Despite being recent it was very hazy in his memory. He could see a man, or the shape of a man coming toward him. No, it was more like the blur of a man, he decided. No distinct features, but had similar appending shapes he would expect a man to have. It was a dark alleyway he was in. He didn't know where, and couldn't remember why he was there. Just that he was waiting, waiting for someone. An urgent matter that completely eluded his conscious mind. Why was I in an alleyway? It was a fair question, Cedric had no business being in alleyways or slums. His business was to remain inside the intertwining structures, and program network defense software. Always inside, always with people. The only sun he would ever see was on inter-structural travels, through the windows of a pod traveling in a glass transport-tube.

If I could figure out a way to post the rules and have them where people could always read them, I would.

Thanks for being willing to follow them, even when you don't know what they are, Alias.

Basically, we ask that people post no more than the first 13 lines of any story. The idea is that the first 13 lines of a manuscript are what an editor will see on the first page and that should be enough for the editor to know whether she wants to go to the next page and keep reading.

We do this because the first page of a manuscript is not enough to count as publication of your story, and that protects your first publication rights as well as your first electronic rights.

Editors are not interested in stories that have used up those rights, and we hope to help you get your story to the point where an editor is interested in it.

[This message has been edited by Kathleen Dalton Woodbury (edited May 26, 2003).]