So here's how to do it:
Take the nearest six to ten books from your shelf.
Open them to page 23, and find the fifth sentence.
Write down those sentences and arrange them to form a short story.
Post the text in your journal along with these instructions.
The story:
On Market Day that winter we arrived at the gates of the city as the Prime bells began to ring in the dark morning. Animals oohh-ed, animals aahh-ed.
"A shithole," my mother said, and even at the age of seven, I thought, "Yes, she's right. This is a shithole." Can someone tell her, please, to go home?
Even if they managed to ship the coal back, there would be no place in the cannery to store the six hundred tons. The now of global finance and media was rendered in almost sinister understatement as, shortly after the towers fell, on the website of the World Trade Center, its firm listing was, it said, "outdated." She feels hunger, but she's forgotten what the feeling means. And then it occurred to me what had happened: she had jumped out the bedroom window.
The lyrics meant nothing to him, either, but the melonchaly was enough. May the Almighty Father keep you and in His kindness watch over your exploits.
The booklist:
"The testament of YVES GUNDRON" by Emily Barton; "Beowulf" tranlation Seamus Heaney; "How to breath underwater: stories" by Julie Orringer; "Naked" by David Sedaris; "A Sideways Look at Time" by Jay Griffiths; "My Life in Heavy Metal: stories" by Steve Almond; "The Bridegroom: stories" by Ha Jin; "Middlesex" by Jeffrey Eugenides; "Snowball's Last Chance" by John Reed; and, "Choke" by Chuck Palahniuk.
