Tuesday, May 3, 2011

a little wager on the ponies


On Saturday, what will your horses be doing?

Mine won't be watching television.

They're grounded, and I took their PS3 away from them, too.

Which reminds me... I should put a picture of my horses on the blog this week, since it's all springy and stuff here in California.

But just because I keep horses doesn't mean I have any kind of edge on what's going on Saturday. To be honest, I hope I lose.

If you haven't heard, here's what's happening: There's this little race called The Kentucky Derby. I know... few people care about that. What they really are dying to see is how theses horse named Uncle Mo, Archarcharch, Dialed In, and Pants On Fire finish up overall.

Advance Warning to my Neighbors: If you hear me screaming PantsOnFire!PantsOnFire!PantsOnFire! Saturday... don't call the cops on me like last time.

There's this little wager going on between four writers, who, as one of them said, should probably know better. The thing was brought up initially by author Brian Farrey (author of With You or Without You), in a blog entry of his about the genesis of a short story by Stephen King.

On Twitter, Brian asked if anyone would like to make a similar bet with him, and he got three takers: me, Catherine Ryan Hyde (Pay It Forward, among others), and Kimberly Pauley (Sucks To Be Me).

The bet goes like this: Each of us has a horse racing in the Kentucky Derby (I checked the stats on mine... ugh). Whoever has the horse among the four that finishes ahead of the rest gets to tell writer number 2 a title for a short story. That writer then has to write a story and post it on their blog. Writer 2 does the same for number 3, who also lavishes the assignment on number 4.

The result should be interesting... and our readers will get three brand new short stories from our collective losses.

Like Catherine, I'm kind of hoping I lose.

Big time.

Stuff is showing up on Twitter under the hash tag #TheBet.

You can read more about the bet on Catherine Ryan Hyde's blog here.


Kimberly Pauley's website is here.

And the genius behind this event, Brian Farrey, has his website here.

You can also read some stats on our horses here.


Go Pants On Fire!!! Have a big meal and jog it in.