In a continuing effort to hone my writing skills, I submitted a 1,000-word short short story titled “The Other Woman,” in competition for the Bevel Summers Prize. The prize is offered by Shenandoah, the literary review sponsored by Washington and Lee University in Lexington, Virginia.

I wrote “The Other Woman” in the vein of O. Henry’s short stories. False assumptions are made by the narrator throughout the story. She and the reader do not know the truth until the end of the story. It will be interesting to see how the story is received, since O. Henry’s style is not in vogue today. It was through reading the short stories of O. Henry that I developed my love of short stories.

Never one to conform or to do things just because “everybody’s doing it,” I wrote this short short story the way I wanted to write it. If I enjoy a story with a surprise ending, perhaps other readers do as well.

The winner of the 2015 Bevel Summers Prize will be announced in August. I will report on this blog when I learn my story’s fate.