The Tweet Contest!

Tweet by David Kedson is hilarious.

To celebrate publication, let's have a contest.
The usual rules apply:

1. Write a story using 100 words or fewer.

2. Use these words in the story:

tweet
chess
press
news
lad

3. You must use the whole word, but that whole word can be part of a larger word. The letters for the
prompt must appear in consecutive order. They cannot be backwards.
Thus: lad/lady is ok, but lad/laid is not

4. Post the entry in the comment column of THIS blog post.

5. One entry per person. If you need a mulligan (a do-over) erase your entry and post again. It helps to work out your entry first, then post.

6. International entries are allowed, but prizes may vary for international addresses.

7. Titles count as part of the word count (you don't need a title)

8. Under no circumstances should you tweet anything about your particular entry to me. Example: "Hope you like my entry about Felix Buttonweezer!" This is grounds for disqualification.

8a. There are no circumstances in which it is ok to ask for feedback from ME on your contest entry. NONE. (You can however discuss your entry with the commenters in the comment trail...just leave me out of it.)

9. It's ok to tweet about the contest generally.
Example: "I just entered the flash fiction contest on Janet's blog and I didn't even get a lousy t-shirt"

10. Please do not post anything but contest entries. (Not for example "I love Felix Buttonweezer's entry!")

11. You agree that your contest entry can remain posted on the blog for the life of the blog. In other words, you can't later ask me to delete the entry and any comments about the entry at a later date.

12. The stories must be self-contained. That is: do not include links or footnotes to explain any part of the story. Those extras will not be considered part of the story.


Contest opens: 9am (EDT) Saturday 8/19/17

Contest closes: 9am (EDT) Sunday 8/20/17

Check the time carefully. Comments may be open before the contest is, or after it closes.
Those comments will be zapped and not considered entries.

If you're wondering how what time it is in NYC right now, here's the clock


If you'd like to see the entries that have won previous contests, there's
an .xls spread sheet here http://www.colindsmith.com/TreasureChest/

(Thanks to Colin Smith for organizing and maintaining this!)

Questions? Tweet to me @Janet_Reid
Ready? SET?

Not yet!

More on how to make a story from a series of events

I recently posted about why I was saying no to some requested fulls. One point I made was about the difference between a series of events and a story.

Blog reader Adele made this comment:

I once worked as a clerk at a police station. One of my duties was to type the statements people made to the police. They weren't recalling serious crimes, it was things like car accidents or witnessing a crime. It wasn't like on TV - there was no formal recorded interview; the people would just be given a statement form, extra pages, and a pen and asked to write down what happened.

At least 75% of the people would go back as far as the last time they could think of when their life was not tinged by what happened. If they were in a car accident at 1 pm, they would start with when they were eating toast for breakfast and how they finished up and put away the dishes and got their purse and got into the car and set out to drive somewhere. Often we would get 10 pages or more, and the last 2 or 3 would be what was wanted or needed - the rest was just setup. My point - that's the natural way people tell stories; it takes training to learn to throw away all that good stuff about the toast. 

This is a brilliant insight.
I intend to use it forever more, and most likely will forget to attribute it to Adele cause I'm addlepated.

This is one of the many reasons I love this blog and the community here.
You guyz are really smart, and really good writers.

You can quote me

New Leaf has an All Hands On Deck meeting once a week to plot world domination, and stalking of snacks.  We open the meeting with an invocation to the book deities, which generally takes the form of a quotation about books or publishing.

I was asked to provide the quote for today's meeting.

Well! That was a task I welcomed.  I immediately dove into my reading journal where I write down the sentences/phrases/paragraphs from books I'm reading that resonate with me.

Here were some of the things I found that I put on my short list for Quote Consideration.

"I tried to think of the things I'd be capable of doing while on fire and the list was fucking short "

Jeff Somers (manuscript pages)

 Nope, not quite the right tone for this meeting, but still, awesome.

"I'd spent half my life giving a clinic on how to fuck up in slow motion. I had slow motion fucking whiplash."

Jeff Somers (manuscript pages)

Again probably not quite right for the meeting, but this should be on my tombstone for sure.

"Love isn't a state of perfect caring. It is an active form like struggle. To love someone is to strive to accept that person exactly the way he or she is now, right here and now."

Mr. Rogers

 Now we're getting closer. And it's impossible to go wrong with Mr. Rogers.

"When destiny wants to fuck with you, it can afford to be patient. Destiny has all the time in the world."

Laura Lippman

Again, not quite the right tone, but oh so apt for so many other meetings.

"The only law that applied to her was gravity, and some days she defied that too."

Six of Crows by Leigh Bardugo

Well, that describes a couple people here at New Leaf, so we're back in the ballpark.

