Top 3's and a short story competition.

For those of you that aren't aware I work in retail and for Christmas this is, as I'm sure is not much of a surprise, a busy time.

Writing the Icon Post on a Thursday is one of the most enjoyable things that I do with the blog and I want to continue with them for the foreseeable future. However I need to be realistic about how much I'll be working over December and how much later I will potentially be getting home on a Thursday evening, particularly if I'm going to be based in Poole. I therefore thought it would be wise to take a break from the Icon Post for December and pick them up again in the New Year from the 7th with @WH1SKS' final topic. So there will be two more this year before I call a pause.

However I'm not going to do nothing in December on the Blog and thought I could use December's Thursdays to do my Top 3's of the year and a brief explanation of each for why. So my top three albums, my top three films and my top three TV shows of 2009.

Short Story Competition

So what am I after? A short story, no more than a 1000 words, emailed to me by the 23rd of December. The story must have a Christmas theme but I'd prefer it if you avoided the religious aspects. The winner gets their story published on the blog on Christmas Day and a prize. 2nd and 3rd place get their stories published on New Years Day.

I'd been thinking about doing something like this for a while but thought it might be worth while trying it for Christmas. There will be a prize of a years subscription to a magazine of your choice for the winner. (Which you'll get in February when I'm solvent again post Xmas.)

If you don't have my email message me on twitter or put a message on my facebook page and I'll send it to you.

If no one enters no one gets the prize, but I know some of you are creative, so get your thinking caps on and if you live in foreign climbs (not the UK) I'll think of an alternate prize.