Here’s the prize pack for the Short Short Story Competition. There is a copy of the book (the movie cover version), the soundtrack to the film (featuring a track by the sparkling Robert Pattinson), and a sixteen-month calendar (I’m unsure what that means). The total value is $90 or thereabouts – I’m no mathematician.
Check out the competition’s rules etc. here, or click on the competition logo to the left.
It can be difficult writing a short story, essay or whatever, when there is a limit to the number of words you can write. But sometimes it’s fun to challenge yourself and embrace the difficulty. Drabbles, for examples, are short stories that have exactly 100 words. This post is a drabble, and so is this Christmas story by Neil Gaiman.
One sentence stories are perhaps harder to write (though it’s amazing how much meaning can be jammed into only a few words); see also these ten-word reviews of just about anything. Do you think you can write one yourself?
Well?
There’s a group (or a brood) of ducklings waddling around with their mother duck in the empty pond out the back of the central library! So cute! There are eleven of them. Unfortunately their chances are 
pretty slim living where they live, so the SPCA is due to come in later on today to remove them.
Can you write a good short story? To celebrate the end of the year, and to thank our readers, we’ve got a Twilight pack (including the Twilight soundtrack and more) to give away to the best short short story. It’s a most excellent prize – a must for any Twilight fan and very useful for trading if you’re not. We will also have internationally-acclaimed illustrator Gavin Mouldey illustrate the winning story!
So what do you have to do? Just write a short story, not more than 350 words (it can be as short as you like), that includes each of the following three words or phrases (exactly as written – think outside the box: is the word a noun only, or can it be used as a verb/describing word?):
¹note that this is a small f, so we’re not looking for place names.
Your story can be about anything. We will be particularly impressed if:
Send your stories to teenblog@wcl.govt.nz before 12pm on 24 December 2008. Please include your name and your library card number (very important!). The winner will be announced soon as in the new year (so you can get the most out of your calendar).
Small print:
You must be aged between 13 and 18 to enter. You must also be a Wellington City Library member. Judges’ decision is final and no correspondence will be entered into etc etc., although we do like getting emails and comments. The winning story and any others that are particularly special will be published on the teen blog, so if you send a story in be prepared for it to be published.
Good luck! Tell your friends to enter too, to make the competition more worth your while (healthy competition is a good thing)!
ThinkB4YouSpeak.com is an American campaign that encourages teens to think about their use of language; homophobic remarks like “that’s so gay”, while usually unintentionally offensive, can be pretty damaging. Although designed for U.S. schools, the aim of the campaign is pretty international, and the TV adverts are very funny.
Google Maps now has ‘Street View‘ for New Zealand, which means that as well being able to look at your house (or anyone’s house, for that matter) from above, you can also view the building from the street, as if you’re driving past. This is exceptionally interesting and useful for
a. People who dislike going outside
b. People trying to find a destination
c. Lazy flat-seekers
d. Everyone else
(The Street View of Karori Library is quite funny.)
Press Display* is, like, the most popular newspaper resource at work, it has to be said. At the touch of a couple of keys (namely your library card number and surname) and one or two mouse clicks you can read newspapers from around the world, from Angola to Zimbabwe (the Angolan newspapers appear to be in Spanish or Portuguese or some such, but I can tell you that the Business Weekly (1 December issue) in Zimbabwe was very happy that Germany was doubling aid).
The papers are in full colour, with all their photos and all. New Zealand papers available include the Clutha Leader, the Kaikoura Star and the Motueka News. They even have the Hutt News and the Upper Hutt Leader (two leaders?).
It’s too easy to use really – either pick a paper or search a topic: if you want more on *that* book or *that* movie then in moments you can enjoy articles from newspapers as diverse as The Gulf News, The Guardian (Charlottetown, Canada), Corriere della Sera (??) and the Philippines Daily Inquirer.
You will be the most informed person you know.
* It’s the resource at the top of the “Newspapers” section of MyGateway.
Some interesting facts about Chris Ryan, author of the Alpha Force series:
8 The number of days Chris Ryan spent in the Iraqi desert with no food and little water after the Bravo Two Zero mission went wrong during the first Gulf War in 1991
800,000 The number of copies sold of his book The One That Got Away, his account of the mission and his escape from enemy forces
5 million The total number of books he has sold in several genres
16 The age at which he unsuccessfully tried to join the Army
10 The number of years he spent in the SAS, completing both covert and overt missions
15 The number of spiders that crawled out of a wound he sustained during jungle training in Brunei
(If only a single spider crawled out of a wound I sustained I probably wouldn’t be here today – but then I’m not in the SAS.) Read the rest of the article about Chris Ryan.
