Red October

Welcome to this week’s Reno News & Review.

We’ve got a new contest this fall! Turn to page 26 in this week’s issue to see an editorial promo with all the details, but the short version is this: We’re asking for your best stories about menstruation.

Oh, I can hear the eyeballs popping out of a few heads at the mere mention of the word. But part of the point of this contest is to destigmatize menstruation. After all, it’s a regular part of human life that the majority of the human population has to deal with on a monthly basis.

And come to think of it, maybe “contest” isn’t exactly the right word. We just want to hear some stories. Some funny, some poignant. Whatever you’ve got. It’s sort of like the red-band version of our annual 95-word fiction contest that we’ve been publishing forever.

We’ll publish our favorite stories, and you’ll also get the opportunity to read your pieces onstage at a concert in November that we’re putting together with the fine folks over at the Holland Project and Planned Parenthood. But even if you wouldn’t want to read your story up onstage, don’t let that discourage you from submitting. We won’t make you.

Our associate editor, Jeri Chadwell, wrote the copy for the promo and the sample story. When we were discussing the promo, Jeri said, “Tell us about your first, your worst, your latest, your last …”

I jumped in with: “Your funniest, your sexiest …”

As I said this, Jeri gave me one of her patented above-the-glasses glares that let me know immediately that it was a much better idea for her to write the copy rather than me.