Happy New Year! Psst... https://www.storiesspace.com/forum/site-announcements-and-members-feedback/a-new-years-do-over-competition

I know the front page cover is blank for now. The competition banner will be arriving soon!

Edit to add: I would like to keep promotions of stories in this competition thread and not in a new one. Thanks!

Happy New Year! 

The last few years have been filled with plenty of ups and downs. This time of year is typically one for reflection. Reflection of what went wrong or what went right. Things we wish we could have accomplished or said. Perhaps even things we wish we wouldn’t have done or said. Our whole life is riddled with those moments and that leads me to our new competition theme…

A New Years Do-Over

Here is your prompt: 

You are alone at a New Year’s Eve party trying to decide if anyone would notice you leave early when you are approached by a mysterious stranger. They offer you a chance to change one regret; just one wish at a do-over. What would they have to say to convince you to accept it? What would happen to your life if you did? Would it end up another regret or would it be a wish come true?

To add a bit of fun, your story must contain the following words: Reboot, Fireworks, Midnight, Awakening, and Green. 

All categories are open except for Flash Fiction, Micro Fiction, Plays, Poetry, and Songs. That means the word count minimum is 1001 and the max is 5000.

Quick Facts:

The Word count minimum is 1001 and the max is 5000.

You cannot submit already published work.

The story must be stand-alone.

Do not forget the five keywords.

All Stories Space rules and guidelines apply.S93cSfMNRTKhtXPH

The ending date is February 4th, 2022 

The winners will be announced on February 15th, 2022

Prizes:

First: $250 (USD)

Second: $50 (USD

Third: $25 (USD)

Have fun and if you have any questions please don't hesitate to ask!

I wanted to pop in here and say Merry Christmas! I also wanted to say thank you to each and every one of you for your support and for everything you do for the site. It is greatly appreciated.

Quote by Ping

Considering Peaky Blinders. It keeps popping up on my radar. I know nothing about it other than it’s a period piece that that Bane/Venom dude is in it and he’s violent. Probably worth a look.

I really liked Peaky Blinders. Cillian Murphy (The Scarecrow) is such a wonderfully flawed character that you want to stick with him. I admit I didn't watch the last two seasons, but it is on my list of things to catch up on. It wasn't the fault of the show, it was my life getting in the way. Also, anything with Tom Hardy is worth checking out.

I am currently watching The Witcher Season 2 and Hawkeye. Everything else has been Holiday Baking shows or Christmas movies with my mother.

The Soul Killer by Ross Greenwood. It's the second book in a series. They've been really good so far. The first one, The Snow Killer, kept me in the dark to the very end. I love when that happens.

Quote by Ping

I’m currently at Denny’s with my kids eating my greasy, salt-lick of a FREE Grand Slam breakfast. Yes, today is my birthday. Has nothing to do with the SS update. Possibly also a temporary lapse. 🤣🤣🤣

Definitely a temporary lapse. Happy birthday, Ping! 🎁🎂

Quote by redwriter

I have marked a few authors to be followed but find their stories have appeared without me being notified. Temporary lapse?

Unfortunately, it is. This and notifications, in general, are something the tech team is working on.

.

Quote by verbal

Fleabag is frikkin brilliant. Very funny, occasionally biting.

I keep trying to get Talia to watch Succession. She is luke-warm on watching it. I will give up and try it on my own soon.

I'll give Fleabag a shot. I've been on the fence about Succession too so let me know what you think.

Quote by Ping
Marbles

Stupid marbles!

Quote by Ping
Squid Game.

I cried twice. I watched it because people kept telling me to so I didn't expect to get emotionally involved.

I finished season 3 of Lost In Space last night. I really like this series. There are a few people that annoy me to death, but there are enough positives that I can deal with the nonsense.

Has anyone seen Fleabag? I was thinking of watching it.

I have a few favorite Christmas songs and this is one of them. Boney M - Mary's Boy Child

Quote by Survivor

This afternoon I find the "Profile Search" (the little magnifying glass at the top of the page) does not give me any results when I try to use it. I have tried using various criteria with no luck.

I'll let them know. It's not working for me either.

