Quote by Cora
About a week before the End Date, inspiration came to me.

StoriesSpace has a fickle muse, I find. 😉😊

Quote by DenimAngel

Brooks -n-Dunn concert sounds fun JEFF .

Strange as it sounds, this headbanger kind of agrees. I used to listen to a bit of so-called "New Country" and I recall these guys being a nice listen. Not something I'd ever be a hardcore fan of, but I wouldn't change the channel if one of their videos came on.

Jean-Michel Jarre with Brian May is like an 80s fantasy come to life. Top synth wizard meets one of the best guitarists of that generation.

I have been getting more creative with my playlists on Amazon Music. One new one is "Energize My Day", a list of songs that I find get my heart pumping and my mood rising. The leadoff track, appropriately, is "Energize Me" by After Forever, one of my favourite songs from the pen and voice of Floor Jansen (and one she still uses today in solo sets).

In the current configuration, the first four songs have Floor on vocals (1 After Forever, 2 Nightwish, 1 solo), and she appears again a couple more times later in the list. Need to shuffle things a bit. She really puts a lot of energy and verve into her singing even in studio, which is why she shows up so often.

Quote by JamesPBear
So far, I think I've got a decent chance of making the Top 10 in the current competition! Of course, it would be great if more people joined the fun, but then I expect there will be a last-minute rush.

There was but for this comp, that meant like 4 stories. At least ten matches the last comp so we aren't falling any further. Two days until the judging announcement is supposed to happen. No idea if things are happening on schedule or not. We will see on Friday, I guess.

Thanks for getting things going, Bear.

Headache gone, back is better. Worried about upcoming vacay. 10 cities in 11 days (cruise). Not sure if my body will be up for that pace but we shall see. I have a few more days off after we get home to recuperate anyhow.

Ape slumps in looking like he's come off a 3-day bender

Bad headache last night. Still not great this morning.

Coffee is PC Gourmet Medium. Teas are Red Rose and Earl Grey. Enjoy.

Ape scarfs a stars and strips heart cookie and a Red Rose and slumps back out

An interesting mix in this one, but the general idea is print publications that will take more than one form, so fiction, non-fiction, poetry, etc. A lot of more general literary journals, less genre-specialists in this one. There's one horror magazine that I noticed. Some with other focusses like feminist writing or specific styles (one specializing in tanka, for instance).

One that I think is kind of cool is The First Line, described as follows:

"This quarterly journal accepts fiction of 300-5,000 words that begins with a pre-set first line; 500-800 word critical essays about your favorite first line from a literary work; as well as some poetry. For their next submission period, the line for fiction is: ‘When she was eight, Alice Henderson briefly held the world record for filling her mouth with marbles.’ (Deadline 1 August 2024)."

Neat concept for a journal, eh? We've had the odd challenge here like that.

» 35 Print Literary Journals that Publish Fiction, Nonfiction, and Poetry (authorspublish.com)

Valerian

Pride of the Yankees

Quote by JustAnotherSapphic
Just as long as nothing happens to Ringo

I forget if he ever gets "blued" (you'll see what I mean) but it's a fun, silly Beatles movie so the guys all walk away in the end.

Good morning! Rainy days to start the week in my world. Even got a weird, out-of-the-blue tornado alert from Environment Canada yesterday evening. Weird because radar showed that the storm system involved was still crossing the border (no doubt getting a hard interrogation from border services 😉🤣) when the alert went out and when the storm did arrive here, it was just heavy rain. Not even that windy compared to some storms earlier in the month.

For coffee, we've got some Tobermory Flowerpot Island.

Teas are Wakoucha (Japanese red) and Raspberry. Hot water is ready for other teas and hot beverages.

Washed the pitchers in the fridge and mixed up fresh iced tea and lemonade. Sodas are stocked up.

Later, folks.

Quote by TomEccleston
The theme and concept seemed so simple on the surface, but when I got down to it, proved decidedly more difficult than I expected to fashion a story. Maybe that should have been the story itself!

So it was not just me. I felt the same. It seemed like an easy one to come up with something interesting for but I went through three different story ideas that failed at various stages of drafting before my entry, the fourth, kind of stuck the landing.

I could give it a try. My comp winner from a few years ago The Goddess Dances was basically a children's story, even if I didn't put it on that category.

