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Natural ly-ing grate

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Otherwi se-gue ridon

Thank you HappyJack and Larry for kicking off this challenge! Both poem and story are now available and well worth reading. Thank you.

This will be an interesting challenge and I have an idea hoping it pans out..


I hope it pans out too, Sara. Larry's poem is posted (link to it is in first post).

Scot, I'm sure something will work out for you in regards to this challenge.

I have several ideas as well, but need time to do some rereading of one of the stories I'm inspired by. Fortunately, there is no deadline for the challenges.

The titles of this thread has been changed, to Challenges, New & Old

The newest challenge is the Literary Inspiration Challenge

Rules of the challenge: select a story, poem, author or theme that appeals to you and is in the public domain – meaning, there is no longer any copyright on the work involved.

Develop a story or poem derived from the work or the author chosen.

This is a reminder and description of some of the other great challenges that are open, with no closing date.

Challenge: Let's Do the Time Warp Again

Description: Submit an original story, poem or song that includes time as a major element — time slipping away, time crawling along, a mysterious time shift, time running out — anything to do with time as a reality or concept.

Challenge: The Moon

A short story about moon travel. That is it. It can be anything so long as it involves travel to or from the Moon or anything that results therefrom.
ie. A moon base. A desire to travel to the moon. A dream, anything.

Challenge: describe the singer

The challenge is simple: Using the prompt as a guideline, describe in 100 words or less, the singer as if she was a character in your short story.

Prompt: With no fanfare, the singer steppes onto the small, dimly lighted stage and slips through the band members until she reaches the microphone stand. The moment she taps on the mike's grill, a bright spotlight illuminates her from head to toe. "Hi," she says, "waving to the suddenly hushed audience. "I'm Linda Ronstadt," and begins to sing.

That's the challenge: describe Linda Ronstadt at some point in her career facing an unknown audience in an undefined setting, and do this in 100 words or less not counting the prompt which need not be included.

Love & Affection - a Valentine's Inspired Challenge

The story does not have to be on or about Valentine's Day, but it certainly can be.
Romance isn't a requirement, but would be a welcome addition if it suits the story.
Love and affection can cover a vast territory - it can involve the discovery of love for animals or a pet, for instance, on the part of someone who always claimed to dislike them.


There are also the Remembrance Day Challenge
the Challenge: Back to School , the Writing Prompt: Primeval Forest and a Different kind of Challenge .

Are you interested or in need of ideas?

Follow the links posted to the different challenges, and read and follow the guidlines for each one, if you are interested or, well, challenged by these great ideas!
All rules for each challenge must be followed.

Hi Andrew! nice to see you

Foiled again, by those meddling kids,
Jumping leaping prancing young goats,
Eating laundry from the line
Complaining when they're fed porridge oats
It gives them the bloat

What did you expect?
Nanny goat wants to know
You're just little kids
Now up you must grow.

Char mer-men sch

'If the aliens lay eggs, how does that affect architecture?': sci-fi writers on how they build their worlds


Interesting article in The Guardian on the world building topic.

And some great insight from the various sci-fi writers interviewed.

So this might be of interest and help those of us who are a bit uncertain (me, for example), of what world building can entail.

Visiting Hours Some thirty years ago, my mother was diagnosed with cancer and was in hospital for treatment of it. She was closest to the door in a double room on the gastro-intestinal ward of a large teaching hospital. Her chamber mate was about sixteen or seventeen, getting treatment for a painful, chronic auto-immune disease. The only thing separating the two beds was a privacy...

Added 07 Feb 2020 | Category Memoirs | Votes 12 | Avg Score 5 | Views 443 | 9 Comments

Remembrance My maternal grandfather served in the First World War. A mining engineer, he enlisted in the Canadian Overseas Expeditionary Forces in 1915, at the age of 28, and served as a sapper in the north of France. By the time he was discharged in 1918, he had been wounded by shrapnel, subjected to gas attacks, and developed tachycardia. At the end of the war he returned home, married...

Added 08 Nov 2019 | Category Memoirs | Votes 8 | Avg Score 5 | Views 553 | 6 Comments

"Start random playlist," he said, waiting expectantly, unseeing eyes turned straight ahead. Two guitar chords, loud and clear, shook loose a memory. He knew what was coming. Singing, she entered the spotlight, her clear, powerful voice pealing out: cheated and mistreated, when would she be loved. In his mind's eye he saw her, young, beautiful, sure of herself and of them. The music...

