Discussion thread -- June 2016 75-word Writing Challenge

Congrats @mosaix and seeing how I gave you your first vote I'll take 2.5% of the appreciation as per normal agent fees ;)

Thanks @nixie for the vote and for the mentions. I had to switch Mass Production around. From that came the idea of some naive person putting Catholic Priests on stage under the impression that Mass was entertaining.

It was either that or an even worse pun about a troll producing more mass. That tale I think would have earned me a ban ;)
 
Congrats Mosaix, well deserved. (y)

And thanks to those who listed/mentioned my little story. And to the reviewers of course (human and otherwise ;))
I really enjoyed my first challenge, bring on next month..
 
congratulations @mosaix! a great story with a great voice.

thanks again for all the votes and mentions for my little story. i think this is the closest i have got to the end of the voting whilst still being in the running. i know that's long winded, but it's the consolation i am taking. i really didn't think my pun would get votes at all so chuffed with what i got.

the origins of mine are simple. i knew i wanted a pun. "Pro duck shun" appeared as if by magic and Alfred the Giant Mallard followed soon after.
 
Congratulations Mosaix



spider2.gif


Above is an image of your invisible trophy!
I've tried wiping off the bug.
 
Thanks everyone. :)

I'm away at the moment and my internet connection is a bit problematic to say the least.

I'll give the theme / genre for July some thought and run it past the powers that be. Thanks again.
 
Congratulations to @mosaix. A worthy win!

Now that all the voting shenanigans have finished, here's my alternate entry that I started but couldn't get to 'click' at the time:

Bespoke

The column approached, marching in perfect synchrony, all mirrored steel and hisses of frost-white steam. Thousands. They poured from the manufactorums of the south like water.

They burned clean. Not for them the creeping spectre of clinker. His fire grew cold nowadays.

He fell upon them, furnace roaring. Polished steel bit into rough-hewn bronze, taking chunks of him in its wake. He fought on. He was Bespoke.

The clinker would not take him.
 
It took me a while to find this but... back in April 2014 (it seems only a few months ago), I wrote a story for the challenge that feature an Elf and Dwarf 'disagreeing' about the creation of a steam-powered boat. So when I saw the theme of mass production and the genre of fantasy it triggered the memory of the duo bickering and I thought it would be nice to invite them back to do the commenting this month, because of course, they would do it with intelligence and understanding. I hope everyone enjoyed them, and that no-one was too offended by their language, which got slightly colourful on occassion. They will not be back (for a while. I hope.)

And now a warning:

This month I rushed. Normally I try to consider what I have written for a few days, count and recount the words and check for the little errors that sometimes occur, either through carelessness or typo's. This month I typed it up and posted. Big mistake. There were a couple in there that stood out, an 'out' that should have been 'our' a 'the' that should have been 'they' and a fullstop that was cunningly disguised as a comma.

All the old time regulars are aware of this, but for the new competitors it is worth remembering that the level of quality is so high in these challenges that sometimes it is hard to narrow things down to a single winner, so one of the common disqualification tactics amongst voters is to drop those down the list that have as mentioned above.

So before you enter your story check and check again just to make sure you have not hit the wrong key on your keyboard, because I felt like a prize prune when I realised what I had done.

There are those lovely members of the Chrons who, if they spot the mistakes in time will let you know within the one hour window you have to edit the story - they are wonderful eh? But in this case although someone was kind enough to do this for me, I did not get to see the message until after the hour was up.

So check, check and check again! :D
 
It took me a while to find this but... back in April 2014 (it seems only a few months ago), I wrote a story for the challenge that feature an Elf and Dwarf 'disagreeing' about the creation of a steam-powered boat. So when I saw the theme of mass production and the genre of fantasy it triggered the memory of the duo bickering and I thought it would be nice to invite them back to do the commenting this month, because of course, they would do it with intelligence and understanding. I hope everyone enjoyed them, and that no-one was too offended by their language, which got slightly colourful on occassion. They will not be back (for a while. I hope.)

