Sekrit santa ii -- guessing thread

[Perpetual Man]

Ooh I'm glad I never got around to putting my guesses up, because I would have set a new record for being WRONG!

I quite enjoyed all the entries (the bits we have seen) but putting a writer to each piece, I'm so impressed with those of you that did.

Thanks especially to Stormcrow for my little tale I really enjoyed it, feeling the atmosphere and description were just stupendous. It reminded me of some of my favourite recent albums and that is a massive achievement. I also was made to smile by getting a name reference for me in there.

And yes, my little tale was written for Tactical Loco who wanted something on board a space ship. And that is about it. Like Stormcrow with me I tried to squeeze a 'name' reference into the story.

Like everyone else I notice that TL hasn't been around for the last couple of weeks and hope that all is okay.

And I suppose I'd better post it:

 

[stormcrow]

Thanks Perp - (it's so odd, I've just PM'd to thank you - synchronicity, eh?) - so pleased you liked it.

Yours was a pleasure to read, and I could really see it working as a graphic short, too! I'd encourage all to read it!

Especially TL!

 

[Mouse]

Just downloaded yours, Perp. I read Hex's and stormcrow's earlier. Got Victoria's saved.

Phyrebrat, yes, post yours!

 

[stormcrow]

Mouse, Hex and Victoria have been my recreational reading today...thanks for sharing!

 

[Phyrebrat]

okay, here's mine.

Um, it was the third story I wrote (second one got to 7K before I realised it was way off from Hex's request - it was meant to be inspired by the Little Mermaid but ended up a bit more Call of Cthulhu ) and so I only had a week to do it and it has typos and is a bit tell-y at times, so I don't think you'll like it, Mouse .

Anyway, stop damage-controlling pH and post the damn thing:

pH

 

[sinister42]

Here's my whole story:

Sinister.: Superhero

Yes I am the wily one who cleverly is still relatively new here and thus nobody knows my writing style, so huzzah to that, I suppose.

Victoria's assignment to me was "near future slice of life." I wasn't entirely sure what to do with that, so I gave her a superhero story. It does take place in the near future, and it does involve a slice of someone's life, so I think it fits.

 

[sinister42]

I'm interested in hearing from you Brits about something. I'm American, although I lived in France as a child, but much of what influences my writing is British - the two main anchors (currently) being Douglas Adams and China Mieville (with a little bit of everything the BBC has ever aired also in there somewhere). In short, I'm a rabid Anglophile. What I'm curious to know from the Brits among you is whether you can tell that my writing is influenced by British humor and subjects, and how, and how much, and whether it comes off as "an American trying to sound British" - i.e. stilted or forced - or if it flows well. It's never my intention to "write British," but I get the sense that it's in there somewhere, whether I intend it to be or not.

Anyway.

 

[Perpetual Man]

I hoped to settle down and read some of these this morning, but... work came calling and I will be out till who knows when. I'll try and read them later, and Sinister I'll pay particular attention to your request above (or try to...)

 

[Phyrebrat]

Hello everyone,

I have downloaded Perp's and Stormcrow's. Mouse's PDF just comes up as two blank pages. Is that my end or is anyone else having problems with Mouse's?

Next is Victoria and Sinister, until the rest are posted up

pH

 

[sinister42]

Well done, TDZ.

Gah! I was hopeless.

I got horribly thrown right at the start by insider knowledge which -- it turned out -- I completely misunderstood so I thought Mouse had written springs' bit which meant I struggled to decide who'd written Mouse's and it was all just complicated...

My story (4) -- with dragons, dungeons and a cross-eyed newt -- was for Kylara so I went with a bit more description/ ornate language etc than I normally do because I know she likes that kind of thing.

I really liked this - it was spare, evocative, circular - very well written.

 

[sinister42]

springs wanted: I would like .... Fantasy that links the elements to something sensual.

So here's mine then. Be warned - it's daft. It's a first draft because I just wanted it done. Sat and wrote it in one sitting, made it up as I went along, so it probably doesn't make a great deal of sense. I can see I need to tweak the end, but here tis.

Ok, this story is adorable and hilarious. I really liked it.

 

[Mouse]

Mouse's PDF just comes up as two blank pages. Is that my end or is anyone else having problems with Mouse's?

Hmm. Weird. Try again? If not I'll pm it to you or sommat.

Ok, this story is adorable and hilarious. I really liked it.

Ha! Cheers, I'll take that.

Gonna read yours now.

