Friday, September 29, 2006

Seventh Quark & Prompts

7Q4 (Right) is printed and should go out this weekend/Monday.

Just waiting on the folding/stapling from the Printer

IMPORTANT NOTE

If you are a 7Q subscriber please email Alex Keegan and confirm
your subscription and current contact details. 7Q is only being sent
to those subscribers who do confirm and are checked off


REMINDER FRANTIC FLASH

Saturday-Sunday the Eleventh Frantic Flash

£6 Entry, or 3 for £15 pre-paid)

Minimum Prize £100
(50% of Entry guaranteed, average 65%)

Sign up as a possible entrant so we have your Email address.

Prompts sent 0900-1800-2100 Saturday and Sunday (UK Time)

You then have 75 Minutes to write your story and email back

80 minutes if you reply immediately and say "I'm in"

Shortlist at the latest Midnight Monday

Low Entry (typically 20-40 stories, so a great chance of winning)

It's a great way of accessing the unconscious (no time to make mistakes)
and the quality is surprisingly high.

Any surplus goes to fund Seventh Quark Magazine

If you would like to receive the emails, email


alex.keegan@btinternet.com

*******************************************




Friday Prompts

Hare, Today Hare Tomorrow

Going to the Dump

Man at Sunset

Geisha

The Photocopier Wars

My Life in Uniform and Other Lies

SAMSON

When Does a Dirty Handkerchief Become a Floorcloth?

Starry Story Night

TURKEY

Don'tcha Just LOVE Guns?

RIGHT

QUARK, Not QUARRY

The Liquorice Allsort Mines of Aberdifi

The Bastards

Tiger, Tiger, Burning Dimly

PEAS, Well at Least They're Green

Reports of My Suicide Have Been Underplayed

Tuesday, September 26, 2006

Frantic Flash, Tuesday Prompts

Just a dozen pre-signed entries for this weekend's Frantic Flash Competition (£6 Entry, guaranteed £100 Prize) and usually actual entries come out around double the pre-signees, so a great chance to win £100.

For details see http://www.7thquarkmagazine.com




Tuesday Morning prompts


A Small Bird Dies

Gallerie Lafayette, Outside It's Raining

Two People Looking Opposite Ways, Sunset

Cormorant or Shag?

The Mathematics of Love

Riptide

The Land of the Last Biscuit

Chick-Chick-Chick-Chick-Chicken

The Oldest Working TV in the World (Provbably)

SCRUBS

Nice Face, Shame About the Politics

Man in a One Legged Suit

Clocks Melting

Novel, Navel, Novel, Navel

Porto, in the Gods

The Felt-Tip Graveyard

A Slow Boat to St Nazaire

Versions of the Word "Clap"

Mrs Browne, the Gladiola, Boy With a Crew-Cut

Monday, September 25, 2006

SAtory Prompts, Monday Morning

Daedalus

Why We Love Rottweilers

Hole in the Wall

One Mug (Marilyn Monroe) Broken

Sing-a-Long'a Sound of Music

A Small Tube, Probably Ointment

Messages

Simon, Do You Deny Me?

Daddy, I Don't Feel Very Well

None of the blood and shit of war

Sitting on the ferry's stern, my son, my dad

On a beach, country uncertain

Cancer carried off his cherished wife

GREEN GREEN Green

Gratified Greed Gives Saws their grin

Sharon can't work any faster

Bum-Titty, Bum-Titty, Bum-Bum-Bum

Davis

Friday, September 22, 2006

A Few More Stories






Much as we love flashing in Boot Camp, I've noticed that the number os STORIES has fallen away and the Flash-Story ratio is too heavily weighted in favour of flash.

So in BC, at least for the rest of 2006, we are putting emphasis on STORIES, one a week being the ideal target.

We'll still have our daily prompts, but these can be used to start longer works.




and here they are:




Jingly-Jangly Rhymes and Things

A Silence Falls

The A-Z of Being Dead

Toast Before Breakfast, Age Before Beauty

Two People on a Hill, Sun Low

What Dambudzo Means

Waiting to Hear From the Level-Crossing Man

Never Marry a Man From Basingstoke (or a Mexican)

Fish food floating on a skin of water

Not Because of the Evening

CRAYON

"A Way Out," Zunzer said.

