Tuesday, May 25, 2010

Who Wants to Enter a Contest?

We interrupt your regularly-scheduled blog post to bring you the following message:

Her Highness the Missus (HHTM) and I were lounging about the house on Sunday watching movies. I forget the exact circumstances, but I ended up referencing this faux diary entry from the Firefly episode Safe:
"(mock reading Simon's journal) Dear Diary...today I was pompous and my sister was crazy." (flips page) "Today, we were kidnapped by hill folk never to be seen again. It was the best day ever." -- Jayne Cobb
We started crafting fake diary entries as a result. Hers were funnier than mine, of course, and if you've ever met HHTM and experienced her rapier-like Irish wit then you understand why that's a foregone conclusion. At the end of about three or four of these, HHTM says "This would make a good contest for your blog."

Therefore, I am officially announcing the first Free the Princess Fake Diary Entry Contest!

Here's the rules:
  1. Your diary entry must be three to four sentences long. 
  2. You are allowed as many entries as you can come up with.
  3. It doesn't have to be funny; if you can come up with a poignant entry in four sentences, then feel free to submit.
  4. You can write it from the perspective of any FICTIONAL character you choose. (If you write historical fiction then you're excused from this rule -- contact me otherwise if you want to write it from the viewpoint of a historical person)
  5. It must be posted in the comments of this post no later than 12 am U.S. Eastern Time on Tuesday, June 29, 2010.
The entries will be judged by none other than HHTM herself, since it was my lovely lady wife's idea in the first place. She is a hard one to impress, folks, so you'd better be in top form if you want to win this. 


Winners will be announced on Tuesday, July 6, 2010


Now, you might be asking yourself what it is precisely that you win. Truth be told, I've yet to figure that out, but I will confer with HHTM on what the prize pack should include. I'm thinking something along the lines of a partial manuscript critique (I'm neither published nor an agent, but everyone who's been edited by me has raved about the detail of my crits, so maybe that's a good prize to offer). 


Now, a note for all my readers in the Southeast -- I will be presenting at the Upstate Steampunk convention in Greenville, S.C. on Saturday, November 20, 2010 about my Roots of Steampunk blog series. If you're local-ish to South Carolina, and interested in hearing me blather on, go register at http://www.upstatesteampunk.com. 

EDIT: Rules 2 and 3 were added because questions were asked.

19 comments:

JournoMich said...

Sounds like a great contest. No promises now, b/c I am notoriously bad at making deadlines.

Your wife sounds awesome. :)

Michele
Southern City Mysteries

Matthew Delman said...

Michele --

That she is. And she'll probably be happy that I mentioned her on here, seeing as I don't do that very often at all.

fairyhedgehog said...

That's a seriously cool contest and I love how you refer to your wife!

Matthew Delman said...

fairyhedgehog -- Well she IS kind of a princess (with all that entails).

P.S. I love you honey if you're reading this.

Susan Kaye Quinn said...

I love that your wife is helping you with your blog!

I'm jammed up right now, but since your contest is a whiles away, maybe .... :)

Joshua McCune said...

Yeah, ditto what Ms. SKQ said... my wife rolls her eyes when I mention the word 'blog.' Also, cool contest... The Goblin Prince was an entire diary, essentially... definitely not funny, though :)

Charity Bradford said...

I added you to my contests sidebar section so I can work on this.

dolorah said...

Oh I like this; and I love that it was HER idea. I'll pimp it for you in my events calendar.

.......dhole

Matthew Delman said...

All --

HHTM has been amused by all your comments about her awesomeness, btw. She also corrected me on the day that she came up with the idea for the contest -- Monday, not Sunday.

Simon Kewin said...

Hmm, any fictional character you say? You've got me thinking now.

Adam Heine said...

Dear Diary, had a grizzly today. Chased it 100 miles through the forest, then drank its blood while sparkling in the highest branches of an old oak. God it sucks being immortal. -- Edward Cullen

Stephanie Damore said...

Sweet idea. Lemme see what I can come up with.

jjdebenedictis said...

Dear Diary,

Tried, yet again, to explain to Bella how awful it is living on nothing but blood, but she just doesn't get it. What's so hard to grasp? All blood = no fiber. I'm not tortured and brooding; I'm just really constipated.

Edward Cullen

Gary Corby said...

Dear Diary,

Well, didn't today just suck? Yet more staff problems. Half the team have nothing better to do than chase the other half and drag them into the bushes. *sigh*

These people are animals, I tell you. Animals!

Dr Moreau

Esther V. said...

Dear Diary,
I really wanted to see who was the big winner on the newest Philips Blog. I have a crush on him. a teeny, tiny one.

Hanna

Lisa said...

Dear Diary,

I got home today, thank god. My feet are killing me, because my new shoes have crappy insoles. Besides, if I had to spend another minute with the idiot, the whiner, and the wimp I was going to sic my dog on them. Don’t laugh, his bite is worse than his bark.

-- Dorothy

Anonymous said...

Okay, this is takoing some gettingf used to. Thankls and all, honeyu (I mean Mom... crfap!), for the touvh typing lessons. They've vome in handy. It;s just... I think voice recogfnition software wold have been a more practica; gift, don't you?

-- Oedipus

MOLLYC said...

Dear Diary, Amy is a pain in the ass. If she wants to go to one more lawn party, I will puke. And if Beth doesn't stop coughing, I am going to strangle her. Marmee went out again with gruel for the poor, and honestly, THEY ALL HATE IT. Jo

dolorah said...

Yesterday I lost out on an incredible romance, saved a ghost from being mugged, shot death my slum apartment, and now I'm Thanatos. I have some cool accouterments of office - I doubt I'll ever be comfortable wearing a cabocon earring - and damned if Mortis isn't soothing to ride in any guise. Would like to watch something on TV besides my own affairs in Purgatory though.

Zane