Discussion thread -- January 2016 75-word Writing Challenge

[Parson]

Cat's Cradle --- Thanks for the shortlisting. ---- By the by I thought your avatar's name meant that you were a yo-yo fanatic.

Vaz --- I'm honored to be on your short list.

 

[johnnyjet]

My Long List, Short List and **** Favorite ****

The Ten Lethal Braids of Medusa Wu - Cat's Cradle
RAYGUNS AT THE READY - Jo Zebedee
Under an Arizona Moon: Wanted Dead or Alive – Tywin
Reminiscing about the slight at the O.K. Salon - Venusian Broon
A Bad Hair Day – pambaddeley
Staring at 'Taches - Ashleyne. B. Watts
**** Sometimes Moments Is All You Have – LittleStar ****
21 Mane Street - DG Jones
Untitled - Ken Zulu
Temple, Arizona - Robert MacKay
Business is Business - Bob Senior
Gunfight at the Chronicles Corral, OK? - Tim James
Strands – Vaz
OK, Sally On – TheDustyZebra
Hair Trigger – HareBrain
Building the Central Pacific: Construction Overheads - Ursa major
The Dead of Winter - Mad Alice

 

[johnnyjet]

This was probably the strangest challenge yet! And it sure produced some of the strangest tall & short tales I've seen. Kudos to all! It was tough coming up with a long list. Thanks for the cool comments on my humble offering, Victoria, Starbeast & Venusian Broon. And thanks for the mentions, Starbeast, Ihe, Cat's Cradle & Venusian Broon. Greatly appreciated!

 

[Ensign Shah]

Well well well. Put 'weird' in the challenge and it brings you all out in droves! Thoroughly entertaining. Thank you clever people.

 

[LittleStar]

Wow, I've been floored by you guys already. Thanks alex, Vaz, SB, and With Johnnyjet's vote added on, I do believe this is beating my personal best (and smashing my best in 75 worders ) You've all made my day so much better, thank you

 

[pambaddeley]

Wonderful stories, and a permanent wave to HareBrain for the inspiring genre/theme pairhairing! (*sigh*...I imagine if the theme had been 'fish' I'd be thanking HB for the inspiring pairherring.)

So, enough of that. Choices...

Honrables: Ashleyne, Serge Alexandr, War.Earth, Parson, Vaz, HareBrain

Semi-finalists: JoZ, Glen, pambaddeley, Ihe, johnnyjet, Shyrka, Robert M., TDZ

Finalists: Venusian Broon (a good tale, and my favorite last line of the challenge), LittleStar (great idea, and a really moving story).

My vote went to VB! And for the simple reason that it was my favorite story this month!
Best of luck to all in the voting, CC

Gosh! Thanks, Cats Cradle.

 

[Starbeast]

Thanks, Beasty.

You're mighty welcome Drof.

thanks for the shortlisting SB

Absolutely Mr Orange.

Wow, thanks Willwallace for placing me in the top three, and also Thanks to Starbeast for the short list.

You are very welcome Parson.

This was probably the strangest challenge yet! And it sure produced some of the strangest tall & short tales I've seen. Kudos to all! It was tough coming up with a long list. Thanks for the cool comments on my humble offering, Victoria, Starbeast & Venusian Broon. And thanks for the mentions, Starbeast, Ihe, Cat's Cradle & Venusian Broon. Greatly appreciated!

You're immensely welcome Johnnyjet.

Wow, I've been floored by you guys already. Thanks alex, Vaz, SB, and With Johnnyjet's vote added on, I do believe this is beating my personal best (and smashing my best in 75 worders ) You've all made my day so much better, thank you

You're welcome LittleStar, I was really moved by your story. Wonderfully written.

 

[pambaddeley]

And thanks for the mention, Venusian Broon.
Thanks very much for the shortlisting Johnnyjet.

 

[Shyrka]

Semi-finalists: JoZ, Glen, pambaddeley, Ihe, johnnyjet, Shyrka, Robert M., TDZ

Semi-finalist?! Much appreciated but I'm going to have to go lie down now.