WYE go to a concert of a band you had no knowledge of because a friend or family member wanted to?

Ardently, she pursued her desire.

Tame - Tome

Quote by KatarinaTechgoddess

Ten stories! Unless someone submits a last minute entry. 🥰

Oops, I miscounted. Tks for the correction. Hope the big decision comes soon. I am headed off on vacation a week tomorrow.

Quote by verbal
Drew Carey enthusiastically praising the Phish

Carey likes Phish, eh. I need to listen to them. I have probably heard them but there's no Phish entry in my brain's music library for some reason.

OTOH, in my world "phish" has taken on a rather negative connotation, being associated with hackers trying to scam people or steal passwords.

Quote by JustAnotherSapphic

My thing is - what if the submarine was driven and co-piloted by the octopus and the walrus? And what if it was a killer submarine?

The weirdness gets into that zone. Not those specifics but very weird. OTOH, the soundtrack is basically a Beatles greatest hits so the music is fantastic.

Quote by JustAnotherSapphic

Help is one of the weirdest movies I've seen in awhile, but for Ringo, anything. Or just about anything.

Have you watched Yellow Submarine yet? If you think Help is weird...

At first blush, LOTR. Long overdue for another pass at it. Though I have never read Narnia all the way through so perhaps that.

The novels or the movie/TV adaptations? (For either)

Quote by Cora
Never heard of "The Last of Us"

Acclaimed sf TV series based on a videogame series that has fungus-based zombies (inspired by an actual fungus).

Stormy Saturday here. How's thing in your neck of the woods?

We've got some Muskoka Loon Call Breakfast Blend ready if coffee's your thing. Tea-wise, there's Organic Darjeeling and Buddha's Blend. Cold beverages and sodas are looking good.

Nine in the comp. Hoping we might see more but we shall see. I've got a couple more to read from the current lot but I'm please to say, it seems to be good, interesting mix of takes on the theme.

Quote by TheShyThespian

I'm really hoping mine makes nine! Is Annie still hoping to get in? Really hope so!

It does! We're at nine!!!!

And that brings us to eight! Would be nice to make that magic number of ten again! Anyone else chasing the deadline?

Quote by Cora
Tomorrow I leave for my long-weekend vacation up north. I will be going with my family and my dogs to a cabin that overlooks a river and is next to a mountain and forest.

Want to trade vacations? That sounds more appealing than my cruise right now. Have fun!

Emotions come from within people.

Cake - Lake

Good morning and welcome to Inspirations!

Who know what this day will bring? Joys? Sorrows? New comp entries? Only time will tell.

But to carry us through all that, we have coffee from Jamaica, a nice medium roast Blue Mountain. For teas, we have Darjeeling and Russian Caravan. Hot water is on for other hot bevvies. And there's our usual pitchers of iced tea and lemonade along with an assortment of sodas for those seeking something chilly.

Dance while you can!

Edit: Actually, the new song is on there and it is 8+ minutes. However, it is mostly there because the album isn't out and you can't really download individual songs for offline play on Amazon. Once the album is out, it might get bumped, especially if I like other songs on Yesterwynde more.

Quote by AnnaMayZing

And, of course, this...

It's telling that I don't even need to play that to know what it is. Still might be Tuomas' finest composition, at least in the metal realm. I recently put together a playlist of Nightwish on my Amazon Music account and Ghost Love Score is the only one of the long works to make the cut (The Poet and The Pendulum might if I expand it further). I call it Nights of Wishing but something better might come along eventually. Ever Dream of Nemo Wishing I Had an Angel or something weird and cutesy like that.

Could we get the ability to link to a specific profile post similar to how we can a forum post? I thought we could be apparently I am wrong. Would be nice if we are using the profile wall for "blog" type posts that we might want to share elsewhere. Linking could also be a way to encourage people I am sharing with to visit here.

Monty Python's The Meaning Of Life

Quote by AnnaMayZing

While You Lips Are Still Red - Tuomas Holopainen and Marko Hietala

Never seen the movie but I love the song, esp. the live performance from Wembley with Floor singing backup and Troy doing an electric guitar solo (Emppu was on a break during that part of the show it seems). It's the one that taught me that Marko can hold his own as a singer, not that there was much doubt, and pretty much turned me into a Marko Hietala fan.