DISCUSSION -- October 2014 300-word Writing Challenge (#15)

[Darkchrome]

I'm a bit late to the post-Poll party after a particularly busy few days (I even managed to login last night, then got so bogged down in work mails I didn't post anything!).
Congratulations, Juliana. It was a great story - I'm partial to the idea of fairies being distinctly un-Disney!

Thank you so much to Hex for the Klingon-cloaked stealth vote, and also to Teresa, TDZ, The Judge and Ursa Major for the shortlists 'n' mentions. It makes me very happy to get such positive feedback when I look at the standard of the other stories, and is genuinely doing my rusty old writing confidence a world of good

As for my inspiration - it's certainly nowhere near as thoughtful as half of these (I'm marking my own report card 'could try harder' when I look at some of the background context and work here).
I saw the clean, white & gold horse/rider and thought 'Paladin'. This was closely followed by how pesky it was to have a Paladin in your party when playing AD&D. My chosen alignment was always Chaotic Good and they would come along with their rules and principles, while you were trying to fireball a goblin because it had trodden on a rabbit or something (my apologies to any ex-knights amongst you ). Then I got to wondering how upset a Lawful Evil character would be with a Paladin around - and just did a switcheroo of the standard 'my innocent child is dabbling in black magic' scenario.

 

[Boneman]

Holy cr*p. Just checked the score and found a stealth vote. Thanks Boneman. Considering what I did with a fairly decent concept I wasn't expecting a thing. Whoaa, Springs, keep your hands in your pocket. Just stating the obvious.

Was voting very late, and didn't have time to post my usual short-lists and comments, but your story stayed with me from the moment I read it, along with TJ and Springs, so voting was actually easy...!!

Congrats Juliana!

 

[ratsy]

So I emailed with Laura and she had a chance to read through the entries. She thought they were really cool and said it was really neat to see the different interpretations of her image. She liked the variety from beautiful and poetic to the pretty weird.

And I agree. It is fun to see where people's stories originate. Good stuff

 

[Starbeast]

Congratulations JULIANA​

My shortlist is the same size as my vote list. They were, both, originally in order of appearance, but they became jumbled as I hmmd and ahhhd over which ones to vote for.
My shortlist:
The Girl, the Knight, and the Dragon by Culhwch
For One Knight Only by David Evil Overlord
House of Frankenstein by Starbeast

My votes went to:
Futility of the Innocent, Claudio della Inganno by Mr Orange
A Fairy Tale by Juliana
Graffiti Bridge by phrebrat


Thanks for the mention, Alchemist. And a gargantuan thanks for the vote, Starbeast.

You're very welcome Ashleyne. I enjoyed the far-out fantasy you wrote. And thank you for placing me in your Short List. You made my day.

Wonderful stories everyone.
And I love the variation of ideas that people have from one picture in this challenge.

But you have to choose.
So my shortlist is

Cat's Cradle WONDER TALES OF THE DIMENSIONS
Remedy A Candle Brings Hope
Juliana A Fairy Tale
telford Journeyman
Victorial Silverwolf Visions
Rafellin Down by the Trail at Morning
Culhwch The Girl, the Knight, and the Dragon
Perpetual man Seasons of Joy, Seasons of Wither
Starbeast House of Frankenstein
Mosaix Moving Picture…

and my votes go to
Void The Meta Life
Bowler1 Little Angels and Fairies
A. Fare Wells Worlds Apart


Also tons of thanks for your comment about my closing line Ratsy, and for your vote Mosaix.

Thank you Farntfar, for adding me to your Short List. You made my day.

Here they are the votes of the Ursa jury, with the stories in posting order within the categories:

Honourable Mentions:

• Ageless by johnnyjet
• House of Frankenstein by Starbeast
• Align Between Good and Evil by Darkchrome

Runners Up:

• Journeyman by telford
• (collected 1762, S. P. Gumley, Folk Tales of Nordmark and the Polar Isles) by Teresa Edgerton
• Knightmare by The Judge

Winners:

• A Fairy Tale by Juliana
• For One Knight Only by DavidEvilOverlord
• Moving Picture... by mosaix

Wow! Thank you Ursa Major, for adding me to your Honorable Mentions List. You made my day.




I was happy to see that everyone had a Vote casted toward them. I knew everyone's story was outstanding and entertaining to read. I once again applaud everyone's effort for creating remarkable tales for October. And a big CONGRATS to JULIANA for winning this amazing writing competition.

Well done everyone!

 

[Juliana]

Thank you all very much!

