being collected and downloaded (guessing but must be a reason for it)so I am not worried. But 'twas very confusing so I went to sleep.

The odd thing is that there was no mention of it in their monthly e-mail. I found the information on the site by accident. I haven't contributed myself, but may do so now that the deadline has been extended. Good luck to everyone! :-)