A 1930s Christmas to Remember -- My entry to short story contest

Today I entered the short story contest at Lulu Press. (It really is for flash fiction because the maximum number of words allowed is only 600. As I understand flash fiction, the term now defines prose pieces between 300 and 1,000 words, although there is no consensus of the allowable upper maximum. Some people place the maximum at only 600 words. Short stories are longer, running 2,000 to 3,000 words usually.)

My story is entitled "A 1930s Christmas to Remember". It is an appropriate story for the holidays upcoming, and it is a good read, I believe. You can download it for free here: www.lulu.com/product/ebook/a-1930s-christmas-to-remember/18646206

I hope you will read it (Did I mention is free?) and let me know what you think of it.

Cheers!

Harry

Entering Poetry Contests

Greetings, All ~

I enjoy entering poetry contests. Whether my poems place well or not, it is fun to anticipate the judging. For last year I won two cash awards (2nd place / $1,000 prize and High Distinction / $200 prize) in the 2008 Tom Howard Poetry Contest. Nice! Money plus the ego boost of being an award-winning poet. This last year (2009) I entered the War Poetry Contest with two excellent entries...but did not make the final cut. Oh well...I tried. I also entered the 2009 Tom Howard Poetry Contest. The results will be announced 15 February; one more month of waiting to hear official results.

Here is one of my entries:

The Nature Trail

When I am a lad about the age of ten,
my mother takes my older sister and me
to visit a park to which we’ve never been.
“It’ll be fun. You’ll love it. Just wait and see.”

The place is fantastic! It has a lake, a swimming pool,
even horseback riding, and, for old folks, a nature trail.
After lunch, Mom insists we do the trail. Like a fool,
I argue that I don’t want to waste my time...to no avail.

We join a tour, guided by an older girl of college
age. There is this flower, that flower, and look...a tree.
So boring! I should be swimming. Then we come to a ledge,
a place where the path narrows to five feet across maybe,

with a sheer wall of rock on the left. The ground steeply drops
down about eight feet to a shallow, rocky creek on the right.
The guide is leading, until beside some old bush she stops,
lifting a branch to show something or other. The sight

of a seven-foot-long coachwhip snake lying at her feet
causes her to scream and run. She must be a track star!
The poor, harmless snake is startled out of its sleep
and takes off “running” also, catching up before very far.

Looking down, seeing the snake along side, she accelerates.
So does the snake. Still neck and neck upon their coming
to a fork at the end of the narrow ledge, neither hesitates,
the snake going left, the guide right, with both continuing

to run until clear out of sight. Our small group still stands
in shocked surprise. Then laughter erupts. As we start to
continue along the path, another park guide, this one a man,
comes galloping over from the horseback-riding trail to do

what he can to assist. When he asks what has happened here,
my sister lifts the bush’s branch to explain. Out comes
a second coachwhip, startling the horse to see a snake so near.
He rears. The guide falls over backward, begins doing some

somersaults down the incline, before splashing face down
in the creek, letting out some curse words I had thought only
old sailors knew. It was great! Thus went the day that I found
out Mother was right about how much fun nature trails could be.


Wish me luck with my contests entries this year. I encourage other poets out there to enter contests. It's fun, and you just might win recognition for your work and even a little money.

Cheers!

Harry

I've been busy entering contests.

Yesterday I emailed an entry to the Winning Writers 2009 War Poetry Contest. The entry fee for this contest is only $15, which is quite cheap as far as many international contests go. I have written a number of war poems over the years; however, poems for this contest must be unpublished, even on-line. So, I had to write two new poems in order to enter. Finished tweaking them yesterday and entered.

I have entered my latest poetry book, Poetic Musings of an Old, Fat Man, in three book contests: Reader Views Annual Literary Awards 2009, 2009 National Indie Excellence Awards, and 17th Annual Writer's Digest International Self-Published Book Awards (actually will mail this entry Monday). I'm hopeful .... cautiously optimistic, as they say. I think it is my best poetry book yet.

I entered Bob (actually the first chapter of my book Bob the Dragon Slayer) into the 2009 Tom Howard Prose Contest.

Lastly, I still have not heard about my chapbook entitled What War Is, which I entered awhile back into the Slipstream Poetry Contest for chapbooks. (I'm not too hopeful about this one winning.)

I'll be hearing the results of contests I entered for the remainder of this year, from March until mid-November. This may be a humbling year! :-)

Cheers!

Harry