Quote by AnnaMayZing

I raised a ticket regarding the lack of email notifications some two months ago. Now there are no email notifications for anything. Not for story comments, new stories from those I follow, not even for direct messages. I feel that this is a very important problem and likely to be detrimental to the site.

I'm getting email notifications for messages sent to me so I was not aware of this. I'll ask about that too.

Quote by Mendalla
I notice that the count on my Recommended Read badge didn't increment when The Healer's Secret (my most recent story) was awarded an RR (my RR badge shows 3 and I now have 4). Not a big deal for me since I'm not a "badger" but I wonder if it ties into other badge issues.

That's something I can definitely ask about.

I watched The Harder They Fall on Netflix. I really liked this. There were things about it that may have needed a little tweaking, but with that cast how could you go wrong? It was a fun Western.

Idris Elba is a favorite of mine, but I admit Jonathan Majors stole every scene he was in. I loved him in Lovecraft Country and he didn't disappoint here.

I watched the first two episodes of Mayor Of Kingstown with Jeremy Renner. The whole thing moved fairly quickly and they've done a good job of establishing characters. I look forward to seeing where they take it.

I'm also re-watching Doctor Who.

I know it seems like I say this every time but all of the entries were excellent and it made it so hard for the judges. This of course is something we want, so thank you to everyone that entered. 

I’d like to congratulate Ping, Violet_The_Verbose, and WriterGirl for taking the Top 3 places:

1st Place: Innocent Until Proven Gullible by  Ping

2nd Place: The Wonderful World of Wally Weasel by  Violet_the_Verbose

3rd Place: Just a Girl Who Loves Cats by  WriterGirl

The following entries round out the Top 10, and if you haven't done so already, I recommend giving them a read too:

4. After The Curtain Fell by  Welshdreamer42

5. Eidolon by  Tams

6. Out Of The Lake by  redwriter

7. The Empty Office by  Mendalla

8. Dark Image by  TomEccleston

9. A Village in Cornwall by  Verity

10. A Matter of Time by  AnnaMayZing

We do have an honorable mention and that goes to:

The Road Not Traveled by  JamesPBear

Thank you to everyone that read, scored, and commented.

Congratulations again to the winners, I'll be in touch today regarding your prizes!

Quote by Survivor

I haven't scrolled through all of the posts in this thread. Perhaps someone has mentioned it. I would like to know when and if we will ever get a listing of all of the badges still available on the site with a good description of what they are for. I know I am still missing badges from before the conversion but I can't remember all of them.

I do know we changed the name of the Omnium badge to something else. Whatever it is now is not appearing on profiles. I have the Prolific badge which is for those who have written in 80 percent of the genres. I still need the new Omnium to be added back.

I'm not sure that has been mentioned since the change over first took place. I will ask about that and about missing badges.

Quote by fantasylady69
I have received an email from Sarah @ Symbios who says she can see the issue from a screen shot I sent to her and it will be included in the next update in about 4 weeks. She also suggested zooming out to get around the issue until then, which seems to work.

Thank you for sharing what she said for those that may be experiencing the same issue.

Vegetable beef stew. It's in the crockpot now and it's starting to smell amazing.

Just a little update:

We have badges on the competition stories now.

Of course, the competition banner is back up so the stories are a lot easier to find.

So everyone knows, in the forums, you can do a partial quote by highlighting just the part you are referring to and then click the quote button.

You are also able to post links directly to your forum post which will make advertising your story a little easier.

One last thing for now. Just in case you may have missed it with the excitement of the changeover, we now have a Historical Fiction category. I know quite a few people have been asking for that and we finally got it.

Good morning/afternoon all. After a little confusion on the comp, new system and all that, the comp is back open.

Quote by Ping

Howdy. The competition banner and link to all the entries has disappeared. In addition, the competition link in genres has disappeared too. Is there another way to see a list of the comp stories?

Hmmm… I wonder if the banner and links were programmed to be date sensitive? Here yesterday, disappear October 31, the competition deadline.

Yeah, that is something I was not expecting with the new system. It was supposed to be closed at midnight PT tonight. I'm trying to see if I can open back up.

Edit to add:

Okay, that finally worked! Phew. Lesson learned on this one.