DISCUSSION THREAD, September 2019 75-Word Writing Challenge

[Parson]

@RJM Corbet .... ROSWELL USA 1947 .... RJiM takes a famous pseudo-event and gives it a believable twist.

@LittleStar .... Snake Oil .... Star builds our hopes and dashes them in a delicious satirical way.

 

[RJM Corbet]

@Parson
@Victoria Silverwolf

Thank you both. Unfortunately the first alien encounter with a dark side was what stuck in my mind, as I mulled the subject, and I forgot about the humour requirement. There's nothing really funny in my entry. Still, it's posted now. Thanks again.

 

[Karn's Return]

For future reference I don't think black comedy/dark humour should be in any more contests, it's done my nut in trying to think of sumfin'

I could say that about so many months that I just didn't enter into, Danny, but, alas...

 

[M. Robert Gibson]

Voting nearly over on the 100 challenge if anyone would care to cast

Stories here

August / September 100 Word Anonymous Challenge

This is the thread for the stories. Theme: Crime & Punishment Genre: Urban Fantasy Peter V has come up with the above theme and genre for the August / September 100 anonymous challenge. I (mosaix) will be accepting entries until midnight on the Sunday fifteenth of September, and voting will...

www.sffchronicles.com

Voting here

August / September 100 Word Anonymous Challenge Poll

Vote for you favourite 100 word story in the August / September challenge. The poll will close after six days. Author list to follow in a couple of days. Please keep comments to the comments thread.

www.sffchronicles.com

 

[Victoria Silverwolf]

LittleStar recalls that if it's too good to be true, it ain't.

M. Robert Gibson points out the importance of a healthful diet.

 

[Victoria Silverwolf]

Hugh teaches us to look for hidden meanings in pop culture.

 

[Parson]

@M. Robert Gibson .... From our Science Correspondent .... Robert makes us think about our food choices.

@Hugh .... The Sound of One Flipper Clapping .... Hugh turns the story of Babel on it's ear.

 

[Victoria Silverwolf]

Garfunkel reveals a little-known footnote to history.

 

[Ursa major]

I've risked posting my entry which, inadvertantly, contains the same play on words that I've now seen appearing in someone else's entry... although I hope the situation in which I use that wordplay is sufficiently different to avoid people thinking that any plagiarism is involved.

 

[Victoria Silverwolf]

Vince W shows us how respect for traditions can go too far.

Ursa major points out the importance of pronouncing words correctly.

 

[Cat's Cradle]

Sufficiently and clearly different enough for me, @Ursa major! Very cool that both stories work so well, too. I just hope they don't split the Vegan vote (though Vegan/vegan can be two different things). Good story, CC

 

[Elckerlyc]

This reminds me of a Twilight episode I saw in the sixties. It's actually the only one I remember - I was perhaps 12 or 13 - and may very well have triggered my lifelong interest in SFF.
Earth was visited by aliens (first contact, no doubt) and humans were invited to come and visit their world. As to their intentions they gave a book that described their world and lives etc. But it was in the aliens' language.
So a team was assembled to try to decipher it. They succeeded eventually, just about when the last human entered the alien spacecraft and the hatch closed.
It was a book about cooking.

 

[Victoria Silverwolf]

"To Serve Man" based on the story of the same name by Damon Knight.

 

[Elckerlyc]

Ah! Thanks!

 

[Parson]

@Garfunkel ... A Few Thousand Cycles, Give or Take .... Garfunkel tells a tale of first contact and how things can go massively wrong; perhaps earth shatteringly wrong?

@Vince W .... Protocols of Preparation .... Vince has finally settled the question of whether or not humans are actually turkeys.

@Ursa major .... The Importance of Comic Timing .... Ursa gives us a massive (what else?) pun regarding the Vegans true intentions.

 

[M. Robert Gibson]

I've risked posting my entry which, inadvertantly, contains the same play on words that I've now seen appearing in someone else's entry

I suppose that's one of the problems of posting late, there's more chance someone might beat you to the punch(line). But I never read the other entries until I've posted mine anyway, so I suppose even if posted early the problem remains.

Anyway, mine are from Vega Five, yours must be from another Vega satellite

 

[The Judge]

Wel, I'm in, having made a rod for my own back. Half of you won't know about Dangerous Dan McGrew** and the other half will be baffled by Fred Karno. All shall be revealed after voting. Meanwhile, I hope some of you get the allusions.


** no relation to the newish member of the similar name, I trust!

 

[nixie]

Either I'm over tired or my last remaining brain cells have finally departed but for some weird reason I replaced dangerous with desperate

 

[The Judge]

Actually, when I was re-reading the original to get the metre, I had images of Desperate Dan, he of the cow pies, in my mind -- all brawn and stubble! But that DD would be too gentle to attack an alien.

 

[TheDustyZebra]

I mean, seriously, I never even thought about Robert Service for black comedy. What the hell is wrong with me?

And, more importantly, how do I follow that?*


* in three hours (or is it four?)