3rd Victor Villasenor: News, Featured

“He had an uncanny ability to predict the past.”

Posted on by Thornton Sully
04
Dec

Literati!

On to our next contest!  Easy Peasy. (No,that is not the name of the contest)

Announcing the Third Annual Victor Villasenor First Sentence Contest sponsored by the literary website

A Word with You Press.  (that would be moi)


“You can’t underestimate the importance of your first sentence,” says Victor. “Your first sentence is your introduction to your reader, and you only get one chance to make it right.” (after getting it wrong through, maybe, 40 rewrites that don’t go public.)

Victor as many of you know is our friend and neighbor here in Oceanside, and has thrice been nominated for the Pulitzer Prize, including for his most recently published book “Lion Eyes”.  Do suggest you pay Victor a visit at his hacienda, http://victorvillasenor.com/

 For the third year, now, A Word with You Press is encouraging writers everywhere to enter this contest. Submit a single sentence, and follow it up by your first paragraph. Three finalists will win a signed copy of their book of choice from Victor’s published works, and the overall winner( no, you don’t win overalls) will receive a trophy and bragging rights. Contest begins December 5th and ends December 18th.

This is your Barack Obama Noble Peace Prize. We know you’ve got a great novel inside you, even if you have not written it yet.  This will encourage you to do so.

A beaming Barack accepting his prize in advance for our contest “The Third Annual Victor Villasenor First Sentence Contest.”

You may enter THREE first lines, each followed by a paragraph to give context, but you will be judged by your first sentence only.  I myself am entering this contest, but under the pseudonym Thornton Sully. (“He had an uncanny ability to predict the past.”) Sentences can be as long as Mac Eagan’s rap sheet, or as short as my detention span, but each entry must be on a separate word doc attachment( not docx), with a title to your book-in-process and your identification. Each entry becomes ours to make a ton of money with, but will pervert back to you after we put it one line and, at our indiscretion, actually use it in a printed book. Send your entries no later than midnight, California time, December 18th, to thorn@awordwithyoupress.com

Can hardly wait for you to hand me down my sentence.

Cheers!

thorn

editor-with-a-dangling-participle-in-chief

Thornton Sully

Thorn founded A Word with You Press in 2009, having Jack-Londoned his way across the globe sleeping with whatever country would have him, picking up stray stories along with way. A litter of dog-eared passports that have taken up residence in his sock drawer are a constant temptation, but, having at last discovered paradise, it’s not likely he will stray too far from his adopted city of Prague. He has helped hundreds of writers reach their potential, including best-selling authors and award winners. He is the author of Fire in the Belly: How to write your novel with Purpose and Passion, Almost Avalon, The Boy with a Torn Hat and The Courtesans of God saga, and multiple anthologies.

8 thoughts on ““He had an uncanny ability to predict the past.””

  3. Pingback: The 3rd Annual Victor Villaseñor First Sentence Contest

  4. Pingback: What’s under the tree? | A Word with You Press

  5. Daniel says:

    As I go through life and feel the friction, my eagerness to escape the torment is suddenly subdued as I rub my fingers across a smooth finished reflection of an artist, a carpenter, sanded wood.

    Reply

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.