Discussion Thread -- FEBRUARY 2017 -- 75 Word Writing Challenge

[The Judge]

I loved your kitty-tale, Ursa, and it was a whisker away from making it onto my shortlist -- though I'd not come across "borked" before, so that took me a while to interpret!

 

[HazelRah]

Ooh exciting.

Well I really enjoyed both stories, but I had to go with Victoria for the lovely, celestial, escapist imagery it made in my brain.

Although, I do have a soft spot for shrews... but that's probably because my cat has an incessant need to bring them into the house and lose them under the sofa

...so it was a tough call

 

[The Judge]

Yep, been there, done that, got the shrew bite-marks on my fingers to prove it. But just think how much easier it would be to catch the vicious little pests if they were fat!

 

[Perpetual Man]

I got two likes this month which surprised me considering how disconnected my story seemed to be.

(I'm not surprised that one of them was SB - but was that the other was Chris )

The background:

DC Vertigo line of comics has often produced some good, adult orientated comic book, from The Sandman to Preacher, but Fables came out of left field at a time when the range was looking for a new leading comic.

It was written by Bill Willingham, with art provided for the majority of issues by Mark Buckingham.

It ran for 150 issues, ending in a massive graphic novel but along the way took in a number of limited series and companion series that ran for various lengths of time. (It still continues today with different creators at the helm - not as Fables though)

The story is basically one of epic proportions - all the creators of Fable, Fairy Tale and Legend have fled their home lands which have been invaded and conquered by the Adversary. They are now living in upstate New York...

It won at one stage or another all the major comic awards (including the Eisner's mentioned)

Anyone interested here's a link to the Wikipedia page Fables

 

[StormFeather]

Many thanks to Starbeast, Glen, Johnnyjet and TDZ for the mentions - really lovely warm glow you've given me! And to Shyrka for the lovely review

My vote went to The Judge, who was one of my shortlisted stories first time round. Interesting to hear, and see, the inspiration behind some of these tales - mine was simply that as soon as I saw the theme, a recollection of Ragnarok and other Norse myths kicked my mind in that direction. Was given a book of Myths and Fables when I was about 9, which covered the main Greek, Roman and Norse mythology tales - stood me in good stead for this challenge!

 

[Culhwch]

I got two likes this month which surprised me considering how disconnected my story seemed to be.

(I'm not surprised that one of them was SB - but was that the other was Chris )

The background:

DC Vertigo line of comics has often produced some good, adult orientated comic book, from The Sandman to Preacher, but Fables came out of left field at a time when the range was looking for a new leading comic.

It was written by Bill Willingham, with art provided for the majority of issues by Mark Buckingham.

It ran for 150 issues, ending in a massive graphic novel but along the way took in a number of limited series and companion series that ran for various lengths of time. (It still continues today with different creators at the helm - not as Fables though)

The story is basically one of epic proportions - all the creators of Fable, Fairy Tale and Legend have fled their home lands which have been invaded and conquered by the Adversary. They are now living in upstate New York...

It won at one stage or another all the major comic awards (including the Eisner's mentioned)

Anyone interested here's a link to the Wikipedia page Fables

I meant to give your story a shout-out, Perp, and plum forgot! That series is always the first thing to come to my mind when I hear the word 'Fables'. Such a great work.

 

[Perpetual Man]

I meant to give your story a shout-out, Perp, and plum forgot! That series is always the first thing to come to my mind when I hear the word 'Fables'. Such a great work.

Thanks Cul

 

[Parson]

My story got its start when I started thinking about what a fable was. I wanted a good moral, something that could be used far outside the story, and I wanted one of the "villains" of the fable world to get his comeuppance. So I sort of worked from there thinking of the sly fox in the Gingerbread Man story and silly hen from the story of Henny Penny.

 

[BigJ]

Well, voted for Victoria. Twice now.

Owe Parson a thanks for the short listing, and keeping me from pulling an oh-fer this month. Haven't poked my nose around here in a while and churned one out on a whim. Had to google 'fable' to get me started. I was in the middle of reading "Man's Search for Meaning" by Viktor Frankl at the time (highly recommend it if you haven't read it already), which if you haven't read it, is about Frankl's experiences in a WWII concentration camp from a psychological perspective, and then gives a brief introduction into his psychiatric theories about the search for meaning being the primary driving force in humans. He uses a quote from Nietzsche several times in the book, "He who has a why to live can bear almost any how" and focuses on dealing with the mental effect the holocaust had on the prisoners as opposed to the grisly physical details. I had delusions of grandeur when I started writing and cutting it down to 75 words brought it back down to reality and started sliding it a bit away from the theme, I think. Glad at least one person thought it worthy of mentioning, anyways.

 

[Stable]

Even the tiebreak is close!

 

[mosaix]

Even the tiebreak is close!

I seem to remember that we had a tiebreeak once that ended up tied. Or did I imagine that?

 

[Dan Jones]

Tough one. Victoria's is beautifully simple, and TJ's is complex and well-wrought.

Went for TJ as it's terribly difficult to execute that sort rhyming structure and make if scan and flow in just 75 words.

 

[The Judge]

I seem to remember that we had a tiebreeak once that ended up tied. Or did I imagine that?

Not your imagination. It's happened three times: Hex and TDZ in Nov 2012, DEO and me the following May, and CC and TDZ again in April 2014.

I was actually thinking just the other day we were due a tie-break, as we hadn't had one for quite a while. In our first year, there were 7! Then in the following years it went 2, 4, 2, 1, 1 and we've not had one since Cul and holland in Sept 2015.

 

[Luiglin]

...we've not had one since Cul and holland in Sept 2015.

Fix

 

[StormFeather]

ooof - the tie-break is tight! What happens if we need to have a tie-break for the tie-break . . . .

 

[Dave Barsby]

ooof - the tie-break is tight! What happens if we need to have a tie-break for the tie-break . . . .

Is it a tie-break question?

 

[Ursa major]

The tie-breaker poll has now closed and we have a winner:

Congratulations, Victoria Silverwolf!​

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[Starbeast]

Congratulations Victoria Silverwolf​

My story: Fable, meant animals to me, and I chose RATS.

Rat Fink came to mind.

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And I combined him with, The MISFITS

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And the punk rock song, "Smells Like...", from ALIEN S. FIEND came to mind. I put everything together and came up with my story.

 

[mosaix]

Congratulations, Victoria!

 

[Droflet]

Well done, Victoria. Bad luck your honor.