Sea Hunters writing competition

Here's a new fan fiction writing comp that has a different spin to it. It's the brainchild of Sean Ellis who has had several books published.

Sea Hunters writing competition

Try your hand at writing. You never know, you may be discovered!

If you wish to participate, please post the name of your mysterious ship or plane etc in this topic so others can see it has been nominated.

S.S. Vandalia

This post has been edited by tonym5 on Jul 28 2005, 04:35 AM

I like this idea!
I'm gonna tackle the Star Ariel, a British airliner that vanished in 1949.

I'm taking The Royal Tar she had fancy and comical passengers on her last voyage when she floated away to sea

USS Indianapolis! All the way!

Honorable mentions: USS Stephen Hopkins, Flight 19, and Gunter Prien's U-47!


Phew! Lucky I stumbled onto to this when I did! I've been gone a helluva while!





Maintain Speed and Heading!!!

Does anyone know whether or not I can find a printer friendly version of the outline and the rules? Just curious.

You can highlight and copy (Ctrl C) this text here ;


cussler.net is pleased to announce a fan fiction competition open
to all aspiring writers.

One of the hallmarks of Clive Cussler’s writing career has always
been his fascination with actual maritime history. His crew of NUMA
volunteers have searched for and discovered some of the most
famous wrecks in history. Some of these exploits have been
recounted in the Sea Hunters books. Some of the tales however,
have yet to be told…

That is where you come in. The goal of the Sea Hunters Fan
Fiction Competition is for you to earn your stripes as a NUMA
naval historian. It won’t be easy, but then nothing worthwhile
ever is.

The basic idea is to start with a real mystery of history; a
shipwreck, a missing plane, or some other tangible artifact which
might entice NUMA to comb the ocean floor or search remote
tropical islands.

It might be Amelia Earhart’s plane, or the Lost Squadron in the
Bermuda Triangle—the only requirement is that it be REAL and
REALLY LOST.

The ultimate aim of the competition is to create a FICTIONAL
account of a (real) NUMA expedition to solve the mystery in true
Sea Hunters fashion.

Here's what you need to do;

Part 1.

Research your myterious lost subject and create a fact-based
prologue with a splash of fiction.

Part 2.

Write a fictional account of a NUMA expedition to solve the
mystery by creating your own characters and storyline.

Your total word count should be between 5,000 and 10,000
words. (about 10 to 20 pages.) Please submit your entry
to cussler@gmail.com by November 31, 2005.

The entries will be judged by a panel and the winning entry
will be showcased on several Cussler websites for thousands
of fans to view. If you intend to take part in the competition
you are encouraged to declare your intention to participate
by posting the name of the ship, plane etc that NUMA will
be searching for.

One question. In part two, do we write in the first person as if we were Clive Cussler or someone else?

In part 2 you could introduce yourself as "John Smith" (NUMA Special Projects Director) and go on to write in the first person.

We also have a few surprises install for the winning entry ... for info coming soon!

Single Spaced? Double Spaced? How big should the margins be? Any other structural rules?

If the guidelines seem a little vague, it's only because we want to encourage creativity among the entrants. The key to this contest is integrating a factual maritime history into a work of fiction. How you do that is up to you; what ultimately works best is up to myself and the other judges on the panel.

Likewise, there aren't really any special technical requirements. You aren't mailing in a paper hard copy. The file that you submit should probably be .doc or .rtf but spacing and font size are pretty unimportant; we can reformat down the line to make it look better. That being said, do your own proofreading for spelling, grammar and style.

I'm pleased to see that this contest is already generating some interest. I am eager to read your stories, and predict this will be a stepping stone to even bigger adventures.

This post has been edited by Nick Kismet on Jul 28 2005, 04:43 PM

Well I'm in! I'll take the mysterious dissaperance of Flight 19 over ther Bermuda Triangle.