 

[Mouse]

I'm interested in hearing from you Brits about something. I'm American, although I lived in France as a child, but much of what influences my writing is British - the two main anchors (currently) being Douglas Adams and China Mieville (with a little bit of everything the BBC has ever aired also in there somewhere). In short, I'm a rabid Anglophile. What I'm curious to know from the Brits among you is whether you can tell that my writing is influenced by British humor and subjects, and how, and how much, and whether it comes off as "an American trying to sound British" - i.e. stilted or forced - or if it flows well. It's never my intention to "write British," but I get the sense that it's in there somewhere, whether I intend it to be or not.

Anyway.

Hmm... ok. Well, I don't get any 'Britishness' from it at all other than 'bollocks' (which I've heard Americans start to use now, yay!) and maybe 'buffoon.' All still sounded very American to me. Were you trying to make the character British maybe, or were just wondering if it sounded British to us?

(I hate the term 'British' meself! I'm English. The Ace in particular will tell you the same - he's not British, he's Scottish. None of this has anything to do with your story and I'm just waffling. )

 

[sinister42]

Hmm... ok. Well, I don't get any 'Britishness' from it at all other than 'bollocks' (which I've heard Americans start to use now, yay!) and maybe 'buffoon.' All still sounded very American to me. Were you trying to make the character British maybe, or were just wondering if it sounded British to us?

(I hate the term 'British' meself! I'm English. The Ace in particular will tell you the same - he's not British, he's Scottish. None of this has anything to do with your story and I'm just waffling. )

It's never my intent to "write British;" I'm just sort of curious if it comes off that way. Probably just my imagination. I'd never intentionally write a British character either, because I know I'd never get it to sound natural.

Sorry about the "British" vs "English" thing - I usually say "British" If I don't know where specifically someone is from within the greater whole of the UK. Is that not proper form? Sort of funny how we don't have that in America - you'd never have someone say "I'm not American; I'm Oregonian." well, you might have that in Texas, lol.

 

[Mouse]

I'd never intentionally write a British character either, because I know I'd never get it to sound natural.

Ah, go for it.

Sorry about the "British" vs "English" thing - I usually say "British" If I don't know where specifically someone is from within the greater whole of the UK. Is that not proper form?

No, you're right. Definitely say 'British' if you're not sure! Some people would hit the roof if you called them 'English' and they were actually Scottish, or Welsh.

You might get someone say 'I'm not American, I'm Canadian' though? I was watching How I Met Your Mother the other day, when someone called Robin American and she was like noooooooo!

 

[stormcrow]

sinister - I enjoyed that; thanks for the link! And nope, doesn't seem 'forced Brit..er..Eng...er...Anglo-European' to me either.

I've downloaded Phyre's - that's for later!

 

[Hex]

Thanks, sinister

I'm British and I'm Scottish, so it doesn't bother me which you use. Don't tell The Ace, but I'm hoping I'll be able to say the same thing this time next year

 

[hopewrites]

My phone lost the post I tried to put up apparently.

I was delighted that nearly everyone had me pegged, especially since I dont feel like I post up alot of my Writing so that means that my writing sounded like my posting voice which sounds like my speaking voice, and since I love Oral Tradition, so count me complemented.

so, here's mine. I changed the title when I emailed it so it still has the request tag as the title, sorry if that confuses.


Been really busy heading into and coming out of vacation but I'll be back along to read the other stories asap, I loved the snippets we had to guess from and am looking forward to reading the whole things.

*realizes she is rambling and not making much sense and decides to go to bed*

 

[Perpetual Man]

I've read all the ones posted up until the closure (so not Hopes yet) and have been blown away by all of them.

I would try and say which ones stood out, but they all did. Well there was some crap about a spaceship, but I skipped that

I was amazed at each of them, in different ways, a very humbling reminder at how good everyone is.

 

[TheDustyZebra]

I'm sorry, hope, was yours not my alternate universes with flowers? It's the one I got, and it had a kind of alternate universes thing and some flowers. As I mentioned, it was interesting to see what kind of different interpretations come out of these things -- but if it was written to a different set of criteria, that would tend to explain it!

I was trying to post in this thread when the site went down on Sunday. I had read Victoria's story and was just getting ready to download all the rest so I could read those, and the site went away. I'm still debating putting mine up this time -- I might want to send it somewhere, but, like last time, I think I should do some expanding first and it wouldn't be quite the same by then. So I don't know. How about if anyone wants mine, PM me and I'll send it along, and that way it's not in public, just in case?