Discussion -- 300 Word Challenge #6

[Boneman]

Way to go Hex!!! Great story and a great winner - well done!!

 

[Hex]

Wow.


Thank you.


And wow again.

(and again)


Thank you very much, everyone who voted for me.


Wheeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee!

 

[Ursa major]

Come out of that dive before you hit the ground, Hex! (Flying broomsticks don't have ejector seats.)

 

[The Judge]

Congratulations, Hex!


Thank you for the listing, Phyrebrat, and a big thank for the vote, Joan -- you sneaked in without my noticing!

 

[Hex]

Oooooo splat oooooO

 

[Grimbear]

Poor Hex! (helps Hex up and fetches first aid box) Glass of brandy for the shock?

CONGRATULATIONS!

Brilliant story. I should know, as I voted for it

 

[Phyrebrat]

Very Congratulations!

Glad to see it was one I backed

pH

 

[Lilmizflashythang]

Careful Hex, victory dances usually end up with someone looking foolish. Congrats on the win.

 

[Mouse]

Congrats Hex!

 

[crystal haven]

Congratulations, Hex! It is a really good story.

And thanks for the mention, too.

 

[stormcrow]

Congratulations Hex!

 

[paranoid marvin]

Sorry guys, I thought the voting ended this weekend...

Congrats Hex , and thankyou for those who (unlike me) voted on time for me or gave me a shortlisting.

 

[Teresa Edgerton]

A likely story. (Actually, I suppose it is. I have trouble sometimes telling the day of the week as well as the day of the month. And it's usually June before I no longer have to stop and think before I remember what year it is.)

Thank you to everyone who mentioned my story, and a very big thank you to Culhwch, Glen, HareBrain, I, Brian, JoanDrake, johnnyjet, nixie, ratsy, reiver33 for the votes.

I was thrilled to get any votes at all this time, because I was afraid the story was so obscure no one would like it. (Although there were literary references I thought some of the English Literature majors around here might catch, and no one mentioned them, so apparently no one did. So I was wrong on both counts.)

 

[Culhwch]

I missed the references, I'm afraid - it was the mood and some brilliant lines that snared my vote. It doesn't happen often, but when a story makes me wish I wrote it, it makes the voting very easy...

 

[nixie]

Congratulations Hex

 

[Teresa Edgerton]

Thank you, Cul! You've written so many brilliant stories in the two Challenges, I value your opinion greatly.

 

[The Judge]

(Although there were literary references I thought some of the English Literature majors around here might catch, and no one mentioned them, so apparently no one did. So I was wrong on both counts.)

There were lines I thought sounded as if I ought to know them (eg the lilies in the graveyard) but the only thing I noticed was Tom+cabin, which may well not have been intentional. What did I miss? (So I can go and kick myself.)


NB I was thinking the other day that I miss the puzzles and references some of us used to put into the 75 worders. (Mind you, the one puzzle I worked on particularly hard was the one month I didn't get a vote that first year, which may have been telling me something... )

 

[TheDustyZebra]

TJ, I was thinking about that, too! Nobody's hidden any gems for us to find, lately. Way back when, the first thing I'd look for in a story was hidden meaning and if the first letters spelled anything.

 

[StilLearning]

Well done Hex,victory well earned!

I know it’s belated but I’ll post my short list. Personally a mention means almost as much tome as a vote.

REFUSING THE ROAD TO HEAVEN – springs

"An Accountof the Saint Uziel Riots, or the War of Eight Days" – BthenB

Ghosts and Aliens – johnnyjet

The Dream Factory – Hex

Aiding and Abetting a Satyr – kiffinyjean

Onoverheard discursive between Faerie folk – stormcrow

The Bookshop –Moonbat

Votes:

The Pillar – Phoenixthewriter

The Age of the Innocents – RcGrant

Our English Dead -- David Evil Overlord

My thanks to Brev, Glen, mosaix, Phyrebrat, and The Judge for the votes, and to everyone who mentioned my story. I would have been thrilledto get one vote, or a few mentions. I thought the story was too tangentialto the inspiration!

 

[Teresa Edgerton]

There were lines I thought sounded as if I ought to know them (eg the lilies in the graveyard) but the only thing I noticed was Tom+cabin, which may well not have been intentional. What did I miss? (So I can go and kick myself.)

Whoops, Tom and the cabin were completely unintentional. Tom just sounded like a good name for someone who lived on the prairie.

The lilies are mine (or if not, it's purely coincidental). The title and some of the images (sort of) and one two-word phrase are from T. S. Eliot's The Wasteland. I kind of thought the title would hit anyone who was familiar with the poem right over the head, but none of my friends at home recognized it either.

*****

Re the puzzles and references that were so much fun to puzzle out during the first year: since nobody seems to read the same things I do, the references I occasionally put in are pretty much lost. At least I enjoy them.

Because we aren't allowing people much latitude in talking about their stories these days, everyone may feel uncomfortable, while the challenge is running, hinting at any secrets or references they've included, and since that is the time where people are most interested in the stories and most eager to solve the puzzles, that may discourage the writers from using them. Which is too bad.

(I, too, miss the puzzles and acrostics though I rarely solved them, and was always too lazy to think up a title that was an acronym, like you did for your Leda and the swan poem. You won that month, although certainly not because of the puzzle. Was the Daphne poem the one that got no votes?)
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