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Janette posted an update 1 year, 5 months ago
Good to see so many taking part in the Winter comp. I’ve been wrestling with two ideas though one appears to have risen above the other. I was ready to post it … but late corrections reminded me to be a little less hasty and allow some thinking time, when I’ll probably change my mind again.
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Seagreen started the topic Monthly competition- November 2024 in the forum Monthly Competition 1 year, 5 months ago
Find an item of news – online, in the local paper, or on TV – and, in no more than 500 words, write the background story.
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Seagreen replied to the topic Monthly Comp – October 2024 in the forum Monthly Competition 1 year, 5 months ago
Thanks, Knicky, for the challenge and for seeing something in my effort I wasn’t sure was there.
Thanks also to Terrie, Libby and Alex. I would have been more than happy to say I’d written any one of yours ☺️
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Terrie replied to the topic Monthly Comp – October 2024 in the forum Monthly Competition 1 year, 5 months ago
Thank you for setting Octobers comp, Knicks.
I enjoy seeing how differently we all approach the monthly challenges. this months were wonderfully varied.
Congratulations to Seagreen for such an atmospheric winning offering.
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Libby replied to the topic Monthly Comp – October 2024 in the forum Monthly Competition 1 year, 5 months ago
Congratulations, Seagreen! Thank you, Knicks, for a great prompt and your judge’s insights.
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Knicks replied to the topic Monthly Comp – October 2024 in the forum Monthly Competition 1 year, 5 months ago
Heya lovelies,
Apologies for the day-late decision making. I’ve been oout and aboout with my egg, enjoying our midterm break from work and school, and foolishly saved the reading until the final day of the month because I wanted to take in each piece at the same time, rather than read as submitted, and also to give everyone who could, a chance to…[Read more]
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Athelstone replied to the topic Monthly Comp – October 2024 in the forum Monthly Competition 1 year, 5 months ago
Darn it! Missed it! A fab selection though.
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Libby replied to the topic Monthly Comp – October 2024 in the forum Monthly Competition 1 year, 6 months ago
What’s Brought to the Table
796 words
Grace was sitting on the floor of Lily’s bedroom, leaning against Lily’s wardrobe. She looked at Lily, who was lying on her single bed with her arms spread wide like an act of supplication.
Lily had just said she was aiming for paradoxy. Grace wondered what psychodrama had produced this.…[Read more]
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Terrie replied to the topic Monthly Comp – October 2024 in the forum Monthly Competition 1 year, 6 months ago
A rhyming effort from me for this challenge
<u>All in my head</u>
Emotion, bright as a shooting star, trails across the bowl of dark-light, caught
crackling and spluttering, straining against the speckle and spackle of midnight thought.
I feel it drift, almost mutely, into a cascade of unspoken dreams, tumbling, and falling
slowly, into an…[Read more]
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Seagreen replied to the topic Monthly Comp – October 2024 in the forum Monthly Competition 1 year, 6 months ago
Fiercely reaching yet afraid of letting go. (756 words)
He wakes. Slowly. Reluctantly. To a feeling of being underground. Air heavy and thick with dust. Throat dry and aching. Eyes full of grit.
He is pinned, lying sideways on a surface, twisted and unforgiving, one arm beneath his hip and the other across his chest. He cannot feel his feet,…[Read more]
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Athelstone replied to the topic Chit Chat in the forum
A Different Time 1 year, 6 months agoPlease don’t feel you have to emphasise the differentness. It was a throw-away comment about making me happy. The following remark that making me happy is not a condition of entry to the challenge was intended to say that. What should probably have put is that emphasis on difference will be great, but not emphasising it will also be…[Read more]
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Daedalus replied to the topic Chit Chat in the forum
A Different Time 1 year, 6 months agoRe absence of choices and surprises. I’m not sure really. Sometimes they’ve helped me push myself to do something dramatically different, or have at least significantly shaped what I’ve written. Other times they just made slight complications to writing the story I would have written anyway. Generally it’s the overall theme I have the biggest…[Read more]
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Gosh, I had to read that last sentence twice! I’m astounded that only one of your excellent challenge stories has been accepted. Really sorry to hear that.
