First Place:
“The Room of Pickled Things” by Leslie Greentree
The prompt that started her story:
Describe what it feels like to hold your breath for too long. Don’t use clichés — describe it like you’ve never heard before.
And three cheers for our runners up:
Runners-up:
“Cola Bottle Light” by Emily Coon
Prompt: Write a story that is a fictional memoir.
“Broken Dreams” by Susan Bernhard
Prompt: Use repetition in your writing today. Do it super obviously, like “Airplane airplane airplane.”
“How We Remember” by Leah Jane Esau
Prompt: Write a list of everything you can think of that makes you furious.
“Misdirection” by Nikki Reklitis
Prompt: Write a scene that takes place on a couch.
“Sacred Garbage” by Adam Giles
Prompt: Write something that you’ve written before. Start from scratch – don’t look at the original. This will be difficult; do it anyway.
These six pulsating stories are published in this year’s Little Bird Stories (Volume 3). Become a Little Bird Subscriber now – $5 from every subscription goes to the Pelee Island Bird Observatory, to help the real little birds.
To everyone writing with the daily prompts: KEEP GOING!
To everyone who submitted a story to the contest this year: CONGRATULATIONS!
See you next year: same time, same place.
Thank you for celebrating short stories with me,
Congratulations Leslie!!!, Emily!, Susan!, Leah!, Nikki! & Adam! This is so exciting! Cannot wait to sit down with a hot mug of tea and slowly journey through your shared stories in Vol III. This was my second time entering a writing contest (as an adult) and I gave it my all and had an awesome learning, growing experience! Thank you all for your courage, keep writing and I will too.
Sarah, thank you for offering this contest, it was a challenge that I am so glad I committed myself to. Alix, thank you so much for being the judge and giving so much of your time and present attention. I so appreciated the initial interview intro call that you both provided. Full. Of. Gold. Thank you!
And Sarah, I look forward to your writing prompts first thing. Every single morning. Not only does it free me up for new visions and words to come, it has shown me I can leave space for new scenes/ideas or possible characters in the story I am already working with. And, that you never know quite what to expect. Magical. It’s just what I needed and asked for, for my writing and my relationship with my writing.
I shared a post on my blog today about the words that came to me early this morning, due to today’s prompt. And, I will be sharing my short fiction piece that I submitted and more of my experience and editing process on my blog later this week.
Keep writing.
In joy & appreciation,
Maya
Dear Maya,
Thank you so much! This celebration-in-a-comment made my day. I love that you’re writing every morning, and that the prompts are part of your practice. Would you please post a link to your blog here in the comment thread? I’d love to share it with everyone too.
With love,
Sarah
Sarah,
Thank you for your reply and sorry it has taken me a bit to get back here and visit. Here is a link to the post I recently wrote about how I use, and so look forward to, your prompts:
http://mayazaido.com/words-on-the-rain-in-my-journal/
Hi,
Is the book a hard copy or an e-book?
Sorry if this is a silly question..
Thank you!
Hi, Loree. Sarah J. here. I’m Sarah Selecky’s assistant extraordinaire.
I thought I’d just pop in to let you know that Little Bird Stories: Volume 3 is an ebook only. It comes in both ePub and PDF formats, so that you can enjoy it on whatever device you wish. If you have any further questions, please don’t hesitate to reach out. You can contact me at [email protected].
Thank you for the info, Sarah, much appreciated. 🙂 Loree, I was curious too.
A zesty congratulations to the winner and runners-up. And to everyone who submitted their work. I’m enjoying and feeling inspired by the stories on my downtime. Also, getting to know about the Little Bird contests and volumes of the past, I’ve picked up a collection from Zsuzsi Gartner and Jessica Westhead from my library. Looking forward to learning more…
Ooh Nikki – congratulations, first of all! Second: let me know what you think of the Westhead + Gartner collections. I think you’re going to love them both. xo S
Maya, why didn’t you leave a link to your blog?
I missed the deadline this year. Maybe next year. I’m looking forward to reading all the stories when I can find my credit card. (Where oh where is the pay with paypal option?)
Hi Sharon! I asked Maya to leave a link to her blog too. Meanwhile: we can arrange a Paypal option for you if you like! Please contact [email protected] and Sarah J will take care of you. Happy writing – and see you at the Little Bird Contest next year!
Sarah
Sharon,
Thank you for asking for a way to connect and I so hope you join the contest next year! Here is a link to the post I just wrote about my experience writing and submitting to The Little Bird Contest, with a bit about my past rolled in.
http://mayazaido.com/little-bird-writing-contest-2013/
Are you on FB Sharon?
This is me:
https://www.facebook.com/maya.zaido?ref=tn_tnmn
Would love to stay connected. Write on!