DISCUSSION -- April 2015 300-word Writing Challenge (#17)

[TheDustyZebra]

Congratulations, Juliana! Very well done!

 

[alchemist]

Congratulations Juliana!!


Thanks to those who mentioned my story and especially huge thanks to Ursa and jastius for votes.

 

[Tywin]

Congrats Juliana!

 

[Culhwch]

Congrats, Juliana - a well deserved victory!

Many thanks to Denise Tanaka for the vote for my story, and also thanks for any mentions or listings (I think I hit you all up with likes). Bit of a penthouse to the doghouse month for me, April - on top of the seventy-five and waaaay at the back of the three hundreds. I'm just not good at this length. Oh well, maybe in July...

 

[Juliana]

I'm sitting here grinning like a loon. Thank you all so much!!!

I've completely lost track of who I've thanked or not, so a big thanks all round to you lovelies who liked my story, for all the votes and mentions.
You wouldn't believe how excited I am over this!

I promised to share my inspiration, and it was a plane crash earlier this year in the USA, where a seven-year-old was the only survivor, and she walked until she found a house to knock on. I'd been haunted by the story, thinking what was it that got her up and moving, and encouraged her not to give up. So as soon as I saw the challenge photo I knew what I wanted to write.

Here's a link to the news story, if anyone is interested. http://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/girl-7-who-walked-away-plane-crash-had-survival-skills-n279016

 

[Starbeast]

Congratulations Juliana​

Thank you, Victoria Silverwolf, Remedy, Starbeast and Ashleyne B. Watts, for the reviews.

Thank you, Cat's Cradle, johnnyjet and Starbeast for the listings/mentions.

You're double-ly welcome TitaniumTi for the review and mention. Stay awesome.

I'd like to add that it's very heart-warming to be mentioned on so many short lists. I've hesitated to post my own, but since everyone else is doing it...

Driving into Darkness * Untitled by kerry B. * Last Stand *

You're welcome Denise Tanaka. And thank you for the vote. It was a wonderful surprise. You made my night.

But first, my thanks to Ashleyene for the review I missed earlier on, and for the mentions my story got from johnnyjet, SB, Moonbat, Venusian Broon & Titaniumti. Extra special red Bounty thanks to Glen, Chrispenycate, Juliana & littlestar for the votes.

I could quite happily have used 8 votes this month but in the end I chose my favourites and votes*.

Jo Juliana* Starbeast Victoria ratsy* TitaniumTi Perp* Mosaix Venusian Broon Chrispy TJ TDZ Ursa

You're double-ly welcome for the review and mention Phyrebrat. And a big thank you for placing me on your favorites list. You made my day.

I have loved reading all these stories and found it very difficult to put them into longlists, shortlists, and votes. They all seemed to deserve a mention. Well done everyone.

Thank you johnnyjet for the longlisting, Starbeast for the honourable mention, Ashleyne. B. Watts, Holland, Moonbat and Kerry for the shortlisting and Jo for the Like. I really appreciate all of them.

And a big thank you to Victoria Silverwolf, Starbeast, Remedy and Ashleyne. B. Watts, for the great reviews.

You're double-ly welcome for the review and mention Crystal Haven. Keep up the fantastic work.

I'm athrill, blissed-out, charmed, delighted and ecstatic that my alphabetty story got so much attention, but also abashed, bewildered, confused, discombobulated and not a little embarrassed in view of the strong competition it faced. Awestruck and blushing thanks for the hon mentions/shortlistings CC, Starbeast, Ashleyne, Juliana, Moonbat, and Phyrebrat (I think that's everyone), and crazy, delerious and enraptured thanks for the votes Cascade (and further thanks for the kind words), telford (ditto), johnnyjet, alchemist, Bowler, crystal, and for the stealth votes Cul, marmalade and BluePhoenix. All greatly appreciated.

** with luck Parson will drop by, so someone else might get that.

You're very welcome Judge. Stay cool.

 

[Droflet]

Congrats Juliana, a well deserved win. Commiserations to those who were snapping at her heels.

 

[Juliana]

Commiserations to those who were snapping at her heels.

Yes, it was very close, with some fabulous entries right up there with me. Congratulations all! (Today I mostly avoided peeking and bit lots of nails!)

 

[Denise Tanaka]

Congratulations, Juliana!

 

[Starbeast]

I just checked the Poll, and I noticed I had another vote cast in my favor, by DG Jones.

Thank you DG Jones for the stealth vote. You made my night.



My story was an epilogue to the 1977 movie, SORCERER. I was inspired to create my own ending to that favorite movie of mine. A last half an hour (if you will) that was originally editted from the film.

 

[TheDustyZebra]

I promised to share my inspiration, and it was a plane crash earlier this year in the USA, where a seven-year-old was the only survivor, and she walked until she found a house to knock on. I'd been haunted by the story, thinking what was it that got her up and moving, and encouraged her not to give up. So as soon as I saw the challenge photo I knew what I wanted to write.

