Discussing the Writing Challenges -- November and December 2010

[The Judge]

re: Discussing the Writing Challenges -- August & September

Ooooh... a new word I'd never come across before! (I'd assumed the first use was a mistype )

Perhaps we should start a Grook Challenge next (leading to a Grook Book?)


Hi, Dale. Another good entry from a Challenge newbie. Boneman will be wringing his hands further. And we've passed the mystic figure now, but shall we reached the heights of July's entries?

 

[chrispenycate]

re: Discussing the Writing Challenges -- August & September

Well, it appears that of the "regulars" we're missing:– Culhwch, Hilarious Joke, J Riff, Leisha, Peter Graham and Sephiroth. Some of them have already got form for posting late, so there's a reasonable chance that they will still post.

Ignoring the people who posted the first time last month, there's still a reasonable hope for a new record…

 

[Deathfrommassive]

re: Discussing the Writing Challenges -- August & September

Too completely side-track the conversation; is it possible to vote for the top 5 after we make our initial vote? There are such a wide variety of entries that I believe it will be necessary.

 

[Parson]

re: Discussing the Writing Challenges -- August & September

I can only hope that the local sheriff doesn't look too unkindly on the bride when she finds herself married to her father.

Ursa, That's too funny. The reason is that the bride was my daughter. I'm afraid the local constable would not have looked too favorably on such an affair with the local Parson and all.

She had a very low key wedding in our back yard. But my wife was there to keep me on track.

 

[Teresa Edgerton]

re: Discussing the Writing Challenges -- August & September

Too completely side-track the conversation; is it possible to vote for the top 5 after we make our initial vote? There are such a wide variety of entries that I believe it will be necessary.

No, it was decided during the first month, back in April, that we would only have one vote each and then vote again only if there was a tie. We voted on the vote. Some of us argued very strongly for more than one vote, but the vote went against us. (And do we hold a grudge? Not us! It's only a coincidence that one of our moderators, the leader of the one-voters, has developed a pronounced limp. No connection at all. The Judge and I were nowhere in the vicinity at the time of the mishap.)


And the Challenge is now in its fifth month, and it's going well, and I think people enjoy complaining about how hard it is to choose. So I don't think there will be any changes, not while the Challenge is still flourishing.

If it starts to lose too much momentum at some point, then we may reopen the voting issue.

 

[J-WO]

re: Discussing the Writing Challenges -- August & September

For what its worth, the tale of the craftsman and his unbreakable glass actually does appear in Latin texts. My main source was The Satyricon (paragraph 51 of this delighful, though still oft-shocking, ancient novel) though, elsewhere (Pliny, Cassius Dio) the tale is given as historical fact! The Caesar involved is cited as being Tiberius--never the jolliest of fellows!

I'd better stop now before I get like Eliot with his numbered notes at the end of poems. Except to say I thought this would be another month where I wouldn't be able to enter something. I gave up entirely, then the bouncy glass phenomenon (something I hadn't read or thought about in half a decade!) rose up out of my subconscious as I walked to work. Sometimes it's best not to try.

 

[The Judge]

re: Discussing the Writing Challenges -- August & September

Well, if you were the officiating minister, Parson, then you did marry your daughter after all! I hope you -- and she! -- had a lovely day. Though I have to say it sounded odd to my English ears for you to talk of a wedding in your "back yard". To me, that conjures up back-to-back terraced houses from the 1920s in the North and Midlands, with a tiny, fully enclosed, paved area, one washing line and an outside privy -- all grim and grey and unspeakably dour. I've got photos from my aunt's wedding reception at my grandparents' house where they are posing in exactly such a yard -- and anything less romantic and weddingish is hard to imagine. I trust your garden looked a little more appropriate for the occasion!

Thanks for the foot note, J-WO. I'd not come across the story before so I for one am glad to have it explained.

 

[Vertigo]

re: Discussing the Writing Challenges -- August & September

Indeed J-WO, in fact I am now tempted to go and have a look for more info, maybe even another book to add to my TBR! Now that one at least should be out of copyright if it is on Gutenberg .

 

[Ursa major]

re: Discussing the Writing Challenges -- August & September

It ought to be out of copyright in the original Latin (), Vertigo, but some translations of it into English may not be.

 

[Vertigo]

re: Discussing the Writing Challenges -- August & September

Unfortunately one thing that Gutenberg is bad at is providing information on copyright, other than that it is out of copyright in the US. They don't even give the original publication date and there is no publication or copyright info included in the text of the downloaded book. In other words they've figured out what they need to know (out of copyright in the US) and haven't bothered to help anyone else. Mind you it's a little unreasonable to be angry about it since it is purely a voluntarty project in the first place!

 

[Ursa major]

re: Discussing the Writing Challenges -- August & September

I looked on Project Gutenberg: the "complete" translation is by W. C. Firebaugh, published in 1922 (in New York). Gutenberg (Australia) lists the years of birth and death of authors, but not though Mr Firebaugh is in the list, his dates are missing; they are also absent from Wiki.


There's another translation, though, by William Burnaby (who died in 1706).

 

[Teresa Edgerton]

re: Discussing the Writing Challenges -- August & September

Though I have to say it sounded odd to my English ears for you to talk of a wedding in your "back yard". To me, that conjures up back-to-back terraced houses from the 1920s in the North and Midlands, with a tiny, fully enclosed, paved area, one washing line and an outside privy -- all grim and grey and unspeakably dour.

