DISCUSSION -- July 2015 300-word Writing Challenge (#18)

[Kerrybuchanan]

Wow! Thank you for the votes, Phyrebrat and Remedy.

 

[Mr Orange]

wow, thanks @Phyrebrat! not only a vote but a nice writeup and probably the first real-life mention of any of my entries!

 

[johnnyjet]

Congratulations to everyone who entered the competition! Every story was very good and it was only with great difficulty that I managed to narrow it down to the following Long List, Short List and **** Favorites ****:

The Pipes, the Pipes - Ashleyne. B. Watts
On the Tempting of a Practitioner of Social Engineering, and His Response to Same (An Exercise in Excess) - Cat's Cradle
Dragon Bones – Juliana
What's More Fearsome Than a Snufflemagoo? – alchemist
**** Pipe Dreams - Victoria Silverwolf ****
Love Song - Mad Alice
Le Scorpion - Jo Zebedee
The Copper Snakes – JoanDrake
Charlie – Remedy
The Weed - Robert MacKay
**** What Little Girls Are Made Of – Phyrebrat ****
A Lifting of the Veil - Venusian Broon
The Tree of Life – ratsy
Cornucopia – Kerrybuchanan
herba ferrocia - Mr Orange
Kryton Discovers a 1980's Rap CD called, "Metal Tree - The Gathering" – Starbeast
The In - Screwed - Tempo - Mental Blues – Moonbat
**** The Silver Sweetbriar - The Judge ****
Guilt – Fitzchiv
Decision Tree - Ursa major

 

[johnnyjet]

Thanks for the short & long listings, Rafellin, Droflet, The Storyteller, Mr Orange, and Remedy.

 

[Sancho]

Thanks to Littlestar, Phyrebrat and Remedy for the mentions. Loved the stories this month

 

[TheDustyZebra]

Well, I've voted, for all the good it did. I see that I did absolutely nothing to change the lead except to toss TJ into a tie for third with what would have been my fourth vote, alchemist. If I'd had that fourth vote, nothing at all would have changed. Ah well.

I started out with fully half of the stories on my shortlist, and chopped ruthlessly at all the branches until I got it down to a manageable number. Since an awful lot of the stories tell me those branches are aliens who aren't going to take too kindly to being chopped, I hope I survive.


Droflet -- Entanglement
alchemist -- What's More Fearsome...
holland -- Searching for Emma
willwallace -- Journey's End
Victoria -- Pipe Dreams
Mad Alice -- Love Song
*Remedy -- Charlie*
DG Jones -- Roots
*Phyrebrat -- What Little Girls Are Made Of*
The Storyteller -- Extermination
Kerry -- Cornucopia
mosaix -- Moving On...
*TJ -- The Silver Sweetbriar*
Fitzchiv -- Guilt
Ursa -- Decision Tree

 

[hardsciencefanagain]

Is there ANY way i could read some of those?I'm curious

 

[TheDustyZebra]

Err... some of which?

 

[hardsciencefanagain]

the stories?

 

[Droflet]

Hey, a mention from Dusty. Thanks for that unexpected treat.

 

[TheDustyZebra]

the stories?

Oh, sorry! The stories are in this thread: https://www.sffchronicles.com/threads/560338/

 

[TheDustyZebra]

You can also vote for your favorite three -- be sure to choose all three votes before you click on "cast your vote".

There's a link to the poll at the end of that thread, in the last post.

 

[hardsciencefanagain]

Thanks,Dusty

 

[Dan Jones]

A mention from the Dusty One! Thanks, TDZ

 

[Droflet]

Wow, a stealth vote. Smacks head with palm. Thank you so much Ben. aka hardsciencefanagain.

 

[chrispenycate]

Is it possible it's that difficult to find (and grade) the submissions? For us it's so obvious we can't understand why so many first time contributers fail to vote, and I'd assumed they'd failed to master the poll. What if it's because they never found the entries?

 

[TheDustyZebra]

I did realize, upon seeing the question, that the story thread never appears in the "new posts" after it's locked, so it's essentially invisible to anyone who relies on "new posts" for navigation -- as I generally do. And we don't link to the story thread in the discussion thread, which might be handy, although it would quickly disappear into the beginning of the thread as well. Food for thought.

 

[Jo Zebedee]

A single new forum - this month's stories and voting threads, updated each month? There are so many threads and polls in the main forum it can be hard to navvigate? Or is that huge work for the mods?

 

[farntfar]

Go on. It's not difficult.
From this thread, whatever page your on, at the top ( just above the just above the title) you'll see

Home Forums > Books and Writing > Aspiring Writers > Writing Challenges
but in black.

Click on the Writing Challenges at the end and you're in the forum.
At worst both the stories and the poll threads for this month will be 7th or 8th in the list.

 

[Mr Orange]

i'm with @farntfar, i don't think it's hard to find. i guess though if you don't know about it, you could miss it... shame there's not a way to announce things on the front page of chrons. i'm sure that would get newbies heading to the challenge page...

edit: by the way @farntfar you confused me with your avatar - i called you @TheDustyZebra for a second there...