Salmon. I've kind of lost my taste for steak, at least as we do it in the West. Bulgogi, Korean grilled beef, on the other hand ... drools

Too hot or too cold?

Quote by KatarinaTechgoddess
I have an appointment today with the cancer doc to see if I get the “all clear” or whether another round of chemo is in my future. All good vibes welcome!

Vibes sent and fingers crossed. I know from you and others that chemo can really kick your ass so hopefully you don't need more.

Also, band is led by Martijn Westerholt who is the brother of Robert Westerholt of Within Temptation and did play keys briefly in that band.

Quote by AnnaMayZing
I have not listened to Delain a great deal, but maybe that should change.

Highly recommended, both the older work with Charlotte and the new lineup with Diana Leah. And Charlotte's solo albums Tales from Six Feet Under and Tales..., Vol. 2 as well. This is from Volume 2.

Ugh. Submarine is not good right now. Maybe a ride in Crew Dragon on a Falcon 9.

Salad or roast veggies?

Hey, it's morning somewhere. Including where I am. So welcome the new day with joy and delight. And if you don't feel joy and delight, Inspirations is ready to help.

Coffee is a strong black Nicaraguan dark roast. Teas are English Breakfast and Sunday Tea. Iced tea and lemonade pitchers are wash, refilled and in the fridge if you need a cold beverage.

So fuel up and go dancing out into the morning sun. 😊

No, this is not writing that runs on both gas and electricity. It is writing that mixes artforms to tell stories using multimedia formats. So a collage of images that tells some kind of story rather than illustrated text. And such. Or that's how I read it. Here's their list of 35 markets for hybrid writing, most of which take more traditional works, too.

https://authorspublish.com/35-magazines-publishing-hybrid-writing/

Quote by AnnaMayZing

Editing was real quick! 😕

Good for you. Editing is rarely quick for me, though I did manage to accelerate things for this one since I was late starting. I wrote most of it, pretty much as you see it, on Sunday and submitted on, I think, Wednesday. The only major change between Sunday and Wednesday was adding the "framing" at the beginning and some changes to the end to close the loop on that addition.

Hmm. Not sure if I answered the poll or not. There's one vote in my month (May) but this software's polling system doesn't actually flag which option you selected so not sure if that's me or not. So, anyhow, I'm a May baby.

Ten is good, if not quite up to past levels. Unless there are some last minute ones that haven't passed moderation yet? It's a good bunch, anyhow.

Music, but rarely radio anymore. I have Android Auto in the new car so often just stream stuff from my phone. Radio is a bit of a graveyard around here save one decent rock station and the odd program on the CBC (Canadian counterpart to the BBC for you UK folks).

Take the most direct route or a slower one so you have more time with your talk/music?

Quote by JamesPBear
Mayhaps you write the truth…literally! What you write becomes true…

Actually, that's a story. I forget the title and who wrote it, but there is at least one story out there about a writer who's writing can change reality. Of course, I could write it and then that would become true. 😋

Quote by NumberOneAngel

This is so inspirational!

Great. Another song for the Tiktok set to overuse (Unstoppable is now my most hated song and it is entirely due to that overuse).😒

One of the heavy metal bands that I was studiously turning up my nose at in the eighties (being a metalhead is a recent thing for me) was the legendary Judas Priest. No more. I had their great album Defender of the Faith (1984) on in the car today. Rocks hard even after 40 years. "Love Bites" is the one song from the album that I actually remember from the eighties.

Quote by KatarinaTechgoddess
It’s not nearly as long as I had originally intended, but it’s what RL gave me time to complete by the deadline.

One thing I decided even before I got my final entry going was that 10K was not happening. I've got projects happening at both home and work keeping me busy and I really only have energy for writing on weekends these days. So I was happy that it ended up as long as it did.

That said, I like it enough and have received enough positive comments that a sequel/spinoff might happen. It would take the Lake Wanessa monster as a starting point and introduce a new set of characters, with a lot of the focus being on those characters rather than the monster. Not sure, though. Need to take a stab at it and see how it goes.

It's morning! Maybe it's good? We shall see.

While we wait to find out. there's coffee and tea hot and ready for caffeination. Cold drinks are in the fridge.

I have not read as many entries as I hoped to but will take another try. Definitely looks like a good roster just from the writers. Life is keeping me busy and occasionally kicking me in the ass.

Quote by verbal
I can’t imagine a swimming pool would be practical in this climate

You'd be surprised at how popular they are around here give that swimming season is often just June to mid-August or early September.

Buy them. We don't really have the space for a vegetable garden right now.

Desktop or laptop ("Pro" tablets with a keyboard count as laptops)?

Quote by JamesPBear
It's always been my favourite flavour, ever since I was a kid.

Coffee-flavoured ice creams or other desserts are about the only way I like coffee. Can't stand to actually drink the stuff for whatever reason (though I've made the odd exception for some of the flavoured ones).

