Ayatollah's Challenge

Hurrah! The sky is blue! There are no clouds! The sun is shining! It's a beautiful day in the Big Apple!

Last week, amid the Noah-like deluges, I received an e-mail from friend Chris in Southern California:

"Bill -
More about this later, but I was on the phone with Tino yesterday, and he
accepted a challenge I put to him...for each of us to write a short
story of at least 10 pages by January 1, 2006, for submission (which will not be
accepted, of course), to at least one outlet. He suggested I let you know about
this, which I thought was a great idea. The timing of this is partially related
to the fact that I will be off-track in November-December, and he is likely to
be furloughed with the end of the summer fire season..."

Challenge accepted, of course. I love a good challenge, especially if it involves writing. Details to follow, but I'd like to consider publishing our submissions here on BillyBlog. Of course, Tino and Chris have not agreed to this, but hopefully they will agree.

I am referring to this as "The Ayatollah's Challenge." Why? Well, much to Chris' embarassment, his ATO pledge name was Ayatollah. Why? Because no one could come up with anything obscene for Chris, and in a moment of desperation, Mike Smotherman suggested the name of the late Iranian madman. Chris is neither Iranian, nor a religious fanatic, nor one to pronounce fatwah on Indian-born novellists living in England and/or New York.

So, game on, dudes. Perhaps this public declaration will further spurn us on in this creative endeavor.