Too Old?/Al Blanchard Award

You can read my humorous essay about a visit to the dentist, "Dental Correction," at You&Me. No, that's not me in the photo!

Thought for the Week: Success comes in cans, not can'ts. ~ Brian Tracy

Too Old?

How often have you heard people say, “I’m too old for this?” Some of my writer friends have said it, and none of them is close to 96. That’s how old Herman Wouk is as Simon & Schuster prepare to publish his latest novel in the fall of 2012. Simon & Schuster published Wouk’s first novel, Aurora Dawn, in 1947. Wouk’s new book, The Lawgiver, is an epistolary novel about a group of people making a movie about Moses in the present day. The story emerges from letters, memos, emails, journals, news articles, recorded talk, tweets, Skype transcripts, and text messages.

In between these two works, he penned The Caine Mutiny, winner of the 1952 Pulitzer Prize in fiction, Marjorie Morningstar, Youngblood Hawke, and The Winds of War, among others.

Not only does his life show us that we are never too old to write, he busts the myth about needing a place to write. He wrote Aurora Dawn while serving in the navy during World War II. He began writing The Caine Mutiny while a reserve officer on a training cruise aboard an aircraft carrier.  

2012 AL BLANCHARD AWARD

http://crimebake.org/Al.htm

Deadline: April 30, 2012
Maximum word length: 5,000

You may submit up to two unpublished crime stories in one of the following genres: mystery, thriller, suspense, caper, and horror. (No torture/killing of children or animals.) Either you must be a New England author or your story must have a New England setting.

The prize includes $100, publication in Level Best Books' tenth Crime Fiction anthology, and admission to the Crime Bake Conference in November. The winner is not required to attend the conference.