MA101 Wants YOUR “Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark”
Man, remember those books? There were like a dozen of them at the local library, but Mom was pretty firmly against letting me take them home. Not a bad position, given that she had to deal with my sleepless nights after an early run-in with Dracula, but it did make me pretty uncool. All the cool kids had the scary story books with those drippy, tattered-looking, black and white Stephen Gammel illustrations.
They also had Goosebumps, now that I think about it. What was with my generation and lousy scary stories?
Anyway — a final reminder and then I’ll go back to using this space for the things you want, like cat pictures and poop jokes:
Once upon a time MA101 was theoretically a blog about writing. So we are going to write!
Nothing major. Just a quick scary story. The kind that’s easy to rattle off around a campfire or with the lights turned down at a Halloween party. 5,000 words at the outside.
It’s easier than you think. Set a couple hours aside and start scribbling, whether you have an idea or not. Just write down things you think are scary, and then see which ones flesh out well. You could use the prompt/practice anyway, right?
Oh, and the winner gets booze. Did I mention that the winner gets booze? (Fancy coffees or teas can be substituted if boozing’s not your thing.) And everyone that submits gets a MA101 guest post if they ever want a day off their own blog.
So send ‘em on in. You’ve got through this weekend — the first stories will go up on Monday’s blog post. If one sneaks in after Sunday I’ll probably still run it later in the week, but I’ll be very disappointed about your attitude toward deadlines.
We’ve got one so far, and I’ve been promised a few others, but I’ll look pretty silly if I don’t get at least a couple that aren’t my own. Don’t leave me hanging!
Submissions can go here:
geoffrey.cubbage@gmail.com
And again, if you need them, the full rules are in this post.
Tomorrow we’ll return to your regularly-scheduled poop jokes and cat pictures. Maybe even jokes about cat poop.
Little brats.
