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doc
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New Issue Online

Post by doc »

Greetings from beautiful Concord, California!

New issue online at 11:02 eastern, which means it's 8am where I am. Never say I don't love you all. :)

Enjoy!
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Robert_Moriyama
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Re: New Issue Online

Post by Robert_Moriyama »

... But whinges about lack of posts and replies to same shouldn't really count as comments about the CONTENT of the new issue. However, I am happy to see that there are some story- (and poem- and feature- and serial?) specific posts already. RHFay and Bill Wolfe seem to be raising the curve a bit (anyone want to second nominations to Usual Suspects status?).

RM
You can't wait for inspiration. You have to go after it with a club.

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Re: New Issue Online

Post by kailhofer »

Hmm... Just thinking out loud, but this 1st Sunday thing is maybe going to mess me up in planning challenges. This month is fine, but if October is on the 7th, it would follow that November would be on the 4th, right?

If I waited a week like normal, then I'd post that challenge on the 14th, and people would have to the 28th to post. Voting for 1 week takes me to the 4th, assuming that I like Sundays for putting things out, too. That probably leaves out announcing the winner in time. Plus October will be a horror challenge, so I don't really want to go past Halloween. I see a similar problem for November.

I guess I'll just have to shorten the deadlines to a week and a half, or maybe not wait a week, or something. As always, I don't want to take away attention from the issue.

[Pondering... Pondering...]

Well, I guess I have a month to figure something out. Before then, I'll still have this month's challenge out on the 9th.

Nate
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Re: New Issue Online

Post by kailhofer »

Hi Nate.

I may have caught you in a fit of accidental brilliance.

"Plus October will be a horror challenge, so I don't really want to go past Halloween. I see a similar problem for November. "

I now have a bat's chance in Hollywood at making.... the *October* challenge. Why? Because the compressed deadline was the hard part. I'm a ponderous avian; I've still got the condolence letter from a parrot who attended the species funeral of Archaeopteryx.

But horror just might be among my stronger subjects... and now I have FORTY DAYS to write it!

What about doing "1-line preludes" to the successor month's challenge, which gives us time to at least email the muse. Then when your specific requirements post in a certain month, the entrant has had some time to thrash through some of the worst flaws in his concepts.

CreepyPhoenix
I'm not sure how much help that would be, because you wouldn't know the particulars of the challenge. That might screw up what you had in mind. I mean, take December. That's going to be a holiday themed challenge. But let's say you pick out your best holiday idea, but then I come along an say you have to write a story from the point of view of the Ghost of Christmas Past. That would probably blow any idea you had. (That won't be the December Challenge, I promise. It's too Christian-centered to appeal to a worldwide, multicultural audience.)

Maybe I'm wrong. *Shrug.* In that case, you sort of know what 2 upcoming months are.

In the end, I guess there's no harm in hinting at what the next one will be when the previous closes. Would more of you find that helpful?

Nate
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Re: New Issue Online

Post by Robert_Moriyama »

As long as we're trying to avoid Christian-centric challenges, might as well go full-on pagan. So the Hallowe'en (I know, hardly anybody includes the apostrophe to indicate the short form of "evening", as in "All Hallows Eve(ning)". I blame John Carpenter.) challenge could be to write a story about the trials and tribulations of being the lesser-known sibling of a pagan god: Bill Hain, Sam's brother. ;D
You can't wait for inspiration. You have to go after it with a club.

Jack London (1876-1916)
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Re: New Issue Online

Post by Robert_Moriyama »

. . . .challenge could be to write a story about the trials and tribulations of being the lesser-known sibling of a pagan god: Bill Hain, Sam's brother. ;D
No Relation

By Robert Moriyama

The other gods always teased me. I hated the thunder god with his booming laughter and the god of streams and brooks who always babbled behind my back. Why couldn't I have been the god of earthquakes? That would have shaken them up.

Why am I upset, you ask? After all, I'm the god of corn, right? Corn is an important staple, entire civilizations have collapsed when the crops were bad. Remember the Incas? Now they knew how to show the god of corn a good time! But that's my sister, Maize. We haven't spoken in centuries.

Apparently you weren't paying attention to what kind of corn is under my domain.

Candy corn.

The End
And you don't want to KNOW why the Potato God abandoned the Irish a while back... you do? Ah, it was a tale of star-crossed lovers whose burgeoning romance was nipped in the spud...
You can't wait for inspiration. You have to go after it with a club.

Jack London (1876-1916)
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kailhofer
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Re: New Issue Online

Post by kailhofer »

Oy vey. ::)
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