It's All in the Words - Short-Short Story Challenge

Words. Words spill onto the page to create stories for everyone. Young and old. Sad stories, scary stories, happy stories, funny stories, children’s stories, family stories… You never know what you’re going to get when you sit down, pen and paper in hand. You write madly, until finally a story takes shape. Then you edit. Until you have the words just right.
And then you share.

Here’s the challenge.
Write a story in 7 days. You will be given a list story prompts and then have 7 days to write, edit and submit your story. A jury will select a short-list then our judges will choose the winners. The winner will be announced the Writer in Residence Final Reading on June 27, 2013 at Owl’s Nest Books. All finalists will be invited to read their stories along with Lori Hahnel at the final reading closing her residency.

1st prize: A free course voucher from AWCS.
2nd prize: A free Saturday workshop voucher from AWCS.

Finalists stories will be published on the AWCS blog, Writer’s Corner beginning June 1, 2013.
Entry fee: $5
Open to all residents of Alberta.
Contest Judges: Lori Hahnel | J. Jill Robinson | Rona Altrows
How to Enter
Fill out online registration. Pay the $5 entry fee. (Pay online by PayPal, Visa/Mastercard, or send Cash or Cheque to AWCS, 922, 9th Ave SE, Calgary, AB T2G 0S4) All applicants must fill out online registration.

All registered participants will receive the story prompts on May 5, 2013 at 12:00am. Check your email inbox. Choose one and write your story. Stories can be any genre, any topic, as long as one of the story prompts appears in your story.

Maximum 500 words. Typed, double-spaced, in an easy to read font, numbered pages. Title must appear as a header at the top of the page, on every page.

Submit your completed stories by May 11, 2013 11:59pm by email to info@alexandrawriters.org in .doc or .docx format. Names must not appear anywhere on the stories.
In the body of the email please include your name, contact information, title of story and word count.
Have fun. Be creative.

The Clothesline, by Jamal Ali

The gentle wind soothed the young widow’s loneliness on that bright summer’s day,

in June 2010, the day of her tenth wedding anniversary, in the backyard of her hilltop home. From her perch, while hanging her wash on the clothesline, Yolanta marvelled at the view of the Atlantic. She reminisced about her sailor husband, Alistair, who never returned from that fateful voyage. Alistair and his crew, on their

journey from the Halifax Harbour to San Juan, Puerto Rico, in that summer of yesteryear were never heard from or found, Lucifer in The Devil’s Triangle claimed them. Yolanta reflected on Alistair’s parting words on that morning while embracing and caressing him, “Our love, precious as the sun and moon will forever be in the music of memory, the living oceans and seas.”

The tender touch of her lacy bras and silky panties reminded Yolanta of the nights of lovemaking in these sexy underthings. She whispered, “I surely miss those carnal nights of splendour with my prince under satin sheets” and wondered, would it ever

happen again?

While looking at the celestial sphere and the ocean, Yolanta whispered with a tear, “Oh Aphrodite and Amphitrite, please, please, bring back my Alistair to me. Please, rescue him from Lucifer’s arms, ‘cause he’s my true love.” As she hummed the lyrics to Petula Clark’s song, “Sailor,” tears flowed down Yolanta’s cheeks; she planted her right hand firmly on her chest to the words:

                       To the harbour of my heart

                        I will send my love to guide you

                        As I call across the sea

                        Come home to me

She hummed favourite love tunes that the couple sang to each other, in their past lives of marital bliss. Yolanta’s secret admirer looks through his dining room window, focusing on the tall, slender brunette and the fluttering lingerie.

Jamal Ali