JessicaRulestheUniverse.com

Mockingjay, the highly-anticipated final novel in Suzanne Collins’s post-apocalyptic dystopian Young Adult science-fiction trilogy The Hunger Games, is now available at National Bookstores at a special introductory price of P530 (one-third off the regular price).

Be among the first to read Mockingjay, for free!

If you have read the first two novels in the series, Hunger Games and Catching Fire, tell us how the trilogy should end. What would you like to happen in Mockingjay? What would be the most satisfying conclusion? Who should live, who should go? Does Katniss live happily ever after? With whom?

Write your ideal Mockingjay plot in 500 words or less and post it in Comments by Friday, 3 September 2010. Your version of Mockingjay need not resemble Suzanne Collins’s Mockingjay, it just has to be compelling. While sticking to the basic narrative and characters of the Hunger Games books, of course.

This Special Edition of the Weekly LitWit Challenge is brought to you by National Bookstore.

All photos from Uro’s Abandoned Movie Houses series.

This LitWit Challenge is for people who love the movies. I don’t mean people who view the cinema as a two-hour escape from “real life” or something to do on their downtime, I mean those who regard the movies as extensions of their lives.

I’m from the last generation that had to go to the movie theatre in order to watch movies. It was always a major production. In the 70s and 80s movie theatres were usually standalone palaces with plush seats, velvet ropes, and red curtains. In Cubao there were theatres called Coronet, Remar, Diamond; in Greenhills Greenhills theatre; in Magallanes Magallanes; and in Makati, Rizal Theatre. Rizal Theatre also had coffee shops and an Alemar’s bookstore. It was torn down in the 80s. I think the last movie I saw there was Blade Runner.

Home video makes watching movies so much more convenient, but it also takes something away from the experience. I will always think of Cinema as sitting in the dark with a bunch of strangers and having the same dream.

Where was I? Right. Write an essay or story (maximum 1,000 words) explaining why you love the movies. Yes, you may concentrate on a single movie. No, we’re not interested in an academic treatise. Post your entry in Comments on or before Saturday, 28 August 2010 at 11.59 pm.

The prize is a copy of 2666 by Roberto Bolaño. Also, we will draw up the guest list for the Anniversary Non-Event Movie, Book and Merienda Buffet from the readers who join the LitWit Challenges in the next four weeks.

The Weekly LitWit Challenge is brought to you by National Bookstore.

Nobody. I didn’t care for the (very few) entries—not enough fury. My instructions must’ve been vague. Ah well.

We still have that copy of Roberto Bolaño’s 2666 to give away, so stay tuned for LitWit Challenge 3.4, which starts at midnight.

Apart from the shot at the prize, your entry to LitWit Challenge 3.4 could mean a ticket to our Jessicarulestheuniverse.com Anniversary Non-Event Movie, Book, and Merienda Buffet, so get ready. Here’s a clue:

From the Abandoned Movie Houses series by Uro de la Cruz

The Weekly LitWit Challenge is brought to you by our friends at National Bookstore.

The winner of LitWit Challenge 3.2: Talking Animals is. . .Cacs for the death of a celebrity chef as witnessed by 800 eyes. Congratulations! There were several fine entries in this batch; in the end we picked the funniest.

Cacs, you can pick up your prize any time starting today at National Bookstore in Power Plant Mall, Rockwell, Makati. It’s at the Customer Service counter; just give them the email address you used to register on this site.

As always, thanks to National Bookstore for our prizes.

* * * * *

This week’s LitWit Challenge is inspired by Steven Slater, the flight attendant who had a meltdown after a passenger opened the overhead bin on a taxiing plane, causing a bag to fall out and conk the FA on the head. The passenger not only refused to apologize, he told the FA to fuck off. An enraged Steven Slater cussed out the passengers on the PA system, grabbed two beers from the beverage cart, opened the emergency exit and slid down the chute to the tarmac. What self control. I would’ve opened the emergency exit and thrown the passenger off the plane, without the chute.

Here’s your writing assignment. You are having a very bad day at work (whatever your job is) or at school. You are under a lot of stress. Then someone does something he or she has been specifically told not to do, and instead of apologizing he/she tells you to fuck off. You freak out.

Write your monologue, in 700 words or less, summing up your frustration and rage at your job, your office, your employer and co-workers, ending with your spectacular exit. (If it’s too close to the truth, request to have your entry posted anonymously and we’ll assign you a number.)

The prize: 2666, the 898-page five-in-one novel by the late Chilean author Roberto Bolaño. It should keep you occupied while you’re looking for your next job.

At the very least you could drop it on the head of someone who makes your life miserable.

The deadline: 11.59 pm on 21 August 2010, anniversary of an important day in Philippine history that also had to do with airplanes.

Andiamo! Andale! The Weekly LitWit Challenge is brought to you by our friends at National Bookstore.

The winner of the Weekly LitWit Challenge 3.1: The Staircase is noelz for the tale of the Angel Sevicent’s fact-finding mission.

Congratulations, noelz, you can claim your prize any day starting Wednesday, 11 August 2010 at the Customer Service counter of National Bookstore in Power Plant Mall, Rockwell. Just tell them you won this contest and give them the email address you used to register on this site.

Thanks to everyone who joined last week’s challenge. Tip: Don’t try to do too much, don’t strain for effect, and don’t be cute.

This week’s LitWit Challenge involves anthropomorphic animals.

Yes, Detective, I saw the whole thing. He asked her to cook the rack of lamb knowing full well that she will not cook, whereupon she seized the frozen rack of lamb and gave him a solid whack on the cranium. He landed on his face and never got up. No, I can’t testify in a court of law, I’m a cat. We do not recognize your jurisdiction, and besides, whacking your mate isn’t illegal in the cat world. Happens all the time.

Write us a murder mystery in which the protagonists are human but the narrator is an animal. Any animal, but you can’t ingratiate yourself with the judge by using my cats (automatic disqualification if you do). 1,000-word maximum. Deadline Saturday, 14 August 2010. Prizes:

The Weekly LitWit Challenge is brought to you by our friends at National Bookstore.

Is it August already? Then it’s time to launch the third cycle of LitWit Challenges, brought to you by our generous friends at National Book Store.

This week your LitWit Challenge is this.

“Huh?” you exhale, squinting at the screen, “What is that?”

Why, it is a staircase. Not just any staircase, but the setting of the story you are writing for LitWit Challenge 3.1.

Your assignment is to write a story in 1,000 words or less that takes place on this staircase (You may ignore the sign). The story can be of any genre—mystery, thriller, romance, horror, comedy, historical drama, anything. It can be in prose, free verse, rhyming couplets or iambic pentameter. Its characters may be human, feline, extraterrestrial, alive, or dead. In short you have total freedom (except for the setting and the word count) and few tasks are more paralyzing than whipping up a story with no guidelines (other than the 1,000-word maximum, which will be enforced on pain of death/disqualification).

Post your entry/entries (We accept multiple submissions) in Comments. We will accept your stories until Sunday, 8 August 2010. The winner will receive this set of books:

The Man In The Yellow Doublet, a Captain Alatriste swashbuckler by Arturo Perez-Reverte
Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep, a.k.a. the novel upon which Blade Runner was based, by Philip K. Dick, and
The Global Warming Survival Handbook by David de Rothschild.

These should take care of your reading requirements for at least a week (though the Reverte is like hot buttered popcorn).

Go. The Weekly LitWit Challenge is brought to you by National Book Store.

* * * * *

Speaking of staircases here’s a good rewrite: Christopher Nolan’s Implementation.

* * * * *
First entry: Marilou’s tale of senatorial shenanigans. And we’re off!