3-Day Marathon--the Aftermath

Tattered survivors of the 2011 3-Day Novel Contest have begun to straggle in. It is a sorry sight, as the literary marathoners drag themselves across the finish line.

Vernon ("Vermin") Klipnagel said, "I was doing good until I was tripped up by a dangling participle."

"You mean you were doing well," said Agatha Hemlock-Smythe.

"Everyone's a #*#&* editor," said Vernon.

"The syntax was hell out there," gasped Rodney Riverton. "I was thrown by a misplaced modifier."

"How many pages did you complete?" asked Agatha.

"Three," said Rodney. "Topped my record for 2010."

"Not exactly 'War and Peace'," snickered Willis Snively.

"No comparison," said Rodney. "Tolstoy had a whole week to write that."

"Well, that's it," said Vernon, rubbing Tiger Balm on an intransigent intransitive. "I'm done, through, never again."

"Never again?" said Agatha.

"Well," said Vernon, "at least not until Labor Day 2012."