Good day. Off shortly to pick up my new computer. With us tightening up management of work laptops, I've decided that it is time to curtail my personal use of my work machine. Have also been rejigging our home offices and network. Plus regular housecleaning (I wash and vacuum floors, wife dusts).

Cute note on the new computer: About 24 years ago this week, I started in my current role. Since I was the first ever IT person at the company, my first task was to actually order and setup my own laptop. At the time, we were buying Acer Travelmates, a good, basic workhorse business box from the Taiwanese company. My new computer that I ordered almost 24 years to the day later? An Acer Travelmate. Plus ca change, plus c'est la meme chose.

Quote by Meagananne1986

Been to every state except,Alaska and it's a definite bucket list item (Denali National Park and Mount Denali, highest peak in North America)

I've only been to the panhandle on a cruise and even that is gorgeous. Denali is still a "maybe someday" item.

In North America, car. In Europe, train.

AC or just move to a cooler part of the house (e.g. basement)?

Commercial. With my lousy eyesight and poor coordination, I couldn't even play Flight Simulator on a PC, let alone fly the real thing. Only an idiot would let me have a pilot's license. And I'm not rich enough to do the private aircraft rental thing (where they supply the pilot).

First/business class or economy?

Quote by Meagananne1986

No. Northern Virginia is more or less immune to deadly storms. Rarely lose power but last year had,a Generac generator (running on natural gas) installed.

My aunt and uncle lived in their winterized cottage for a couple decades and had a Generac generator. Their generator burned propane from the huge tank at the back of the property that also supplied gas for stoves, heating, etc. in both their building and my family's summer place on the same property. They were mostly concerned about winter storms given where that place is in Central Ontario but back when I was going as a kid with my family, we were generally good for at least one outage every summer due to storms or trees coming down on lines.

Giant killer hawks, then. Though that's probably been done.

Ah, dey is so cuuuuuuuuuuute.

Thanks, Writergirl.

(wonders if a story about giant killer doves would have worked in the comp)😳🙄😀

There's monsters abroad in these here parts. At least that's what the local myths say. So be watchful. And write a story about it if you see any.

Good morning!

Coffee is McDonald's dark roast (hey, I got lazy). Teas are Red Rose and English Breakfast. Unsweet iced tea and lemonade are in the fridge.

And with summer looming (4 days to Solstice) I have restocked the ice cream supply in the freezer.

Any chance we'll ever have social media-style @ mentions here? You know, where you type "@username" and it alerts the user with that username that they have been mentioned (and allows people reading the post to click through to their profile). Most other forum software I use has them now. Just a thought that occurred to me in a thread just now.

Quote by verbal
I think that Magnificent Bastard Ping is still entering. Sir Ping?

Must mention once again that it would be nice to have @ mentions in this software. Great use case right here. @ Ping to see if he responds. Oh well, maybe it's on their list for 2027 or something.

Canoe. I've never felt comfortable in kayaks for some reason, even if I like them in principle.

Motorboat or something unpowered (canoe, sailboat)?

An idea I am thinking of. I have written several stories about weird happenings in Ontario cottage country. I don't always specify that it is in Ontario, but they are definitely inspired by the time I have spent there. So what would people think of linking them as a "thematic" series to create a kind of anthology? "Strange Summers" or something like that. We have:

The Berry Girl - woman at cottage meets mysterious girl (third place in a comp a few years back)

Lady in the Lake - artist rescues a drowning woman, only to have things turn supernatural

The Summer Beast - lake monster wreaks havoc in cottage country (current comp entry)

Not sure I get what makes the difference between swing and "electro-swing". Electro- uses modern electric/electronic instruments instead of just an acoustic band?? Still sounds like classic swing to me, anyhow.

Nightwish are playing on home turf tonight. In a baseball stadium. But they are not playing baseball. Kitee, Finland is where the original members of the band came from and where things got started. Today, while the band is now multinational (with Dutch and English members as well as Finns), two of those originals are still in the band: keyboardist/songwriter Tuomas Holopainen and guitarist Emppu Vuorinen. Tonight Finland time, they are going to rock their home town.

One of my favorite Nightwish songs from a performance in Gelsenkirchen, Germany four days ago.

And Floor Jansen is holding up very well given how far along her pregnancy is. She is even still doing her signature "windmill" style headbanging which requires her to bend over.

No baseball or monsters in here (I think), but there is coffee (Nicaraguan dark roast), tea (Irish Breakfast and Duke of Earl), and cold beverages (unsweet iced tea and lemonade) ready for your consumption.

Only seven comp entries so I hope we get some more rolling in over the weekend. It's such a good theme with so many possible stories. As it is, we have everything from a saga in the world of the Anglo-Saxon epic Beowulf to modern cryptid/kaiju tales. Keep 'em rolling in!