Thursday, October 20, 2011

THE RUNNING DEAD

by Barbara Poelle

(From Paula: Wow. You guys are in for a treat today. Welcome back to Working Stiffs, Barbara!)

Yay! Fall is here! October brings two of my favorite things: excellent running weather and Halloween. I seem to be able to be faster when running around Halloween, mostly because of all the lurching, emaciated undead in the streets, But enough about the fashion district (RIM SHOT!) did anyone watch the premiere of THE WALKING DEAD this weekend? I am very interested to hear what people thought. 

I have always been a fan of horror, and am totally on the hunt for a Young Adult horror novel. (Remember Christopher Pike? Yeah, baby.)  I have read pretty much everything Stephen King has written- I mean if that dude jotted down the recipe for ice, I would read it for hours. Sadly, I haven’t been able to dip into as much horror this season as I would have liked. The good news is that so many of the mysteries and thrillers I have been reading have at least something horrifying in them, so I am not reduced to rubbing my gums and standing in a dark alleyway saying, “Scare me for 10 bucks, Mr.?” (Uh, Ew. Let’s never have THAT happen.)

That being said, what I caaaaan do is resort to a little bribery to scratch my spooky itch. I smell CONTEST! And PRIZES! And HOLLY ROOT! (Oddly enough, she smells like vanilla extract and rage. Sort of like really angry cookies.)

Let’s do a little cross-blog pollination with this one, so this contest will start on the 21st over on agent Janet Reid's blog.  Read this carefully to note when and where to post your entry:

Write a Halloween themed story in 100 words or fewer using the words:

UNFORSAKEN

DEADLY

WITCH

GHOST

SLAY

DECAY

(Bonus points if you can also use the word INSALUBRIOUS)

Post the story in the comments section of Janet’s Reid’s re-post of this contest at http://www.jetreidliterary.blogspot.com/ .  Contest will open on 10/21 at noon and closes at 10/22 at noon. All times are Eastern Standard.

ONE winner will receive a critique of the first thirty pages of your manuscript (any genre) from Barbara Poelle

ONE random winner will receive copies of UNFORSAKEN by Sophie Littlefield  

ONE random winner will receive a copy of DEADLY COOL by Gemma Halliday

ONE random winner will receive a copy of THE NEAR WITCH by Victoria Schwab

ONE random winner will receive a copy of GHOST COUNTRY by Patrick Lee

Barbara Poelle and Holly Root will review the entries.

Janet Reid will be the tie-breaking vote!

If you need a mulligan, delete your entry and repost. One Entry Per Person

All decisions are entirely subjective.

Oh my gosh, this is gonna be soooo fun! I can’t wait until Holly and Janet hear that they are doing this. Someone should tell them. Good thing with all of my training I can outrun both of them.

Also, if you win the critique but want to give it to a friend in the spirit of Halloween (dude, witches share newt eyeballs all the time) that is allowed!

Other than that, if any of you watched THE WALKING DEAD, love to hear from you in the comments on this blog. Otherwise, see you and your 100 word spooky tale, over on Janet’s on October 21st!

8 comments:

Joyce Tremel said...

Welcome back, Barbara.

Like I said in the comments in Gina's post the other day, I don't read scary books or watch scary movies because they...well...um...scare me. Although I will admit I like a nice tame ghost story.

I couldn't watch The Walking Dead even if I wanted to--I don't have cable or satellite!

Barbara, Holly, and Janet: yinz guys rock!

Janet Reid said...

Holy UnDead, I'm hosting a contest? Who knew??

After reading this post, I think my next project is collecting all of Barbara's hilarious phrases for a book. That I will sell. Don't tall Barbara; it will be our little secret.

Cause really "angry cookies??" Who can resist THAT.

Janet Reid said...

Also, here's the link to the specific post about the contest

Joyce Tremel said...

Thanks for posting the link, O Sharkly One!

Patty Blount said...

OK, I adore the 'really angry cookies' line and am totally stealing it. :)

Airicka Phoenix said...

Oh my! This is so perfect. I've been itching to write something... Halloweeny, as my youngest would call it.

I watched The Walking Dead Sunday and I have to say I was geniunely surprised considering the budget cut. The show hasn't lost its touch, but it is still only the first episode. I am really looking forward to the next one and the hopeful conclusion of the events that took place in the last show.

As for the contest, I love the prompts, and if they weren't enough to make me want to write, the prizes sure do.

Thank you so much!

Airicka Phoenix

Patg said...

OMG, I love The Walking Dead, and generally I'm not into Ghouls and Zombies when I can have Vampires and Witches. No not werewolves, that genetic failure is an insult to wolves.
Contest sounds fun.
Patg

Shana Gray said...

Rubs hands together and cracks knuckles. Sounds 'spooktacular'!