Honorable Mention at Writers Weekly!

Writer's Weekly's 24 hour contest is quickly becoming my favorite contest.  This is my third time around. I'm bummed I'll have to sit out the fall contest due to other plans.

Several things level the playing field for this contest:

• Topic is unknown until the day of the contest
• Time matters
• There is a fixed word limit
• There is a fixed number of participants

Plus there are tons of ways to win something.  You could place, and get cash + prizes.  You could earn an honorable mention (like me) and get a prize.  You could get a prize just for entering via raffle!

Here is the prompt for this round, which must be used in some way in a piece under 950 words:

Holding the sleeping infant on her shoulder, she gazed peacefully at her surroundings. Tourists wandered in and out of stores, an old man was setting up his easel by the lakeshore, and a child's balloon escaped into the breeze. A moment later, she looked up as shouts startled her and the baby. Everybody was running in her direction...

The winning entry is available here.  It's a fantasy type story with magic and a unique ritual.  The second place story actually had a similar concept to mine.  It picked up on the painter in the prompt and fused the painting with the narrative.

My honorable mention entry is a story of a woman reflecting on the end of the world.

Writer's Weekly Spring 2013 24 Hour Contest Entry

Results were announced today for the Writer's Weekly Spring 24 hour contest.  The contest requires writers to write a story with a fixed word length that references in some way the inspirational passage.

This time the inspirational passage was:

She sat in her favorite spot on the porch of the weathered beach house, the salty air sticking to her skin, the oncoming storm blowing sand across her bare feet. The crisp envelope bent beneath her fingers as she laid it on her lap, and reached for the pen in her dress pocket...

The winning entry, by Eric E. Wallace, actually took the form of a letter, and discussed the storm in the context of a relationship.  Great line "I discovered that loneliness is most terrible when you're no longer alone."

In my entry, I tried to be a little aloof with the theme.  It's hard to guess why I didn't win, but three things are prevalent when I review the piece.

1. I had email formatting issues (dang it!).
2. I could probably strengthen the ending.
3. I could see how the intro might not work for some.

Anyway, here is my piece "The Cupcake Curse" Let me know what you think...


A cute little car parked in front of a cute little store. A woman popped out, wearing a cute little dress and cute little sunglasses. She carried a cute little Coach bag under her arm for the cute little canine she called Muffy. After a couple minutes, she came out of the store with a cute little cupcake and took a cute little bite. Then she walked back into the street and into the path of a not so cute and not so little garbage truck. So began the Cupcake Curse.