It's back! Sekrit Santa 20.

[Victoria Silverwolf]

One I missed:

"Jimmy Jolly's Christmas Wish" -- A young boy uses his love of the holiday to perform an act of justice. Starts off in properly lighthearted Yuletide style, but very slowly and subtly introduces more realistic elements of an imperfect world, without ever going too far into darkness. What could have been a tale for children proves to have appeal for all ages and all levels of sophistication.

 

[Swank]

Usually the host offers an excerpt from each story and a list of authors.

Just in case Phrye has his metaphoric hands full, do you think you easily select some excerpts, Victoria?

 

[Jo Zebedee]

Just in case Phrye has his metaphoric hands full, do you think you easily select some excerpts, Victoria?

We need permission from all authors and an agreement about upper word limit - some might want to publish elsewhere too

 

[Swank]

We need permission from all authors and an agreement about upper word limit - some might want to publish elsewhere too

Sorry, I thought the guessing game was part of exercise.

 

[Provincial]

Sorry, I thought the guessing game was part of exercise.

So did I, it has been before, and I assumed we had given our permission by choosing to take part.

 

[Jo Zebedee]

It is - but it’s usually only an excerpt.

 

[Swank]

It is - but it’s usually only an excerpt.

I'm sorry, I thought I said excerpt.

 

[Jo Zebedee]

I'm sorry, I thought I said excerpt.

Yes but the length of excerpt matters - over 10% and the piece is classed as published, stopping anyone publishing elsewhere if they’d like to

 

[Provincial]

Yes but the length of excerpt matters - over 10% and the piece is classed as published, stopping anyone publishing elsewhere if they’d like to

I thought that the writing challenges all follow the rules set out in the first section of this month’s 75 worder (“READ FIRST POST!”), one of which is that we are granting Chrons the non-exclusive right to publish the stories:

“All stories Copyright 2024 by their respective authors
who grant the Chronicles Network the non-exclusive right to publish them here”

Does that apply here?

 

[Luiglin]

I thought that the writing challenges all follow the rules set out in the first section of this month’s 75 worder (“READ FIRST POST!”), one of which is that we are granting Chrons the non-exclusive right to publish the stories:

“All stories Copyright 2024 by their respective authors
who grant the Chronicles Network the non-exclusive right to publish them here”

Does that apply here?

I don't think so as none have been posted here in public as yet. Also, if that was the case then the critiques area would not work.

 

[Swank]

Yes but the length of excerpt matters - over 10% and the piece is classed as published, stopping anyone publishing elsewhere if they’d like to

That's interesting - something I had never heard. Thank you.

If you re-write a piece, is there a percentage difference that applies? In other words, if you have already published a story, then revised half of it and added another 25% and a new title - is it a new piece when it comes to publishing rights?

 

[Jo Zebedee]

I don't think so as none have been posted here in public as yet. Also, if that was the case then the critiques area would not work.

Critiques is exactly the same - 10 percent or more of your work equates to being previously published. The word count there mitigates the risk for longer work -for longer excerpts that’s why the writing group is the place to go (non public doesn’t count)
The first thing my agent did was tell me to take any critiques of Inish Carraig down

@Swank As to reworking work - it depends. How much, how did it materially change the work, did the title change? (I no longer use the title in any critique post)

 

[Jo Zebedee]

I thought that the writing challenges all follow the rules set out in the first section of this month’s 75 worder (“READ FIRST POST!”), one of which is that we are granting Chrons the non-exclusive right to publish the stories:

“All stories Copyright 2024 by their respective authors
who grant the Chronicles Network the non-exclusive right to publish them here”

Does that apply here?

If you sell a challenge piece you would need to cite that it was first published in public here. But, in reality, few flash publishers will get too excited.

But if you rework the piece substantively into a longer piece all should be good

 

[BigJ]

So, keep the excerpts at 10% or less unless the author gives permission? I think that would work for both the story I wrote and the story I received, though I don't know how long any of the others are.

As for mine, permission to excerpt away, I have no intentions of seeking publication.

 

[THX1138]

Same with me. Excerpt away!

 

[Luiglin]

Ditto

 

[Swank]

Yup

 

[Victoria Silverwolf]

Your wish is my command.

I will provide very brief excerpts from each story I have received, all of which should be well under the 10% limit.


"Jimmy Jolly's Christmas Wish"

Once upon a holiday season, there lived a boy named Jimmy Jolly.

Jimmy, like most of us, was normal in many ways, special in others, and extraordinary in a few. He loved his mother and father, his big sister, and, most of all, Christmas.

Wow, did he love Christmas!

"Ghosts in the Machine"

The creaking came first. Of course, the ship wasn’t new, but its maintenance was fully automated. One section melded into the next, soft and flexible. There should be no creaking.

If the crew had been awake, I would have asked them: ‘am I insane? Have these thoughts you have given me become too much?’ Moving from logical-confirmed-data thinking to the higher-end programmes that were supposed to understand the nuances of bounded rationality, had its challenges.

Or had the recent data-dump of Dickens’ stories overloaded my logic banks, creating ghosts in machines? I rotated in the centre of it all, deciding how best to triangulate the source whilst the ship’s barrel was turning. It would be easier if I turned off the gravity – and what difference would that make, anyway? After all, the crew weren’t coming out of the chambers anytime soon. Who needed it?

