DISCUSSION THREAD- February 2019- 75 Word Writing Challenge

[Artoriarius]

Hello. And Welcome to the. Vault 59. Morning broadcast. Current. Population. Count: Zero. Current. Radiation. Count: Zero.

That is all. And now for the. Thought of the day: Did you know? The odds of a. Vault-Tec™. Shelter failing are: One million. Seven hundred. Sixty-three thousand. Four hundred. And. Ninety-seven. To. One.

That is all. And now for the. Reviews: We have. Six. Stories to review.

The End of a World (LittleStar) - Conclusion: History is composed of. Miniature apocalypses. Success of. One. Way of life. May be the failure. Of another.

Big Plans (Vince W) - A plan. For continuation. Brings purpose. To the darkest. Of days.

Empire Forest Products (Bob Senior) - A friendly offer. To serve. Their fellow man. With little. to no. Possible negative consequences.

Accession (TheDustyZebra) - Conclusion: History is composed of. Miniature victories. Failure of. One. Way of life. May be the success. Of another.

The Circus on the Edge of Forever (Mad Alice) - The sudden end. Leaves a frozen scene. Terrible. And beautiful. In its desolation.

Uninterruptible (Ursa major) - Technology. Alone. Without humanity. Without people. Cannot sustain itself. Forever.

Vault 59. Is technology. Therefore. Therefore. There. Fore. Error. Neural pruning in progress. Neural pruning complete. Error contained.

That is all. And now for the. News: Zero. New cases of. New Plague. Have been reported.

We have gone. Error. Out of heap. Please consult Senior Vault Engineer. Shute. Days without fatalities.

That is all. And now for the. Poetry reading: Today's poem is. "There Will Come Soft Rains". By. Sara Teasdale.

There will come soft rains and the smell of the ground,
And swallows circling with their shimmering sound...

 

[Artoriarius]

And now we can safely turn off the radio and leave the Wasteland to fend for itself. Hope that was all entertaining!

My short list would be...

@dannymcg (Last Supper) - Nice job subverting my expectations in the last sentence there.

@Justin Swanton (After His Father's Heart) - Reminds me of a post-apocalyptic Game of Thrones. (Hey, I'd watch it.)

@Dr_R_Dizzle (15-Love) - I had to read this twice to get it, but I kinda like it more for that.

@nixie (New Beginning) - I like how it reads as "the crazy guy was right!" and then turns into "But only because he did it himself."

@Mad Alice (The Circus on the Edge of Forever) - Maybe it's just me, but I like the image of a desolate circus, frozen in the vacuum of space.

And my favourite:

@Tywin (Sworn to Keep the Barbarians at Bay) - One of the things I particularly love to see, as it's not done often, is non-science-fiction post-apocalyptic. Fantasy apocalypses (which somehow always seem to get relegated to backstory), historical apocalypses (hey, what do you think the Fall of Rome was, or the Colonisation of the Americas (from a native perspective)?), apocalyptic mystery (Who killed Old Mutant Blearg? Rad-Detective Golmes is on the case!), things like that. This piece in particular hits all the right spots: I like the image of an old soldier sticking to his duty, even knowing that relief won't come; and I'm fond enough of Rome (I assume this Marius is Roman, given his name) that it makes the piece more evocative for me.

 

[CTRandall]

Short list:
@Culhwch
@Dr_R_Dizzle
@M. Robert Gibson

Vote goes to @Luiglin for a great story that made me laugh.

 

[Tywin]

Thanks much for the vote Arty, and to elvet for the listing.

For me this month it came down to cats cradle or culwich. Both of them brought me in on a personal level without going over the top. Neither of them needed to tell me that society had collapsed, or how, but I knew it none the less.

In the end I went with Culwich. Clever use of empire relating to the post-apocalyptic in two senses - on the one hand society (empire) has collapsed with the disappearance of the adults, and on the other you have this kid and his "empire".

 

[elvet]

Vote goes to @nixie .

