Tickets to Neil Gaiman at MIT, May 23

When I heard tickets were still available for Neil Gaiman's talk at MIT next month, I snarfed up as many as they'd sell me, on the theory the event would sell out fast. It turns out that the most obvious people for me to take either already have tickets or (gasp!) aren't interested.

So I have three tickets to give away. What better way to decide who gets them than a writing contest?

I will give one ticket to the author of the best submission in each of these categories:

short-short story

Not to exceed 300 words; any genre you like, including non-fiction.

poem

Nothing longer than 15 lines. I have nothing against free verse, but will probably look a little more favorably on traditional forms; I'm currenlty rather fond of the Spenserian stanza. (Since many of my friends are geeks: blank lines don't count against the total.)

pitch

Not to exceed 32 words: Convince me that I want to give you one of my tickets.

The rules:
Submit your entry as a comment to this LJ post no later than noon EDT May 10, 2008. So I can more readily distinguish entries from other comments, please title your comment "Entry." (If you wish to give your entry a title per se, include it in the body of the comment, and be aware that it counts toward your word or line count.) You may submit to any or all of the categories, but please no more than five entries per person. If I think an entry fits in more than one category, I'll judge it in both — arguably doubling your odds. I will inform winners by leaving a comment on each winning entry no later than noon on May 13; if a winner fails to respond to that comment by noon May 20, I'll dispose of their ticket however I please. And if it's not obvious, I am the sole judge, my decisions are final.