photo credit: _MG_3387 via photopin (license)

Wow. Can you believe it?

Catherine Ryan Hyde, Kimberly Pauley, Andrew Smith and I have had a running bet for five years now.  Good gravy, time flies.

Here’s the gist: we place a friendly “wager” on the Kentucky Derby. We each pick a horse (not necessarily by their odds of winning but more based on some sort of personal connection we feel with the horse’s name).  Whoever’s horse comes in ahead of all the other chosen horses (not necessarily win, place, or show, just besting the others) is the winner. This person then provides the person whose horse came in next with a title and that person must then write a short story using that title. The person who came in second then passes a different title on to the person who came in third and so on. You can learn about the origin of this bet here.

Last year, we had some new blood and were joined by David Lubar, who is sadly unable to participate again this year. But the four original betters are back and ready to provide the world with free short stories based on titles we have no say in whatsoever. It’s fun. And scary.

This year, Andrew Smith is offering a prize to the random Twitter person who picks a horse for him. This person will get a character named after them in Andrew’s story (if, in fact, Andrew loses the bet; he won one year). NOTE: This offer is true as of this writing. First come/first served. Once Andrew has his horse picked for him, this is no longer valid. Andrew’s horse has been chosen.

Here are links to the past short stories from our losers:

2014
2013
2012
2011 (This link from Kimberly is great in that it rounds up all the stories.)

Here’s to five years of mayhem with three writers I’m very fond of. Cheers!