URBAN REMOVAL

Janet Reid's The end of summer last hurrah before vacation writing contest! 

One more week before vacation! I'm counting the minutes! That calls for a writing contest don't you think? 
The usual rules apply: 
1. Write a story using 100 words or fewer. 
2. Use these words in the story: remove   escape   away   lull   spare 
3. You must use the whole word, but that whole word can be part of a larger word or sequential words. The letters for the prompt must appear in consecutive order. They cannot be backwards. Thus: spare/ apples pared is ok but spare/sparkle is not 
4. Post your entry in the comment column of THIS blog post. 
5. One entry per person. If you need a mulligan (a do-over) erase your entry and post again. It helps to work out your entry first, then post. 
6. Titles count as part of the word count (you don't need a title) 

Contest opens Saturday 8/16 at 8am & closes: Sunday 8/17/15 at 8am 

All times are Eastern Shark Time. 

My Entry: 

Every night me and Joey'd sit on the fire escape watching the city. In summer, we'd sleep out there. We'd try to smell the ocean over the garbage and plot ways to get money for Rockaway Beach cuz Ma couldn't spare none. Sometimes she'd bring out baby Luca and lullaby him to sleep with an Italian song about San Remo vendettas. Mrs. Andolini upstairs would join in, then Mr. Zanotti. Soon the whole street was singing. 

Then we moved to the suburbs. 

"Ma, where's the fire escape?" 

"There isn't one." 

"No fire escape? Ma, this ain't no place for kids." 




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UPDATE:  I didn't win, but a guy whose name I love -- Sam Hawke -- did. 



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FLAMMABLE IS A BIG WORD FOR A LITTLE KID

Janet Reid can't have enough 100-word contests for me. So imagine my surprise when she announced another one!

I love writing contests alot! 
Usual rules:
Write a story with 100 or fewer words. (Every word counts, including the title if you use one; you don't have to).  Post the story in the comments column of this blog post when the contest is open.  The contest opens at 9am Saturday 11/23 and closes at 9am Sunday 11/24. All times are Eastern Shark time.
Use the following words in your story:  lot * heroic * caring * alert * flammable 

My entry:

My teacher is always alert for messes, never caring whose feelings get hurt when she spies one.

I made a heroic effort to clean mine up today and she screamed at me.

"PUT THAT DOWN! IT'S FLAMMABLE!"

I dropped the cleaner and it spilled, and she screamed even louder.

She called the janitor who called the principal who called the firemen!

Afterwards, she looked at me and said, "You sit here and think about what you have done."

I hear that a lot.

So I sat there wondering what flammable meant.

You'd think kindergarten would be easy. You'd be wrong.

UPDATE: It's a good thing I love writing stories for these contest because I haven't won -- yet.


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