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Longhand Fiction Contest: Photo Finish

July 23, 2013 · by Oliver Gray

As I began to write this post, JC and Phillip McCollum were tied with 3 votes each. When I went to disable the poll, not five minutes later, Phillip had 4 votes. In blog-speed terms, that’s a photo finish.

So congratulations to Phillip and his story The Grownup! And congrats to JH Mae, who I am picking as my personal favorite.

But really, congratulations to everyone who entered. Part of the idea with this contest was to get you to write longhand, change your habits a little bit, stretch those fingers and brain muscles on something other than a keyboard. But another, secret, ulterior motive was to get people to put their work out there, push it from the nest to see if it had grown strong enough to fly.

Bravo for the bravery. All of these pieces were a delight to read, and I am honored to have played host to them. While I can’t offer a full review for every entry, if anyone has specific questions about their piece, I am happy to answer them. Shoot me an email at literatureandlibation@gmail.com, if you are so inclined.

I’d also like to thank all the people who read the stories and voted; I hope you enjoyed these stories as much as I did!

Look for another writing contest coming soon. No official details yet, but there may be assorted (tangible) goodies involved.

Longhand Fiction – Vote for your Favorite!

July 16, 2013 · by Oliver Gray

Pens and pencils down! Quite literally.

I’d like to thank everyone who entered, and hope you had fun writing with a pen on some paper, especially if that forced you to change up your writing routine a little bit.

The hard part is done. Now we get to read all the wonderful entries from all the wonderful writers who scribbled these inken mini-masterpieces.

Voting will be open for one week; you only get one vote, so make sure you read all of the entries (they’re all well worth it!) and choose wisely.

I’ll announce (with much pomp and fanfare) and feature (with much respect and admiration) the two winners next Wednesday, July 24.

The stories (in the order they were received):

Beast of Burden – by JH Mae
The Virus – by Stuff and Things
My Blood for your Thoughts – by JC
Bereavement’s Brew – by Regina LaValley
The Grownup – by Phillip McCollum
The Wonderful Cost of Climbing – by Exist for Zen
The Writer – by John W. Howell
Dmitri – by Tkipsky

Cheers and enjoy!

Longhand Fiction Contest – Less than a Week Left to Submit!

July 9, 2013 · by Oliver Gray

Attention all pen-wranglers, all ink-smugglers, all red-eyed, midnight desk-jockeys: there are only 6-days left to enter the Literature and Libation Longhand Fiction writing contest!

Any kind of story is welcome, as long as some part of it – notes, outlines, bios, a single sentence – was written by a pen, on some paper. Do you have 300-1200 words to spare? Win some free editing! Free wordly advice from a person who spends most of his day rolling around in verbs like a cat in a fresh batch of nip.

Submit before Monday, July 15, at 11:59 PM, EST, and your story will be featured on the blog, alongside the other entries, to be read and loved and voted for.

Two winners – one selected by the collective decision making power of the blogging public, the other by the collective decision making power of all my creeping craziness – will receive editorial feedback on their story and another piece of their choosing.

Don’t be shy! Submit anything you got! A story you jotted down on the train, a tale you wove in the middle of a boring work meeting, even a single innocent line turned entire epic narrative arc. The more the merrier, the merrier the better.

I look forward to reading your entries!

Writing Contest – Longhand Fiction

July 1, 2013 · by Oliver Gray

A writer’s notebook is a bucket. An empty vessel kept around to catch any pieces of soul or brain or life that might shift loose during daily adventures. It is, next to pen and ink, one of the most important tools in the literary tool chest. Even if your preferred method of writing is through quick and practiced QWERTY, a notebook is a must for scribbles, doodles, fragments, and away from keyboard inspiration.

To encourage the use of these paper purveyors of personal permanence, the next Literature and Libation writing contest will focus on the use of writing with pen and paper.

The rules are simple:

Write a short story of at least 300 words, but no more than 1200 words
Some of your story must be written longhand (it can be the original idea, story notes, the first sentence, the whole first draft, whatever works for you)
Include a picture of your hand-written content with your post as proof (a post without a picture doesn’t count)
Post it on your blog and drop a link to it in the comments of this post

Submissions are due Monday, July 15, by 11:59 PM, EST (two weeks from today). Anyone and everyone with a story is encouraged to enter. I’m not mean and don’t bite on not-Full moons. Don’t be shy!