(I still can't believe I won - keep thinking one of the mods will jump out of a bush and shout "Gotcha!" and it'll all be on camera or something... )

 

[Ursa major]

and it'll all be on camera or something

Then it's just as well the voting is in public (rather than being in camera...).

 

[Mr Orange]

so i thought i'd jump on here and give my inspiration, or lack thereof (and hope that it might, ahem, steer people towards the improving thread to comment on my story):

i really had no inspiration this time around and actually said to myself "it's just a bloody painting!" that then became the first line (later edited out) and the story went from there. one problem i did have was when i realised i hadn't actually described the painting at all and so for someone that hadn't seen the inspiration pic, it made no sense. describing it stole valuable words and made it harder to get a developed story in there.

actually, this fact was the reason i didn't include a couple of stories in my shortlist; they were obviously drawing on the picture, but without it, didn't make complete sense.

 

[Mouse]

Congrats, Juliana!

I forgot about this, sorry.

Only two people bothered trying to find my hidden things so I doubt anybody's really interested, but just in case, they were: Father Ted, The Horse Whisperer (Tom Booker), Virgin Mary, Charlie the Unicorn and devil's claw is also known at the unicorn plant.

 

[holland]

Well, I had no idea what was going on with your story, but I liked the way it was written so I had to vote for it

 

[Mouse]

Oh, I had a vote! Well, thank you very much. You loon.

I saw the picture on Twitter from alchemist, I tweeted him a line from the 'My Lovely Horse' song from Father Ted and his reply was 'I dare you to make that your entry' so... it's all his fault.

 

[Bowler1]

Juliana buddy - a belated very well done.

I was worried my fairy was off the wall, but your creation was brilliantly off the wall.

 

[TheDustyZebra]

Well, Mouse, it's not that I didn't bother trying to find your hidden things, it's more that I hadn't the faintest idea where to start.

 

[StilLearning]

Well done Juliana, thank you to The Judge and Sancho for the votes and to the folk who mentioned mine!

 

[Remedy]

Congratulations Juliana! Well deserved.

I managed to get my votes in while I was on my whisky-fuelled Scotland holiday. Sorry, didn't throw out a shortlist, but my votes went to Culhwch, Juliana and Perpetual Man. Brilliant tales, all.

I was chuffed to see I got votes from Teresa and Void - Thank you very much. Huge thanks to all the mentioners too

My tale spawned from my first glance at the picture - it looked slightly as if the forest was illuminated by a light coming from just above the knight's shoulders, so I imagined he had a glowing skull. The "Life-Skull Army" idea bloomed from there. I really enjoyed writing it, jittering around at my desk with that bizarre concept sending me in all sorts of directions. That picture is excellent brain food!

Mouse, you got everyone talking with yours; a victory in itself! I got bits, but not all - though everyone seemed to enjoy it a lot (myself included)

Finally Thank you reviewers. You're stars!

 

[Juliana]

Thank you everyone once again, and a big thank you to @Brian Turner for my lovely book prize which just arrived. It's the last in Francis Knight's Rojan Dizon series, and I can't wait to get into it!

[GALLERY=media, 1431]300-challenge by Juliana posted Dec 7, 2014 at 5:33 PM[/GALLERY]

 

[Starbeast]

Congratulations Juliana! Well deserved.

I managed to get my votes in while I was on my whisky-fuelled Scotland holiday. Sorry, didn't throw out a shortlist, but my votes went to Culhwch, Juliana and Perpetual Man. Brilliant tales, all.

Finally Thank you reviewers. You're stars!

You're very welcome Remedy. I'm looking forward to January. What on Earth will Juliana surprise us with?

 

[Jo Zebedee]

Thank you everyone once again, and a big thank you to @Brian Turner for my lovely book prize which just arrived. It's the last in Francis Knight's Rojan Dizon series, and I can't wait to get into it!

[GALLERY=media, 1431]300-challenge by Juliana posted Dec 7, 2014 at 5:33 PM[/GALLERY]

Oh, good book. Interesting ending.

 

[Juliana]

You're very welcome Remedy. I'm looking forward to January. What on Earth will Juliana surprise us with?

Thank heavens with the 300 I don't have to come up with anything. I'm pretty sure the mods provide the image. It was hard enough coming up with a 75-word theme!

 

[The Judge]

Thank heavens with the 300 I don't have to come up with anything. I'm pretty sure the mods provide the image.

We do. But if anyone wants to point us in the direction of some good images for January's Challenge (preferably drawn/taken by a Chrons member to avoid copyright issues) do let us know.

 

[Ursa major]

Oh, good book. Interesting ending.

Yes, and not what I was expecting.