Sometimes, you just gotta fight for what you believe in. Like if you believe you’re a good writer. Or if you believe you’re good enough to go toe to toe in a writer’s arena against a clever, quippy pop-culture savant who eats “authors” like you for breakfast week in and week out, against a writer who seemingly has no idea just how good he really is (I mean, c’mon Brophy where’s your book?).

If you believe as I do, then you’re going to want to check out some literal literary gladiatorial warfare on The Writer’s Arena this next week. If you’re not sure what that is, WHERE HAVE YOU BEEN? It’s an online short story contest in which two writers get the same general prompt and have one week to write a 4000 word short story, which then go head to head before two judges and the public. This will be my second time in the Arena after winning last year with “The Gaslight Consultant.”

This time’s been a bit different because I challenged Arena vet Daniel Brophy, and our lead-up to the fight has been . . . entertainingly contentious. We’ve been publicly trash talking one another via Twitter for weeks now, to the delight of many. We also put up a side challenge in which each could give the other one thing they had to include in their story, no matter the final prompt. His for me was a dead body which may or may not be me.

I told him he had to include a humpback whale in a tutu.

😉

I know that’s not entirely fair, so I upped my own difficulty level by including both my own dead body and a dancing cetacean. And the fun doesn’t stop there! We also did a pro-boxer style press conference which is pretty much guaranteed to make you bust a gut laughing:

http://thewritersarena.com/twa-press-conference-brophy-vs-mays  And “No”, that’s not my real voice.

The challenge thread goes live Monday, and the two stories vying for the win go live on Tuesday for comments and votes, with the judges’ decision coming down on Friday.

What can you do? Between Tuesday and Friday, read both stories and VOTE/COMMENT for your favorite!!!