Hi everyone! Are you up for a contest? I hope so. I thought it would be fun to have a contest using the awesome smilies Caroline has added to the site. So... get creative and let's have a fun
Smiley "Snake Story" Contest.
Here are the rules:
1. One story per person. The story should be snake related.
2. Send your story to me by private message with a subject of "Smiley Snake Story Contest."
3. Please preview your private message before sending it to make sure all the smilies work.
4. Each story can use up to 50 smilies.
5. All stories must be submitted to me by Sunday, February 25th at 6:00 pm Pacific Time.
6. Lastly (I probably don't have to say this)... please keep it clean, nice, and up to the standards of The Source.
I will post the stories in my forum with a poll for voting. There may be heats depending on how many stories I receive. If there are heats, the top 2-3 stories in each heat will be put in a thread with a poll for final voting. Voting will begin on Monday, February 26th and probably end on Sunday, March 3rd. The end date may or may not change if heats are needed. So, please watch this thread for details about when the heat voting will be over and the final voting will begin etc.
Right now, the smiley limit per post is 10. However, Caroline has given her approval for this contest and will change the per post smiley limit when it's time for me to put up the stories and poll. Thanks Caroline!!! The limit of 10 smilies doesn't apply to PMs, so you should be able to send me your entries with no problems. Just remember to preview them before hitting send, please.
Okay, enough of the rules. Well, you can't have a contest without prizes.

I wanted to provide prizes that could be used by everyone, no matter where in the world you live. So, I'm including PayPal prizes along with the % off 2007 Joni Garcia hatchling prizes.
Here are the prizes I will provide for the top three stories:
1st Place
$25 PayPal
50% off 2007 Joni Garcia Hatchlings Gift Certificate
2nd Place
$15 PayPal
25% off 2007 Joni Garcia Hatchlings Gift Certificate
3rd Place
$10 PayPal
15% off 2007 Joni Garcia Hatchlings Gift Certificate
Okay... are you ready to get creative? Hmmm... so many possibilities. Maybe the story is about you and your snake, maybe it's about him and his friends or whatever. Here's a little example of how to use smilies in your story:
Once upon a time there were three friends... a

named Zip, a

named Spot, and a

named Fred. Zip and Spot wanted to plan a birthday

for Fred. So, they decided to look around the house and see what they could find.... etc. etc.
Thanks for stopping by, I look forward to reading your stories, and have fun!