Read the contestants’ opening sentences and vote for one TO BE ELIMINATED. For the opening sentences, scroll down or click on the contestants’ names in the sidebar. The poll closes at midnight, August 13th. You can find out who was eliminated and learn what the Round 2 challenge is in a video that will be posted on the night of the 14th. All of the results of this poll will be made public on the 15th (Igor is exempt from this round of elimination voting since he received the most votes in the pre-competition* poll for favorite contestant).

*To read the pre-competition writing by the contestants, see the First Ten Days on Twitter, or the Roundup of the 10 Literary Dares or the Chain Story.

Every unhappy family is indeed unhappy in its own way, but the truth is that it is no different for the happy ones.

I

Once upon a time,
(’twas the year 1284 to be exact),
the Hamelin hamlet suffered;
its easy days attacked;
the victims were the children,
and hence the elders too,
Pied Piper the offender,
revenge for payment due;
just two returned, one blind, one dumb,
they both had lagged behind;
of the blind boy’s life I now shall tell:
his tale deserves our time.

Lucid dreaming had helped Willow face her inner Kali and uncover the gem-studded glories of her inner bodhiverse, but only after she returned from her first astral projection, bathed in tears of joy and Universal Light, did she realize that there are no walls or barriers, that all life is pure energy, and that the only limits to our absolute freedom are those that we impose upon ourselves.

“Our top informant just delivered intelligence that leads us to believe there is a plot, likely al Qa’ida-based, to assassinate the president before the new year,” the bureau chief said to Frank Braun, “so what I need to know, Frank, is whether your private dislike of the Obama administration might in any way handicap your new assignment: to track down and, where necessary, eliminate the terrorist operatives.”

The old man payed Yiannis 300 euros which is how much it costs for two of us for whole night at 150 each (its more cheaper during day – 60 for sex one time and 80 for twice) and then drove us to a village house outside Limassol which didn’t have even air conditioning so by the time we go to bedroom he was dripping and we could see all the black curly hairs on his back squashed under his sweaty white underwear shirt.

Life had never posed much of a challenge until the day I lost the ability to walk.

Call me fido, cuz i’m the ultimate rover doggin’ the white whale, cuz I’m the red baron snoop rappin’ and fightin’ and writin’ on the kennel, cuz i’m the cujo messin’ with your pinto brain, cuz i’m the “who’s your doggy” dawg your mamma don’t want you to meet, cuz i’m the zombie raisin’ hell in doggone zomcom, cuz i’m the taco bell chihuahua who turned ren after too many jalapenos, cuz i’m scooby doo and dino rolled up into one fatty yabba dabba doobie, cuz i’m bo, yo, ‘from the doghouse to the whitehouse,’ cuz i can roll with cerberus or anubis, tartarus or cannabis, cuz i’m goofy and droopy, benji and lassie, beethoven and rin tin tin, cuz i’m the everyman, so call me what you want, just don’t call me pavlov’s dog.

Don’t believe the sugarcoated fiction that a girl should sit back and wait for the right boy to traipse along, because the hard reality (and if any place will teach you this it’s merciless Manhattan) is that if you don’t hunt for your man, you’ll end up with a sewer rat, not a golden stag.