Contest Entries

I've entered three short story/scene comps and have been lucky enough to be a finalist in each of them.

The first one I entered was called the ABCD Short Story Contest and was sponsored by the Writers Club Romance Group. My entry was the first romance short story I ever wrote, a rather sweet story about a middle aged man and woman brought together by his orphaned grandchild. It was called, Never Too Late for Love, and was published online way back in 1995. In Internet years, that's a very long time. If I ever find it, I'll put a link to it here for anyone who wants to read a very early Zaz.

Found it!...

Scarlet Boa 2003

I was a finalist in the 2003 Scarlet Boa contest, sponsored by Stella Cameron. The entries were to be first meet scenes from romance novels.

My scene was an adaptation of the meeting scene from one of my WIPs, as yet untitled. I don't feel too badly about not winning this one - one of my very best friends sent me a lovely burnout silk velvet stole, in scarlet, as a consolation prize.

Read Meeting Snarky...

Meeting Snarky

Rick Cerruti was having a bad day.

First there was the power failure at his loft, which left him coffeeless and unshaven after a hard night and very little sleep. Then there was the fact that his bedroom was a windowless cave, and he didn't realize until he was in the supermarket that he was wearing a polo shirt with his boots and leathers. Hell.

(read the whole scene...)

Slesar Twist

I entered my short story, Daphne in December, in the 2002 Slesar Twist Contest, sponsored by Futures Mysterious Anthology Magazine. The contest was named in honor of Henry Slesar, a wonderful mystery writer, perhaps best known for his Alfred Hitchcock scripts, always with a twist at the end.

It started out as a scene assignment for a writing seminar with a wonderful author, and teacher, Marilyn Wallace. It was much shorter then, but its warm reception inspired me to turn it into a short story. Who knows? Maybe some day it will be a book.

Daphne in December

It was dark and stiflingly hot crouching in the bedroom cupboard, yet David ’s bowels froze in terror — he was not ready to die.

Perspiration trickled into his eyes. He squeezed them shut, a twitch of his head and neck all the movement he permitted himself to try to throw off the stinging beads of sweat. He must not make a sound or he risked discovery.

(read the whole story...)

I'm a person who works best on tight deadlines, so I look forward to NaNo. It forces me to buckle down and get the story down "on paper." From what I read in numerous writer blogs, NaNo is serving that function for a lot of people. Go NaNo! Go Chris Baty for coming up with the concept, even though this wasn't what he had in mind.