"The greatest spiritual practice is just showing up."

Pastrix by Nadia Bolz-Weber

Probably a little too spiritual for a secular business meeting, but I love this quote, and I really love that book.

"Everytime we draw a line between us and others, Jesus is on the other side of it."

Pastrix by  Nadia Bolz-Weber

 Well, even though I love this quote and think about it often, it's clearly a non-starter at this secular meeting. 

And then I found this one.

Books are the carriers of civilization.

Without books, history is silent,

literature dumb,

science crippled,

thought and speculation at a standstill.

                                  --Barbara Tuchman

 And I think it's perfect.

Do you have a saying taped up in your office that reminds you of the big picture?

So, about your contact page!

After my soul-scorching email management program meltdown last month, I lost a couple email addresses. I find out which ones only when I need to reach a particular person.

Yesterday was such a day.

I had manuscript pages to send back to a writer.
The query did not list her email address.
It did however list her website: triumph.
The website has those cute little icon things for email, twitter, Facebook.

So I clicked on email.
And up pops an email service provider that asks for ...

her email address.

I can't send her an email from her website unless I know her email address.

Ok, triumph.

So I click Twitter: Triumph will be mine!
The little tweet box pops up with a form message about her website.
But what it doesn't have is her Twitter handle.
Triumph part no.

At this point I'm stymied.
So I call her.
And that turns out to be just the ticket.
Besides having a nice convo, we had a good laugh about the website, and why I needed her info.

What does this mean for you?
Well, yes, I will track you down, but you already knew that.

What it means is that you check your contact page from a computer that is not yours.
Make sure someone can reach you if they don't have your email address.
And you might double check that your Twitter link actually reveals your Twitter handle.
Same for Facebook.

And if you think "oh she has my email" well, maybe not.

Any questions?

Sunday's contest results

 I was in the office yesterday so I decided an impromptu contest was just thing to keep me amused while I reviewed royalty statements (yes, I know, I live a life of such glamour!)

Herewith the results

oh so macabre this lovely Sunday morning!

CynthiaMc! 

Amy Schaefer!

And just to up the ante,

there's E.M. Goldsmith!

 If you three ever get together, I think Hamlet will spontaneously stage itself!

Here are the finalists!

Steve Forti, in full Fortissimo Form

just left. it's hot & funky in there. fair warning.

dayum! u no kidding! nasty! turn on a/c!

c?

use deodorant, dude! gross :(

at some point we're just going to have to start handicapping Steve with some extra rules or something. He's so hilariously brilliant it's just not fair.  

Colin Smith

“J’accusé!” declared the detective.
“Je me repent!” declared the accused.
“Je pardonne,” said the wronged to the penitent.
“Je m'en fous,” grinned the executioner.

In French no less.

Impromptu French no less.

Kathy Joyce

Not amused to be bruised, I accused.
He lied, denied, took me for a ride.
I fought, he's caught.
No bail, jail.
Now I'm amused.

I love the rhythm of this.

Kat Waxlawik

Accused.
Red hands: dead giveaway.
Convicted.
Unrepentant. Exultant.
Maximum penalty.
Time out: ten minutes.
Crimson foyer masterpiece: permanent

 You were thinking it was some bloodthirsty crime no doubt (me too)--particularly

after Elise, Cynthia and Amy did their double bubble entries above.

A twist in 13 words is pretty damn amazing. And bonus points for alluding to paint

without saying the dreaded word.

FanManFan

I axed to be accused and so they let me go.

And this just cracked me up completely.
I love the word play.
Of course this is the winner!

Congrats FanManFan. Email me with your mailing address and I'll get a copy of Accused in the mail to you. If by some chance you've already read it, I've got some other terrific books here that need good homes.

Thanks to all of you who took the time to write and post entries. You really brightened up my day, and I thank you for it!


And for those of you guessing the number of requested fulls yet to be read: you're all wrong. And too low. I counted them up this morning, and that odd sound you hear is me weeping shark tears into an already salty ocean.

Sunday Flash!

I'm in the office today working away on all those delicious royalty statements we get in August. Yummy!! (it's money so yes, it's very yummy!)


Since I'm working, I thought it would be fun to have a flash flash contest!
I read Lisa Scottoline's ACCUSED yesterday for fun, and it was terrific.  I got it in the swag bag at ThrillerFest (it was a good haul this year!) and would love to pass it along to a blog reader.

Herewith:

Write 25 words or less, using the word accused in your entry.
Post in the comment column of this post.

Contest opens NOW.
It closes when I leave the office today! (So, let's all hope it's not midnight, ok?)

Ready?
Set?
GO!

NOooooooo!
Contest closed.
(Hey it's 5:30pm on Sunday, I wanna go HOME!)