Write your own lesson in manners!
Entries accepted now – July 15
The name of the game: select three terms, one from each list below representing a person, place, and thing drawn from stories in A Lesson in Manners. Write your own story of up to 3,000 words generated from these three prompts and submit it by July 15 using the Contact form below. Include your name (or pseudonym) and e-mail address with your entry. Winners will receive their very own signed copy of A Lesson in Manners, publication on this website, and a free book from Snake Nation Press.
Any genre, any style of work accepted, but, in the spirit of being mannerly, please keep language and situations somewhere between PG-13 and a mild R rating. Please be 13 or older. Use the contact form for any questions. Be advised that the panel of judges will include me, some friends, and a bottle of wine, so judging will be highly biased and not at all corresponding to CLMP’s ethical guidelines.
Ready? The prompts are:
Person:
- Father of girl who just had kidney surgery (“A Lesson in Manners”)
- Mama of girl who wants to be country-western singer (“The Memoirs of Sam Wesson”)
- 13-yr-old boy fighting with working class, divorced single mother (“Sally”)
- husband cheating on pregnant wife (“Trying to Find a Corndog in Tompkins County”)
- young man just out of rehab living with sister (“Still Life with Dog”)
- girl who loves Brazilian soccer team (“Monsoon”)
- actor at a religious theme park (“Welcome to the Holy Land”)
- father of a young boy undergoing cancer treatment (“The Keeping of the Counts”)
- slightly overweight photographer in search of subject (“Green Space”)
- worker at an alternative health treatment center competing for promotion (“Planet Joy”)
Place:
- Austria
- country-western bar
- skateboard park
- a swamp in Arkansas
- art museum
- supermarket
- adult entertainment venue
- hospital
- art gallery
- aquarium
Thing:
- advertisement for men’s cologne
- guitar (acoustic)
- soda bottle with a prize-winning cap
- ivory-billed woodpecker
- baby scrapbook
- blueberries
- prayer candles
- footie pajamas
- bonsai plant
- sailboat
Choose one from each list, write your story of up to 3,000 words, and submit it to the website by July 15. I can’t wait to read what you come up with!