Hello, writers,
You probably heard that Toni Morrison died Monday at eighty-eight.
So far I've read only five of her eleven novels, but my favorite, Jazz, is a book I've read about half a dozen times, and one that will probably be in my lifelong rotation.
Are any Toni Morrison books in your lifelong rotation? Hit reply to tell me about it, or to share your thoughts on Jazz.
While in Lisbon I read -- scratch that, I devoured -- Stephen Markley's novel Ohio. The book begins with a real grabber of an opening line:
"The coffin had no body in it."
As soon as I read that, I thought, What an excellent phrase for the next Micro Fiction Contest!
So your challenge this week is to write a story or scene, using fifty words or fewer, that contains "the coffin had no body in it."
The grand prize is a beautiful, unread hardcover copy of Ohio. Read the post itself for all the rules & regs.
(I realize it's kind of grotesque to use Toni Morrison's death as a lead-in to a contest revolving around a coffin. The blog post predates the news, and I wanted to talk about both. Hey, I'm doing my best here.)
Good luck, and happy writing!
