DISCUSSION -- OCTOBER 2018 300-word Writing Challenge (#31)

Exactly!

Right, voting time. This October's stories were pretty good, but (perhaps understandably, given the picture) there were a great deal of stories fishing, and a lot of variations on the same theme. The few that really stood out to me took the image and did something really different and original with it, something unexpected.

Those were:

Cat's Cradle
Luiglin
Daysman
Astrozon
Scarpelius
The Judge
Phyrebrat

And those naughty bunnies who got my votes are Luiglin, Astrozon and The Judge.
 
Took me a while to martial my thoughts on this months' stories. There were lots I liked but few that truly stood out so deciding which three to vote for took some deliberation. There were some very clever, very funny entries but in the end I chose solely based on emotional impact they had on me.

Shortlist and Votes:

Guanyan's Journey of Destiny, @Cat's Cradle
The Coming of the Duobei King, @Rafellin
The terrible day... @dannymcg
The Travels of Sir... @Dan Jones
Nets, @Appello
Marvellous Things, @Daysman
Fillet O' Flesh, @David Evil Overlord
Fishing, @The Judge
Magic Circles, @Ursa major
 
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Thank you, Dan Jones, for the shortlisting! And johnnyjet, Calliopenjo, Shyrka and Heijan Xavier, thanks so much for the votes!

I spent a nice Sunday morning with tea, and stories. I thought it was a solid month for entries. Thanks to AlexH for the inspiring photo. I tend to list too many stories, so I've cut things down just a bit this month, but wanted to say well done to all who participated.

Honorables:
Calliopenjo, Graymalkin, Victoria Silverwolf

Shortlist:
SaitamXVII, Dan Jones, johnnyjet, David Evil Lord, The Judge, Phyrebrat

Votes:
mosaix - loved the pace and nifty surprise ending
Shyrka - loved the tension and atmosphere
Daysman - loved the concept; my favorite world building in the Challenge

Okay, there we are! Looks to be a close race, these next few days. Good to luck to all in the voting, CC

Oy - still listed 11 stories!
Edit - almost forgot one! 12 stories now.
 
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I haven't seen it mentioned for a little while, but just a reminder that it was announced early on that the winner of this Challenge will receive a copy of HareBrain's (Bryan Wigmore's) marvelous book, The Empyreus Proof, which is the sequel to the equally marvelous The Goddess Project.

This puts the 'grand' in the term Grand Prize, and forgive the blatant plug, please, but these are memorable books, and so - just a reminder that someone will be winning one! :) Now back to our regularly scheduled discussions thread...
 
It's getting close now, three main contenders with very little between them. A vote or two could make a massive difference.
Gripping stuff indeed!
 
I have struggled to create a favourite shortlist because all the stories have been great to read. Well done, everyone.

But here are my favourites and votes.

Favourites:
Elvet – The Escape
Dannymcg – The terrible day the hell world portal opened to it's full width
Karn’s return – Atlantis, Atlantis, Wherefore Art Thou, Atlantis?
David Evil Overlord – Fillet O’ Flesh

(not enough votes!) Almost a vote favourites list:
Victoria Silverwolf – Noncombatants
Ursa Major – Magic Circles
Mosaix – Big Fish, Little Fish
Appello – Nets

Votes:
Peter V – Careful What You Fish For
Stormcrow – Sacrifice
The Judge – Fishing
 
Greetings from the cellar/wardrobe/tower/otherhorrortrope(delete as applicable)

Such as shame to have so few stories this month when the image was so great. I was particularly looking forward to a huge amount of fish stories bearing in mind what an utter ichthyophile I am, so when the challenge closed at only 2 pages, I was bereft. (Bereft, I tell you!)

Anyway, I knew from the moment I read Luiglin's dark take, complete with reminiscent ambience of Event Horizon, it was defintely going to get my top vote, and that didn't change. Then I read Mosaix and knew he'd get my second which is annoying because I'm becoming a Mosaix cheerleader, aren't I? :D But you gotta go with what speaks to ya, amirite?

For my third, I'd assumed Dan was going to get it for his utterly Dannish tale. If any of you have met him - esp at the LonChrons - you can expect that kind of japery and laughs (I can't tell you what he, Peat and I tabled last Friday for a future 75 worder...). The thing is it's never zany for zany's sake. So often 'humour' misses me or viceversa, so it was quite a feat IMO for me to not only follow his story, but enjoy it "for <bleeps> and giggles" as they say. (They, being very rude louts.)

But, then I read Chrispy's and there's no way I could let a story that uses the words carp, benthos/benthic and barbels/barbules in it. (And not just because Chrispy is John Hammond.) So I'm sorry Dan, but Chrispy gazzumped you at the last minute. If Sir Reginald had happened upon an opah, perhaps even a mere amberjack, it could have swung it away from Chrispy, but in the end...

So, with that preamble done, here are my favourites and votes:

Elvet
Dan
Luiglin*
Mosaix*
Peter V
Chrispy*
Graymalkin
TJ
Ursa

I see I have two votes. Thank you @nixie and @Vaz, it's nice to see my genius derivative crap can still turn the odd head :D


pH
 
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