A Contest (a la Becky Povich)

      Okay, I didn't win Becky's writing contest, but I should have.  Really. I had truckloads of all sorts of goodies shipped to The Ronald to bribe him.  (Apparently he is not a fan of Zamfir and His Magic Flute CD's, nor was he tempted by a membership in the "Bratwurst-of-the-Month" club.) I let everyone know that only contestants whose name began with "S" and ended with "X" were eligible. (I just was being thoughtful; I didn't want them to waste their time.) I even slipped in some subliminal suggestions in what they watched on TV all week ("Sioux should win...Sioux should win..."). None of it worked.  Drats!
  
          What I loved about it was it got me writing. It got me revising, carving away the words until I got it under 100.  So, I thought I would keep the momentum going with a contest that will take us to the end of the month.

              It's a tad bit different than Becky's.  Here are the guidelines:

• 200 word limit (which does not include the title)
• use the photo below as inspiration
• must include a bit of poetry--a couplet, a sonnet (that would eat up the word count, but doesn't it sound like fun?), a limerick, a bit of free verse, a song lyric...whatever poetry means to you
• can be any genre--fiction, newspaper "story," journal entry, etc.
• The contest opens as soon as this is posted, and ends on October 1 at midnight.
• My writing/teaching partner will be the main judge (she will get two "votes" to my one), since she won't know any of the entrants.
• Please email pieces to siouxsprompts@yahoo.com



photo by Rhodentette


         Here are the list of prizes. (I will take pictures and post them when I find where I put my USB cord--or whatever it's called.)

• a writing journal
• a book called Writers, a 218-page coffee-table style book complete with lovely black and white photographs of many famous writers, along with their musings on writing
• a hand-knit scarf (the decorative kind, the type you wear with a sweater) in olive green, turquoise, and purple---knit by a persnickety menopausal Missouri artist
• a button--bright yellow---with the word "Writer" emblazoned in black across it
• a small (12" or a little more, square) hand-quilted autumn wall hanging
• a box of staples and a few dry-erase markers (a humorous prize offering, for a teaching acquaintance of mine)
• some sort of chocolate/edible treat

       If I forgot anything, let me know.  I like how Becky did it---she printed off the entries, cut off the names, and let them sit until the judging, so she was clueless which one belonged to who.

        Let the writing begin...