What did you want to be when you grew up?

As a kid, I thought I’d grow up to practice law like my dad. At the dinner table, he’d regale us with stories about his court cases, which were dramatic, often horrifying, and always fascinating.

Instead of becoming a lawyer, I became a writer. This is an entirely untrue tiny tale set in a courtroom and published by Short Édition for the Calgary Public Library.

I wrote it for the Australian Writers Centre’s Furious Fiction competition. There were a number of constraints I had to abide by including: using the number 55 in the first sentence; keeping the word count under 500; including certain words; and a subject I won’t spell out because it’ll spoil the ending. My story didn’t place in the competition, but I plan to try again.

I love writing competitions because they challenge me to work in genres that I never would’ve tried otherwise. If you’re interested in entering a prompt-based writing competition, I recommend Furious Fiction because they don’t charge fees to enter.

Price v. Price