Each Christmas, Island Life's gift to its readers is the Holiday Fiction Contest — a pair of stories written by readers, one for adults, one suitable for reading aloud to children.

Contest winners need not be on overtly holiday themes and need not concern Christmas. But they are meant to provoke thought and feeling, engender hope, convey strength of the human spirit or give us all a good smile.

The winners in each category will receive some post-Christmas spending money and the stories will be published on Christmas Eve and Christmas Day in the Island Life section, illustrated by our art department.

CONTEST RULES:

Stories — fictional or fact-based — must be the author's own work. Limit is 1,500 words.

Winners will be required to sign a fee-for-service contract attesting to that fact and granting The Honolulu Advertiser the right to publish the story in print and online.

Entries in verse are accepted. Illustrations are not.

Judges' decision is final.

Employees of The Honolulu Advertiser may not enter.

Manuscripts or e-mails must include: name, address, daytime telephone, e-mail address. No pen names, please.

Label manuscripts or e-mails "adult" or "children's."

DEADLINE:

Postmarked or e-mailed on or before Nov. 30.

Send stories to: Holiday Fiction, Island Life, The Advertiser, P.O. Box 3110, Honolulu, HI 96802; islandlife@honoluluadvertiser.com.