Mini-Writing Contest #3 — July 16 – July 21
Hey everyone — welcome back for Mini-Writing Contest #3!
Last week, it was all about haikus and I received lots of great entries. This week, we're going to try something a little bit different. Listed below is a series of 5 questions. Look through them and answer them in any fashion you like. That means that your answers can be a combination of true and false, long and short, fast and slow. There's no wrong path you can'take. Just let whatever's in your mind show in what you decide to write down.
Here we go:
1. What do you love most to count? What can't be counted?
2. If you stand on your hands, where will you walk? How will you fall? And who's going with you?
3. You get to grant someone a wish — who is that person? What is the wish?
4. What is the best dessert you've ever eaten? What was it made out of? Where did it come from?
5. If you could disappear into a colour for a day, what colour would it be? What day?
Please keep in mind the following contest rules:
1. You have to live in Toronto to win this contest.
2. You have to provide a valid e-mail address so we can contact you if you win a prize (see privacy statement for more info)
3. Your entry must be submitted by Monday at 11:59pm to be considered to win.
4. Winners will be announced the following Tuesday.
Let's see what kinds of answers you can come up with. 🙂
Your name, your e-mail address, the books you read and your thoughts about them are your personal information. Why do we need your personal information here? Well, we want to publish your reviews, and we need your name and e-mail address to help administer the contest. The Public Libraries Act is the law that lets us do this. We'll be protecting your privacy every step of the way, but if you have any questions about how we're going to do that, you can contact TPL's Privacy & Records Management Officer, 789 Yonge Street, Toronto, ON, M4W 2G8, 416-395-5658 or by e-mail at gnettlefold@torontopubliclibrary.ca
13 thoughts on “Mini-Writing Contest #3 — July 16 – July 21”
1. I love counting the clouds in the sky. There are endless kinds when it comes to defining the scientific types (cumulonimbus, cirrus etc.) or my favourite the imagination ones (dog, train, unicorn etc.) I love sitting next to sister and counting the beautiful white clouds in the sky on a perfect summer day! I think that you can’t count every single hair that is on your head. We often make estimates but there is no exact answer compared to the billions of hairs on your head.
2. If I could stand on my hands I would walk around the world and see it from a different point of view (upside down). It would be a very exciting experience because you’d think that everyone is hanging upside down when you are the one who is actually standing on your hands. I would probably fall when I am tired or when my journey around the world is completed because I won’t give up and will try my hardest to stand on my hands the longest. A person that would come with me would be my sister because we love travelling and we make a great team as we support each other.
3. I would grant a wish to my friend because she is very sick and what better way to is it to help some in need. The wish would be to cure her from her disease “Mixed Connected Tissue Disease” so she can live a long happy healthy life.
4. The best dessert I have eaten is a double chocolate fudge cake. It is so delicious and I absolutely love it! It’s made of a chocolate fudge batter which is placed into the oven, allowing it to bake into a mouth watering cake. Double chocolate fudge cake is an American recipe that originated from North America.
5. The colour that I would disappear into for a day would be a rainbow. I love all the colours in the rainbow and if i could become a rainbow for a day it would be a dream come true! I would love to turn into a rainbow on the first day of spring after a rain shower because then I could surround the whole city with my beautiful, bright colours.
1. I love to count the amount of time there is on my clock. Every waking second, every minute, I check the clock. I make sure it runs properly. I make sure it wakes me up tomorrow. It’s a downright obsession, but I won’t feel better until I count the amount of minutes until sunset. What I can’t count is the amount of time I have on this Earth. At any possible moment, I could be gone and that has made me more grateful of living.
2. It’d be damning for me to walk on my hands. I wouldn’t get so far and I would fall face first before I take a single stride. Heck, I wouldn’t bring anyone with me if they saw me in a position like that. I’d only humiliate myself and draw pity from my friends.
3. Some person has summoned me to ask for a wish. It’s an old friend – someone I can’t name. He asks for money, women, a fitter body, etc. Same thing as all the other people I’ve granted wishes too. My advice to wish seekers is to never rely on guys like me to give you what you want. Step up and earn it!
4. The best dessert I ever ate was a piece of cheesecake drizzled with strawberry preserves. It was mostly made out of cream cheese and a graham cracker crust, but as a cheesecake fan, it tasted heavenly. And surprisingly, it came from Walmart.
5. If I disappeared into a colour, it would be blue. Not only is it my favorite colour, but it signifies my melancholic, yet relaxed behavior. And I would turn into this colour on a crisp winter night, with snowflakes floating above my head like a halo. I don’t want to be that noticeable, so I picked blue because it has a cool vibe and is not as bright as the other colours.
Are multiple entries permitted?
