Alison Espach's Blog, page 2

ONE HUNDRED WORDS OF HEARTBREAK

THE CONTEST:



One hundred words of heartbreak.  The heartbreak does not have to have taken place on Valentine's Day.  The heartbreak does not have to be yours.  The heartbreak can be yours.  The heartbreak does not require a take-away or silver lining.  Usually, it's better if it doesn't.





THE JUDGE:











Emma Straub's debut story collection, Other People We Married, was published in February 2011 by FiveChapters Books, and will be
rereleased in February 2012 by Riverhead Books. Her fiction and
non-fiction have been published by Tin House, The Paris Review Daily, Slate, The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, Cousin Corinne's Reminder, and many other places.  She is a staff writer for Rookie.  Emma lives in Brooklyn,
New York, with her husband. A more illustrated version of this appears
at M+E



















THE PRIZE:



First Place winner receives a free and signed copy of Other People We Married.









Praise for Other People We Married:



"Through the dozen stories told within the binding of this book, Ms.
Straub takes her readers many places, shows them the full range of
emotional color, tone and hue through the peculiar prestidigitation of
her words."

–Vinton Rafe McCabe, for the New York Journal of Books







SUBMISSION GUIDELINES:



No entry fee. To be eligible:



Subscribe to this blog Other Things (on the right margin) so you can be informed about future contests.



Email your entry (no attachments please) to aespach@gmail.com by February 13, 5pm EST.  Please put ONE HUNDRED WORDS OF HEARTBREAK in the subject
line, and include your name somewhere in the email, though all
submissions will be read blind by Emma Straub.





Winners will be announced here after Valentine's Day!



Alison

AUTOMATED DRUM ROLL PLEASE

And the winners are...








via pinmarklet



THIRD AND A HALF PLACE: Kendall Poe







We stood over his body that lay dormant on the fire escape. 
We watched rainwater begin to collect in the bowls of his hips.  Someone
asked, "what about the hurricane?"






THIRD PLACE: Rebecca Kumar




She hailed Ali's unlit taxi one 3
am, saying, "take me where you live."  Then she undressed -- and 



kissed his
achy knees and ankles until morning. American girls are different. 






SECOND PLACE: Liz McGlynn




I
was dead for half a minute. For thirty seconds my heart stopped, a twisted
corner of your flannel bed 



sheet frozen in my rigor-mortised hands. Then you
said no.







FIRST PLACE: Matt Waters




Fall
had fallen into the colder wind where we stood in the street as I said, "The
thought of kissing you 



terrifies me," and waited for reassurance that never
came. 







 Thanks so much to everybody who submitted.  It was a difficult choice for Darin (hence the 3rd and a 1/2 place).  If you entered, don't forget to collect your 10% off at AE DESIGNS before May 1!  And stay tuned for the next micro-contest coming for Valentine's Day, judged by none other than wonder-woman Emma Straub, author of Other People We Married. 








Very gratefully yours,

Alison

LAST CALL

If I were submitting to HALF A MINUTE, today's the day I probably would have submitted, mostly because when given the opportunity, I procrastinate.  I'm not sure it's fair to say that waiting a week to
submit to a week-long contest is true procrastinating, but there's
certainly something to be said about the thrill of the deadline, the
last possible chance.



What I like best about procrastinating is the urgency and meaning it instantly gives something completely meaningless, for instance, paying my heath insurance bill at the last possible second.  Running to the mailbox because if I don't , it won't be post-stamped Jan 13, and then it will be canceled and upon closing the mailbox lid, feeling very accomplished and sneaky and breathless, like I've achieved the utterly impossible.  There's nothing like it.


And so if you haven't already, please click at the top for details, and get your entries in by 5pm today.   Darin Strauss will judge this weekend, and winners will be announced on Tuesday, the 17th.  And if you've already entered, you have until May 1, 2012 to claim your 10% off from AE Designs.  Happy writing.





A

YOU ARE WHAT YOUR WEBSITE IS

Yes, we all think we can somehow build our own websites with absolutely zero graphic design skills like yours truly.  It wasn't until I got a real designer to do my website that I realized the horror of the previous one.  It was sort of like looking back at a college photo and realizing you looked crazier than you thought at the time:













Anyway.  Here's a reminder to all who enter the HALF A MINUTE writing contest, you automatically get 10% off a custom-built website from AE DESIGNS.   If you're shopping around for a great designer who can create nearly everything, look no further, except perhaps down this page. 





My website, created by AE DESIGNS:



















And also a million other things designed by AE DESIGNS...  











Miz Mooz ads


















Save the date cards















Business cards


























 Restaurant logos









Contest closes at 5pm on Friday, so get typing.  Until then. 







Alison

HALF A MINUTE WRITING CONTEST

I'm happy to announce the start of HALF A MINUTE, a new writing contest to kick off the new year and say goodbye to the old.  Entries written by you and judged by Darin Strauss.  But first, a preamble:



This New Year's Eve, I made the mistake of getting excited for the party.  It was a Great Gatsby roaring 20's party, with Gatsby-related cocktails, a champagne toast, the promise of swing and bright lipstick and pearls I didn't have to wear ironically.  My evening was finally, after years of waiting, going to pass like this:









via Life Magazine





So, you can imagine my disappointment as my friends and I found ourselves in a pipes-exposed basement, under a non-revolving disco ball, with our cranberry vodkas in plastic cups, sort of dancing to Rihanna's S&M, "sticks and stones may break my bones, but whips and chains excite me...."



