Hello. First, my apologies for resurrecting this thread and further apologies for asking what, after 5 pages, is probably a stupid question. However, I am still confused!
I only noticed this prize yesterday! However, I may still be a contender as I have two novels on the go, each completed to the 70-80k word mark. They were originally intended to be stand-alone books that would nevertheless comprise a dilogy/duology (delete as appropriate) and as such, they represent something of a Grand Artistic Vision that has literally been years in the making (I first put finger to keyboard in June 2006).
Yet thanks to the pressures of life and occasionally writing myself into a corner, I've finished neither whilst still accumulating 10 chapters of each.
The genre is science fiction, although I think of them more as speculative fiction as they are fairly realistic, involve no wacky or made-up physics and mostly extrapolate today's world/culture/gadgets into a fictional setting that takes place between 2015 (book 1) and 2030 (book 2).
And now, my question...
Would either of these novels meet the entry criteria?
Note that neither book assumes, or establishes in any way, any alternative historical events or deviations from the time line as we know and understand it in the year 2010. It is future fiction only.
I could adapt either one to incorporate a significant alt. history feature and could adjust the plots accordingly, but would sacrifice my current Grand Artistic Vision. But if I were to do that, I might make it far more likely that I would finish them at all, because adapting them would eliminate the corners I've written myself into!
Do I need to change them? Must I have an alternative history element or does future-based science fiction earn a get-out-of-jail card?
I hope that makes some sense!
