1,001 NOT allowed

I had a new experience lately – writing short-short stories. By definition that means 1,000 words or less. Yeah, me, Miss Descriptive as in I can’t even write an email less than 1,000 words much less an entire story. But was it ever fun!

I decided to enter a contest sponsored by ‘Family Fiction,’ a digital magazine pertaining to authors, books and movies for people seeking family centered entertainment. The rules are that I must write a short-short story with some element of romance.  Once that is done and I submit it along with my entry fee, it goes to a team of volunteer readers, three of them I think. These readers classify the story as either “acceptable” or “unacceptable” as to the content. That means I couldn’t use any bad words or have any ‘racy’ scenes. Not really a problem for me. These readers also rate the story from 1 to 5. I don’t know the ratings. If the story is classified as acceptable by all three readers it then goes to the internet link where it can be accessed by the public. That’s where you all come in.

See those 3 links in the upper right corner there, just above my Pinterest link? It’s that easy. Click on a link, read the story and rate me with either a thumbs-up or thumbs-down vote. You decide – I’ll never know unless you tell me. I really would appreciate your thumbs-up vote, though!  Here’s what happens. The contest deadline is August 31 so between now and then people will still be entering and the list of stories will be growing.  The stories stay there to be voted on until September 30. The 200 stories with the most thumbs-up go on to the next (3^rd level) of the contest.

There are 5 levels in all and lots of cool stuff for winners but right now my focus is on level two and getting those thumbs-up votes. My friends might vote for me twice but it’s not allowed. Everybody gets one vote per story. So here’s what I’m asking. Vote thumbs-up for one or all of my stories. When you go to the link to read them there is a link at the end of the story where you can send it on to YOUR friends. Please do, if you’ve got any friends that enjoy this kind of thing.   Thanks! 

If you’ve made it this far you now get to hear about my experiences writing these stories. One of them started out as a 4500 word story that I had to cut word by painful word down to 1000. Ouch. One of them I made up in a conscious effort to write a 1000 word story. It came out to 1800 words. More painful cutting. The third, I dreamed it one night, wrote it a few days later, cut the 1200 words down to 1000 and done. So – can you guess which is which is which? I’ll tell you if you guess right.  Email me at ksucindy(at)excite(dot)com.

Send me an email or leave a comment and tell me what you think of the stories. Love to hear from you and any of your friends you forward the stories or the blog post to. By the way, this blog is just 553 words. I’m getting better at this!