Here's the Picture, You Supply the Thousand Words

Painting by Jeff Zugale

It will come as no surprise to anyone familiar with their writing that Wil Wheaton and John Scalzi are awesome, weird, and awesomely weird people. As if more evidence of this was needed, they have now come up with what is quite probably the geekiest way, and certainly one of the most fun ways, to support a worthy charity, ever.

The picture above was commissioned by Scalzi and Wheaton from artist Jeff Zugale, and features the first known (but hopefully not the last) appearance of a unicorn pegasus kitten. Your mission, should you choose to accept it, is to write a short story (between 400 and 2,000 words) explaining this seemingly-inexplicable scene.

Maybe the reason for Wheaton’s evident anger is that the infamous clown sweater has magically bonded to his skin and can’t be removed (why else would he be wearing it?). How did Scalzi get transformed into an orc, anyway… or is that his true appearance finally revealed after all these years? You get to decide.

The winner of the contest will be paid 10 cents per word for their story, receive a prize pack of books from Subterranean Press, and have their story published in an electronic chapbook featuring stories about the picture by Scalzi, Wheaton, and others. This chapbook’s sales will go to the Lupus Alliance of America (Michigan/Indiana affiliate). So don’t write for this expecting fortune — it is for charity, after all — but you should expect to achieve some measure of fame should you win. You have until the end of the month. I know I’ll be submitting an entry — will you?