Three Bags Full/Knock On Effect short story competition

(Copied from 9th March Three Bags Full wool shop blog...)

Preamble
I can't deny we're a family of faffers but, despite lots of things still being in a state of flux, I feel I've been faffing enough over this competition (wait till we've got Paypal...wait till the shop's moved...wait for the sun to turn purple...there's always something, right?)

So, read on for all the official info you need. I'm hoping it's complete and clear but if you notice a vital piece missing, please let me know.

Background
Three Bags Full is our wool shop in Halifax, Yorkshire; The Knock On Effect is a fundraising project based in Ledbury, Gloucestershire. The link between them is Rosie Kilburn who was 1) our niece and 2) founder of The Knock On Effect. Rose's aim was to get people talking about cancer and to raise money to help cancer charities. Sadly, she died of her own rare liver cancer in Sept 2011, but TKOE is this year aiming to raise £20,000 in honour of what would've been her 20th birthday. This competition is our attempt to help towards that total. You can see what great charities have already benefitted from TKOE work on the webpage:
www.theknockoneffect.co.uk

Competition rules
Required wordcount is between 50 (yes, fifty) words and 1000 words.

There is no theme, but your story must include the phrase 'knock on effect' at some point. Please don't send salacious stories or stories aimed at children.

General info
Closing date for entries is 14th May 2012.

The competition is open to writers sending stories in English and able to pay in sterling.

Stories can't be returned, so please keep a copy.

Judging - all stories will be read in-house and a longlist of twenty produced. This list will be on the blog by mid-June at the latest. These twenty stories will then be read by TKOE team and whittled down to a shortlist of ten. The final ten will be read by award-winning South African writer, Ginny Swart, who will choose the first and second prize winners. The judges' decisions are final!

Copyright will remain with the authors, but first and second prize winners' stories will be published on the Knock On Effect blog.

All proceeds from the competition, over and above the payment of the first prize, will be donated to Knock On Effect funds.

Paying and sending your story
The entry fee is £2.50. It would be absolutely fabulous to receive this in the form of a cheque made out to K J Kilburn. Please write the name of your story, the wordcount and your email address on the back of your cheque or in an accompanying note.
If you'd like to pay electronically, you can 'buy' a competition entry from the threebagsfulluk.com website. The link is accessible from the home page. Because the site is generally geared up for commercial sales, small orders attract a p&p charge so you need to input the code TKOE2012 on the payment page. This initially reduces your payment to 70p, but when the 'postage' charge is added it takes it back to the full amount of £2.50. Does that make sense? It's a slight fudge, to accommodate those who would like to pay by credit card or Paypal, but it works! Please add the title of your story and the wordcount in the section marked 'customer note' at the bottom of the order page.

You can then post your story (along with the cheque, if paying by cheque), to:
Three Bags Full wool shop,
The Piece Hall,
Halifax,
Yorkshire,
HX1 1RE.
Or you can send it electronically in the body of an email to tkoecomp@gmail.com. Please type your story title and wordcount in the subject line and include all relevant details at the start of your email - name, address, etc.

Prizes
First prize is half the entry fees up to a maximum of £100.

Second prize is £20 of gift vouchers for the Three Bags Full wool shop or a £20 online voucher for threebagsfulluk.com, depending on the winner's preference.

Good luck!