Entries, Featured, Wingnuts: Contest Entries
Sasha Deal: Green eggs and Wing Nuts!
May
Cat got your tongue?
Literati!
Our own Technical director Diana Diehl has been pried from her obligations writing a screenplay (for pay!) to play with us again, this being her second entry into Wing Nuts.
She explained herself in an email, and though it does not quite rate a Thorning I thought it none-the-less inappropriate to share it with you. Hence:
Hi Thorn,
With sparkle,
Diana
And so, here is
Turning Point
by Sasha Deal
“I did not mean this when I said, ‘Oh the places you’ll go.’” Teddy and I gulp down almost-whiskey at the Paladia. An absolutely gorgeous woman is bumping and grinding to “Wild Thing” surrounded by bits of fur that once were a costume.
“You’re going through with this?” he asks.
I glare at him. “I just received my 152nd rejection letter.”
Now a woman with a cowboy hat and stretch marks gyrates to Johnny Cash.
Absolutely Gorgeous comes over. “I’m so glad you made it, dahlink! What music did you bring?”
“Music?”
“Tsk! You’ll use one of mine. Come. Bring your friend.”
In the dressing room, I rummage through LPs. I don’t recognize any of them. I’ll just have to wing it.
“Let me see your costume, Sveetie.”
“Costume?!”
“Paah! College girls. Here.” She pulls out a tin hat with horns and some metal coasters strung together with chains. I gawk when she hands me a Wagner LP.
“De egghead conventioneers–dey lahf it.”
“I-I thought I was auditioning, not going out there.”
“That iz audition.”
I’m dressed. Sorta. The owner introduces me. I scan the audience. That’s my literature professor! I back away, but the owner grabs my arm. “Get out there!”
That does it. I look him in the eye. “I do what I choose. I don’t owe you a show. And I’m the one who decides where I go.”
Teddy grabs my coat. “Yeah, what she said.”
http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_detailpage&v=1OSStCz6EdY
Diana or Sasha by any other name…..
No way you could run me off, we’re pals for life, and Dr.Seuss is one of my favorite authors, too. With nine grandchildren you can imagine how many times I have read him. Just as good as I expected, but I am still voting on the other one!
Blessings, pd
Phew! I had great trepidation about submitting this one but please remember (puhleeez??!) that this is a story about a turning point–about what I would NOT do to survive. I’ll tell you the real story, Peggy. You won’t tell anyone, will you?
I was working a real job but not earning enough to make meager ends meet–no car, no furniture. The gorgeous woman was a wonderful person from a hard background supporting her mother and sisters by dancing. She suggested I audition rather than starve. I did go in. I did have a wingman; he was not Dr. Seuss. There were no professors (I was a college dropout) or Wagner, but there were conventioneers and a cast of greasy characters I’ve seen stereotyped in every mob movie ever. I never made it into or out of a “costume.” It was just TOO sleazy. I left before my “audition.” To give this story a happy ending, I eventually got back to school and became a doctor (vet). The end.
I like my other entry better, too, but when writing for contests, it’s recommended to write for the judges, right? It IS Thorn, right?
It ISThorn. I have run out of chocolate, coffee, beer and pleasures, fyi. The usual things that contribute to my impartial judgment when I select the contest winner
Diana, you owe me no explanations, but what an interesting back-up to your story! I had forgotten that whats-his-name-editor-in-chief, is wired into all of our conversations, but it does keep him off the streets.( He knows we love him) pd
Lordy, lordy, lordy, Sasha (let me say that name again) SAASSSHAAA, is there nothing sacred? You are going to hell but not today. Today you can bask in the onstage glow at awwyp and smell the roses that are thrown at your feet while you will always wonder how the stainless snake felt between your legs. Loved how the wing man was there at the end when she needed him. The writing is flawless and tight to the point. Great job.
Don’t worry, kiddies grow up and forget, but they never gorgive.
Sasha Diana (or is it Diana Sasha), a great flash.!
What fun!
Frolic in the frivolous fun of language you just made explode into a fashion show!
omg I just watched the Cat in the Hat trailer you put up there, Thorn. There is a stripper pole in there!
Thanks for sharing this!!! Great, great, great!!!!
diana – oh my diana – this is such a romp through the imagination and throw in Dr. Seuss and you’ve got a winner. Soooo…
The cat in the hat flies through on the floo,
Followed by Yertle, Horton, Grinch and Who.
If I ran the circus, the Lorax is the ringleader
Grownups eat green eggs and ham in the Fizzwiggle
theater.
Oh the places you can go with Seuss by your side,
Imagination, grownup, child on a camel in the Drize desert
for a ride.
This was hilariously mature, while still childlike. I appreciated the desperation and heroism in the story… especially where some of the costume descriptions were involved.
if Heinlein can head off up the stairs then Dr Seuss can visit a cabaret. Nice, nice work!