Once I’ve received all the stories, I’ll create a poll so we can vote for our favorites.

Two winners – one selected by popular vote, the other by me in a completely unfair and subjective manner – will receive free editing on the submitted story and another of their choosing. For testimonials to the quality of my edits, please ask previous winners JC (of One Writer and His Blog) and Doug (of Baltimore Bistros and Beer).

To prove I’m a fully licensed practicer of what I preach, here is the rough draft of my short story Blueberry Hill that will be featured in issue 15 of Outside In Literary and Travel Magazine. (Yes, that is really what my handwriting looks like. My dad says it looks like a drunk spider wandered into an inkwell and then across the page. Pretty accurate, I guess.)

Writing Contest – Liquid Literature – Winners!

May 12, 2013 · by Oliver Gray

After a week of reading and voting, clicking and tallying, the results are in!

Congratulations to Baltimore Bistro and Beer for running away with the voting with his piece on pale ale and writing self discovery! A second congrats goes out through the interwobs to JC, who I chose as my personal favorite for his clever and clean ars poetica.

I will send my edits of the stories to each winner sometime this week. In the meantime, they can send the second piece they’d like me to review to literatureandlibation@gmail.com. I’ll review anything – fiction, nonfiction, poetry – as long as it’s not like 50,000 words.

Thanks again to everyone who participated and made this first contest a success. I was honored to play host to your words and thought every individual piece was equal parts well done and well crafted.

An even bigger thanks to everyone who read and voted; I hope you enjoyed what you read, because I’ll be doing this again soon!

Writing Contest – Liquid Literature – Vote for your Favorite!

May 5, 2013 · by Oliver Gray

I would like to thank all of the wonderful people who took time out of their busy writing schedules of typing words and drinking coffee and swearing at the screen to write for this contest. Every entry has a unique perspective on the provided topics from literal to figurative, fiction to nonfiction, so there should be a little bit of something for every reader.

Voting will be open through next Sunday, May 12, 11:59 PM EST. You only get one vote, so don’t accidentally click on the wrong story. No pressure.

Here are the stories, presented in the order they were received. They are all under 1000 words and there is some really delightful writing in each, so I encourage you to read them all before voting:

Hitting the Big Time – Melanie Lynn Griffin
A confession from a bar stool – JC
The Pale Ale Induced Brutal Hangover – Philip McCollum
Pale Ale – Baltimore Bistros and Beer
On the Count of Three – RememberMemories
“Dubliners” by James Joyce – Melody Wilson

I hope you enjoy reading these as much as I did. Good luck to all!

Writing Contest – Liquid Literature – May 3!

May 1, 2013 · by Oliver Gray

Just a friendly, writerly reminder that the submission period for the first LitLib writing contest ends this Friday, May 3, at 11:59 Eastern Standard Time.

Writing and drinking. Five themes. 300-1000 words. Two (dos, duex, zwei) free edits from this guy right here.

Excited to read your stories/essays!

Writing Contest: Liquid Literature

April 26, 2013 · by Oliver Gray

I am pleased to announce the first official Literature and Libation writing contest!

The rules are simple: write a piece of flash fiction or a short essay – no shorter than 300 words, no longer than 1000 words – post it on your own blog or site, and link to it in the comments below.

To round out this week’s theme – Writing and Drinking – choose one of the following and base your piece on it either directly, metaphorically, or thematically. Include the number in the title of your piece:

Pale ale
James Joyce
Bar stools
A brutal hangover
Sangria

Submit your story by 11:59 PM, next Friday, May 3rd. I’ll create a public poll on Saturday May 4th so that everyone can vote for their favorite story. In addition to the voting, I will also choose my favorite from the bunch. Voting will end on Saturday, May 11.

Once all the votes have been counted, all the words read, all the stories digested and reviewed, I’ll post the winners on this here blog. The two winning writers will receive my feedback on the submitted story and an editorial review of another shortish piece (either fiction or nonfiction) like a book chapter or a longer story/essay.

I look forward to reading the entries!

“In wine there is wisdom, in beer there is Freedom, in water there is bacteria.”
― Benjamin Franklin