Playing it safe

Welcome to this week’s Reno News & Review. I’m pleased to tell you that 95-Word Fiction entries are pouring in every day. We don’t actually read them until after the contest closes (9:01 a.m., Jan. 11) and the entries have been compiled in a document, sans names. But, as they come in, I may catch the first line of one. It’s fun, like a teaser—though in some cases I recognize entries I’ve read in years past. Anyway, keep them coming!

If you saw my letter here last week, you may have noticed that I mentioned prizes that may possibly be awarded to 95-Word Fiction entrants. In the promo for this contest, it notes that those prizes are the possibility of earning bragging rights and the chance to have your name, and maybe even photo, published when the issue prints on Jan. 25. I mean, just so you know, we’re not talking prizes in the tangible sense, OK?

New Year’s Eve is coming up pretty quickly, and I can’t believe the number of things that will be going on here in the Truckee Meadows and in Lake Tahoe, Carson City and Virginia City. If you’re wondering what to do, grab an actual copy of the paper while you’re out and flip to page 30 to check out the New Year’s Eve calendar page. Our awesome, talented Calendar editor, Kelley Lang, puts this thing together every year—scouring listings from around the region to provide you with a comprehensive list of ways to ring in the New Year.

I hope 2018 is a really good one for all of you. And I’m feeling the holiday spirit, so I’ll go ahead and make a broad request. Know when to play it safe. After you’ve had a few drinks on Dec. 31, play it safe. Don’t drive. When you’re working on your 95-Word Fiction entries, don’t play it safe. Maybe have a few drinks.