I love counting flowers and exploring the world of green gardens. As I walk towards my yard the graceful scent fills my nose in which I take a deep breath and say, “This is the life”. I love roses, Lilies, petunias, tulips and oh I love all types of flowers. I simply fill with more and more glee each day as I sit on my yard and count each of my lovely flowers. I agree with my self when I say that you cannot count till the end of time because you don’t know when the world will end or what tomorrow will bring. The so called “geniuses” who predicted 2012 was the end spread a lot of trouble around the world as people started to worry. Well its 2014 and sorry to let you down but we are alive ! So as you can see we can’t count till the end of time because only the lord himself can decide when he shall end this beautiful life, so its his will then we shall all be gone. But until then appreciate what you have and the life that you are living because you only live once!
It’s a funny story actually because as a gymnast I have alot of practice standing on my hands! Handstands, cartwheels, hand springs you name it! I can do them all so really it wouldn’t be much trouble for me to stand on my hands. If I were to fall however it would be because of the soreness that runs through my body. As a gymnast you never no what life would be without pain folks. But I love what I do and I wouldn’t want to do anything else either. I guess anyone can go with me for a hand stand challenge I love competition and there isn’t anything more I like rather than a competition because I’m very competitive. Anyone up for a hand stand challenge?
I would grant a wish to those people who go to sleep hungry at night with no joy towards life and not knowing if tomorrow will be worse than today. This wish would be to end world hunger because for the sake of humanity we must help others for it is good karma. Also you never know what life would bring you to one day so always help others and therefore this is the wish that I’d grant a needy person.
I enjoy many sweet things and I’m all about desert. My favourite desert though are funnel cakes! They are the best creation known to make kind- or at least that’s what my stomach suggests? Funnel cakes are basically a cake batter that is fried in oil until both sides are golden brown and it is topped off with icing sugar, jam, strawberries and chocolate syrup; anything to your liking. Funnel cakes are found every where in the heart of North America but I mostly eat them at Canada’s Wonderland!
I would disappear into the colour white for a day at basically any day. White is such a graceful colour and it looks beautiful next to any colour of the rainbow. I love its simplicity and it defies me because when I’m performing gymnastics and the gracefulness that I show represents me in the form of the colour white. White is a shade as most say but believe me for me it is so much more. Its a colour of compassion and it looks darling next to any colour! I just adore the colour/shade white.
1. I love to count the trees,
In ones, and twos, and threes.
I count all around my neighborhood,
I’d do it all day if I could.
The best is during a long drive to somewhere far away,
I would stare out the window, counting all day.
I LOVE counting all the beautiful wonderful trees.
I love knowing that no matter how many trees I see,
and no matter how many trees I count,
I will NEVER know their true amount.
It’s impossible you see,
to count EVERY SINGLE TREE.
I’m sure you all agree,
That it’s just plain unthinkable, to count every single wonderful tree.
2. If I could stand on my hands,
I’d go somewhere safe and bland.
Maybe I’d just stay at home,
practice washing my garden gnomes.
Or maybe I’d take a risk walk to the Royal Ontario Museum,
I hear they have a great exhibit on the Roman Coliseum.
I’d have to be careful though,
because I could lose my balance and break my big toe!
I’m not particularly big or tall,
but standing on my hands I could fall
forward or backward and knock down the entire Coliseum arena.
To make sure that doesn’t happen I’d bring along a friend,
the friend that promises to stay with me till the bitter end.
Together with a friend I’d be okay,
I’d have someone else to spray
as I practice washing my garden gnomes.
My friend would hold my Ice Cream cones,
and help me stand on my hands as we walk to the museum.
I’d have no worry or no fear, I’d just say “crape-diem”,
because a day spent standing on my hands
with a friend by my side would definitely be grand!
3. Any wishes I was given would be handed over to my little brother,
yes the one from this mother.
You see he’s only seven years old,
but his wish would be oh so bold.
He has a wonderful imagination,
he has ideas to change the entire nation.
His wish would obviously be for a dragon,
not the kind to pull a wagon,
but the big colourful fire breathing kind that would fly him all over.
I’d grab a small four-leafed clover,
just for a little luck,
because after my brother makes his wish,
my family won’t have a plain old pet fish,
we’d have a big old flying DRAGON!
4. The best dessert I’ve ever eaten,
was made by no createn.
It was a Strawberry Cheesecake made by my best friend.
It was made of ingredients in a perfect blend,
cream cheese, strawberries and a flawless crust.
Eating this Strawberry Cheesecake is just a must.
What makes this dessert the best is not the ingredients or taste,
it’s where this dessert came from and that it’s made with no haste.
This Strawberry Cheesecake came from my best friend,
that’s what makes it my favorite dessert from now until the end.
5. Orange, Orange, Orange,
just like the colour of my door-hinge.
Not only is it the colour I like the best,
the colour I believe is better than the rest,
Orange is a colour of excitement, warmth and joy.
