Usually within a few days of announcing a new contest, the entries begin backing up outside the Towers, we lower the drawbridge, raise the portcullis, and waive them in. But it’s a moat point: entries have been scant for Reigning Cats and Dogs. We are not going to pursue this doggedly if the cat’s got your tongue, and we are withdrawing the contest. We’ll announce something totally different by the end of the month, before his Moiness (that would be moi) crosses the pond in search of real estate should November elections yield an unacceptable outcome.
Thanks to all (one) of you who submitted an entry: we’ll send all (one) of you a gift card to Starbucks if you will send your physical address. Let is know if you’d like to share your composition on line anyway, and we will be happy to comply.
Send suggestions for a prompt that will inspire to thorn@awordwithyoupress.com.
Thornton Sully has Jack Londoned his way across the globe sleeping with whatever country would have him, and 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, as the founder in 2009 of A Word with You Press, dedicated to helping you tell your story persuasively and with passion, it’s not likely he will stray too far from the towers in Moscow, Idaho, unless it is to pursue women (actually, just one) in Prague or the Bohemian village of Ceske Budejovice in the Czech Republic. Authors who have sought his advice have won major awards, including the Pulitzer Prize, the Isabelle Allende Miraposa Award for new fiction, and the Best Poetry Award from San Diego Writers’ Awards.
“I arise in the morning torn between a desire to improve the world and a desire to enjoy the world. This makes it hard to plan the day.” Thornton Sully, plagiarizing E.B. White
I didn’t enter because I have no dog to speak (or write) of. We had an ocicat that thought she was a dog, but years in purr-pet-ual therapy made things worse. She took on multiple pet-alities, all of them viciously wild. In the end we had to ship her out to the Sahara where she tried to pass herself off as a dwarf camel. It didn’t work. A Bedouin robbed her water canteen and left her to die in the desert. They say a menagerie of her animal sounds can still be heard in the sirocchi that sweep the hot lands. For me and my Sharon that imbalanced feline will always be the dog we never had (and the monkey, hyena, rattler, elephant, parrot…).
I think the contest should go on. Surely there are more people whose lives have been affected by a critter or two. Maybe broadening the field to include other kinds of animal stories, such as writing from the point of view of a bear attacking a human? How about a prompt in the line of “If Animals Could Talk: My life As A Bomb Sniffing Dog/Therapy Animal/Calf to Be Slaughtered for Veal/Abused Boa Constrictor etc?
As the resident gravitas carrier at the Towers, I would like to mention that my dog ate my submission! But I also want to say thank you to the special people who make the towers shake and shimmy the way that is does/they do!
Also, what about a political haiku contest? Tis the year for it!
“He’s dead, Frank.” Hammy, my pet miniature pig and the ringleader of our crew, flicked a pink ear in the direction of the bathroom. “Open the door.”
So much for my foray into porcine madness. Sigh.
Oh DOG namit! Pardon the (intentional) typo. Can typos be intentional?
Stef
Hopefully your intention is meant to be a funny response.
I’m smiling.
I’ve done what I meant to do then <3
I didn’t enter because I have no dog to speak (or write) of. We had an ocicat that thought she was a dog, but years in purr-pet-ual therapy made things worse. She took on multiple pet-alities, all of them viciously wild. In the end we had to ship her out to the Sahara where she tried to pass herself off as a dwarf camel. It didn’t work. A Bedouin robbed her water canteen and left her to die in the desert. They say a menagerie of her animal sounds can still be heard in the sirocchi that sweep the hot lands. For me and my Sharon that imbalanced feline will always be the dog we never had (and the monkey, hyena, rattler, elephant, parrot…).
I think the contest should go on. Surely there are more people whose lives have been affected by a critter or two. Maybe broadening the field to include other kinds of animal stories, such as writing from the point of view of a bear attacking a human? How about a prompt in the line of “If Animals Could Talk: My life As A Bomb Sniffing Dog/Therapy Animal/Calf to Be Slaughtered for Veal/Abused Boa Constrictor etc?
As the resident gravitas carrier at the Towers, I would like to mention that my dog ate my submission! But I also want to say thank you to the special people who make the towers shake and shimmy the way that is does/they do!
Also, what about a political haiku contest? Tis the year for it!