newsroom@newsandtribune.com
February 25, 2008 12:14 pm
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So, you think you can write? Whether you’re an aspiring novelist or just a self-proclaimed storyteller, we have a project for you. The News and Tribune is challenging its readers to write the Sunday Serial.
Read the introduction below and let your imagination run wild. Who is this girl, where is she from, and what or who is she running from? We want you to finish her story.
Participants have one week to submit their own first chapter (500 words or less). A panel of staffers will judge the entries and our favorite will be published — along with a photo and bio box of the local author — in the March 2 edition. The Sunday Serial will have five chapters, so don’t miss your opportunity to be one of the featured authors. The entire story will be published on April 27.
THE BEGINNING:
If she had to rip the house apart with her fingernails and eye teeth, she was going to find it. Dresser drawers clattered to the floor, cabinet doors were flung open. She pawed through soup cans as the tears started. No luck.
God only knows where he’d been putting things since he came back, she thought. And where was he today? There certainly was no time to wait around for him. Five minutes, maybe.
Dogs were barking. She froze. They were definitely together, on the move. Probably looking for something, and if they were, it was definitely her. She didn’t have five minutes.
She retied her mother’s old boots, fast and tight. She grabbed an armful of meat and tossed it out the hole where her back door used to be. Would it distract them? Worth a shot; they sounded a block away, at most.
She limped down the three stairs, biting her lip. Without a last look at the only home she’d ever known, Simone ran.
RULES
The deadline for the first chapter is 10 a.m. Monday, Feb. 25. All entries must be 500 words or less, include a title and the author information at right. Entries will not be returned. If your entry wins, it will be published with your photograph and a short bio box about you in the March 2 edition.
Author information:
• NAME:
• CITY OF RESIDENCE:
• EDUCATION and/or CAREER INFORMATION:
• HOBBIES:
• HAVE YOU EVER BEEN PUBLISHED? IF SO, WHAT AND WHERE:
• WHY DID YOU WRITE CHAPTER ONE?
Send entries and photographs to:
• BY MAIL: Sunday Serial, Tribune/Evening News, Attn: Roni Montgomery, 303 Scribner Drive, New Albany, IN 47150
• BY E-MAIL: roni.montgomery@newsandtribune.com
• PHOTOS: Electronic images must be 200dpi resolution, 2-3 inches wide and in jpg format.
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Photos
Staff photo by Kevin McGloshen