I would disappear into Orange with no other girl or boy,
alone by myself for an entire Wednesday, the worst day of the week.
For once my Wednesday would not be so boring and so bleak,
spent inside an Orange so bright,
well that would be all right.
1. What do I love most to count? Yes. I love to count the things that can’t be counted. Explanation: a yes can mean a lot of things. “YES!” an exclamation when something goes perfectly right. “Y-Yes…” a word of acceptance. An awkward “yes” when jumping up from the chair at a quiet library computer celebrating the win of a word out contest by myself. The speaker can be overjoyed, daunted, bored. Such a simple answer to a complicated yes or no question. Most times, ‘yes’ is used positively. Those times, I smile to myself and count the speaker’s happiness. Can it be counted? Yes, in a figurative sense. Can it not be counted? Yes, literally.
2. If I do a handstand where will I “walk” how will I fall, and who am I dragging along? “IF” I do a handstand, and that’s a big if, I would just run around the front lawn where grass is safe to fall on, and my brother, which is 4, will tag along and make me fall. Because I can do an impossible task like hand standing, I will fall like this: My brother hugs an arm, causing me to lose balance, I twirl on my other hand while shaking him off. Then somehow do a double front flip in the air before landing on one leg and posing ‘Ta-Da!’.
3. One wish! Who will I gift it to? Receiver: Me. I want to give this wish to everyone, but the question says someONE. So if I want to change the world for good, I have to start with myself. Sounds familiar? Although wishing for unlimited wishes is the best option, that would feel like cheating the objective of the question. The wish: My actions at all possible times shall be the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth.
4. What is the best dessert I’ve eaten? Details? OM NOM NOM cheez kake! Homemade foods are the best, especially when the whole family joins in to bake it. Following the recipe instructions on the back of some cheese packages, it is my favourite dessert. Not desert.
5. If I could turn into a colour for one day, what will my choice be? Grey, the colour of shadow. All around the world is shadow, no matter what kind of day it is. Sunny, not stifling hot, and a few non-threatening clouds would be the perfect day. Grey plays around under beach umbrellas, flying under a bird’s silhouette, I’m everywhere.
Questions for Luci
A short story
Interviewer: What do you love most to count? What can’t be counted?
“I love counting stars. I’m not an astronomer, not smart, like my sister. She thinks I’m a sentimentalist. I love stars because, well, to see them glow, to see them travel billions of years, across billions of miles, all that hard work, just to sparkle in the sky for one night—they literally travel worlds to shine for a single day. Come nightfall, they have one chance to light up the sky. At the same time, you can’t really count stars at all. There are so many; as soon as you get to one hundred, you lose count. I would like to count all the stars before I die.”
Interviewer: If you stand on your hands, where will you walk? How will you fall? And who’s going with you?
“I would walk to heaven to see my brother John and his sister Kirby. They both died in a train accident after they were kidnapped and left for dead on the tracks. I would take them with me and visit my friends, my grampa, my mom and my dad, and my goldfish. And I wouldn’t fall. I would wait until the world around me righted itself to my perspective. I don’t conform to the world; the world conforms to me.”
Interviewer: You get to grant someone a wish — who is that person? What is the wish?
“I would tell Mirna, my baby sister, to be strong. She has terminal cancer; she has about two more months. In her final days, I would give her the happiest time of her life. I would read her Cinderella as many times as she wants, watch all the Disney movies, sew her a new toy, anything she’d like. I wouldn’t save her because I believe that fate has laid us a path that we must follow. I guess our family is cursed. Maybe not. Maybe we just have twisted paths.”
Interviewer: What is the best dessert you’ve ever eaten? What was it made out of? Where did it come from?
“It was an almond galette. (That’s gah-let, not gay-let, like I thought.) It was my eighth birthday and I was obsessed with anything and everything French. I had one striped dress my gramma sent me from France that I wore every day. Aunt Ella made me a galette—a type of pie with a creamy almond filling, flaky pie crust, and toasted almonds on top. It took the whole of me not to eat the entire thing!”
Interviewer: If you could disappear into a colour for a day, what colour would it be? What day?
“I would disappear into the beautiful cornflower blue of the sky and watch everyone. When I cry, it rains, and when I’m happy, I’ll move out of the way to let the sun shine through. I would do it on Mirna’s birthday so she could see the amazing colour. Blue is my favourite colour because it makes people feel relaxed, and I have to keep my family happy and calm so they don’t worry about the troubles in our past. I would love to stay up there and fall asleep on a cloud, then come down the next day and give someone else a turn to rule the skies. I would let Mirna go next so she can always be with us.”
