Discussion thread -- July 2018 75-word Writing Challenge

Found myself shortlisting a lot of horrendous horror this month -- I guess that's the most twisted thing overall. But also some mystery/crime stories, which are also twisty, and a few other things.

I was also, bizarrely as it turned out, puzzled by all the references to what was obviously the same card game, and when I went googling to find out what the game was, I found, to my embarrassment, that it appeared to be blackjack. This is embarrassing to me personally because I was, at one time in my life, a professional blackjack dealer -- thing is, the US game doesn't use the "stick" and "twist" terms. Here it's "stand" or "hit". Hence my confusion. That's my story, and I'm ...err... standing on it?


Luiglin -- Mavis and Beryl...
Harliebunny -- Lucy
M. Robert Gibson -- Casino Vulgaire
*jackwinabox57 -- No Good Spy* (This gets my vote as probably the biggest 75-word story we've ever had. There's a whole spy movie in here.)
scarpelius -- The Bigger the Pain...
Justin Swanton -- And Then There Were None...
mosaix -- A Twist in the Tale
Stable -- Bloody Ella
Joshua Jones -- The Ball Couldn't Wait
Shyrka -- Far From the Tree
Mr. O -- How Many Times?
Ursa -- The Magician and the Merle Queen
TJ -- Warped
 
Finally, I have a story I've written that in future endeavours I can look back on and try to figure out what I did Right! (Now, that's a twist).
Many good entries but I found the ones that took advantage of the open genre entertained me most. Shortlist; Johnnyjet-Twist Open; Nothing a vise and a sledgehammer couldn't handle.
Justin Swanton-And then there were none; Inhumanity will never win.
althea-Beginnings; "Remember Jerry, it's not a lie if you believe it." George Costanza
TheDustyZebra-Mine; Pleasant to look at, interesting to read, 2x the fun.

My vote goes to; Perpetual Man-Tim's Totally Twisted Tale; Terrific Tome Took Titanic Toll, Tanks.
Thanks to Parsons, Shyrka, and Stable for the mentions and especially TDZ for the vote.
Later gators.
 
Thank you @TheDustyZebra for the mention, and for the stealth vote from @LittleStar!

My vote went to TDZ, with finalists including @Harpo, @The Judge, @Stable, and @jackwinabox57. My shortlist is pretty long, and I unfortunately don't have time at the moment to reproduce it (funeral for a friend's 15 year old son. Not going to be a fun day...), but I will make every effort to reproduce it sometime tomorrow.
 
Just have a moment to list, and vote....okay, voting done, here are my lists;

Honorables:
D.A. Xiaolin Spires, Perpetual Man, scarpelius, Justin Swanton, althea

Shortlist:
Phyrebrat, Harpo, Stable, The Judge, TheDustyZebra

Vote:
johnnyjet. This one grabbed me from the first reading; I really enjoyed jj's story.

Thx, Ashleyne, for the cool choices. And now I'm off to a cool drink; heat wave where we live, and our apartment has been 82 to 88 degrees non-stop for the last 3+ weeks (even at night). Even the new AC is helpless against the accumulated heat in the building. Good luck to all in the voting; looks like a close one! CC
 
TheDustyZebra said:
the US game doesn't use the "stick" and "twist" terms. Here it's "stand" or "hit". Hence my confusion.
Click to expand...
What's that phrase? Two nations separated by a common language. Something like that. I must look it up.:unsure:

Anyway, I suppose mine and others' efforts must seem bizarre without the knowledge of Pontoon.
 
Thanks to Parson and Victoria for doing the reviews.
Parson, thanks for the listing. I really liked your story, made a whole bunch of car tunes come to mind, didn't know you were a car guy. Hot Rod Lincoln, Coupe de Ville that Little Nash Rambler all motivatin' over the hill.
I wasn't going to enter this month but I gave it a shot, it was a clear miss.
Next month there will be blood .
 
Bob Senior said:
Thanks to Parson and Victoria for doing the reviews.
Parson, thanks for the listing. I really liked your story, made a whole bunch of car tunes come to mind, didn't know you were a car guy. Hot Rod Lincoln, Coupe de Ville that Little Nash Rambler all motivatin' over the hill.
I wasn't going to enter this month but I gave it a shot, it was a clear miss.
Next month there will be blood .
Click to expand...

Speaking of which, I've been meaning to ask you, Mr. Bob, if you're going to post that fabulous picture of you and the kid with the truck, that I saw on Facebook! :)
 
Never before have I so wanted two votes.

I love Phyrebrat's "Landed Gentry": clever, affecting, a gentle and possibly quite English horror that's nonetheless chilling, aided by the facts being quite clear but never spelled out. Plus there's the lovely twist (ha) on the phrase used as the title.

But then I also love TheDustyZebra's, also chilling (perhaps even more so), also clever, and with a very neat use of form.

It was a bit of a battle of heart vs head, but on the day, TDZ just pipped it and got my vote.
 
As ever, a few stories that to my mind didn't quite hit the theme, and a few more that I didn't understand even on second and thirds reads, but the twist is that this month I think everyone hit the genre!

Anyhow, my favourites were those stories which did something a little different with the twist, and my short list is:

At Play -- Cat's Cradle​
Last Summer -- Hugh​
Mavis and Beryl Keep Their Hand In -- Luiglin​
A Twisted Escape -- Parson​
What the Dickens? -- Peter V​
Landed Gentry -- Phyrebrat​
Bloody Ella -- Stable​
Mine -- TheDustyZebra​
​
I was particularly taken with Peter's Dickensian Twist of a tale (even though it meant my first idea was blown out of the water!) and with Phyrebrat's ancestral curse, and with the punning titles of each, but in the end I had to go with TDZ's murdering DNA, which was not only a virtuoso performance in its format with the helix pattern, but was a well-executed story cleverly told.

And a special award for sheer tortuosity to Perp for his tongue-twister!

And pleached and plaited thanks for the lovely mentions K2, johnnyjet, Hugh, TDZ, Joshua and CC -- and to MRG for the New Word Award! -- and mega-twisted, convoluted corkscrew thanks for the wonderful votes Harpo, Pedro, Phyrebrat and Graymalkin! Gosh, the most votes I've had in ages, and all stealth-ninja'd which was a stunning and very welcome surprise!
 
Keep having fun, Calliopenjo! But perhaps try different fonts and sizes and colours, and see which is (a) most "you" and (b) which is most easily read by the rest of us! (Don't forget some of the old fogeys** on here need all the help they can get with small print!)


** I might be an old fogey, but I can manage the small print very well. Years of legal training and chronic myopia is the answer!
 
The Ursa Jury was in a bit of a spin after reading this month's entries, to the extent that it almost became stuck. In the end, it recognised a winning hand when it saw it, hence the following (in which the stories are in posting order within the categories):


Honourable Mentions:
  • What the Dickens? by Peter V
  • Mavis and Beryl Keep Their Hand In by Luiglin
  • Hard Hand by HoopyFrood
  • Beginnings. by althea

Runners Up:
  • Tim's Totally Twisted Tale by Perpetual Man
  • Bloody Ella by Stable
  • The Ball Couldn't Wait by Joshua Jones

Winner:
  • Mine by TheDustyZebra
​
 
Nice goin' Dusty , well done, congrats.

I hope you come up with something really wild for next month, like I said before , there will be blood , no more Mister Nice Guy !
 
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