Added 27 Jan 2019 | Category Micro Fiction | Votes 11 | Avg Score 5 | Views 1,031 | 11 Comments

  Dear Alan, It's been a while since I wrote to you. Did you know there's a story competition in your name? I had an idea for it, started to write something. It was clever, funny, titled Jankowski's Lost'n'Found . The story got lost, but it goes something like this: Jankowski and Al were old friends, co-owners of a cab they took turns driving. They had a flat rate, 4.20, due to the...

Added 28 Sep 2018 | Category Flash Fiction | Votes 21 | Avg Score 5 | Views 966 | 20 Comments

Come with me, come here, We'll fly away soon, Give me your hand, And a hug Then settle on my rug Hang on tight, tuck arms and legs in, Are you ready to take off? Let's go for a spin! The altitude's no problem, We've plenty of air, As you will soon know by the wind in your hair. We'll swoop and soar Above earth and its cares - - Tedious, boring, Gloomy and drear! - Before landing quite...

Added 05 Sep 2016 | Category Songs | Votes 8 | Avg Score 5 | Views 1,124 | 8 Comments

Random rhymes: punchy, munchy scrunchy, bouncy, jiggly, hunchy, Loosely, widely, funky, Stinking, rotten, clunky * Save it. Saved. Is it any good? Unlikely, so... Don't get your hopes up - The answer is no * Not much is likely to be salvational - side note, is that even a word? - side reply, It is now, get used to it. * So... Continue as before With doggerel words ...

Added 29 Sep 2018 | Category Poetry | Votes 5 | Avg Score 5 | Views 698 | 5 Comments

“You don’t have to do this, you know. In fact, you shouldn’t be doing it.” “Yes, I know, but it’s all right, I’m going to do it.” “I really don’t think you should, and would prefer you didn’t.” “I’m still going to do it, it’s the least I can do for you. You shouldered me as a burden often enough, in the past.” “That was different, you weren’t old enough or big enough, and needed to...

Added 22 Jul 2016 | Category Flash Fiction | Votes 7 | Avg Score 5 | Views 1,057 | 6 Comments

Chances, Taken without regret, Embraced, Without hesitation or doubt Like that time When you dove Into an ice cold lake Not on a dare But because it was there And to do so affirmed that you existed Those chances, No regrets, As you sank Stunned with shock by the bone chilling reality of the water - So cold So clear So intransigent yet so welcoming, Heart pounding, Adrenalin coursing,...

Added 30 Jun 2016 | Category Poetry | Votes 6 | Avg Score 5 | Views 1,099 | 4 Comments

I make my point by tossing him out a window, He'd been warned when he entered the room, "You found your way in, you can find it back out, And if it isn't done quickly, From me you'll get a good clout." I repeated my warning twice over, Was he hard of hearing or just buzzing about? At any rate my threat was put into action, With a fly swatter I rubbed his life out. * Author's note: I have...

Added 23 Jun 2016 | Category Poetry | Votes 6 | Avg Score 5 | Views 896 | 6 Comments

So here I am waiting, And biding my time, For a shipment that was Ordered From a store that's on-line. Their products are alluring, Like snacks to consume, The virtual basket's expanding There is always more room For specialty items, Things new to the store, Best deals of the day, And more, so much more! I wasn't enticed - Well, maybe some of the time - But the items I needed Remained...

Added 15 Jun 2016 | Category Poetry | Votes 7 | Avg Score 5 | Views 888 | 7 Comments

  MARTIN HANDED A MUG of fresh coffee to Jane and slid into the seat opposite her at the breakfast table, pausing a moment before he spoke. “Jane, I need to ask you something.” Caught off guard by the statement, she slopped a little of the steaming liquid. “You always do that when I’m holding a drink,” she chided gently, dabbing the spill with a napkin. Her lighthearted tone belied...

Added 13 Sep 2018 | Category General | Votes 12 | Avg Score 5 | Views 700 | 7 Comments

  THE CALENDAR TAUNTED JANE, its little yellow-highlighted square outlined in a bold red stroke mocking her lack of progress. ‘You’re going to miss the deadline, you know. I’m just six weeks away now,’ it scoffed. ‘Whatever made you apply for that fellowship anyhow, and what could the panel have been thinking when they gave it to you? You’re no writer; you’ve proven that over the past...

Added 12 Sep 2018 | Category General | Votes 11 | Avg Score 5 | Views 832 | 6 Comments