Yes, I thought that's what had inspired your story!

 

[TitaniumTi]

Congratulations, Juliana.

Your story will stay in my memory for a long time.

 

[Kerrybuchanan]

Yay! Congratulations Juliana!

 

[Moonbat]

Congratulations Juliana a well deserved win And what an amazing piece of inspiration i can't believe its based on a true story. Really impressed.
thanks to all the people who voted for me. In really chuffed to have been anywhere near in the Running.
my story's inspiration was me being silly, nothing as noble as a true story of a little girl's bravery.

 

[Perpetual Man]

Congratulations to Juliana!

 

[Cat's Cradle]

Congratulations on an exciting victory, Juliana!

Thanks to crystal, Perp, and Titanium for the listings!

And a big thank you to TDZ for the vote!

 

[Starbeast]

Juliana, I'm sitting here grinning like a loon. Thank you all so much!!!

Howdy champ. (tips his cowboy hat) I thought you're story was both spooky, grim and wonderfully sweet.

Juliana I've completely lost track of who I've thanked or not, so a big thanks all round to you lovelies who liked my story, for all the votes and mentions.

Congratulations, once again. You're welcome Juliana. You're glowing with energy. Hold this frozen pizza. Wow. It's almost cooked.

Juliana You wouldn't believe how excited I am over this!

Heh heh. I remember when I won the 75. I was floating in the air (for a couple of days). Then I was all stressed out at coming up with a tough challenge. Whew. It didn't matter to me who won, I just wanted to create something to do with STEAMPUNK and something Strange.

Juliana I promised to share my inspiration, and it was a plane crash earlier this year in the USA, where a seven-year-old was the only survivor, and she walked until she found a house to knock on. I'd been haunted by the story, thinking what was it that got her up and moving, and encouraged her not to give up. So as soon as I saw the challenge photo I knew what I wanted to write.

You captured the incident (I remember the news reports) and, added a nice touch of the supernatural.

Quite a magnificent race this challenge. I watched the poll with bugged-out eyes.

Juliana Yes, it was very close, with some fabulous entries right up there with me. Congratulations all! (Today I mostly avoided peeking and bit lots of nails!)

Oh, I absolutely agree. EVERYONE wrote a fine tale.



Moonbat Congratulations Juliana a well deserved win And what an amazing piece of inspiration i can't believe its based on a true story. Really impressed.

When she reminded me about it, my eyebrows raised.


Moonbat thanks to all the people who voted for me. In really chuffed to have been anywhere near in the Running.
my story's inspiration was me being silly, nothing as noble as a true story of a little girl's bravery.

Your story was ungulatingly funny and udderly entertaining, witten in cool dialogue style.
And a big "you're welome" to you.

Glad you could join us.

 

[Jo Zebedee]

Woooo! Congrats, Juliana!

 

[The Judge]

Mega-Congratulations, Juliana!

Congrats to everyone who took part -- just completing the Challenge is a win. Commiserations, too, to CC, whose mooving story was leading the herd when I poked my head into the thread earlier in the month.


Thanks for the hon mention, Ursa, and the shortlisting, TDZ!


If anyone is interested in the origins of my story, I was racking my brains, trying to get something dark and oppressive and sweltering as befitted Phyrebrat's photo, when all of a sudden the line "A is for Airplane" popped into my head. I'm not sure where it came from, though I had recently bought H is for Hawk so it's possible I'd noticed the book as I was pacing up and down and my subconscious lifted it. Anyway, having got that line, I played around to try and see how many others I could come up with, and I was surprised how quickly I was able to fill the alphabet -- as might be imagined some letters were easy, and some were troublesome little beggars (looking at you, X), and for several I had to dump the words I really wanted in order to fit in with the story progression. Once done, I was pleased with it in a trying-something-out-of-the-ordinary way**, variety being the spice of life and all that, but as Cascade intimated I really thought the structure would be too gimmicky to attract any voting attention, so I'm doubly pleased it didn't put everyone off. So thank you again everyone who mentioned it and particularly those of you daft enough to vote for it.


** The single thing I was most pleased with came as a result of having to prune a lot of words to get under the 300 limit, so I had to lose some of the "is for"s. but it's probably something no one else noticed. In "Q. The Questions he should have asked." the full stop after the initial is the only one positioned like that in the entire piece, stopping things dead as the story turns from his triumphs to realising the mistakes he's made.

 

[marmalade]

Congratulations are in order! *pops open champagne and presents a huge bowl of strawberries and cream to all gathered* A toast to Juliana for her ghostly tale and well earned victory, to all the other contestants, to the reviewers and the voters. Let the celebrations commence!

credits
special thanks to all the mentions/short listings and of course CC for the vote, was literally fizzing with excitement, like said glass of champagne, when I received the notification.