Think "garden," and you'll have a better idea, Judge. American back yards tend to have a lot of grass, maybe a few shrubs and trees and a patio or deck. Going by what I used to see on "Ground Force," the typical middle class American back yard of a certain vintage is larger than its British counterpart — or at least wider. Americans do a lot of entertaining in their backyards. Since Parson, as the minister, probably hosts a lot of gatherings, I'm guessing his yard is a very nice one.

(I was married in my parent's backyard, under the cherry trees, because the housing developments in that area stood on land that had once been orchards. My daughter Daisy was married in our backyard after we had just done quite a bit of work on it. It is more elaborate than most American backyards and at the same time wilder and more rustic. It is the kind of garden of which there are fairies at the bottom ... and everywhere else. They seem to get along well with the angels and gargoyles. The wedding party wore wings at Daisy's wedding. Also the mother-of-the-bride. Even though I was not officially part of the ceremony, there was no way I would allow myself to be done out of a chance to wear purple butterfly wings! Some of the guests wore wings too.

We used to have Hollyhocks, which were awesome. I thought we had pictures of them online, but apparently not. However, there are pictures of part of the garden when it was younger http://teresaedgerton.com/garden.htm also some of the fabulous blue dawn flowers that adorn my used-to-be-office.)

And after that long, long diversion ... how about those stories this month! It's going to be interesting making a choice.

After J-WO's story, I am thinking we definitely need those footnotes.

 

[Mouse]

re: Discussing the Writing Challenges -- August & September

Teresa, I have a gargoyle pretty much identical to yours!

 

[The Judge]

re: Discussing the Writing Challenges -- August & September

Yes, I guessed that "yard" was one of those false friends which can mean different things on different sides of the Atlantic. I'm seriously disappointed by the pictures of your garden, though, Teresa. No fairies anywhere!! (We have a shifting population of cows at the bottom of our garden thanks to the neighbouring farmer, and I'd be delighted if we could swap them for fairies -- my willow tree might remain intact.) And blue dawn flowers confused me until I googled and found ipomoea -- we call them morning glory, a name which is as wonderful as the flowers themselves.

And after that brief digression into Gardeners R Us, back on thread, and we're fast running out of time for the lateposters, though I suppose posting late on the theme of Time is appropriate...

 

[Dale R]

re: Discussing the Writing Challenges -- August & September

How do I vote by the way guys? I can't see anything.

Teresa, Love that garden. Given me an Idea for my own actually. A good place to relax and do a bit of writing I'd imagine. As long as the weather permits it!

 

[Ursa major]

re: Discussing the Writing Challenges -- August & September

We get our chance to vote only after all the stories are in, i.e. after the last posting date and time of the challenge**. At that point, links to the voting site appear in the competition thread (and, I think, this one).







** - This is 11:59 pm GMT, August 23 2010, so just over two days to go before the poll opens. (The scheduled end of voting is 11:59 pm GMT, August 29 2010.)

 

[Teresa Edgerton]

re: Discussing the Writing Challenges -- August & September

Oh, there are fairies, but the shade garden, which is the one in the slide show Carolyn made, is gargoyles and angels. But by the purple shed with the vines — you can't see her in that picture because she is facing the little house — there is a fairy sitting among the geraniums. There are several more, many of them gifts from friends, also some faux stone animals that I used to bring inside for Christmas when I had room to do a Narnia scene.

The blue dawn flowers are like morning glories (we call them that, too) but the vines don't die off in the winter unless the winter is an especially cold one by our standards, and the green leaves flourish all year. Because they never stop growing, and they don't have to start again every year like morning glories do, they really go crazy. You should see them now.

Dale R, we vote after the deadline for entries. That way we can consider all of the stories, and Culhwch can put them all in the poll. The polls here can't handle 40+ entries, I think they can only do 10, so he uses a polling site and provides links, usually very shortly after the deadline for stories passes, as soon as he's had a chance to put any last minute stories on the poll.

 

[Dale R]

re: Discussing the Writing Challenges -- August & September

Thanks for explaining that. I thought I was being a typical bloke and not seeing what was actually right in front of me!

Always being told off for that

 

[Parson]

re: Discussing the Writing Challenges -- August & September

Well my back yard is not so somber a place as what I take the English equivalent is, nor is it the magical place Teresa's is. The young people in the second photo are the children by her first marriage. Grandpa thinks they are very cute. The wedding was nice and small, and no I don't think that phrase is an oxymoron. I think wedding on the whole are completely overdone in terms of a party, with too little made of the commitments and the challenges the couple is facing.

wedding 1.gif

wedding 2.gif

 

[The Judge]

re: Discussing the Writing Challenges -- August & September

Cute doesn't do them justice, Parson -- they're gorgeous. And I love the red shoes just peeking out from under the little one's dress! *memo to self -- must buy pair of red shoes!*

Teresa, I don't know whether to envy you the wonderful growing season (particularly when I lose so many plants to wet or frost) or be thankful we don't get the dreadful heat. A bit of both perhaps.


Before I can vote I've got to have another go at understanding the hidden stories. Cue much brow-furrowing and general brain-knotting.