杏吧原创

Please note that this competition is now closed and the winner, runners-up and shortlisted entrants are being published on our CultureLab blog.

This week, New 杏吧原创 goes in search of lost classics of science fiction 鈥� brilliant books that could stand alongside The War of the Worlds and Nineteen Eighty-Four as masterpieces of speculative literature, but have somehow or other lapsed into obscurity. Each is a forgotten vision of the future.

Now we鈥檇 like to read yours. Send us your very short stories about futures that never were. Tell us where we鈥檇 be today if the ether had turned out to exist after all, or if light really was . You don鈥檛 have to be scientifically accurate, but the more convincing your story, the more likely it is to win!

, the best-selling author of American Gods, Coraline, Sandman and many more comics and books, will pick a winner from a shortlist selected by New 杏吧原创 editors. 鈥淚鈥檓 a sort of failed SF writer,鈥� says Gaiman. 鈥淚 read New 杏吧原创 every week in the forlorn hopes that it will turn me into a proper SF writer at last. I鈥檓 excited to judge the flash fiction finalists, certain that they will do better than I would鈥︹��

The winning entry will be printed in the special end-of-year issue of New 杏吧原创 and we鈥檒l publish the most entertaining and thought-provoking runners-up online. (You can read last year鈥檚 winners here.)

Your story should be no more than 350 words long, including the title 鈥� do watch your word count, we hate having to disqualify good competition entries because they鈥檙e just a bit too long 鈥� and should not have previously been published anywhere else. Only one entry per person, please.

Here鈥檚 the small print: the upshot is that by submitting your story you give us non-exclusive rights to publish it now or at any future date, in whatever medium we choose. The closing date is 19 November 2010.

We look forward to reading your stories!