And the winners are...
Now the graves have closed again, and the dead of Hallowe'en 2011 are back beneath the earth. While they stalked the land we had a blood-sodden outpouring of entries for our Challenge which was: "Write the first line of Dracula's autobiography." What did I expect and what did I receive? I expected jokes about dental work - and got them. Plots of ground six feet deep also figured, as did crucifixes, the standard "How-do-you-like-your-stake?" Dracula joke and a variety of mirrors. Fangs appeared (though - and thank you all for this - nobody actually had the nerve, the chutzpah, the gall to write "fangs for the memory" or "fangs very much"). The tourist authorities of Transylvania can feel happy at their name-and-place recognition - familiarity even - and we had the graveyard shift, packs of wolves, lines of the Undead and jokey entries about "sinking my teeth into" and "neck and neck." I had already banned the line, "To begin with, I suck" - but I wasn't able to keep sucking out of it - nor, bless you, did you shy away from "cutting my teeth." I loved it all - you are such good sports, you tweeters and blogsters, and I have selected ten winners whose names we publish in alphabetical order. To each of you goes a prize - the Kindle Single I wrote, "Undead," the story of the novel "Dracula" and its author Bram Stoker. Wipe the blood off your chins, read, enjoy, thank you all - and go back to your tombs.
Andrew Train - drewtrain
Not by Man's earthly clocks, do I measure the unending centuries; but by the count of human hearts, stilled by my cold kiss.
Byron Wilding - estlincage
Words come to me like drops of blood, eager to be tasted.
D H Chitson - BearNecessitude
Please look kindly upon me, dearest reader, for within these unholy epistles there is much sadness amongst the horror.
Doug Keel - DougKeel
Memoirs may be sordid or times of quiet reflection. Mine will have to be the former.
Emily Matthew - ImaylimE
My father always wanted me to be an attorney, but I could never have become something quite so heinous and parasitic.
Jessica Reisman - jesswynne
I am not the villain of this piece.
Joanne E. Valin - Stellectric
I came to know blood, luxurious warmth and bitterness that sang at my lips, but never enough to soothe the rank sore of my heart.
Richard de Nooy - RicharddeNooy
The immortal mark the passage of time with the faces of those whose lives have been lost or taken.
Sean Kelly - SeanKellyStudio
My agent in Burbank sounded glum on the phone, "Universal can't borrow Barrymore from MGM; they're casting Lugosi."
Vivienne Nichols - jamesblvd
Predators all! Hunters, warriors, vampires, lovers. We create illusion, stalk and steal. We take from life that we might live.
Excellent answers - great fun compo. Even if Doug and Vivienne kind of broke the "first line of..." rule (Doug with two lines and Vivienne with three - it's a full stop thing :) But wonderful fun and look forward to the next!
Posted by: Julian Williams | Nov 01, 2011 at 12:29 PM
What a thrill, after many challenges and all my garish efforts in this one, to finally know the joy of recognition by a better kind of master. That's plenty for me, Julian, your point being valid. ( Could his memoir be very BROAD so that Doug and I could technically see our sentence(s) all on the first LINE? Pleeeease.) Truly, don't mind going to the world of the Unread in the name of fairness though. Apologies, all, that at times, I, like Drac, would not stay in my place and regarding competition.. became a bit too blood thirsty. I learned so much from this and I had a bloody BLAST doing so! Cheers to all!
Posted by: Vivienne Nichols | Nov 01, 2011 at 01:42 PM
Great fun it was; now, I sink my teeth into my favorite Podcast- Re:Joyce ( , , )
love from http://estlincage.tumblr.com/
Posted by: Byron Wilding | Nov 01, 2011 at 05:47 PM
Hello,
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Posted by: jeevan78 | Nov 20, 2011 at 01:59 AM
Where are these challenges posted?
Posted by: Tom Whalen | Nov 23, 2011 at 10:27 AM
This was a laugh! It was all about Gary Oldman melodrama-Dracula for me.
Posted by: Joanne Valin | Feb 03, 2012 at 12:06 AM
Congratulations!
Posted by: dentist Chinchilla dental implants | Mar 21, 2012 at 05:50 AM
Well then what can I do? Congratulations to the winners.
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