"Home Again, Home Again"

A stream of symbols flowed across the ceiling screen. Beneath, figures in wide encompassing couches contemplated the data.

“And?”

“The results are conclusive, Supreme Commander. Optimum environmental conditions are nearing epoch. Global average temperature is on the rise. Soon it will be as it were when we left.”

“It seems our long sojourn is over. Congratulations everyone, time to return home.”

“Erm…” a voice from the back.

The guide book had warned him of this. His response had to be perfect. Seniority demanded it of him.

“Sub-junior Officer Grank?” That sounded just right, a smidgen of condescension, a smattering of disdain.

“We do have one small issue, Supreme Commander.”

“And that is?”

“There appears to be an intelligent presence infesting the planet.”

"The Restroom at the Bend of the Universe"

<Transmission Begins>

I stared up at the isolation room’s steel gray ceiling and fumed in frustration. Security said they’d put me here for my own safety. Huh! It’s Christmas Eve, for heaven’s sake. The holographic Xmas tree in the corner and the equally fake digital choir lip-syncing to ‘Hark the Herald Angels Sing’ did nothing to lift my spirits.

Straps secured my wrists and ankles to the only functional smart gurney. I struggled once, twice against the restraints but in vain. Em, you’re well and truly trussed this time.

“Computer, I need a restroom break right now.”

“Dr. Brane, I’m instructed to fit a catheter should you choose to relieve yourself again.”

I did not find the computer’s husky male voice at all reassuring and no way would I let any peripheral it sent my way touch me. Why didn’t Commander Harris keep the androgynous voice profile we’d all agreed on at the pre-launch crew meeting?

"Flight"

Dozens of eight-legged herbivores the size of mice scurried through deep blue foliage that rose to the tops of Lavani Suri's boots. It wasn't grass, or moss, or fungus, but something like all of them combined. And the opal-green animals calmly chewing the twisted tendrils of the plants weren't mammals, or reptiles, or insects.

Analogies with Earth organisms are always misleading. Lavani recalled Director Latoya's calm, warm voice, a source of invaluable advice. But the wise old woman was in orbit, thousands of kilometers beyond the clouds, and Lavani was alone among aliens.

"Correction"

The tires were ribbed with layers of patch, but were smoother than the old busted pavement. Tessa pedaled until the road gave way to trail and the trail to twisted path, then she pulled the bike out of sight and camouflaged it with stacked stones. The last of the supplies went into her pack to follow the signs up into the hills.

The village earth had the marks of buildings cleared away. Tessa noticed the symmetry of the clearing, then it dawned on her that the bare ground funneled visitors from the trailhead to the tent erected in the settlement’s center. Some of the residents noticed her, but in the uncurious way of people used to strangers passing through. She was in the right place.

"For Where Your Treasure Is"

It’s not safe to go hiking alone. Every walker knows that. Yet Dan was alone when he set out from the youth hostel. He had packed enough to keep him going if he got caught out in bad weather, but he wasn’t happy. Bloody Jim Dacre. His best mate. His unreliable, useless, best mate, who swore he wouldn’t let Danny Boy down again, like he had all those other times.

“This is your last chance Jim. Don’t let me down.” Jim had sworn on his mother’s grave. She’d be spinning in it fast enough to power the whole of Western Europe by now.

"The Rooster of Moscow"

The city, at last, was still.

The chaos that filled the vacuum of an army in retreat; the fires that roared in their wake and the peasants who fought in soot-coated streets for a handful of abandoned trophies; the explosions that shattered stone and silence to serve as the final, futile attempt of a proud emperor to inflict pain upon his enemies; all these things subsided into an evening that was cold and growing colder. Ash and snow flaked together from the sky; the last of one and first of the other.

"Long Day's Gobbling Into Night"

Goblin, they call me.

Come here, Goblin!

Clear this away, gobbler. ‘Fore I shove my boot up your arse!

Bring me a tray of snouts, Gobble Gobble Goblin! A flagon of ale! Gobble gobble goblin! Clear this runting mess away! Dirty little gobbler!

This grundle of maledictions, grunted with entitled burloscopy from the larynxes of the castle’s greatmen and women, provides the orchestration to the backdrop of my life. I suppose you find it a trifle mendacious; officiating, even, but one learns to tune it out after a while.

Dirty little gobbler! I can smell you before I see you!

"The Inner Citadel"

I’d thought I knew what it meant to be lonely.

Not alone, mind you. I was almost always surrounded by people back then, but never by equals, never anyone I could trust. It’s not something a sane person can properly prepare for, having every syllable that slips past your lips broadcast across the stars, to be hung on by supporters and detractors alike deconstructing every tremor of your lip, every flicker in the eye, every semblance of emotion in your words or your tone, searching for strength or weakness in their leader or their enemy. To have everyone around you be overt and exaggerated in their deference at all times. To have no-one to confide in. No-one to love.

 

[Provincial]

Thank you @Victoria Silverwolf, nicely done.

 

[THX1138]

I was thinking more from Phyrebrat's point, as I am willing to wait... But, yes... waiting...