Just For Fun

I have to tell you about this hilarious Mystery Writing Contest my friend Courtney and I just entered. If you check out the "Mustard Museum" link on the right, you will eventually find the "Mystery Writing Contest" site on the website. It gives you the first chapter of the book, and we entrants had to write the second chapter, and an 800 word synopsis of how the story turns out. The winner(s) receive $5000.00, to be announced on their site August 5th. How could we possibly turn this down? If you read the first chapter, you'll roar at the purple prose and the alliterative, childish writing. We found it after the deadline of May 15th, so I emailed the Curator and said we were international and could we still enter? He said we had till May 31st as that was the deadline given in their magazine.

We were still churning out the synopsis, with two, not one, but *two* printers, at 4:45p.m. yesterday - trying to get it in the post in time to be post-marked for May 31st. :) Courtney said it reminded her of being in university again! We had a riot writing the chapter, back and forth via email, and it certainly primed our pumps for further writing exercises under pressure.

Courtney is really a theatre artist who does one-woman plays on the Fringe Theatre circuit. She'll be performing this summer in Regina, Winnipeg, and Saskatoon. She's amazingly talented and I envy her ability to give life to her characters through drama, acting, and using masks and costumes. She's studied in California and around the southern States. If you want to learn more about Courtney and her drama you can click on the link at the right.

Our mystery entry was her first attempt at writing in "novel" form. She's more used to writing monologues or two person dialogues. We'll have fun banging some dialogue off each other, I hope, as we each create characters who are trying to be their three-dimensional best.

The Mustard Museum houses 4,500 different kinds of mustard which can be bought. You owe it to yourself to check out the link and peruse their Gallery for online shopping! If you want some great BarBQ's this summer, I highly recommend their product....I'm planning on a little shopping myself. :)