The Ventura County Writers Club is sponsoring its 10th annual Short Story Contest, with a grand prize of $500, secondplace prize of $250 and thirdplace award of $125. 

All submitted stories must be original and may not have been published in any newspaper, magazine or book. Submissions may be in any genre. Entrants may submit as many stories as they like.

Entry fees are $15 per short story for club members and $25 per story for nonmembers. Those who’ve won first place in the last three years are not eligible. No person may win more than one prize. 

Each submitted story must be in 12-point type, Courier or Times New Roman, and double-spaced on white letter-size paper, with left and right margins of 1¼ inches, and top and bottom margins of 1 inch. Indent the first line of each paragraph and number all pages at top or bottom. 

Stories must be 10 pages or fewer. The story title must appear at the top of each page. The author’s name should appear only on the official entry form, not on any text pages. 

The entry form is at www .venturacountywriters.com, or write to VCWC, P.O. Box 3373, Thousand Oaks, CA 91359. 

Entries not following the contest rules will be disqualified. No entries will be returned. 

Submissions must be postmarked no later than Oct. 1. Prizes will be awarded at the club’s general meeting on Jan. 12.  

For more information, e-mail Carol Fogel at shortstory2009 @aim.com or write to the address above.