Vegas Valley Book Festival 2014

If you like book things and live in Las Vegas, then you ought to know about the annual Vegas Valley Book Festival. http://vegasvalleybookfestival.org/

Honestly, a book festival in Las Vegas. Didn't you know? We're cultured bro.

There is free food, so writers come out of the woodwork for it. And have I mentioned there are lots of books?

This year I’ll be on the “Las Vegas Writes” panel with a few other local authors such as fellow Illiterati-member Mercedes M. Yardley, Scott Dickensheets, David Armstrong, Heidi Kyser, Joseph Langdon, Launce Rake, Moniro Ravanipour, Geoff Schumacher, and T.R. Witcher.

The panel is 11 AM on Saturday Oct 18^th (in the Auditorium)

Come by and heckle!

Here’s the deets:

Vegas Valley Book Festival

Historic 5th Street School

401 S. 4th Street, Las Vegas NV 89101

Acceptance and Contest Win: Dark Fuse & Vegas Valley Book Fest 2013

Well, it's been a productive past few months.

While I've been neck deep in the heavy rewrites and revisions of my current WIP (work in progress for all you not yet in the know), I've also been throwing my proverbial hat into the ring by submitting short stories all over the place.

1) My short story "The Resurrectionist" won 2nd place in the 2013 Vegas Valley Book Festival Flash Fiction contest. (I'll be reading my winning entry at the VVBF on Saturday Nov 2nd at noon in the small courtyard of the old 5th street schoolhouse in downtown Las Vegas)

2) My short story "Rainmaker" was just picked up by Dark Fuse for their Horror d'oeuvres flash fiction outlet. Fun stuff. Rainmaker was my entry in the Killercon 2013 Creative Fiction contest, judged by the peerless Ellen Datlow and Christopher Rice (a rising star to watch).

Both stories were written on the same day (within a few hours of one another) in two timed contests. The first contest allowed 90 minutes to write, edit and submit, the second only 20 minutes.

Most of you know that I have a super-duper writers group. The Illiterati.

Watch out, better hide your kids, hide your wife.

One of the best things about having a group in this solitary life of a writer is that you roll together. Any triumph for one is a triumph for all. Life is better when you travel as a pack.

In September the Illiterati as a group entered two short story contests in a row: The Killercon 2013 Creative Fiction contest and the 2013 Vegas Valley Book Festival Flash Fiction contest.

We won both.
(Congrats to Matt Czarnowski for his Illiterati-representing Killercon win!)

I credit as much to our own (growing) writing ability as I do to the sense of friendly competition of "outwriting" one another. I admire and enjoy the unique writing voice and style of each member of my group, and to go head-to-head with them is both an honor and a real challenge.

What are you waiting for? Find some like-minded writers and start yourself a writers group. You won't know what you're doing at first, but you'll learn.

Ukulele Madness

Others have done great Killercon 2013 debriefs (such as John Palisano), so I won't rehash any of that.

Instead I'll tell you that Mercedes and I brought our ukuleles to the convention.

Now, just so's you know, my ukulele super-powers are well documented. (example 1: World Horror Con with Mort Castle, example 2: audio/video proof ) But on with my blog...

Ukuleles bring joy wherever they go.
Joy. And astonishment.

Christopher Rice totally amazed by our AC/DC rendition

And sometimes violence.

Michael Bailey and Mercedes M. Yardley remembering The Clash

But the important thing is that ukuleles bring people together.

Passing the ukes around with John Skipp

One thousand million pounds of love go out to my pals who shared and shredded the humble four strings of fury (meaning, my ukulele)

Michael Bailey, Matt Czarnowski, John Skipp, John Palisano, Sarah Peed, Mike McCarty, Stacy Scranton-Morgan, Edmund Colell, and the half dozen I probably also forgot... (oops)

So everyone should go buy themselves an ukulele. I'll wait right here while you do.

And a few of you will be able to view this video of me playing "Hurt" by Nine Inch Nails on the ukulele.
(That's John Palisano on wall drums and Mercedes M. Yardley on chocolate chip shaker)

Chiral Mad 2 and Heading to Killercon

Hello boys and girls.

Got some good news, my short story "Another Man's Bones" has been accepted in the awesome anthology CHIRAL MAD 2, the follow-up to the award winning CHIRAL MAD.

Check out some of the great names I'm sharing a ToC with!

