Be A Joiner, Not A June Bug On A Car Tire-

bernita, the always eloquent blogger who talks writing and publishing from the land above the States, has a contest up that y'all are welcome to enter. Just click the link in my text and off ya go!

Simply write a 250 word (or less) story using this picture (photo from the Fortean Picture Library)to stimulate you. I gave it a try and this is what I got--

--Destiny All A-Quiver--

Somewhere in between one-hundred and one-hundred-and-fifty pages the decision was made. Arrows were sent for years down narrow alleyways while quivers were created and worn almost round the clock. Large staffs were twirled in determined hands and feathered caps fashioned from the felt collections of older relatives.

The neighborhood buzzed with the craziness of it all yet remained accepting of the earnest proclamations for a "Great Return".

Children came and dedicated themselves for short durations. Fights were rehearsed and names were passed out ceremoniously like post-battle medals to all who ventured behind the slatted, ivied fence.

Through all the odd looks and the shaking heads, the whispers and the bold pronouncements, the finger pointing and the calls to supper, Stuart endured.

Hands were blistered and balmed, the eyesight trained keen, the muscles stretched and torn down and ultimately strengthened.

Fate was matched only by crazed dedication of heroic proportions.

Time marched inexorably onward, like a predestined army.

The call grew louder with every passing birthday. The wind in the distant, as-yet-unseen trees. The gnarl and the twist of fate and branches. The travelers, who would be confronted, and the possibilities of damsels in their distressful situations.

At eighteen, quiver and bow stowed carefully in an overhead compartment, Stuart traveled. Peanuts were consumed and small sips of coke in plastic cups imbibed. Immigration lines were withstood and taxis and buses conquered. The foreseen day finally fell.

And Lo!

Behold!

The great Sherwood Forest?




AND!!

Stucco has an interesting contest up that requires all of your participation. It is called THE DISCO TENT CHALLENGE. In a nutcase shell, what one is asked to do is write a bogus complaint to a company and recieve an earnest response. Just stop what you are snacking on and look at the package. There will be a web address for Comments on the product you are consuming. Go on then, write them your beef, and recieve your reply.

If you need an example, I tried to write Playboy Magazine to complain about the lack of vagina pictures on their pages. (Trouble was, I have yet to find the complaint and comment web address in which to send this). Anyway, go check out the rules and the context and the intentions of the contest by clinking on the link in the text.