I can’t seem to press the post button
The button is only letting me push it when i have anything but the actual piece in the comment box
I love most to count the things that usually don’t, not to everyone else, really. I make it a point to count the guy that sits at the back of the class, that fades into the woodwork. One of the people that no one knows the name of, one of the voiceless. I count the ideas of the exuberant kid that is a sore thumb even among the sorest of thumbs. Because he deserves to count, right? To not just be dismissed as an enthusiastic kid. I count the black sheep, even when I sleep. I count the double entendres, and the real-life metaphors. I count the spaces between the lines, I count the corners in a room. I count peoples’ actions, all the while knowing the power of words. I count things in terms of heart, not mind. I count the poems I accidentally write. The things in this infinity that are impossible to count are numerous indeed, but I know you can’t count exactly how much you love someone. You can’t count the hatred you can feel towards so many, nor the shame you feel for blind hatred. You can’t count how much the memory of a Friday afternoon at the park means, no, you simply cannot. You can’t count the number of dreams that have died in this little world of ours, and you can’t count how euphoric music can make you feel. Funny, ain’t it, how there’s a seemingly endless number of things you can’t count.
If I could stand on my hands, I would walk to a place full of the other people that walked on their hands, because everyone else would snicker at me. And once I found these people, these people I thought were like me, just because they walked like me, I would learn something. That I was horribly wrong. And so I would leave the People-That-Could-Walk-On-Their-Hands, and find people that, quite frankly, just wouldn’t snicker. Or take everything so literally. I would fall the way I always fell, with a quiet smile on my face and knowing I had the legs,erm, arms, to walk again. Just because I had changed wouldn’t mean that I would hurt differently. And you know who’d march in my parade with its leader walking on two hands? It would be all the people that had never even realized that I had begun to walk on two hands. Yeah. Those people.
Well, obviously, if I had to grant someone a wish, it would be Billy Joel. Or maybe Marilyn Monroe, I’d say she deserves a wish, wouldn’t you? All the candles that burned out way before their legends, I guess, would be good candidates for a wish. But back to Billy Joel, well, I thought, why the hell not give the man a wish? What entitles one person to a wish more than another? Nothing, I think, in the grand scheme of things. But it’ll matter to the person that has it. You see, my main reason in giving this guy a wish is that I have no clue as to what he’d do with it. What can I say, I’m a curious dude. For all I know, he could wish for an apocalypse in which the world is overrun by kittens, and I would be cool with that. Maybe he’ll wish for world peace, but then I would have a problem, because that would be quite a waste of a wish. I mean, you could wish for a goddamn talking wolf. But I don’t think Joel is that type of person. So, what my original point was, that bestowing upon him a wish was simply for the carpe diem. It was for living the life. As the proverb goes, “may you live in interesting times”. May you always, sir.
Well, I think there’s no way to overthink this one(actually, there are lots of ways I could interpret dessert, but it would just be confusing), alors(yes, I enjoy inserting random bits of French into my writing, even if I can’t speak it particularly well), I shall say my favourite dessert is the strawberry cheese strudel from Tim Hortons. And if you just muttered “silly Canadian”, then I suggest you stop reading this, you horrendous person that has contempt towards Canadians. Because we aren’t as nice as you think we are. Carrying on, the strawberry cheese strudel, is, I am hoping, made from strawberry and cheese, otherwise I will be rather alarmed at what exactly I have put into my system. It also has a light, flaky pastry around it, with a sugar topping, so, yes, I know it’s not good for me. Not to sound bitter or anything. Ha-ha, I used bitter in a paragraph about desserts. Sweet. Okay, I’ll stop now. I like to think that Canadian Gnomes make it in or forests, so don’t deny it and entitle me this.
If I could disappear into a colour for a day….hmm, impossible to take this literally. Well, the colour would have to be black, and before you sigh and say “emo”, or whatever other label that people have to give in order to feel comfort, hear me out, you judgemental cretin. I am in no way a masochist, but being swallowed by black, almost like the cover of night, would be invigorating like nothing else. Imagine it, being the colour black. Being peoples’ darkest thoughts, seeing the true shadows in the face of humanity. Being the 7 Deadly Sins, which are, arguably, most of the face of humanity that I referred to a couple lines back. The black that flits between the shadows of the sun, fore, if you really want light, the sun that gives you all, then you’ll have to take the darkness, too. You can’t just take one. Black is in a little bit of everything, and if for a moment I could be EVERYTHING, to the farthest reaches of our universe, to the twisted things in the minds of humans, even if for a moment, I would take it. Granted, I am sure I would go insane, but I’ve never been one to like being sane. I would be the things people did in shame, the things no one would tell to even their closest. And on what day would I do this? Halloween, of course. Hopefully, I’d meet a medley of the supernatural.
Never mind, the button was just goading me, it’s all good now
Congratulations to this week’s winners: Salami and Sarun.
Thanks for your great submissions. 🙂
Hi Salami — I wanted to let you know that you’re one of the winner for this contest. Please let me know to which branch of the Toronto Public Library I should send your book prize. Thanks!