DISCUSSION THREAD -- MARCH 2022 -- 75 Word Writing Challenge

[Parson]

@The Judge .... Mad As… ,,,, Down my way this would be called a cotton tail, or would that be a tale? Anyway a bunny with bunny things on his mind.

@Ursa major .... Marchland or A Crying Shame .... For some reason my mind goes to John Brown's body molderin' in the grave. He has lessons to teach but no one will learn.


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Thanks for the short listing @worldofmutes. Nice cap to my day. (I'm on Padre Island presently and that's pretty nice in itself.)

 

[worldofmutes]

Really good work Parson. Had to read through them again… pretty darn good.

 

[AnRoinnUltra]

Voted for The March Between Awake And Sleep by @Aknot - I thought it was a nice piece of writing that stands reading again and again.

Almost voted for:
Stomping Grounds by @Daysman - I thought it was a well written mix of virtual worlds and time lost
Project Meeting(s) at Temporal Research Labs Inc. by @mosaix - Those sneaky time travellers, bet they put in for overtime too
Why is a Raven Like a Writing Desk? by @Victoria Silverwolf - I thought it was a nice imaginative story

 

[Bren G]

Thanks for the mentions @Dan Jones jones and @Christine Wheelwright. Made my day!

 

[paranoid marvin]

Thanks for the shortlisting worldofmutes.

 

[johnnyjet]

My Long List, Short List, and *** Favorite ***:

Double Time - Cat's Cradle
Why is a Raven Like a Writing Desk? - Victoria Silverwolf
Step Right Up - paranoid marvin
The Waste Land Revisited - Christine Wheelwright
*** PROSTHETIC - Mark_Harbinger ***
Stomping Grounds – Daysman
Notes in the marchin' – StilLearning
Psychological Warfare – MatthewKusza
Mad As… - The Judge
Marchland or A Crying Shame - Ursa major

 

[Victoria Silverwolf]

Peter V marches to an intriguing mixture of far future and tradition.

D3athw4lker marches to a thought-provoking consideration of the meaning of society.

The Judge marches to an intricate weaving of multiple allusions.

Ursa major marches to an allegorical fable of conflict and compromise.

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Short List:

Cat's Cradle

Iwroteathing

BT Jones

chrispenycate

JS Wiig

Dan Jones

Bren G

worldofmutes

DF17

Ursa major

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Wow, this is a tough one. More poetry than usual, more allegorical fables than usual. I could go with almost anything listed above, but the vote goes to BT Jones for the anthropomorphic depiction of a month.

 

[JS Wiig]

@paranoid marvin - but wait! there’s more!

@Mark_Harbinger - sometimes the solution is worse than the problem

** @mosaix - the business people never understand what the technical people are up to **

 

[Mark_Harbinger]

My Long List, Short List, and *** Favorite ***:

Double Time - Cat's Cradle
Why is a Raven Like a Writing Desk? - Victoria Silverwolf
Step Right Up - paranoid marvin
The Waste Land Revisited - Christine Wheelwright
*** PROSTHETIC - Mark_Harbinger ***
Stomping Grounds – Daysman
Notes in the marchin' – StilLearning
Psychological Warfare – MatthewKusza
Mad As… - The Judge
Marchland or A Crying Shame - Ursa major

I'm much obliged, JohnnyJet!
If nothing else, my story has legs...

 

[Ursa major]

If nothing else, my story has legs...

Now you know why we have to lock the thread during the voting....

​

 

[MatthewKusza]

Enjoyed all the entries! Fascinating to see the varied takes on the word prompt!

@The Judge and @johnnyjet both of your stories provided a good old fashion chuckle! Enjoyed!

@Lenny Wow! I should have recorded myself trying to sing along! Very clever and well done!

@Aknot Will make me sleep with the light on perhaps. Appreciated the way you used the word prompt to explore the borders of REM sleep.

@Cat's Cradle Again this month you offer a well-crafted story, telling/suggesting so much with so little words! Enjoyed!

