The Bet Rides Again
Catherine Ryan Hyde
My horse, Union RagsAnybody remember The Bet from last year? It started with my Twitter bud Brian Farrey musing on the Stephen King article in the Atlantic, in which King reveals that the short story "Herman Wouk is Still Alive" was written to satisfy a bet.
Apparently that's all you have to tell four crazy writers. Brian (With or Without You), Kimberly Pauley (Sucks to be Me), Andrew Smith (Stick, The Marbury Lens) and I went crazy and created The Bet, which shall heretofore (how's that for a fun word) be known as The Bet #1. We each chose a horse in the Kentucky Derby. For the purposes of The Bet, our horses were only running against each other, not the field as a whole. In other words, it didn't matter if my horse won. He won if he came in ahead of their horses.
Brian's horse, Done TalkingBrian's horse won, so Brian handed down a story title to Andrew, whose horse came in second in our pack of four. The title was, "Miss Candor Sends Her Regrets." Andrew handed me the lovely title, "The Art of Being Stuck Here." Because Kimberly Pauley had chosen the horse Uncle Mo, who was scratched for gastrointestinal trouble, I gave her "Uncle Mo's Gastrointestinal Tract," for which she still has not forgiven me. But hey, the whole story didn't have to be about anybody's gut. In fact, I wove a reference to Uncle Mo's tract into my story, just to show her how it could be done. But I don't think it earned me any points. I think I have to be kind with my title this year.
Yes, that's right. This year. Suddenly, without any real trackable cause, we all signed on to do it all over again.
Kimberly's horse, Creative Cause
So, without further ado, here's the lineup. I've chosen Union Rags, Kimberly has chosen Creative Cause. Brian has Done Talking and Andrew has I'll Have Another.
You can read The Art of Being Stuck Here, the story I wrote for last year's bet, HERE. You can read the story I'll write for this year's bet (unless I'm the big winner) here, too, just not until the race has run. (And we've had time to write the damn things.)
Andrew's horse, I'll Have AnotherYou can read Brian's post about the bet at HIS BLOG. And Kimberly's at HER BLOG. And Andrew's at HIS BLOG.
And then you can stay tuned for this year's fun. If nothing else, it's three free short stories from authors you probably follow if you're reading one of our blogs.
Wish me luck (though losing is more fun than winning).
Talk more after Derby Day.
And the winner (literally in this case) is Andrew with I'll Have Another. Andrew does not have to write a story. Andrew will hand a title to Kimberly, who came in second (of our four) with Creative Cause. That means Kimberly gives me a title, so I hope she's not still sore from last year. I give a title to Brian, whose horse came in last of the four. There you have it, folks. Stay tuned for the stories.
And we have our titles. Andrew has given Kimberly the title "The Flat-Tire Man." Kimberly has given me "Uncle Mo Holds a Grudge," careful to point out that it was kinder than many of her other thoughts for titles. I have given Brian "All of Nature Abhors a Vacuum."
I'm pretty sure the time frame for writing the story was 30 days last year, but I'm checking that against everyone else's memory.
So in 30 days or so, my story will appear here on this blog, and I'll link to the others stories as well.