Discussion -- 300 Word Challenge #9

[Boneman]

Many Congratulations Springs!! You'll be bouncing off the walls for days, and deservedly so.

 

[paranoid marvin]

Thankyou stormcrow for the shortlisting, and special thanks to Ursa for voting for my entry..


Well done springs, a fine entry and deserved winner.

 

[Bowler1]

The spring has sprung!

Congratulations springs!

A loaded spring that shot off into a clear lead. Well done, Springs.

I expect a cork will be springing from a bottle of bubbly before the weekend.

 

[The Judge]

Congratulations!

 

[alchemist]

Hooray! Well done, springs!

 

[Talysia]

Congratulations, springs!

 

[crystal haven]

Congratulations, Springs!

 

[chrispenycate]

Eeeeeeeee...puts down stress ball,small bottle of pink pills and turns off looped cd of whale music.... Thank you very much for all the votes (and Glitch and TSP for the two I noticed from behind my hands and Ursa for the mention.) And it just occurred to me, I don't have to choose the theme/genre. Yay!

No, but you do have to make some serious decisions as to which book should be inscribed with your victory.

Grovelling adoration and congratulations.

 

[TacticalLoco]

Great job, Springs!

 

[ratsy]

Springs, well done! And without a tie breaker even!! congrats

 

[TheDustyZebra]

And it just occurred to me, I don't have to choose the theme/genre. Yay!

Ha! Trust me, it's harder choosing a book! You might want to get those pink pills out again. On the other hand, you don't have to do the translating of currencies, so that will help.

 

[stormcrow]

Congratulations Springs! You cleaned-up there!

Well deserved, I reckon.

 

[Jo Zebedee]

You rock, springs!

Thrilled by the kind mentions from Teresa and the Judge -- thank you very much.

Hee, I really don't, but it was lovely to think I might.

A loaded spring that shot off into a clear lead. Well done, Springs.

I expect a cork will be springing from a bottle of bubbly before the weekend.

Alas, working. But tomorrow night...!

No, but you do have to make some serious decisions as to which book should be inscribed with your victory.

Grovelling adoration and congratulations.

Ha! Trust me, it's harder choosing a book! You might want to get those pink pills out again. On the other hand, you don't have to do the translating of currencies, so that will help.

I went for Young Miles of the Vorkosigan saga - I have only read the two Cordelia books and heard the Miles ones were good.

 

[Glitch]

Congrats springs. I hope you enjoy the book

 

[Glen]

Congratulations Springs! Well deserved win. Great characters evoked in those 300 words.

Thanks to Teresa and Jastius for shortlisting my holiday ad.

Lenny - would love to hear from you about your story. I really liked its tone and language.

 

[Ursa major]

Anyway, now that the voting's over, I'd just like to mention that my entry was set on China Miéville's world of Bas-Lag, where a certain form of unreliable magic energy is known as torque. (So no-one should have been expecting the Spanish Inquisition....) Torque is the power that the main character was using to power his ships in an otherwise wind-free zone. (Note that the more reliable variety of magic is known as thaumaturgy.)

The ship, the Grand Southerly, is named after the Grand Easterly, a vessel in Miéville's novel, The Scar. The main character, Bellisarius, is named after the MC of The Scar, namely Bellis.


By the way, the Great Ones are not from Miéville (as far as I know), but who knows every entity that might have emerged from the Scar? I certainly don't.

 

[TheDustyZebra]

I went for Young Miles of the Vorkosigan saga - I have only read the two Cordelia books and heard the Miles ones were good.

An excellent choice! I'm sure you'll love it. Miles is one of my favorite characters of all time. I wanted one of the later Miles books for mine, but it was too much with the exchange rate and I settled on Save the Cat, which I'm glad of.

 

[David Evil Overlord]

Interesting how we can all look at the same thing and see something quite different. I see Viking dragon ships ... except that they're a little short and tubby for that. For triremes, too.

I'm thinking the love-child of a dragon ship and a cog.

Teresa's comment about ships having children out of wedlock inspired my biological dragon ships...

 

[Lenny]

Congrats, springs!

---

Talking about comments inspiring entries, a couple of members were discussing the picture on Twitter at the start of last month, and someone (can't remember who! Sozzles) mentioned that the map could be a holographic interface, which I thought was a really cool idea.

However, mine, in the end, came from an idea I'd scribbled down last December, and chanced upon again as I cleaned my room - a workmate and I were waiting for our lift to work one morning, and it started snowing. Not being forecast, we started joking that the clouds were getting it wrong, which morphed into the people in the clouds accidentally leaning on the wrong button. Being warehouse workers, we quickly decided that it was actually the fault of the idiots in the Weather Office, who had obviously messed up their paperwork and scheduled an incorrect gust of wind, which sent the snow cloud to the wrong place.

That became meshed with thoughts of Star Trek: Deep Space Nine (which I was watching when I wrote the entry), with the bridge of the cloud-ship (the clouds are actually flying vehicles, like a Star Trek spaceship) being an image in my head of the USS Defiant (complete with the language Sisko uses aboard the Defiant when addressing different stations), and the Wind Station being a miniature Deep Space Nine.

The gag, for Glen and anyone else who might be wondering, is that when it is raining, people often exclaim: "Lovely weather for ducks!". So, seeing as the cloud-ship is carrying a cargo of rain, the only logical (if slightly Banksian) name is "Duck Friendly". Which then works quite nicely for the title - so "Friendly Fire" takes the usual meaning of weapons fire coming from one's own side, as well as linking back to the ship's name.

 

[Starbeast]

Congratulations Springs!​