@Christine Wheelwright Your story was funny, caught me completely off guard and lends itself as a brilliant, educational tool for the importance of getting know someone before blindly trusting them. LOL! I also believe you were the only entry which went outside the box recognizing the word prompt could be a character name. Well done! Thanks!

Congratulations to all!

 

[Christine Wheelwright]

@Christine Wheelwright Your story was funny, caught me completely off guard and lends itself as a brilliant, educational tool for the importance of getting know someone before blindly trusting them. LOL! I also believe you were the only entry which went outside the box recognizing the word prompt could be a character name. Well done! Thanks!

Thanks Matthew. Your commenrts are much appreciated. My writing has been called many things, but thats a first for 'educational'. Still, I'll take it! Thanks again.

 

[Parson]

Nearly made the grade:
Let's Move March Somewhere Else @Ian Fortytwo for the best idea about March.
March by @BT Jones for personifying March spiritually.
+ From Mars Mission Control to Outpost Mu, Olympus Mons + Earth date 2222-03-18 by @M. Robert Gibson for alliteration to march to.

Short listed
Closer to March by @Iwroteathing because it caught an essence of spring for me.
The Waste Land Revisited by @Christine Wheelwright because the color of March is Fifty Shades of Gray.

Vote: Closer to March

 

[paranoid marvin]

Thanks for the shortlistings johnnyjet and JS Wiig.

Very close run thing between by top 3 of Christine Wheelwright, BT Jones and Astro Pen.

AP's 'Shop till you drop' just shades it for me.

 

[chrispenycate]

My 'short' list contained: Dan Jones, DF17, Mark_Harbinger, MatthewKusza, The Judge, and Victoria Silverwolf. I finally went for the prosthetic brain.

 

[OuttaInc]

Short List:
Why is a Raven Like a Writing Desk by @Victoria Silverwolf (nice callback to Alice's Adventures in Wonderland)
New Earth Tales The Prologue by @farntfar (a Canterbury Tales reboot?)
Stomping Grounds by @Daysman (Loved the idea of a "shared" family dream)
Project Meeting(s) at Temporal Research Labs Inc. by @mosaix (lol)

And my vote went to The March Between Awake and Sleep by @Aknot for the beautiful use of figurative language that kept pulling me back to re-read and enjoy.

 

[Ursa major]

I finally went for the prosthetic brain.

So whose story did it choose...?

 

[BT Jones]

Thanks so much @Victoria Silverwolf for the vote, and @Parson for the shortlisting. A cracking round this month, and about as hard as I can recall to pick a winner from some excellent and very funny finalists.

Shortlist:

• @Cat's Cradle
• @Victoria Silverwolf
• @AnRoinnUltra
• @Iwroteathing
• @johnnyjet
• @M. Robert Gibson
• @mosaix
• @DF17
• @The Judge

Finalists:

• @Christine Wheelwright
• @Astro Pen
• @Peter V

WINNER

• @BigJ - The sharp wit and punch of the piece just edged it for me. Loved it.
  

 

[Hugh]

I was fairly certain I'd be voting for @Christine Wheelwright 's "The Wasteland Revisited". I loved the wonderful twist of the last line.

But then @worldofmutes posted his "3/22/22" and this just grew on me as I re-read the entries. I loved the jaunty zing of the first paragraph with its everyman echoes of a Parsifal/Candide/Peer Gynt setting out into the world, and the hero's subsequent challenges and solution.

@Cat's Cradle's "Double Time" took an honourable third place, all the more impressive for having been entered so soon in the month.

Others that I listed, in no meaningful order:
@paranoid marvin
@StilLearning (took me a while to catch on...)
@johnnyjet
@BT Jones
@Mark_Harbinger
@Guttersnipe
@Ian Fortytwo

 

[Astro Pen]

Shortlist
@farntfar
@Christine Wheelwright Very close second.
@Victoria Silverwolf

winner
@Dan Jones
I am really surprised no one else voted for this. Got me on both literal and metaphoric levels.