Jack Ketchum, David Morrell, Mort Castle (MORT!), Ramsey Campbell, Gene O'Neill... that's just the first reveal. (also P. Gardner Goldsmith and John Skipp via Written Backward's FB page)

There are also some awesome rumors floating about, but we'll go there if they happen. M'kay?

So with this great news, I'm off to Killercon 2013 held right here in Las Vegas NV.
I love writer conventions. And I love the people who put on and attend Killercon.

It will be a fun fun fun weekend. I'll fill you in on the deets later.

Short Story Up: The Flesh Trader

Hey peoples of the interwebz.

My award winning short story "The Flesh Trader" is in this week's Las Vegas Citylife Magazine.

(Page 13, wonderfully)

You can read the e-version here: http://lasvegascitylife.com/e-edition.php?i=2012/11/01#?page=13

Booya!

Super Duper Flash Writing Contest Winning Tips

I’m pretty stoked. Last month I entered 2 flash fiction contests and won both of them. In fact, I've won 3 out of the 5 flash fiction contests I've ever entered (the KillerCon Creative Fiction Contest in 2012, and the Vegas Valley Book Fest Flash Fiction Contest in 2010 and 2012).

(self aggrandizement alert!)

If you don’t know, flash fiction is a short short story, usually under 1000 words in length, sometimes under 500. They are stories that get in, do their story magic, and get out. They even have micro fiction which is roughly around tweet size.

 

(my own example):

 

She watched the dinner guests leave. They never asked where Greg was and she of course didn’t show them the blood and mess in the kitchen.

So naturally Flash Fiction Contests are when a group of caffeine-hazed writers are given a prompt and a short amount of time (20 minutes at KillerCon, 90 minutes at Vegas Valley Book Fest). When the buzzer goes off, you stop writing, just like a test, and then you are at the mercy of the judges.

But let’s get back to me winning. (I need to start that #arrogant twitter hashtag Mercedes[[[]]] and I joke about…)

I thought to myself, “Self,” I says, “You seem to be awesome at these things. Do you have any super-duper tips for winning?”

Well, nothing super-duper. In truth, I’d say 60% of winning at flash fiction is how far you can take your imagination and writing chops. And 20% is being able to perform under deadline. Perform coherently, I might add.

Almost all of that falls under the same writing advice you can find anywhere. (No really, most other people give way more useful writing advice than me, because I don’t really know how I do it…)

But that last little 10% leaves room for a few handy tips and tricks. Nothing fancy, mind you, but this is how I do it and maybe it will work for you. (Or at least free you up to just charge blindly ahead!)

Tip #1: Write the most compelling first line you can think of, right off the top of your head. Then come up with the story behind it.

Don’t construct an elaborate plot. Don’t try to focus on the theme, because by simply hearing it and stewing on it while waiting for someone to shout “Go” the theme is already part of your consciousness.

Make that first line sing. Don't worry about where the story will go. Just write something that can't be ignored.

Mine was "The hardest part was not killing the kids, but cutting them up to fit in the furnace."

Where it came from, I don't know, but it had to be answered. I had to find out what happened next, thus I had to write it.

Tip #2: Don’t cheat and show up at the contest with a full plot or story you already wrote in your head, or worse, already wrote which you will try to recreate.

Don't do this.

It not only smells like cheating but it can backfire on you. Particularly with themes and/or key words or phrases you must use in the story. The elaborate western romance you cooked up will get hosed when the key phrase they give you is "The spaceship docked on the dark side of the moon." Hosed!

(Unless you’re Joss Whedon, in which case, carry on.)

Speaking of key words and phrases, "How do you deal with any key words, or phrases they make you put into the story?" (you ask) “How do you place a word like ‘zither’ and ‘mongoose’ in a space-cowboy drama?” (you ask so many questions)

Tip #3: Love words.

 

Love words,  love how words sound, love language so deeply that you don’t just cram in obtrusive words like ‘chartreuse’ with a wink at the audience. Actually use them.

I read the dictionary for fun. I have this giant unabridged one that I like to turn to random pages (it also makes a great kid booster seat!) Words are your fundamental tools, even the awkward words.

What if you don’t know the meaning of the word? Ask. You might feel like a goober asking what a zither is, but you'll feel like a Hefty-bag of shame when you write it into your steamy romance mistakenly thinking it means a clothes fastening device.

Tip #4 Economy of words.

The opposite of this blog post.

