PDF Cervantes_1613_The_Conversation_of_the_Dogs_IndyBeagle
If you plan to rewrite the story, you’ll want to begin with the editable Word doc below. Cervantes_1613_The_Conversation_of_the_Dogs
The goal is to tell the complete story in fewer words using simpler language. Don’t worry about the grade level of your writing. Just make it simple and fun to read and do your best to capture the wit and humor and personality of each of the characters. You’ll need to retell both halves of the story beginning with Part One: The Deceitful Marriage. The too-long English version you’re about to read is just over 28,000 words.
What you’re writing isn’t a translation, but a retelling. We need it to be the same story that Cervante’s wrote, but retold in shorter, plainer, more casual language, much like what Garrison Cox did in his two revisions of the Declaration of Independence. (But you don’t need to submit two revisions of The Conversation of the Dogs, only one.)
By entering, you agree to let Wizard Academy publish your work.
You will not receive royalties, but you will be free to distribute
your work in whatever additional ways you choose.
Your name will remain attached to the work, of course, as will Miguel de Cervantes.
First Prize: $3,000
Second Prize: $2,000
Third Prize: $1,000
All entries must be received by Daniel@WizardAcademy.org before midnight July 4, 2016.
Please don’t change the names of the dogs. We think Scipio and Berganza are cool.
MOST IMPORTANT: Have fun! Don’t let this become work, but an adventure. You, me, we, us… we’re bringing a story back to life again, a wonderful story that had almost faded from the earth. This whole endeavor reminds me of that passage in Shadow of the Wind by Carlos Ruiz Zafon where young Daniel is taken by his father to a very old library in Barcelona:
This is a place of mystery, Daniel, a sanctuary. Every book, every volume you see here, has a soul. The soul of the person who wrote it and of those who read it and lived and dreamed with it. Every time a book changes hands, every time someone runs his eyes down its pages, its spirit grows and strengthens. This place was already ancient when my father brought me here for the first time, many years ago.”
We’re bringing The Conversation of the Dogs back to life again.
Aroooooooo!
Indy Beagle
PS – Partners, clients and employees of Roy H. Williams Marketing, Wizard of Ads, Inc and/or Wizard Academy can submit an entry BUT THEY CANNOT WIN A PRIZE. Sorry, but that’s how it has to be. – Indy
Okay, here’s one last thought from Thomas:
I hope we shall crush in its birth the aristocracy of our monied corporations which dare already to challenge our government to a trial by strength, and bid defiance to the laws of our country.”
