The tiny handful of people who read this blog (Thank you! Thank you! Thank you!) know I'm not a fan of literary competitions, but the Space Faring Unicorns Short Story contest is different. How different? It was my big mouth that got it started. A couple of months ago I was outside the Toronto Reference Library holding forth to Bill and his wife Angela about my loathing of science fiction. Who cares about unicorns speeding through the universe, I said. Well, Bill, Angela and Kris, all valuable contributors to the Toronto Writers Co-op, obviously do. So Bill and Kris decided a contest for TWC members was in order. The contest's subject would be Space Faring Unicorns. And since I was the instigator because of my initial yapping about sci-fi, I'd have to set the rules and judge the entries.
TWC workshops are held every Sunday at TRL. There might be as few as eight people show up some days, but at other times there could be thirty. I didn't know how many entries to expect - anywhere from none to a few. Well, at deadline yesterday TWC founder John Miller told me he'd received eleven submissions. Eleven! I was gobsmacked. And pleased more than I can say. Not because my name is somehow attached to the contest, but because it got people writing.
John, who does sterling work for TWC, will give each submission just a number so the judging will be blind. The winner gets $20 from TWC for a meal and nine pints of beer (or reasonable substitute, although can anything actually replace Keith's India Pale Ale?) to wash it down. Why nine pints? Because Bill asked me what the winner will get and I said I'd buy him/her a drink. How many? Oh, more than one but fewer than ten, I said, not thinking. Good, Bill shot back. Nine pints it is.
There's talk that the contest may become an annual affair. I hope so. Good luck to everyone who's entered.
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