 

I am very grateful to the estimable judges of the Vegas Valley Book Festival, and the KillerCon Creative Fiction Contest: Jack Ketchum and Grammar Girl Mignon Fogarty, Don D'Auria from Samhain Publishing, and Roy Robbins from Bad Moon Books.

I won... booze?

KillerCon 2012 Debriefed

So this year I got to be the official Volunteer Wrangler at KillerCon 4 (2012) writer's convention held here in Las Vegas, NV.

First, the good stuff: I won the 2012 KillerCon Creative Fiction Contest. Yowzah. I was up against some stiff competition, and the judges were all world class authors and editors (including Mr. Jack Ketchum and Grammar Girl Mignon Fogarty).

And it was very great to hang out with so many talented and incredibly delightful writers, many of whom I’ve met several times over the past few years of convention going as a professional writer. Seriously, everyone thinks that horror writers must be maladroit and grim all the time, but I find them to be the most wonderfully-odd-in-the-right-way sorts. We’re all a little weird around here. But delightfully so.

Speaking of weird, it was really awesome to meet the whole crew of Shock Totem. Those cats get A++ in raditude.

My writers' group, the Illiterati, and our baby

And certainly not the least of the awesome of KillerCon weekend was the release of my dear friend Mercedes M. Yardley’s first book, BEAUTIFUL SORROWS. You need to buy it now, because the first run already sold out. Yes it’s that good. Possibly one of my favorite stories ever is in it (“Luna e Volk”).

Now for some of the bad: That darn Stratosphere really made life difficult. The hospitality suite was as far from the convention across the hotel as humanly possible. And you’d think they’d populate the rooms surrounding the “party room” with KillerCon attendees, right? No, they booked them with normal guests who actually wanted to sleep at 2am in Las Vegas. The audacity.

And then there was the outright odd. I had no room. That would not normally be a problem because my house is about 15 minutes away. But I kept forgetting I didn’t have the car. So I couch surfed the whole time. No, I am only telling half the truth. I had to share a bed with my new friend (very close friends now, thank you very much) Matt C. He was a gentleman and didn’t inadvertently snuggle me. I don’t think.

But, what I am thinking would make next year’s KillerCon level up is 1) a better venue. 2) Having more interesting panels and running them two at a time with one Keynote panel in a large room towards end of day. Oh, and 3) having a designated "dinner break" hour. People are sheep, we like being told "go eat now, you have an hour".

Those are my suggestions. Oh, and 4) showgirls.

Yes, I'm big beardin it. Take a closer look, go on... touch it, I dare you.

 

KillerCon 3: The New Convention on the Block

Now it’s time for my much belated recap of KillerCon 3, an exciting new convention catering to horror and dark fiction held right here in Las Vegas, NV.
As to being belated, my poor computer was raped by a computer virus the day after the convention.

Those pictures of your mom were so not worth it.

Luckily I backup regularly (if you don’t, start NOW) but it still meant a few days downtime while I wiped the hard drive and reinstalled the OS. Fun!

But what was fun was KillerCon.

KillerCon exists because a small group of hyper dedicated people like Wrath James White, R.J. Cavender, Boyd Harris, Bailey Hunter and crew at Cutting Block Press decided that Las Vegas needs a convention, dangit! (ok, so maybe that wasn’t the reason they began KillerCon, but I’m sticking to it). These dudes and dudettes know how to make things happen.


Mercedes and I furiously trying to outwrite each other in the Creative Writing Contest
(She won... "I'll get you next time Gadget!")

Only in its third year, KillerCon in some ways shows its age—or youth—by being somewhat small and loosely organized. But far from being a distraction or detraction, those very qualities lent itself a real sense of bonhomie among the crowd of writers.

In between panels and readings and mass book signings, these veteran writers were casually rubbing elbows with us n00bs, offering us good advice and just being plain ole wonderful people.

I don’t know what the attendance numbers were for the entire weekend, but I can say that I generally saw a good 25-40 people mixing freely in the hospitality room where well-established writers—such as Jack Ketchum, Mort Castle, John Skipp, Ray Garton, Weston Ochse, Jonathan Maberry, Robert Devereaux, Jeff Mariotte and Edward Lee—connected and invested in writers just starting their careers.

In fact, it was Señor Mort Castle who really made an impact on me with his bottomless passion for writers. I mean, this guy loves writers—they energize him! After Mort did an intimate and intense two-day writers’ workshop I cornered him and pestered him with all sorts of questions about the craft—and he never flagged.



