Discussion Thread -- SEVENTY-FIVE WORD WRITING CHALLENGE -- January 2014

You're welcome jastius, it stayed with me from when I first read it :)

And congratulations Hex! :D
 
Parson said:
Congratulations Hex --- You've redeemed my feelings about dark fantasy. I was worried that I was beginning to get a handle on it. But I didn't follow your story at all. So I get to keep my "I don't know a thing about dark fantasy" personal narrative.
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A changeling is (mostly) from the Irish mythology I think - the fairies take a healthy baby and leave a sickly one in its place. Usually the human mother is aware of the switch, either on a conscious or subconscious level. Lots of various reasons why the fairies do it and lots of local traditions around it. :) ( Not sure if you knew all that. Sorry if so. :eek:)
 
Hex said:
What's a gridiron?
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It's something you cook on. Also, it's the field where they play (American) football. Not the technical term, I don't think, just what people call it. I've always thought of a gridiron as being like a griddle, a flat iron surface, so I've always wondered why they'd apply it to football.

Thinking about it, though, the "grid" part is probably like ... well, a grid, and it's more like a grill. And the lines of the football field sort of resemble a grill.

Which is probably more than you wanted to know. It's more than I wanted to know.
 
springs said:
A changeling is (mostly) from the Irish mythology I think - the fairies take a healthy baby and leave a sickly one in its place. Usually the human mother is aware of the switch, either on a conscious or subconscious level.
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Actually, the belief was more wide-spread than that, and -- as with most folklore -- there were countless variations. The parents usually caught on to the truth because their good-natured infant started having screaming tantrums. (Think of all the mothers of colicky infants terrified that their real babies had been switched for goblin children. Real goblins -- need I say? -- would never have any part of anything like that!) Or the baby rapidly grew sick. Or started to look like a withered old person. (This kind usually was old, perhaps even centuries old, being a fairy) Also, it might give itself away by acting too precocious ... like talking when it was only a few weeks old.

In some stories, though, the fairies didn't leave a baby fairy or even an old one. They enchanted a piece of wood and left that in the baby's place. Which is where, Parson, I imagine Hex's story comes from, one way or the other. Although hers is spookier (and more poignant) than any I've read.
 
Congratulations Hex!!! I wonder what the leaderboard shows now. HareBrain and TJ must be looking over their shoulders...

Thanks to everyone who mentioned my story. It was one of those months with many mentions and no votes, which isn't a bad thing, really.
 
Gosh. Thanks, Teresa. Now I know a lot about gridirons. Also, thank you for your kind words about my story :)

There seem to be lots of changeling stories all over northern Europe and Scandinavia -- also Egypt, apparently. There's a not-very-nice essay about where the stories may have come from and the things they were supposed to justify (cruelty and infanticide). All pretty grim.
 
Congratulations, Hex. :)

Don't think there's been a month before where the spread of votes was over such a few stories.

And thanks to Glen, Mith, TDZ, Mr Orange, Johnnyjet, Brev and UM for the mentions / shortlists.
 
This month has been a write-off for me - so much so that I thought I had another day to vote! But congratulations, Hex - very much a deserving winner!

Many thanks for the various listings and mentions, and of course the reviews. And a special thank you to Mr Orange for the vote!
 
Teresa Edgerton said:
It's something you cook on. Also, it's the field where they play (American) football. Not the technical term, I don't think, just what people call it. I've always thought of a gridiron as being like a griddle, a flat iron surface, so I've always wondered why they'd apply it to football.

Thinking about it, though, the "grid" part is probably like ... well, a grid, and it's more like a grill. And the lines of the football field sort of resemble a grill.

Which is probably more than you wanted to know. It's more than I wanted to know.
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Want to know, or not, I've greated this highly scientific diagram to show the similarity between American (or Canadian) football fields and gridirons:
 

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Congratulations, Hex!


Figures will follow in a day or two. (Sorry I wasn't around to do the stats last month -- I'll make mention of any interesting factoids from then as and when I do this lot.)
 
Congratulations to Hex, and thanks to springs and Teresa for explaining some of the lore behind the story. Never been much mention of changelings under my rock.

Tywin said:
You're talking about the offensive linemen:
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You make fun of the offensive linemen, but those boys can move. The guy carrying the ball here is 305 pounds: Dan Connolly Return[HD] - YouTube

Also, a friend of mine played a few years in the CFL as an offensive lineman, and at 300 pounds he was probably the most athletic guy out of my group of friends, nearly all of whom played sports at the university level or higher.
 
Tywin said:
You're talking about the offensive linemen:
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Fairly offensive, yeah.

But rather too red; obviously not properly cooked yet,

Thanks to High Eight and HareBrain for the mentions, and obviously massive thanks to The Judge for the vote; I don't do dark fantasy, so wasn't any too sure if I'd even hit the genre.

And congratulations, Hex, for a well-merited victory.
 
Congrats Hex!!!!!!!!!! Great, great story.

I was amazed how few people got votes this month. That is a credit to how strong the winner and a few others were. I, for the first time, had zero mentions. But in the present company I don't really mind. There will always be next month!
 
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