The kids are back to school and our summer place is winterized. The leaves have mostly fallen and next Monday is my husband's birthday when all the kids in the neighbourhood celebrate by dressing in disguise and begging him for candy. What fun!
Usually I don't write much in the summer as I'm too busy enjoying the weather. This summer I did manage to start a few short stories, won a contest to have a story I wrote a decade ago included in a local anthology and celebrated the end of the season by participating in the Anvil Press 3-day novel writing contest over the Labour Day weekend. But, the highlight of my summer was finding out that my nine year old would also be published.
I sent a story that he wrote into the Poetry Institute of Canda's contest and he won second place with his short story Robots, just published in Monsters at Midnight Anthology. My 11 year old son is an avid drawer and writer too so I'd like to get his art on my website and his writing into the contest next time around. My boys are by far the best thing I ever 'created'. Enjoy!
Robots
By Blake Cochlan
What do you call a bunch of robots? A flock, or a herd, a gaggle or a gang. For an inventor, a bunch of buckets of bolts are called a pain!
Why a pain you say? For one Dr. Duffy robots took over his lab and turned it upside down.
One morning as he enjoyed a donut at the local Tim Hortons, Dr. Duffy’s latest experiment Seven sat up, opened his heavy iron lids and looked around.
Seven saw tubes and wrenches, a blow torch and screwdriver on the table beside him. Six failed inventions lay on the floor at his feet. Piles of metal, the inventions suddenly stirred and stared at Seven. Their heads were not attached to their bodies. Some of them didn’t even have arms or legs. Still they stared and he stared back.
Then Six and Five smiled, Four winked, Three blinked, Two giggled and One hiccupped. Seven decided he would fix them and then they’d all have a party.
Seven grabbed the wrenches and started to attach arms and legs to the inventions. Then he took the blow torch and after burning a hole in the floor and ceiling, aimed it just right. Seven welded the heads to the bodies so that One, Two, Three, Four, Five and Six were finally fixed.