Mort Castle, Honorary Member of The Illiterati

 For that, Mort Castle has earned my respect, and the respect of the other Illiterati members who were in attendance, granting him the envious title of: “Honorary Member of the Illiterati.”

Speaking of the Illiterati, our very own Mercedes M. Yardley won 1st place in the absolutely crazy Creative Writing contest. We had 15 minutes to write a short story which had to include a list of inane words chosen by the cruel-hearted judges (OK, so it wasn’t as bad as last year where one of the words was calzone, but “chartreuse?” come on…)

KillerCon is a young convention, and suffers from the usual growing pains such as occasional chaos and “Where’d all those name badges go?” syndrome. But let me tell you, I’d take a little disarray if the pay-off is solid connections with quality writers and editors/publishers.

So, overall, KillerCon might not be the largest or most well-known horror/dark fiction writers’ convention, but you just watch next year, and the year to come. Good things are in store.

A special (alphabetical) thanks to my new friends:
Leah Anderson and Vincent Daemon of “Grave Demand” http://gravedemand.com/
Steven Booth http://www.geniuspublish.com/
Christopher Boyle
Mort Castle
R.J. Cavender
Eddie Coulter (look, dolphins!)
Misty Dahl http://mistydahl.com/
Robert Devereaux
Brad C. Hodson http://bradhodson.wordpress.com/
Bailey Hunter
Laura J. Hickman
Chris Marrs
Jason S. Reinhardt
Wrath James White
Rhonda Wilson of Monster Librarian http://www.monsterlibrarian.com/
(Forgive me if I missed someone, I’m still recovering!)

(Also, if I missed your link, let me know in the comments!)

A Thank You To My Readers (Friends!)

Wow, this first-ever vault into the wooly world of blogging has been incredible! And it's because of you groovy cats out there reading this.

So please allow me to offer you tangible thanks in the form of this:



Consider it my early Christmas present 'cause I couldn't wait.

Elvis the Zombie Hunter

It's true, not only is Elvis alive, he's a bona fide zombie hunter.

I have the proof right here, filmed by yours truly at the Las Vegas Zombie Walk.

(This video features the undead Mercedes M. Yardley)

The Immortal Art of the Deal - the short story!

It's up.

My award winning short story (I can say that, ha!) "The Immortal Art of the Deal" has been published in Las Vegas Citylife.

In case you forgot, Mercedes M. Yardley also won (read more about that here)
We will both be doing a public reading on November 6th. I plan on bringing some backup dancers and pyrotechnics. (Let's see you follow that, Mercedes!)

Read it here:

http://www.lasvegascitylife.com/articles/2010/10/28/news/local_news/iq_39226630.txt

I Won! Mercedes Won! We Won!

As some of you know I entered a writing contest put on by the City of Las Vegas for the 2010 Vegas Valley Book Festival being held downtown on Nov 3-7.

In fact, almost our whole writers group, The Illiterati, signed up to dominate the competition. And dominate we did.

The indomitable Mercedes M. Yardley and I tied for the $250 2nd place prize. (1st place winner was a guy we had all hit it off with before the contest, Kurt Rice so it feels like we kept the winneryness in the family.)

The judges were Andrew Kiraly of KNPR’s Desert Companion, Scott Dickensheets of the Las Vegas Sun, UNLV writing instructor and Schaeffer Fellow Alissa Nutting, and CityLife’s Mike Prevatt. Prizes were provided by the Vegas Valley Book Festival (thank you!) and my story “The Immortal Art of the Deal” will be published in Las Vegas CityLife magazine. (W00t!)

In addition I’ll be doing a reading of my story at the Vegas Valley Book Festival on Nov 6th at around 10:30am in the courtyard. I know you want to be there. I’m going to wear a cape. And add a few Bollywood dance scenes. It’ll be awesome.

But don’t forget, my fellow Illiterati critique partner, Mercedes M. Yardley also won. I decided to interview her, because every time I tried to interview myself I kept getting into fistfights and suing myself.

In order to get an interview with Mercedes I disguised myself as an intrepid journalist and caught her as she was walking into the Las Vegas Machine Gun store.

##

Intrepid Journalist: “Excuse me, Mercedes M. Yardley?”

Mercedes: “How did you find me? Where's my Mace? Security!”

