Elle

Not bad at all!

4 longlisted and 2 shortlisted. I call that impressive for a small site like this.

Congrats to the long and shortlistees! I’ve only just noticed that my story was on the longlist – as I’d already resigned myself to not being listed, missing out on the shortlist does not come as a blow, but I’m delighted for Richard and Kate, best of luck to both of you!

I didn’t make the shortlist but I tell myself it was obviously a moment of madness by whoever made the choice 😀

Sorry for delay in replying to your very interesting thoughts @libby, but I’ve been neck deep in work lately.

Re modernists etc using the techniques and ideas of psychic distance before Gardner codified it. Yes, absolutely, a large measure of what he was doing was identifying techniques that were already out there. I would suggest that his…[Read more]

Well done, Sandra. Another great competition. And well done to my co-competitors. Two top-notch entries. Congratulations, Alex. A nice twisty yarn!

<p>Congratulations @Alex!! 🥳🥳</p><p>I too am a fan of the penny-brown eyes. Well done, you 😃</p><p>Also another stunner from Ath; Top-shelf characterization in a small pinch of words. #howdoeshedoit </p><p>Sandra, this was a marvellous prompt and I fully enjoyed it! Can’t wait to see what Alex comes up with, for August :)…[Read more]

Only three entries depicting Andrew’s possible future, but each of a quality and breadth of imagination that makes the judging, the choosing of a “winner” extremely difficult.
Knicks opening sentence an instant hook, her choice of verbs ¬– “breathing hitched”, corner of mouth “kicked up” – is inspirational, and Andrew initially appears to have co…[Read more]

My One and Only Love. That’s from the Cloud and all the way back to 2014/2015.

Congratulations, Richard. It’s a powerful story that deserves recognition.

I see from the website that my entry has been longlisted, too, which feels rather good. I didn’t recognise any of the other titles.

Andrew, 1975

It’s February, and evening is upon us. Andrew goes unnoticed. Pedestrians streaming by the Palace Theatre barely even see a youth leaning against the wall. Some look towards him, but they are peering through the glass doors. Maybe they are wondering whether Jesus Christ Superstar is worth the ticket price. The traffic sweeping a…[Read more]

Yeah, I think recruiting people to a Discord group is much easier than to a website, tbh. I spend more time in my discord group than I do any online group, mainly because it’s an app & I can do it easily when I’m away from my laptop. Partly because it facilitates chat in a way websites, however well constructed, just don’t. And where I am now, I’m…[Read more]

I like Discord for all those reasons too @raine.

It may well and best suit the members who will show up there, and couldn’t there be an influx of new writerly blood from the different tags we use on open channels?

There’s a lot to be said for Discord. There are a number of pages I visit regularly. I don’t imagine it would suit some of our members, but there may be no alternative in a year’s time.

Just wanted to extend my appreciation to Ath and Jules for starting & maintaining/updating/supporting this place. I’m afraid I have very much drifted off, largely just because of the other demands on my writing time. It’s nice to know this place is here & I look forward to the annual challenges, but I honestly don’t spend enough time here to be…[Read more]