;)
The fiction contest
Wednesday, January 7, 2009 I'm not sure if Creative Loafing Atlanta has any intent on making the 2009 Fiction Contest winners available online (and if that happens, I'll update this), but I did want to say that the winning essay, Laurah Raines' "Medicine", was seriously heads-and-feet-and-tails above anything else I was given to read for the contest this year. If you are a publisher, and, um, you still have anyone working in your offices (too soon? too soon.), Raines, undoubtedly, has a collection of short stories in her that I'll go ahead and call "emotionally taut and moving, with more than hint of bite". You can blurb me on that now.
(I am going to avoid encountering, at all costs, the photo of my next to my bio in the Fiction Issue, which is out today and can't disappear fast enough, because, um, I think I'm supposed to look "wacky". I was sick, and I don't do wacky.)
As I've already said, there's a party for this whole thing going down tomorrow (Thursday, Jan 8th). I may or may not sign baby pictures.
Reader Comments (6)
Russ-- first off, thanks! Second, I'm with you on the pictures. I look like Bruce Campbell's sister.
- Laurah
Hi, Russ. I had a story in the contest, and I was wondering if I could ask you what you thought of it. If that would be an imposition on your time or if you just don't want to, feel free to send me packing, but even if your response would be "Oh, you wrote THAT one, I hated that one," I'd still like to hear it.
Thomas: Sure!I mean I only was asked to read a smattering of what was submitted, I know they got hundreds of submissions and I wasn't asked to read nearly that many, so I can't even promise yours crossed my path. What was it called and what was the basic premise?
The title was "A Kernel of Truth," and it was about Orville Redenbacher investigating a murder.
Thomas:
I don't recall where I ranked it-may have been 4. But I specifically wrote comments on my grade sheet in hopes they'd reach you-I kinda rebelled against how many people used "pop" to indicate a father figure, and I wanted to give you a LOT of credit for stringing together a smart, witty and readable narrative from an original use of theme
Thanks, Russ! The winners were all so far from what I had done (and so similar to each other) that I thought maybe I had gone about things all wrong. It's good to hear that at least somebody thought I was on the right track.