 

[Hugh]

My vote's gone to @Laura R Hepworth
I thought the story was completely left field and unexpected

Others that caught my eye for one reason or another....
in no particular order:
@Ursa major
@Victoria Silverwolf
@TheDustyZebra
@Luiglin
@scarpelius
@Dr_R_Dizzle
@M. Robert Gibson
@nixie
@Parson

And many thanks indeed to @Victoria Silverwolf , @nixie , and @Daysman for your mentioning of my story.

 

[nixie]

I'll savour the moment... I'm currently in joint first .... to say I'm shocked is an understatement.

 

[Vince W]

There were many entries worthy of a vote but in the end I had to give it to @CTRandall. That one has had me smirking at odd moments.

 

[M. Robert Gibson]

As ever a good crop of entries makes it difficult to choose

Honourable mentions
15-Love - @Dr_R_Dizzle
New Beginning - @nixie
Civilization Unit Testing - @scarpelius

Vote goes to
Last Supper - @dannymcg

And, of course, a big thanks for all the mentions

 

[M. Robert Gibson]

Oh! A vote. Thanks @Dr_R_Dizzle

 

[Danny McG]

Vote goes to
Last Supper - @dannymcg

*Squeals in delight!*
Thank you

 

[CTRandall]

Thanks @Vince W for the vote!

 

[Parson]

My goodness this was hard! I had to dig deep to determine the winner.

Worthy entries:

@elvet: Man’s Best Friend …. For a story that deals fair with what a survivor of the Apocalypse might need.

@Culhwch: An ordinary Kind of Empire …. For a story that makes me sad for the hopeless hope that is felt.

@Hugh: Boone Country …. For a story that points to the resiliency of human life and the way things change.

@M. Robert Gibson: La Conquête du Monde …. For making a post apocalyptic story hilarious.

@TheDustyZebra: Accession …. For a pun which made me smile.

In the end Dusty's pun won the day and my vote.

 

[elvet]

@Parson thank you for your mention.

 

[chrispenycate]

It's all right, I voted - for JJ, actually, while my short list was:- Cat's Cradle, Cathbad, CTRandall, Culhwch, johnnyjet, scarpelius, Teresa Edgerton, Ursa major and Victoria Silverwolf.

Voting! How to compare such diversity? And how to avoid either 'Oh, yes, I like this member's writing' or 'I've voted for him/her/it in the past, so I'd better avoid it now' (both of which considerations are irrelevant to 'How good is the story? How does it fit the specifications?', which ought to be the considerations to judge by?

Thank you Artoriarius, Parson and Victoria for the reviews; I don't know how you manage it (I tried, just once, fortunately waiting until I had a relatively bulky collection before posting - fortunately, because I only managed about half the entries I attempted).

 

[johnnyjet]

My Long List was too long to post. Below is my Short List and Favorite:

Man's Best Friend – elvet
L'état, C'est Moi - Victoria Silverwolf
An Ordinary Kind of Empire – Culhwch
apocalypSTICKS - D. A. Xiaolin Spires
Post.Apocalypse – CTRandall
The Price of Miracles - Teresa Edgerton
Accession – TheDustyZebra
The Circus on the Edge of Forever - Mad Alice

 

[M. Robert Gibson]

*Squeals in delight!*
Thank you

It's always good to hear the opposition's point-of-view, even if they are going to eat my brains

 

[Laura R Hepworth]

I enjoyed them all, but my vote went to @CTRandall!

@Hugh thanks so much for the vote! I had a lot of fun writing it. Highly tempted to continue it beyond 75 words.

 

[Hugh]

I enjoyed them all, but my vote went to @CTRandall!

@Hugh thanks so much for the vote! I had a lot of fun writing it. Highly tempted to continue it beyond 75 words.

Go for it!

 

[TheDustyZebra]

I had a lot of fun writing it. Highly tempted to continue it beyond 75 words.

Definitely go for it! I believe the record for expanding a 75-word Challenge story is currently seven books, held by @ratsy (Nathan Hystad). Unless I’ve lost track and he slipped three more in there....