100 word short story contest

Janet Reid is a literary agent I follow on Twitter. She has a lot of good information on her site and blog, and she also runs the excellent QueryShark blog, where she gives people feedback on their query letters. On Friday she posted a contest in which the entrants had to write a short story of 100 words or less, and they had to include the words jimmy, frame, viola, smoking and sword.  I figured I’d give it a try, and it was a lot of fun. It was pretty easy to get all the words in, but rather hard to make the word count fit.

There were about 50 entries, and I really had no idea how I’d do. To my surprise, mine was one of the four “outstanding finalists” she chose. From those she picked the winner, which wasn’t me, but that’s fine. I didn’t expect to win, so it’s just cool to get that far and actually have a real life literary agent read and like something I’ve written. Unfortunately, Ms. Reid doesn’t represent the genre of my book, or I would submit to her. Regardless, it was a fun exercise and I’ll be sure to enter more if she has them. My story is below.

Short Story Exercise #10

This week’s painting is by William H. Johnson and is entitled “I Baptize Thee”. This story was a pretty big departure for me, both in theme and content, and in the fact that the painting was purely inspirational. When I had the initial idea, I thought I would be ending with something that had to do with the baptism depicted. Even at about the halfway point I was still planning on it, but when I got to the end, it just didn’t fit.  I tried to tack it on, but it just didn’t feel natural. I think it’s better off this way. 986 words.

Pretty much my whole life has been a starin’ contest with the Lord. The day Mama died, I swore I’d never blink. I swore as I ran through the fields, hot with sun and dust. I swore as I curled up under the hickory tree, sobbin’. I swore as the burnin’ tears flowed that they’d be the last I’d ever let run. I swore I’d never cry again. Never cry and never blink. And I didn’t. For twenty-three more years I fought against the Lord. I kicked and I screamed and I never blinked. And I never cried.