*After the Mace has run its course and the interviewer’s eyes have stopped burning.*

Intrepid Journalist: “Ok, so Mercedes, I wanted to ask you a few questions about your surprise win at the Flash Fiction contest—and your surprise near defeat at the hands of Mason.”

Mercedes: “Well, it wasn’t near defeat. We tied. Which is awesome.”

Intrepid Mason: “Well, right. Ok. Let’s talk about you. This was a FLASH FICTION contest, limited to 500 words. I understand you have loads of experience with writing flash fiction. About how many pieces have you published?

Mercedes: “About 50 pieces. Fiction. Poetry. Nonfiction.”

Insipid Journalist: “Poetry. Like haikus?”

Mercedes *with a sharp look that threatens more Mace*: “No.” *A brief uncomfortable pause. Somewhere a dog barks, or something.* “Mason, seriously, what are you doing in that ridiculous outfit—?”

Incisor Jumblist: “Never mind that. What did you feel when we walked into the 5th street school auditorium where they were holding the contest? I felt, I mean… Mason reported that he felt like he was there to take the SAT’s all over again. Were you scared that Mason would lay the smackdown?”

Mercedes: “I was excited. Nothing gets my blood pumping like a challenge, and I was totally digging on the competitive vibe. And as for Mason? Have you seen his spindly arms? Sure, that guy can shred the guitar better than anybody I've seen, but you don't want that pantywaist to move your furniture. I wasn't afraid.”

Invader Jugglist, *looking down at his pants.* “So that’s why these underwear are so uncomfortable.”

Mercedes: “Oh, but you mean writing-wise? Maybe a little.”

*A brief interlude as Mason, I mean, interviewer does a little victory dance that involves the Pee-Wee Herman move repeated far too many times.*

Investigative Jabba-the-Huttist: “So, how much preparation did you undergo for the tie-breaker dance battle in the parkinglot?

Mercedes: “Well, I was pretty warmed up from jumping around the room and screaming, "Yeah! Finished! Booya!" after the writing contest was done. Besides that, I'd been singing "Eye of the Tiger" in my head during the entire competition, so I was pretty stoked. And who can beat this?”

*awesome dance move*

*Mason, I mean, journalist stares with wonder at the power and fractal nature of Mercedes’ dance moves.*

Implacable Burbleist: “It’s a wonder we didn’t open a time-warp nexus with our awesome dance skills. Well, back to the interview: What are some of the challenges and advantages of writing flash fic?”

Mercedes: “The challenges are that it's difficult to condense your story down to its very essence. It takes discipline to make every word count. Also, a lot of people don't take it seriously as an art form.

“But the advantages rock. Flash is great because you get to explore an idea quickly. It's satisfying to write something start-to-finish without it taking months or even years, like a novel. And it's great from a magazine's perspective because sometimes we need something short and sweet to take up a little space in the mag, and flash fits the bill. It's very versatile."

Insensitive Chupacabralist: “Wow, well there you have it. I want to thank you for taking the time to—“

Mercedes: “Hey, is that a giant wombat behind you?”

*Mason turns to look. Mercedes runs away*

[[end transmission]]


A HUGE thank you to Brian Rouff at Imagine Marketing for hosting the contest and providing a wealth of information for this blog post.

The Vegas Valley Book Festival - the largest literary event in Las Vegas - will take place Nov. 3-7. More than 100 authors participate in festival events, which include literary and art panel discussions, readings, book signings, workshops, poetry readings, spoken word performances, exhibitions and other special programs. Most events are free and open to the public.

The Vegas Valley Book Festival is produced by the City of Las Vegas Office of Cultural Affairs, Las Vegas-Clark County Library District, UNLV’s Black Mountain Institute, Las Vegas Review-Journal, the local chapter of AIGA, the professional association for design; and Nevada Humanities, a festival founder.

For more information about the Vegas Valley Book Festival, call 702-229-5431 or visit www.vegasvalleybookfestival.org.

Stop Twittering About It and WRITE

Ask anyone to whom I ever talk writing and they'll tell you that I get a little crazy-eyed.

I'm a bit of an instigator. Mostly I instigate more writing. Sometimes I instigate things like the following photograph.



Back Row, Left - Right: Mason Ian, Mercedes M. Yardley, Hollan Johnson, billie "the girl" bundschuh
Front Row, with intense eyes and a sparkly tank-top of sparkliness: Battle Bunny



I'll let you look at that picture a moment longer.