Right.  So how did this happen, we asked each other.  Was it because we were too excited?  Where did we go wrong?  How did we get here?  And not just in the puddle of beer collecting at our feet, but here, in 2012?'







Not me.

 



"2011 went by so fast," someone said, because someone always says this on New Year's Eve.  This is how the preceding year appears when it's over.   It becomes an image, a calendar in the dumpster, a slideshow of photographs, a few anecdotes worthy of being remembered and told the next year.



This is depressing, yes.  Because what happened to all those moments that, at the time, took forever?  What happened to the moment before your hairdresser spun you around so you could face the mirror?  Or when you were waiting for a realtor to check your credit?  Or when you were in the doctor's office, on the altar, at a red light, on the foul line, at the bank, in the backseat of a car, walking on stage, on Gchat, waiting for a response from that person you probably shouldn't have Gchatted?



Which leads me to the HALF A MINUTE writing
contest.



THE CONTEST:



In 30 words, write a piece about 30 seconds of 2011 that...took...for...ever.  Being suspended in a moment for all of eternity can be a terrible thing, yes, but sometimes, it's amazing. You choose.



We're not too good with numbers over here, so don't get all hung up on the exactness of those 30 seconds.








THE JUDGE:  Darin Strauss













A recipient of the Guggenheim Fellowship and a winner of the American
Library Association's Alix Award and The National Book Critics Circle
Award, the internationally-bestselling writer Darin Strauss is the
author of the novels Chang & Eng, The Real McCoy, and More Than It
Hurts You, and the NBCC-winning memoir Half a Life. These have been New
York Times Notable Books, Newsweek, Los Angeles Times, San Francisco
Chronicle, Amazon, Chicago Tribune, and NPR Best Books of the Year,
among others. Darin has been translated into fourteen languages and
published in nineteen countries, and he is a Clinical Associate
Professor at NYU's creative writing program.




Praise for Half a Life:




"At the center of this elegant, painful, stunningly honest memoir thrums
a question fundamental to what it means to be human: What do we do with
what we've been given?… What is truly exceptional here is watching a
writer of fine fiction probe, directly, carefully and with great
humility, the source from which his fiction springs."
—Dani Shapiro, New York Times Book Review

"A
remarkable, beyond-brave memoir that offers an intensely personal look
at the most agonizing events in the author's post-accident life… With
astounding frequency, Strauss pinpoints truths that most of us would
find indescribable."
—Stephan Lee, O, The Oprah Magazine




THE PRIZE(S):

 














Everyone who enters gets 10% off a custom built website from AE Designs! (Pricing, on average, starts at $2Gs.)  You are currently staring at an AE Design creation (this blog), but if you want to check out more wonderful creations of AE Designs click here.










First Place: You win a free copy of Half A Life by Darin Strauss & a free business card designed by AE Designs.






Second Place:  You win a $30 gift certificate to Community Bookstore in Park Slope.  A dollar for every word for every second.



Third Place:  Our eternal admiration and your piece will be posted here.





SUBMISSION GUIDELINES:



No submission fee!  To be eligible:



1) Subscribe to this blog Other Things (on the right margin) so you can be informed about future contests;



2)  Check out and "like" AE Designs Facebook page to get your 10% off a custom-built website from AE Designs. 
Reminder: everybody who enters HALF A MINUTE gets this discount, expires May 1, 2012;



3) Email your entry (no attachments please) to aespach@gmail.com by Friday, January 13 by 5pm EST.  Please put HALF A MINUTE in the subject line, and include your name somewhere in the email, though all submissions will be read blind by Darin Strauss. 





Winners will be announced and published here on Monday, January 16!  And if you have the time, check out an old post to see the winners of an earlier contest held here at Other Things.





Happy New Year,

A

THE DESCENT

There I was, all civilized, blogging everyday, not to mention jogging every day, eating carrots and poached eggs for breakfast, zucchini noodles, making my bed as soon as I woke up, being friendly to customer service people, and then....and then....what?  Pad Thai for dinner and then breakfast, cursing out pedestrians in my head and sometimes real life, thoughts of 'why make my bed when I'm just going to get back in it later,' deliveries not being delivered, one sit-up right before I fell asleep at night, and then of course, Pawn Stars happened...and soon enough...







The Descent via movies.ign.com









Meanwhile, you didn't miss much, besides the fact that I now hate all health insurance companies, which isn't all that different from before, except the degree of hatred.   So what else to do when you are being eaten from the inside out by justified anger?   Get a kitten, with over-sized ears.  It's the cure-all for most things.  Meet Dr. Fuzz (doctorate in fuzziness and maybe eating paper).









The Dr. in her office.





It only took her a few days to look around and drop the act, and uncross her dignified little paws....







upside down Fuzz & my creepy eye





I've learned a lot since naming my female cat Dr.  Or rather, much was confirmed.  I won't belabor the point, except to say that more often than not, the reaction was, "Oh wait, she's a girl?"



Two things which I will oppress you with in the future:  photos of Dr. Fuzz eating things, more hating of health insurance companies, and the ongoing but very exciting process of selling my film rights.  Stay tuned.





A