1. Any short story submitted should be in the speculative fiction genre (including science fiction, fantasy, horror, paranormal romance, and alternate history, among many others).  I'm afraid fiction set in the “real world” in modern times, with no paranormal or scientific elements, does not qualify.  This includes, for example, mysteries & true crime, romances, modern literature, and some comedies and dramas.
   
   
2. Short stories must be origional work, with origional characters and plotlines set in a universe of your own creation.  In other words, no fanfic of another author's writing.
   
   
3. Poetry is okay, but please, no screenplays.
   
   
4. Longer fiction (novellas, novels, etc.) can be split up into smaller sections and posted over a period of time.  However, the entire, completed, PROOFREAD manuscript must be submitted at once.  Unfinished novels are unfair to readers, who may want to know how the story ends.
   
   
5. For a short story to be posted, it must avoid the following things:
   • Plagarism of another's writing, whether published or unpublished
   • Libel or defamation of character
   • Undue insensitivity to gender, race, ethnicity, nationality, faith, or sexual orientation.
   • Unnecessary or excessive profanity.  Use George Carlin's "seven deadly words" as a guide.  Basically, avoid anything they wouldn't say on prime time network television shows.
   • "Slash" fiction, nudity, sex scenes, erotica, or pornography.  A surprising number of my readers are teenagers and children. 
   
   I understand that there is a fine line between romance, erotica, and pornography, and I'll take that into consideration - for example, if the nudity/sex scenes are relevant to the plot, tastefully written, and not overly-explicit.  If your fiction is good but the sex is a little too graphic, I may ask you to tone it down before posting it.  Each story will be evaluated on a case-by-case basis, but I reserve the right to be the final judge on what short stories are accepted and posted here.
   
   
6. I promise not to edit or alter your short stories, with the exception of correcting spelling, grammar, capitalization, and punctuation errors, and standardizing the format for the website.  If I feel your work is good but needs major editing, I'll return it to you with a list of suggested corrections.
   
   
7. Any fiction posted in this section is considered to be freely donated (sorry, I can't afford to pay you!), and distributed free of charge to visitors of this website.  The fiction authors, however, still retain any and all rights to their work, and are free to market it elsewhere.  If you decide to publish your fiction elsewhere, just contact me and let me know, and I can take your story off this site.  Your fiction, of course, can be removed from this site at any time for any reason by your request.
   
   
8. Remember, there are NO guarantees that any and all Friend Fiction submitted will be accepted and posted here.  I reserve the right to decide, at my discretion, what short stories to accept or decline.
   
   

Submission Process

1. CONTACT: Email your story to my webmaster (and son) at .  Be sure to:
   • put "Friend Fiction" in the Subject line (so I don't accidentally delete it as spam)
   • cut & paste the waiver (see below) into the body of the email, and fill in your name and story title
   • include your story as an attachment (please don't paste it into the email body—it creates formatting headaches and extra work for me)


2. LEGAL STUFF: Cut & paste the follwing waiver into the body of your submission email.  I regret needing to do stuff like this, but do I need to protect myself legally, just in case.  You might want to keep a copy of the email too, just in case.
   
   

   
   I, (your name) , allow Christopher Stasheff (and/or his webmaster, Edward Stasheff) to post and distribute my writing, titled " (story title) " on his personal website, christopher.stasheff.com.  I understand that:

   • my story is freely available for website visitors to view and possibly download.
   • I retain any and all rights to my story referenced above.
   • I will not be paid (monetarily) for my story, but
   • neither will Christopher Stasheff attempt to charge or collect payment of any kind from anyone for distributing my story through his website.
   • I can have my story removed from christopher.stasheff.com at any time, for any reason, by notifying Christopher Stasheff by email.

   
   
   

3. FORMAT: Please submit your fiction in either MS Word (.doc) format or rich text format (.rtf).  Please don't use Adobe .pdf format, as the text can not be edited.  Although you are free to submit fiction in a different file format, I can't guarantee I'll be able to open it, read it, or post it.