Quote by verbal

No Talia Friday. I'm going to dip the cats in paint and fling them against the wall to create an exciting mural for Talia's reuten home.

Quote by Ping

Great news on the spooky comp. I might have a story idea about an innocent but trapped soul in the purgatory walls of a small town motel…

Or a bed bug story…

Or the roadkill that came to zombie life and chased me down the highway…

Or the bison bull that charged me while I approached him on my motorcycle…

Or the little hole in the motel wall that a blood sucking spider comes each night to feed on motel guests…

***

And you got charged by a bison? 😲 We ended up stuck in a herd when we were in Wyoming several years ago. I was awed and impressed, but also just a wee bit nervous knowing how fast and strong bulls are.

Good morning, y'all. Coffee is on, kettle is boiling. The teapot has Cream of Earl Grey in it. There's a thermos here if Ping needs some for the road. 

So now I am thinking whether I should finish my fantasy story first or plunge right into my idea for the comp. I am officially on vacation at 5pm today (well, I am on-call for the weekend since everyone else is away, but that doesn't usually generate much work, if any) so might even be able to get both done by Canadian Thanksgiving on the 11th.

Yeesh, you're quick. I only just got an idea on the way home from work and probably won't start until the weekend.

I haven't seen it in a couple days, actually. The problem with the cookie theory is that I had it on a brand new computer with a "clean" user profile i.e. one that had never been on Lush. Which would seem to rule out cookies and caching issues. They have heard this from me already.

Quote by verbal

Looking at around 100K. Pretty reasonable length. I think of a novel as 70K to 125K, though I know the definitions vary. 

Well, and there's that whole writing a novel thing. 😊 Though I'd hope he could drag himself away from that for 5000 words.

I did post this over on Wondercafe2, the site I admin. Not sure we'd get anyone from there but someone might surprise me. And I do promo my own stories and occasionally others on there so it might at least get us some readers.

12K words is a pretty good start given that the low end of novel is, IIRC, 50K. Is this going to be a reasonable length or a door-stopper?

And I could swear that I posted about getting the coffee and tea going but it is not here. I think my browser locked up or something. Anyhow, I'll refresh the coffee pot for the afternoon and I'm boiling water for a pot of Scottish Breakfast.

Also, with Thanksgiving looming and the weather cooling off, I've laid in a stock of hot chocolate mix and mini marshmallows along with replenishing the coffee and tea.

Quote by verbal

No gratuitous gore or graphic violence!? I'M OUTTA HERE!!!

I won't enter--I'm not sure I'm allowed--but I look forward to reading the entries. Good comp theme! 

No gratuitous gore or violence is just fine with me. I prefer more subtle forms of horror and ghost stories anyhow. I'm a big fan of classic English ghost story writers like M. R. James and Algernon Blackwood. If you can't tell from my previous scribblings in the genre. Just realized this also takes care of my annual Hallowe'en ghost story, much as one of my Cheers to Ten Years entries took care of last year's.

Yee haw! A spooky comp ending on Hallowe'en and I have a week off coming up. 

Quote by JustAnotherSapphic

As of today, I've loved Jane for an entire year (although it feels like a lot longer). 

No words in any language can describe the way I feel about her or the way her existence warms my heart. I...I want to love her forever.

I am ... happy to see a post from Rump on here.

Quote by Rumple_deWriter

This may or may not be me -- waiting on blood tests and genetic screening to reveal all. I'm still bewitched bothered and bemildered by the new fangled stuff to the point where I'm not sure if it's the new 'skin' or my usual incompetence and computer cluelessness -- maybe a combination of ingrediants product.. (sigh)

Later Inspirators. :glasses8: 

Quote by verbal

Coffee and cookies would be an awesome help to my planning of a fictional apocalypse. 

 

Kettle is on for another pot of tea and I've put on a fresh pot of that other caffeinated substance for those who might need an afternoon fix.

I have made a pot of coffee from Fire Roasted, the local roastery my son used to patronize. They are supposed to be good. It's their Ethiopia Yirgacheffe, supposedly a top of line light roast. Tea is on as well, with some Cream of Earl Grey from David's Tea in the pot. Yeah, we're getting fancy schmancy here today.

In other news, I'm probably changing the ending of my story. Again. Not the big climactic ending to the story, but the denouement. Haven't even looked at it since the weekend but I am meditating on it during my walks and other such slow moments.

Hi, Roland. Glad to see you back. Hope your recovery is going well. Your ravings could be an interesting read, I suppose. I have read some writing that pretty much fit that description 😀 

You had me at "robot geese". Unless they are Canada Geese. Then I have this burning urge to kick them and that could be unpleasant with a robot.

