March | 2008 | Cathy C. Hall Writes

I’m not gonna lie. When I found today’s gem, I could hardly wait till Finding Something Friday came along to post it. And now I hear there’s a tornado in the area and I may have to run like a girly-girl to the basement any minute…

So quick, here it is: The Bulwer-Lytton Fiction Contest. Bulwer-Lytton is the author who immortalized that line, It was a dark and stormy night (kind of like tonight). The fiction contest is ridiculously simple. Come up with your own terribly cliched and wretchedly-written opening line.

But the easy factor is not what I love about this contest. It’s reading the past winning entries. Go on and take a look at them here.

I’ll tell you what’s not easy. Try reading these winning lines and looking like you’re hard at work. That’s what I was attempting with the beneficent Mr. Hall lurking about in the office, giving me the old “what’s so funny fish-eye”.

Here’s something else I’m not gonna lie about. I LOVE my writing job, thanks to those HI-larious competitions that come along like the Bulwer-Lytton Fiction contest. (Even if I don’t win the Fame or Fortune!)

March Madness careened headlong into the Hall house, so I’m already behind this month. But maybe madness suits me since I heard from several on-going projects in the interim. That means I finally have something to toot about on Tuesday!

A little toot for my “Chicken Soup for the Twenty Something Soul” came in yesterday. The Chicken Soup folks had decided not to go forward with that title so my previously-considered story languished in a document file. Then I received a note from an editor who was looking for another home for those stories! Of course, it doesn’t mean my story will, in the end, find a home, but it’s a glimmer of hope. (I said it was a little toot.) And speaking of little toots, here’s another.

I received yet another email saying the Silver Boomers anthology would really, truly, we’re-not-kidding-this-time arrive in about two weeks. If you haven’t submitted for the next edition, there’s still time. Check out the details here.

No Fame or Fortune yet, but March could be a Road to Publication bonanza. Would it be worth all the first-of-the-month madness? Um, no. But it’s better than nothin’.