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Thanks Thea. In part I’m sure it’s my own fault for not being persistent enough. That said, I can’t help worrying that there’s something indefinably dated or just offputting in my writing. I should add that since I wrote the above, another story based on one of the Den challenge pieces was accepted for an anthology, but for various reasons that…[Read more]
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Congratulations on having another story accepted. You say the anthology might be “up in the air”, so I really hope it all goes through alright.
I honestly don’t think there’s anything “dated” or “off-putting” in your stories. I’ve read several in the challenges over the years and they have all been excellent. I’m sure that if you look back at the…[Read more]
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RichardB posted an update 1 year, 6 months ago
Back in 1966, while Ralph (Streets of London) McTell was earning his living busking on the streets of Paris, he met a Norwegian girl called Nanna Stein, and wrote a song for her, simply called Nanna’s Song, which is the most moving evocation I know of the joy of young love. By the end of that year they were married. They stayed together through…[Read more]
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Sad to hear. 58 years is a long time, and in the world of arts and entertainment must be close to a miracle. I’ve always liked Ralph McTell, although Streets of London isn’t my favourite of his songs. I have a taste for some of the more “hippy folksy” stuff like Nettle Wine.
Oddly enough, when your post appeared, I was reading about the…[Read more]-
Ah yes. From memory:
Fetching water from the brook
Wondering who it was who took
The stones from the mountain to build this cottage here
Two up and two down
Miles from the nearest town
I don’t know who he was though the reason why is clear.
McTell once said that the reason why there aren’t many love songs in his canon was that ‘I got all that…[Read more]-
They’re very different, but it reminds me of some of the old Incredible String Band stuff
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Ath, listening to this, I was reminded of the songs of Andy Comley who comes from Southampton way and wondered whether you knew of him?
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When you said the name it rang a bell, but after looking at his web site and listening to some songs, I don’t think I did know of him. Might have heard his name from my brother who is more seriously into folk music than me.
Edit: although listening to a couple more songs, he’s not actually that folksy, is he? -
Sandra Davies
11:09 (0 minutes ago)
to DenMy younger son lived in Southampton for a bit; one of his housemates took him along to gigs and I benefitted from 3 CDs, much played in the days I was working in my studio, liking the lyrics.
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I liked Southampton. I lived there from Autumn 1977 to Summer 1985 and always felt at home in the town. Only left because of work.
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Not in Southampton, but I’m lucky to have lived in the New Forest all my life, find it very inspirational.
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RichardB replied to the topic Chit Chat in the forum
A Different Time 1 year, 6 months agoThat’s two steps out of character for me. First, I enter the monthly competition for the first time in God knows how long. Now, having a history of inspiration for the annual challenge not descending until the last minute, i’ve had an idea already. Whether I’ll succeed in making a story out of it, we’ll have to wait and see, but the germ is…[Read more]
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Athelstone replied to the topic Chit Chat in the forum
A Different Time 1 year, 6 months agoHow many words would it be? That said, it isn’t against the rules, and this is a challenge to produce a short story in any way you see fit as long as it fits with the theme.
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Seagreen replied to the topic Monthly competition, September 2024 in the forum Monthly Competition 1 year, 6 months ago
Congratulations, Knicky, a most excellent story!
Thank you, Sandra, for the comp, and for allowing me to imagine another Piety/Freedom Jones episode.
And thanks to all the entrants for being amazing writers and keeping me inspired 🙂
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Athelstone replied to the topic Chit Chat in the forum
A Different Time 1 year, 6 months agoI’m interested in how people feel about the different approach this year, i.e. the absence of choices and surprises. It was something suggested to me by a group member and I thought I’d give it a go.
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I have always loved the choices and surprises – they’ve taken me out of my comfort zone and challenged me in ways I didn’t expect. It was always fun in the run up to the reveal and, ultimately, to see who made what of the same (or similar) choices. Last year, however, I didn’t enter the comp because one of the elements completely threw me (can’t…[Read more]
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Athelstone replied to the topic Monthly competition, September 2024 in the forum Monthly Competition 1 year, 6 months ago
Fabulous competition! Hooray for all of us, especially Knicks. Thank you Sandra.
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I’ve been struggling to come up with anything, because my initial idea seems beyond my ability. I’m going to try something simpler.