 

[pambaddeley]

I know! It's made my year so far!

 

[Grimward]

As usual, a worthy field (and I've missed reading these the past several months just too busy!). In particular:

Starbeast - Palamino, indeed.

Cat's Cradle - Entertainingly weird, as per requirement.

Cul - Time-honored twist.

Robert MacKay - *Snickers*

Dusty - Award for most puns.

The Judge - *Louder snickers*

Ursa - Dirt cheap...very sneaky, weird and enjoyable.

Alice - also nicely weird, if that's a thing.

Mr. Orange - Still chuckling over the frayed knot (rest of it's quite good, too!). Finalist

Tim James - Come now, these word challenges surely aren't resolved like that! Well done. Finalist

Venusian Broon - Very clever sir. Winner

 

[J5V]

Noob mistake: I (fore)told, rather than showed. Looking forward to the next one ;o)

 

[Zoe Mackay]

My ultra-short list:

Culhwch - Because I liked the detail that implied depth.
Chrispenycate - Good morning, starshine.
The Judge - Because puns in two languages is just silly.

And I voted for The Judge, for that exact reason.

 

[Parson]

My that was hard! But I made my choices for better or for worse

Long list
Culhwch: the Witch of Stone Man Ridge
Droflet: Son of Morning Star
Veneusian Broon: Reminiscing about the Slight at the O.K. Corral
Robert MacKay: Temple Arizona
The Judge: The Yellow Rose of Texas

Short list
Tim James: Gunfight at the Chronicles Corral, OK? --- A real in group story
Phyrebrat: Cultural Appreciation --- A visual I wish I could unsee!
StilLearning: A Spaghetti Braid Western --- a real hairy mess.

Voted for
The Dusty Zebra: Ok, Sally On ---- Brilliant use of the theme.

 

[Droflet]

Thanks Parson. Always nicer when it's unexpected.

 

[Glen]

Well, I got a story in this month, though it was a rushed, and shows it. Thanks anyway for the mentions Starbeast, Cat’s Cradle, Venusian Broon.

My favourite stories were:

• Hex - missing spittoon
• Cat’s Cradle - hair raising
• Culhwch - bounty huntress
• juelz4sure - hair of fate?
• TitaniumTi - pov?
• Droflet - sad vision
• chrispenycate - Votewinning dialogue.
  
• Bowler1 - no-one is safe

 

[Droflet]

Thanks Glen.

 

[Dan Jones]

Mentions!

Thanks to Ihe, Drof, Alex Darion, Beastoid, VB and JJ for the listings, much obliged.

As for my lists, the ones who made it into the final furlong were:

@Hex - set the bar mighty high for the month. Just the right amount of weird, and some nice (and not so nice) imagery.
@Venusian Broon - Ah, the old west. A time when men were coiffured metrosexuals and the women... well, probably did a whole lot of rollin' their eyes. Made me want to go down my local dive bar and cause some trouble with my flick-comb.
@LittleStar - strong emotions and a different approach to the topic meant this stood out from the crowd.
@Robert Mackay - written like a local hand-me-down tale, ripe fer the tellin' 'round the campfire
@Bob Senior - When life throws you lemons... make hoss burgers, yum! Irreverent as ever, but with a killer left turn.
@Phyrebrat - saw a little bit of my own story in this one, what with the scalpin' an' all. Visceral, dark and cynical. Something to get my teeth into, full of delicious, hairy protein.
@The Judge - clever wordplay, as we'd expect, and a bangin' last line.

Special mention to @TheDustyZebra for the Dirty Harry quote. Dear Lord.*

The Winner? By a (very well groomed) whisker.... Hex!

*Wish I'd thought of it!

 

[Ihe]

Turns out I'm a sucker for religious zealotry in my westerns.

Shucks, my MC was against religion. Could that be why I didn't get your vote? XD

 

[Jo Zebedee]

I got it down to Tywin, Alex Darrion (many great newby entries, I thought) and Mosaix. But I'm a sucker for Butch and Sundance and was in need of a smile so Mosaix got the big tick in the box.