Discussion - February 2011 - 75 Word Challenge

[Jo Zebedee]

Your wish has been granted, Moonbat; well done Olive Skye, first night, first post, new record. Yay! Extra cake all round.

 

[Abernovo]

What kind of cake, springs? I can provide sticky ginger cake (the only cake I can make really successfully).

 

[Jo Zebedee]

That'll do me, all right. (can't bake, me, all offers happily accepted.)

Will it be defrosted by the time it gets here?

 

[Abernovo]

Should be. It's actually reaching the dizzy heights of 5°C during the day now. T-shirt weather! Mind you, I've got hungry dogs, so they might scoff it before I can get to the post office.

 

[Hex]

How can you be so casual?? About cake!

I'm appalled.

 

[Jo Zebedee]

Pretend it's a scone, Hex, it'll be easier....

5 degrees, eh; you should pitch for the Bulgarian tourist board, Aber. me, I'd like to say that Ireland is really really green, greener than ever.... now would it please, please stop raining. For one day. Please

 

[Abernovo]

At the risk of a slap or a visit from an old friend of mine by the name of Brendan, I thought that was what it did over there, springs - Rain!

 

[Jo Zebedee]

@ Aber. Brendan, my mate - there's a lot here - says Slap!

Even by Irish standards it's very, very soggy. Grass is growing lovely, to cut it risks electrocution. I need to get a goat....
to get back on thread and not earn myself a diffenent slap, I am pulling out my notebook and pen and rolling up my sleeves. here goes...

 

[Teresa Edgerton]

There is still a little more than an hour left. We might yet break our new record.

 

[Culhwch]

Sixty is such a nice round number, too - surely someone else has a story in them?

 

[mosaix]

I see the Poll's up. Just the sheer size of it is daunting enough without having to pick a winner.

 

[Teresa Edgerton]

The poll is up and is to be found here:

Poll

 

[David Evil Overlord]

@springs, I deny no hard-working mother the right to have her cake and eat it, too.

@Hex, or scones, if that's what tickles your fancy. But no zombie-generating fudge.

And now, to (re)read, and vote.

 

[Warren_Paul]

Well this is certainly tricky... so many to choose from.

Narrowed it down to my seven favourites, but can't decide! All the entries are so good.

 

[Jo Zebedee]

My word, several slices of cake later;

My long short short list;
Starbeast, Anya, Aun Doorback, Memory Tale, Juelz4sure; any other month anyone of them would have been in my final shortlist (this was so, so hard...)

My long short list:
AMB - I loved the name of the rose feel
Hex - a nice dysfunctional relationship , with the demon
Hopewrites - the poor quiche, and original
Highlander - this one just stuck with me from when I first read it.

My short list (sorry, I know, but they were all just so good)

Alchemist - the take on the familiar resonated
Glen - I laughed the first time I read it, and laughed again this time.

And the final three came down to

Stormcrow - those poor fairies. Evilly excellent
Mosaix - the pathos of the robot. Beautiful

And my vote went to - finally - if anyone is still awake;

TDZ - i loved the image set, and got a sense of the whole story.

Oh and thanks to DEO for the vote, lovely to wake up to.

 

[Warren_Paul]

Okay, made my decision.


My runners up were:

1. Alchemist - Such a clever poem, left a smile on my face every time I read it
2. Springs - Written so well, leaves you debating whether it really is saying what you think it is.
3. Reiver - So sad, you can feel the emotion in the text, sympathize with the characters
4. Hex - Here I was thinking I was reading a smutty romance piece, soon fooled me still, the way it was written was very romantic.
5. Boneman - That connection is made with the character, the sympathy you feel for him, magic.
6. Glen - I've started to realise when Glen is involved, its always going to be funny, laugh every time I read this piece.

But my vote has gone to:

Teresa - THE DEAD CAN WEEP - Such a powerful story, its got that golden moment in it that always brings a tear to my eye. I'm a romantic at heart and this tragic story connects so well with me.

 

[Abernovo]

This month was really difficult. So many I could have voted for. There were some absolutely stunning stories on offer. Glen and Anya made me laugh out loud. Perp and springs made me grin broadly for different reasons. Starbeast blew me away with his tale of a man's rescue by his sexy, feline wife (almost like a Kzin special forces heroine).

Aaron Stone, mosaix, Teresa, The Spurring Platty, Hoopy, juelz4sure, Phoenix, Hex, reiver and Scott R Forshaw all had superb entries. There were many others too, who deserve to be mentioned, but I want to keep the post to a reasonable length.

In the end it was, for me, a choice between Bob S Sr and The Dusty Zebra. I thought they were both perfectly brilliant. They were so evenly matched, I had to close my eyes and point to a name on the screen.

So my vote went to Bob. Sorry, TDZ. If I'd had two votes, I would have voted for both of you.

 

[AnyaKimlin]

That was tough - I could've used about six votes and still been disastisfied. Thanks for the long list mention Springs - as I found this months entry very forgettable I was surprised lol

Long-Short List
High-Eight
James Coote
Scot R Forshaw
Abernovo
Springs
Storm Crow
Aun Doorback
Juelz4Sure
Heoru
Boneman
Parson
Phyrebat
Culhwch


Short – Short List
Phyrebat
Heoru
PhoenixtheWriter
Springs
Storm Crow


Top Three
Heoru
Storm Crow
PhoenixtheWriter




Winner: Heoru – I'm in the mood for old couples.

 

[johnnyjet]

My second time doing this and it was great fun. Again, the decision was difficult because there were so many great stories. And there was not a single bad story (or poem) in the bunch. Congratulations to everyone!

But, here we go:

Short List:

1. Starbeast
2. Scott R. Forshaw
3. alchemist
4. AnyaKimlin
5. stormcrow
6. David Evil Overlord
7. hopewrites
8. Glen
9. The Spurring Platty
10. Perpetual Man
11. Vertigo
12. Teresa Edgerton
13. Parson
14. Aaron Stone
15. chrispenycate
16. slindeman
17. Bob S. Sr
18. TheDustyZebra
19. Culhwch
20. The Judge

Top Six:

1. Scott R. Forshaw
2. alchemist
3. Teresa Edgerton
4. Aaron Stone
5. slindeman
6. TheDustyZebra

And finally, being forced to pick a #1, my favorite is "Hindsight is 20/20" by slindeman.

 

[stormcrow]

Wow!
What a month, so many great entries; I'm still deliberating. Long glass and some quiet time tonight, I think!

Karn - Thank You for the vote - really pleased you liked this one!

AnyaK & Springs - Thank You for the 'Top Three' mentions
(springs - seeing as you asked; I promised you the follow-up & will post it after the vote).

johnnyjet - Thank You for the mention.