At the beginning of each year the Codex Writers’ Group hosts a competition called Weekend Warrior, wherein participants are given five story prompts that must be sculpted into vaguely presentable lumps of story no greater than 750 words.  Naturally, the prompts are delivered on Friday night and the stories due by Sunday, because it wouldn’t be Weekend Warrior if we weren’t all panicking.

I’d say there are no prizes for Weekend Warrior, but that’s not entirely true.  Sure, you won’t win a ribbon, medal or gold-sprinkled victory-donut, but you will end up with all sorts of feedback from the other 30ish writers in your division, which is a prize more valuable than most trophies and baked goods.   Also, Weekend Warrior forces people to write on a deadline, and that’s not a bad thing for a guy whose motivation is often in short supply.

As you may have guessed from the title of this post, this is all leading somewhere:  I’ve sold one of my five Weekend Warrior stories from this year.

Specifically, it was my week-one story, titled “Tomorrow’s Forecast.”  I combined two of the week’s five prompts for this piece:  one that asked me to write a story where weather was relevant to the plot, and one that asked me to write an argument between two people who have known each other a long time.

At the suggestion of my good friend and critique partner Alex Shvartsman, I submitted my story to Mike Resnick at Galaxy’s Edge.  Fifty-three minutes later, there was a contract in my inbox.

So special thanks to Alex, not only for sending me Mike’s way, but for reading an early draft of “Tomorrow’s Forecast” and wisely suggesting I cut a huge chunk out of both the intro and conclusion.  The story is much stronger for it!