Yes, I was responsible for that. These are the sorts of antics we get up to at our writers group.

The Illiterati, if you're not one of us, you've never experienced... well... just look at that photo again.

Anyhow, I'm an instigator. But more than that, I've discovered that I'm a motivator. I want to see people live their dream of becoming a writer. It excites me when I talk to other writers.

One of the things I'm always getting crazy-eyed about is: "If you want to be a writer, you've gotta write."

Sounds simple, but I can't tell you how many people I've heard say something along the lines of: "Oh, I'm a writer too, but I don't really have time to write. I used to write in high school, and my mom says it was really good. I'm just waiting until I have more time. I've been working on this novel for 10 years now. I've got a few chapters kinda done."

Among all of this I want to ask them how they have the audacity to call themselves writers.

See, writers write. NOW. Not, they used to write. Not they're thinking of writing, or telling everyone on Twitter or facebook that they write. THEY WRITE. Nothing can stop them from writing. They'd use a sharpened toothbrush and their blood for ink if they had to.

We're not talking about literary merit. That's something for the critics to argue. We're just saying, writers write. It may be dross, it may be plotless and full of Mary Sue characters, but it's been written!

*ahem. I just caught myself ranting. See? There's the proof of my crazy-eyed passion about motivating people to write.

So it was a fun treat to have my craziness quoted over at "Musings of a Scattered Mind" a blog by new friend and self-described geek chick going by the Twitter handle: Asheyna.

Let me finish by saying this: Writers write. They can talk about writing, blog about it, dream about it, and twitter about it. But they also do it.

If ever you find yourself doing more talking, blogging, dreaming or twittering about writing than actual writing, you might want to consider how serious you are about being a writer.

Also you can never ever ever complain about not having the time to write. I bet some of you would weep and gnash your teeth if you compared word-count between twitter and your WIP, or blogging and your still-unfinish-novel.

Do I walk the walk?

Heck yeah, once I click submit I'm turning off the internet and writing. Booyah!

Atmosphere and Sonic Explosions

Making music has some interesting similarities to writing fiction.

Particularly: "Where do your ideas come from?"

Honestly it's as if they came straight from the aether without preamble or consideration. You can sense the imminence of it all, the crackle of electricity in the air.

You pick up the guitar or open the notebook. The page is still blank, the notes are still hidden. But they are right there, waiting.

The shiver of purpose and meaning gaining momentum like a pressure from the air around you and suddenly you make something like this.

Dance Battles and Short Story Contests

Or, Is That a Flash Drive In Your Pocket, or Are You Just Happy To See Me?


This weekend I got a chance to compete in a flash fiction contest put on by the City of Las Vegas for the Vegas Valley Book Festival.

To make it more awesome, billie the girl and Mercedes M. Yardley from my super-awesome critique group, The Illiterati, joined in and we strolled into the place like the three amigos.


It was fun to meet other writers, see some familiar faces from the local writer’s group meetup (Las Vegas Writers Group), and try to write a winning 500 word short story off a prompt for the chance at $500. (Dude, that’s a buck a word.)

But the best laid plans of mice and men often go awry. When the 90 minutes of write time was up we had to turn in our pieces to be judged. There are many possible ways this could have been accomplished, but the way chosen was to load your story onto your own personal flash drive, turn it into the contest coordinator to keep for several weeks while they figure out the winners.

Someone offered to let everyone use their flash drive and put all the stories onto one. I suspected a sabotage attempt. Mercedes aptly dubbed it the Syphilis Drive. That made me think of someone holding out their used Kleenex and saying “Hey, anyone else need to blow? I don’t want this to go to waste.”

Flash drives. Yeah, I can picture the logistics planning meeting:

“How’re we gonna collect the contest entries?”

“Oh, I know. They can just turn in the Word files on their personal flash drives with no distinguishing personal features. I’ll give them back at some indeterminate time.”

“But… it seems that things could go a little wrong there. They might get lost; computer viruses are transmitted by flash drives; or people might have personal files or data on them…”

“Relax, we’re the government. What could go wrong?”

At least after the contest Mercedes and I had an epic Dance Battle in the parking lot. Video evidence was confiscated and destroyed in the interest of national security.

But it looked something like this:



Oh yeah, we won't know if we won for another few weeks, so stay tuned (all three of you)