SCWC Life Story Contest

Inspired by the recent Reader's Digest "Write Your Life Story in 150 Words" contest, the SCWC is conducting one. Write your life story, or some pivotal incident that has occured in your life, as a self-contained story in 150 words or less and you'll be in the running to win a Kindle eBook reader or Full Conference registration package (your choice of San Diego or Newport Beach).

A word of advice regarding your entry: while it can be written in any genre you wish, it must be a story. That is, it should have a clear beginning, middle and end. Submissions that are merely a non-compelling author bio will be regarded as such.

An example of a life story we like:

Winter's Son

By Caucus de Bourbon

Chicago night, 1968. A vacant car idles under the heavy cloak of winter, dark clouds the color of bruises. The car's driver-side door is open. Otis Redding faint on the radio.

Nearby a thin young mother stands bent before the city's icy shore. Her husband, my father, fled into the sleeting night only hours before. She releases the spent cigarette from her hand, lets it drop into the mottled snow where it sizzles and dies. She looks my way, an urgent afterthought. "Stephen," she confesses, voice wet with the name of my stillborn twin brother.

I shudder. It's cold.

Eyes wide sober now, my mother presses toward the frigid wind as the worn Marine who'll raise me darts from the shadows and prevents her willful fall.

Forty-four years later I stand at the edge of a similar abyss, praying my brother will catch me.

I shudder. It's cold.

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Use the Contact Us form on the right and be sure to put "Life Story Contest" in the subject line. Paste your name in the body along with your story and story's title. Alternatively, you can email your submission directly to the SCWC.

The SCWC contest deadline for submission is 4 p.m. Sunday, February 19, 2012.