Nice day here. Survived a first in-person visit with my new family doc. Nice guy but looks young enough to be my son.

Putting coffee and tea on for the afternoon crowd.

Need to give this one serious consideration, I think. It's horror and the kind of horror I am leaning to. And I have a week off coming meaning time for some serious writing.

Quote by JustAnotherSapphic

My bed was already my safe place, but that feeling has only deepened now that half of it is Jane in some way.

Quote by DenimAngel

Yay Scott can't wait to read the new story !  

Cookie and tea time. Kettle is on and I've got some nice Japanese sencha (green tea) in the pot.

Vancouver to Germany is quite a leap. Good luck to him, Gil.

Coffee is a brewin' and kettle is a boilin'.

So how do people here feel about a 6500 word (approx) story? Too long? That's where my new dark fantasy piece seems to be landing, depending on what I do with it on the next pass. I think it is just right for getting the story told but I find the trend here now is towards micro and flash length, or at least under 5000 words. 

Yeah, kids can do that to you. I am sure fun was had, though, if Scamp was involved.😀

So here I am just washing floors and dishes, minding my own business. And suddenly, a major change to my story's ending sneaks up and bushwhacks me. 😜 It was a necessary change. The old climax was a bit too easy, a bit bland. Now there's some decapitations involved. 😈

I did have to go back and do some other revisions to help fit it in and will probably do more when I finally give the whole thing another read through. I have been so focused on the last couple chapters this weekend that I have not really read the first few in a while to make sure everything still fits and follows. 

Putting on the kettle for some green tea while I enjoy some celebratory cookies.

Should we still be dropping findings in this thread or start submitting them as tickets (and as an IT manager, I was pleased to see an actual ticketing system on here)?

First off, let's be clear. I left Facebook because, as far as I am concerned, they aren't really interested in us, only in our data and in selling us to advertisers. We really need an open source counterpart that isn't about keeping shareholders happy, just users. And Mark Zuckerberg may have started out as a entrepreneurial hero but at this point, he's as much a corporate boss and capitalist oligarch as any CEO, worse than some.

That said, I know a lot of writers, including some on here, use it to promote their work and help get eyeballs on it. And getting more eyeballs is something I would like to do. I do tweet stories but my list of Twitter followers isn't long so that only gets me so far. And I promote them on the web forums I inhabit but, again, those are mostly a limited audience. And then there's the usual crowd on here, but that is pretty small even accounting for visitors from related sites.

Thing is, how much would re-joining Facebook actually get me beyond what those get me? Many of the people I would be friending would be ones who already hear about my writing from other sources (Twitter, forums, me sharing them with friends and family by email). So I am not sure how much value FB would bring.

What is the experience of others on here? Is there value in having a presence on FB? Would a profile be enough or should I look at a "page" or public group or something?

TLDR is that I hate the place but might go there if it has value for promoting my writing.

Lovely day hereabouts. Got some coffee on for the coffee folks. Fresh ground from the local roastery so I hope you enjoy. Kettle is also on, with some Irish Breakfast in the pot.

I might have the new story getting close to finished. Probably still needs lots of polish but the latest draft is pretty close to complete as far as story and characters. There's adventure, there's horror, there's romance, there's magic. All in about 6000 words.

Getting drier here but still a risk of showers. Still, the sun made a somewhat forlorn attempt at visibility this morning.

No big plans for the weekend. Hopefully some writing but I am debating whether to put my current project on hold for a bit and try something less ambitious or keep plugging away.

Coffee is on and I have some Earl Grey in the teapot.

Quote by elizabethblack

Thanks for these Scott.  I don't like the limited ones on the other site at all.

At least I tested coffee and it worked!   What is NSFW? 

So it rained here yesterday. And rained. And then it rained some more. The county that administers the rural areas around me declared an emergency and closed all the county roads because there was so much flooding. Even city streets were like creeks in places. And guess what today's forecast is? 80% probability of showers.😲

Anyhow, I am getting some nice clean not from the street water and getting the coffee and kettle going. Good morning!

Quote by verbal

 

No Talia Wednesday. Today I am going to coat the kitchen floor with oil and slide the cats across it. They love it! And clean-up should be a breeze!

(runs and hides before PETA shows up)

Making a pot of afternoon tea. Anyone else?

Quote by DenimAngel

Babylon 5  on DVD.  Pretty good so far just started season 1 last night 

Yawn. Meet the new boss, same as the old boss. Most boring election result in my lifetime. Literally the same Parliament with changes of 1-3 seats for some parties. Waste of time and cash.

Coffee is on. I made a pot of Timmy's for Canadians who want to, um, celebrate? Kettle is going for us tea drinkers, too.