Finally, some time to make some inroads into these stories! Incredibly high standards from the very first tale. Well done, you clever sausages.
an impressive high standard right from the off this month.
@Culhwch -
Off The Page - Here the narrator is cast as a kind of recurring, self-reflexive reflector,
similar to Lecter himself once sprung from the confines of the page into pop culture. He's symbolically and literally there in every book the reader reads, a blank canvas upon which the reader can project her own fears and desires and interpretations. Who's in every book the reader reads? The reader is. The narrator/reader becomes a shadow, cast by the light of the pages, forever stalking our reader whenever the book is opened. Magic stuff.
@Ashleyne. B. Watts -
Mouth To Mouth - Typical Ashleyne. Deliciously dark. On the surface this is a vicious slice of Cronenberg-style body horror, but there's layers of - dare I say it? - child-abuse symbolism packed into the figure of the malevolent ghoul that steals the voices from children in order to enable his own infantine shortcomings. "It's only a story, it's only a story," the reader can tell himself. But sometimes the bogeyman is real, and his 'need' isn't you. His need is power. The power to replace the voice stolen from him by his own bogeyman.
@Cat's Cradle -
The Swoolraa's Complaint - Thanks Cat's. I was starting to get a bit heavy with my previous review. You've got me back in balance with a giggle. Pity the poor writer whose creations start to harangue him with the inconsistencies in his own world-building. "But you didn't call them Snoggleglokblosters on page 345; you called them Bunglebumberries!" Now there's a metaphor any SFF writer can empathise with.
@Luiglin -
Spoiler - Ooh, spiky! The Dark Lord gets subversive as he tries to break free of his 75 shackles. But he's just cutting his close off to spite his face, because without the joke the joke's on him. Minion knows the score; you've gotta play the Hand you're dealt. And that's why, dear friends, the Dark Lord is like Jessica Rabbit. He's not a stereotypical pulp creation to be the butt of awfully contrived puns; he's just drawn that way.
@Remedy -
Seventy-Five - If I didn't know any better, I'd say this was an exercise in applying the Save The Cat Beat Sheet to a 75-word challenge. Let's see if I'm right, eh?
Opening/set the theme: Seventy-five words to get my point across.
Debate: Will they like it?
Fun and Games: What if they think I’m just some pretentious prick who doesn’t understand the genre? Have I missed the mark? Am I trying to be clever?
Midpoint: I have to write something. Anything.
Bad guys Close In: But it must be whole. Beginning to middle to end.
All is lost: THERE’S NOT ENOUGH WORDS! Do I have any better ideas? A decent ending?
Showdown: Nah, screw it. Just end it with this.
Closing image:
This.
@Bowler1 -
A Day In The Life Of... - Us writers are a funny bunch. We type away for years, expanding our private property just so we can then let it loose upon the world. And then it's not really private any more; the author's invoked a global menage á trois involving reader, character and author. Look at the clever inflexion of tenses: "the very ground beneath my feet" becomes "plead to be put of
your misery" - he's
literally pulled us into the book, under the heavens, with the narrator, and the author, a god with a Smiley Face, doesn't like it.
Right, must dash. Baby's trying to drink my port.
