What Goes Around

They sat around the fire listening to the snaps and pops as the wood was consumed.

“Someone tell a scary story,” Elizabeth suggested.

Corey shifted on the log and held his hands out in front of the group. “It sat perfectly still on that cold October morning, its bright orange body in sharp contrast to the sugar white snow that had been falling all night. And it was quiet, waiting for that singular moment when,

‘Mommy, I found one’, said little Timmy.

‘Good for you.’ said Timmy’s mom.

So they loaded up their treasure and headed home. Suddenly, the one who had been sleeping woke to trembling movement. If felt the pain of something sharp poking into its underside.

‘Here we are said Mom. Why don’t you do it right away Timmy?’

Without warning it felt hideous pains in its sides. One, two, three places. One, two, three more! Then continuous stabbing pains in its lower side that went on for an eternity. It was in agony. At last the pain subsided.

‘Mommy will you help me with the top?’

The stabbing began again. This time on top of its body. But at least it didn’t last as long. It was beginning to grow numb to the pain. No, something was happening at the top of its body. It didn’t hurt, just felt wrong.

‘Here Timmy, I have all the insides scooped out for you.’

Then the pumpkin felt no more.” Corey grinned and the firelight flashed off of his perfect white teeth.

“That wasn’t scary,” complained Elizabeth.

“It will be when you go to carve your pumpkin tomorrow.” John tightened his arm around her in the deepening cold. Perhaps it was time to call it a night.

Sherry sat quietly sipping her cocoa. “I don’t know. The thought of scooping out pumpkin brains is kinda cool.” She dropped a kiss on Corey’s cheek.

Corey shifted his weight again. Sherry noticed, but continued to sip her chocolate.

Abruptly, Corey began to make strangled noises. Sherry dropped her cocoa. “What is it baby?”

He seemed to be choking on something. Within seconds he was turning blue.

Elizabeth panicked and kept dropping her cell phone trying to dial 911.

John was trying to see if he could clear Corey’s airway. What he found made him jump back. Stuck in Corey’s throat was the stringy insides of a raw pumpkin. John immediately reached in and began pulling them out as fast as he could, but there was so much. Corey was choking to death and there was nothing they could do about it. John just kept pulling frantically. Corey began to thrash about making John’s job harder. Finally Corey passed out, but John kept working. When he’d removed the insides of a truly large pumpkin it stopped. He and Sherry gave Corey mouth to mouth. Corey started to come around.

“Thank God.” Sherry held Corey’s head in her lap, tears streaming down her face.

Sherry started to gag. John and Corey freaked out. They immediately began clearing her airway of the offending material. With the two of them working it went faster this time.

Elizabeth was having a meltdown.

When they finally cleared all of the pumpkin from Sherry’s throat, they had to give her mouth to mouth as well.

By this time the paramedics were arriving. They checked Sherry and Corey over.

“Damn kids and their pranks. What will they do next?” One paramedic muttered to his partner.

As the paramedics were leaving the scene, the kids heard, “Man down, request additional assistance!”

©2009 T.S.Witt

Perpetual Non-exclusive Publication Rights

And the answer is, perpetual, non-exclusive publication rights. It is supposed to be only the winner's who give up these rights, but that is not the way the provision is currently worded. And until they upgrade it, I'm afraid I won't be entering this contest. Such a pity as I had worked so hard and come up with a pretty darn good story too. Even so, I don't think I would be too keen on giving perpetual rights to anyone, even if they are non-exclusive. It just doesn't "feel" like a wise thing to do.

I Won't Give You That - Publication Rights

Well I discovered something interesting and I hope I can get it cleared up before Nov. 2. That's the deadline for the Writer's Digest Popular Fiction Awards. According to the official rules, the winners give Writer's Digest one time publication rights to their stories. However, at the end of the sign up process online, before you can submit your entry, there is a box that says you give perpetual non-exclusive publication rights to your story when you sign up. Now that's a big difference. I deleted my entry when I got to that point. I'm not giving anyone perpetual rights to my story. Also, it wasn't limited to just the winners. I hate stuff like this; it's enough to make you pull your hair out. Now with only 4 days to go, and one of them a Sunday, I had to send an email to Writer's Digest to try to get this worked out. What do you suppose my chances are of getting a response in time. There is a phone number, and I will call tomorrow, but, I need something in writing clarifying the error. It also doesn't make sense for those who mail their entries in to get one set of rules, and those who enter online to get another. We'll see what happens. Wish me luck.

Attention Published Authors

You can help U.S. troops and promote your books at the same time. To learn more about this program see http://www.operationdesertswap.webs.com/. How it works is you send your books to a military serviceman or woman and they get to enjoy reading it. Then they give it to someone else to enjoy. Your book gets passed from person to person and brings happiness to those posted so far away from their homes. It’s a great program. Everybody wins. Apparently romances and the like are not allowed, but other genre are welcomed. See the website for more details. Note: The mailing deadline has been extended. I just got an email from ODS and they still need 11 more people. They mailing deadline is now Friday, October 30, 2009. I hope you will check it out and participate if you can in this worthy cause.

NaNoWriMo Cover Art

Well, I've finally hit upon something I like. My model has given me the go ahead, so I'm posting it. NaNo is only 4 days away, I'm still outlining and I only just realized a few days ago that one of my bad guys is already dead! Ha. Ha. Time to raise up another boogey. It's all in good fun. I certainly intend to have some.

Publishers and Agents

Wow, this can be so confusing. I've been reading about them for some time this morning and I still don't really know that much. It does appear that most if not all of the major publishing houses won't accept a submission unless it's through an agent. There are alot of other publishers who will, but it's hard to know much about them, even if they have great websites. They certainly paint a bleak picture for first time authors. And then there's that pesky Platform business popping up again. How does a fiction writer really get the kind of followers you need to qualify as a "platform"? I admit that I'm a bit lost when it comes to that whole concept. I mean, between freelancing and writing, I don't have a lot of time for playing around on the social networks. But I guess I'd better find it if I want to sell my book. The problem is, you can't print excerpts because some publishers don't go for that, so how do you get people interested in your book? I was amazed at how much the agents took. They really take a bite out of whatever royalties you get, unless that percentage is just for the advance, but I doubt it. Yeouch!

Upcoming Writer's' Digest Competitions

The Writer’s Digest Popular Fiction Awards – Deadline November 2, 2009
The Writer’s Digest Short Shorts Competition – December 1, 2009
The Writer’s Digest Poetry Awards Competition – December 15, 2009