Monday, October 23, 2006

New Story - The Fork

Last week I pounded out a 765 word story--my shortest story ever. Today someone read it and asked why I wrote it. I told that person that the whim was upon me. Isn't that enough?

R.

Friday, October 13, 2006

Remembering the Metaphor

I've been reminded recently of the time, not long ago, when my story Two-Edged Choice was shot down like the Clanton Gang by that aforementioned scholastic publication. I like to tell myself that it was merely the word count (more than 200 words too long) that disqualified it from the beginning, and that it had nothing to do with the story or writing. Of course it could be that the judges were genre bigots.

R.

Monday, October 09, 2006

Two-Edged Choice Judging Results

Dear Entrant,
Thank you for entering the L. Ron Hubbard Writers of the Future Contest. Your entry did not place in the final selections for the 3rd quarter 2006 (April 1 - June 30, 2006).

We commend your effort and hope that you will submit another entry for the next quarter. The deadline is by postmark.

We wish you the best of luck on your next entry!

Sincerely,

Contest Administrator


So there you have it. I can't say that I am surprised--when I didn't hear anything after twelve weeks and judging is supposed to be done in eight to ten I knew the score. ADIS is a better story anyway, so here's to this quarter.

R.

Tuesday, October 03, 2006

Prose vs. Content

Well, the call for papers has been issued for the Writing Center Contest. The twinge of excitement I initially felt upon seeing the flyer died within me when I saw that they changed the maximum word count from 2,000 words last year to 1,250 this year. Why would they do such a thing? Who can write a story of substance in that few words? (A Very Short Story by Ernest Hemingway doesn't count, because he was a short story writing animal) So I wrote a metaphor of the contest, which that amazing group of friends and relatives that take the time to edit my stories has in their hands. It is my intention to submit it at exactly 1,250 words. Who's passive aggressive? Of course, my metaphor could stink, and I have never been known for my prose, so...

Also I finished a draft of Pluck This Jewel..., that long awaited finale to the Jeris Trilogy (It's not officially called the Jeris Trilogy. It's just a story cluster that includes Toll Man, The Traveler's Gift, and Pluck This Jewel...). I laughed, I cried, but since I was sitting in American Realism in Literature while I was doing it I had to be very quiet in my emotions. A classmate said, "I am amazed at the quantity and form of the notes you take in class." Yes, quantity and form are what I am all about. That's why Pluck This Jewel... will hurt like a case of the hemorrhoids and a sneezing fit. So there you have it.

R.

P.S. The new Evanescence is weird as 7734. I'm sure it will grow on me though, like a leech or a fungus.