And now a warning:

This month I rushed. Normally I try to consider what I have written for a few days, count and recount the words and check for the little errors that sometimes occur, either through carelessness or typo's. This month I typed it up and posted. Big mistake. There were a couple in there that stood out, an 'out' that should have been 'our' a 'the' that should have been 'they' and a fullstop that was cunningly disguised as a comma.

All the old time regulars are aware of this, but for the new competitors it is worth remembering that the level of quality is so high in these challenges that sometimes it is hard to narrow things down to a single winner, so one of the common disqualification tactics amongst voters is to drop those down the list that have as mentioned above.

So before you enter your story check and check again just to make sure you have not hit the wrong key on your keyboard, because I felt like a prize prune when I realised what I had done.

There are those lovely members of the Chrons who, if they spot the mistakes in time will let you know within the one hour window you have to edit the story - they are wonderful eh? But in this case although someone was kind enough to do this for me, I did not get to see the message until after the hour was up.

So check, check and check again! :D

Excellent post, Perp.
 
Alternatively I prefer to live life dangerously. No double bagging to carry breakables from the shops, no closing eyes when sneezing, no reading of warnings on bags of nuts that say this product contains nuts.

I laugh in the face of danger.

Now, I'll have to finish this quickly as the Accident and Emergency unit I'm being wheeled into blocks smartphones.
 
Congratulations Mosaix in a fine victory!

Thanks to those who short listed my entry :)

Looking forward to next month's. Slightly addictive, these challenges.
 
Congrats, mosaix! Great story!

Many thanks to ratsy and Cory Swanson for the votes, and thanks also to everyone who listed or mentioned my story. Especially pleasing as coming into the last days I had zip, so I really needed to force the idea. Was racking my brain thinking about mass production when Ikea came to mind. Ikea led to tables, and tables to the most famous table. And that led to a thrifty squire in King Arthur's court and an anachronistic Ikea store...
 
Well done again mosaix! You got the touch!

My thanks to the elusive Heijan Xavier for a stealth vote and to everyone who gave me a mention!
 
"Trouble at t' mill".

You grabbed my attention with that opening line MOSAIX. I knew I was in for a treat when I began to read what was written, with an accent conjured in my mind. I chuckled at imagining employees checking the quality of an item that is "invisible" (and of course dozens of other problems when handling invisible product). Fantastic and funny. Well done sir.



As for my unicorn tale. It didn't take me long before I came up with something. But a while back I was watching an episode of Columbo, within it I saw a familiar actor, Nicol Williamson. Immediately I thought of him as Merlin in the movie, Excaliber. Later when the TV show was over, I flipped channels and saw My Little Ponies for a moment, then it clicked in my mind. Merlin selling little bitty live unicorns. You don't have to feed them, they just walk around making a raspberry tongue noise, "Phfffpt".
 
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Baaaah.

And I would have got away with it if it wasn't for those pesky voters :)

Congratulations on your landslide victory, Mosaix!

Well done to all who entered and thank you to eveyone who shortlisted my story. Particular grateful 'umble Uriah Heeping to Cathbad, Littlestar and Coast for your votes.

I'm very glad to have received three votes which I think is my most in a lonnnnnnngo time-o. I saw the genre and decided I'd give this month a miss. That was until I started listening to Kate Bush's song Joanni, about Joan of Arc. I love that there is french spoken in the track at the end and there's something about the arrangement that conjures up horses and armed forces marching under penants etc, that is so evocative I decided I wanted to do a fantasy version of J'eanne (although her surname is not 'D'agneau' but I liked the idea of her being 'of the lamb' for obvious christian references). The end of the song says; 'les voix' (the voices) which I changed to 'j'ai froid' (I'm cold) so that even as she was being burnt alive she was telling herself she wasn't.

Anyway, check out the song if you want a few minutes of bliss.


pH
 
Fun challenge this month. I was super excited to get a vote and was gushing at every short list I made. I'm new to this, so I figure it was a good showing. Congrats to Mosaix, and to the rest of the great ideas.

Is there some sort of formatting thing I don't know about? I posted one to the anonymous challenge and a typo showed up that was not there in my draft (I checked it a few times). Have you guys had this happen? Did I bump a key when I posted and didn't notice? Is there a way to fix something after you post?
 

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