No, I’m not telling.

Glad you had some fun with this. I hope you will join us in the next contest, too. I like to think of them as writing exercises with deadlines and the possibility of temporary fame and minor fortune. But mostly as writing exercises.

And I’m glad you chose Sam’s wallet. You’ll see next week that there were more than a couple brave souls who did.

I used the Sam’s Wallet and the She chose the Blue one for opening and closing.

Hope you didn’t mind Steve, but, since the rules didn’t say anything about it, I changed Sam’s gender from Male to Female.

This was the 1st time I ever wrote a story for a contest, it was kind of fun. Maybe I will give it a go next month too.

Is it just me, or does anyone else think that both Nicole’s and Katherine’s would make a great introductory scene to a book?

Nicole expertly set up a character that I want to know better and I want to see her triumph over this emotional setback.

Katherine expertly set up a “what if” scenario that makes me want to read the next page. Monsters? What monsters? Where and how many?

Love your choices, Steve! You have some cool people who hang out here.

I really can’t wait to:

A: Read more stories here this week
B: Read more stories written by these people
C: Hang out here, because it’s fun

Thanks for including me in the mix! I’m honored to be on the same page with such talented writers.

I considered using the same first line as well, but Sam’s wallet was too intriguing to pass up. I also really wanted to use the last line, Monsters. But it just didn’t feel right. This was a fun contest. Thanks for the inspiration to write, Stephen.