She talks to wolves...

One of the things I thought I'd like to use Twitter for is telling micro-stories. If I could become proficient at writing intriguing and tight stories of 140 characters or less, I thought, how much such precision could benefit my writing overall! So I tripped happily into the realm of Twitter, all armed with this good intention.

Of course, then I never managed to write any Twitterfic, as it's called, for a variety of reasons. One of those reasons was inspiration, which, I know-- bite my tongue! I should be writing anyway, inspiration or no.

Luckily, the Book View Cafe came along and saved me by running a Twitterfic contest that had my brain firing on all creative cylinders. To wit: the sixth Book View Cafe Twitterfic contest was in honor of seanan_mcguire, celebrating the release of Rosemary and Rue.

Participants had to write a micro-story - 126 characters or less - on the theme fairy tale noir.

Oh yeah. I was off like a shot! So were many other people: there were a slew of excellent entries, some dramatic, some hilarious, some with pune's* so bad that you couldn't help smiling as you groaned. I really thought the competition was too good for me to place beyond, perhaps, an Honorable Mention.

Color me surprised when I not only received an Honorable Mention, but also won one of the grand prizes (which happens to be an autographed copy of Rosemary and Rue)!

My honorable mention:
He should've known the ballerina was trouble with her killer paper gam. Yet he smiled as he burned: she'd flared out first.

My winning piece:
"You got in the way of a good thing, grandma," she said, as her lover's canines snapped tight on old flesh and housecoat all.

So much fun! I recommend all Twitter folks who enjoy writing to try their hand at future Book View Cafe contests. Or just try micro-stories, period. Pulling one off can be a very revealing moment.

To read all of the entries for the contest, scroll back at this link.**
To see all the entries that placed, visit the contest page.


* Or play on words.

** This link won't be good forever as new replies to Book View Cafe's Twitter scroll the entries farther and farther back.