That Morning, They Took Clark's Desk

Gun-Loving

Red = Good, Grey = Bad

The Appendix Trials

PENCIL

She Was Pretty, Shadow of Death

The Difference Between Rayon and Nylon and Silk

Midnight, and I'm Not Famous Yet

On an October Day in 1939

Tuesday, September 19, 2006

Mistakes I Like to Make

I posted the wrong name for one prize and turns out I missed yet another short-listing, so here is the list again

Total Winnings $5,950

56 Prizes 14 Firsts 9 Second 5 Third, 28 Finals

FIRST PLACE

01 Colin $200 First Place in Slingink's Eurofiction
02 Mike Joint-Winner in 7Q FF9
03 Dave Joint-Winner in 7Q FF9
04 Lexie Wins Adult SS of the Year ($600) in "Killie"
05 Cally Wins Dark Tales ($60)
06 BCer wins 7Q FF10
07 Hazera wins Doorknobs & Bodypaint First Place
08 Alex Wins Pencil Bantry $300
09 Lexie Wins Cotswold Prize $1,000
10 Cally wins Bank Street SS Prize $140
11 Alex wins Lichfield Prize $250
12 ColinU wins Cadenza $400
13 Caroline wins Poetry Prize TBA ($200)
14 Gabiotas wins FirstWriter $400




SECOND

01 Lexie $150 Second Place in "Dame Throgmorton"
02 TomC gets $100 second in JBWB
03 BCer 2nd in 7Q FF10
04 Cally Joint second in Writers Dock Comp
05 Lexie $300 second place Philip Good Memorial Prize
06 Cally in Woman's Own (Prize Value estimate $250)
07 Colin Second in FlashFiction Comp $50
08 Lexie 2nd in City of Derby Comp $400
09 Tom gets $200 2nd in Twyford with CIN Story

THIRD

01 Lexie in 7Q FF9 Third Place
02 BCer 3rd in 7Q FF10
03 Tom's $25 3rd in Oz
04 Lexie $200 3rd in The New Writer
05 Alex $150 third place Philip Good Memorial Prize

4ths, HRs, NAMED FINALISTs

01 Alex Night Train Yates Comp, Last 12 "Floating"
02 Alex Poem in "Out of Love" Anthology
03 Laurie (Nartje) in "Out of Love" Anthology
04 Lexie, State of Being" HR at HISSAC (only winner is announced)
05 Lexie, second story finalist at HISAAC
06 Colin finalist in HISAAC
07 Colin HR in JBWB
08 Cally in Final of Belvedere
09 Lexie in Fish Anthology ($100)
10 Lexie last 140 of 1800, Fish
11 Haz named in Best of the web shortlist
12 Lexie Final of Writers Forum
13 Alex last 3 in Carve "Overseas Writer"
14 TomC HR'd in Bank Street SS Comp
15 TomC 4th in Twisted Tongue
16 Alex at Philip Good Memorial (second story placed 3rd)
17 Lexie at Philip Good Memorial (second story placed 2nd)
18 Cally HR in Lymm Festival $20
19 Colin Finalist, $40, dinner at Frome
20 Cally Finalist Flash FictionComp
21 TomC finalist, ditto
22 Britbird shortlisted in Pier Pressure
23 Colin HM in Momaya III, in Anthology
24 XXX in Mere Final
25 YYY in Mere Final
26 CAROLINE in Bournemouth Shortlist
27 CHRISSIE in Bournemouth Shortlist
28 Cally on Writelink Weekender Shortlist




00 Laurie recently left but was also HR'd at Bank Street (not counted)

Lexie also recieved $25 & $10 payments


Winnings in Dollars, £ = $2, Euro = $1
for simplicity of calculation

Boot Camp 2006 Prize Update

I'd missed a couple

Our Figures are now

14 First Prizes
09 Second prizes
05 Third prizes
27 Fourt'hs, HRs, Named Finalists

55 TOTAL

Total Winnings $5,950

FIRST PLACES

01 Colin $200 First Place in Slingink's Eurofiction
02 Mike Joint-Winner in 7Q FF9
03 Dave Joint-Winner in 7Q FF9
04 Lexie Wins Adult SS of the Year ($600) in "Killie"
05 Cally Wins Dark Tales ($60)
06 BCer wins 7Q FF10
07 Hazera wins Doorknobs & Bodypaint First Place
08 Alex Wins Pencil Bantry $300
09 Lexie Wins Cotswold Prize $1,000
10 Cally wins Bank Street SS Prize $140
11 Alex wins Lichfield Prize $250
12 ColinU wins Cadenza $400
13 Caroline wins Poetry Prize TBA ($200)
14 Gabiotas wins FirstWriter $400




SECOND

01 Lexie $150 Second Place in "Dame Throgmorton"
02 TomC gets $100 second in JBWB
03 BCer 2nd in 7Q FF10
04 Cally Joint second in Writers Dock Comp
05 Lexie $300 second place Philip Good Memorial Prize
06 Cally in Woman's Own (Prize Value estimate $250)
07 Colin Second in FlashFiction Comp $50
08 Lexie 2nd in City of Derby Comp $400
09 Tom gets $200 2nd in Twyford with CIN Story

THIRD

01 Lexie in 7Q FF9 Third Place
02 BCer 3rd in 7Q FF10
03 Tom's $25 3rd in Oz
04 Lexie $200 3rd in The New Writer
05 Alex $150 third place Philip Good Memorial Prize

4ths, HRs, NAMED FINALISTs

01 Alex Night Train Yates Comp, Last 12 "Floating"
02 Alex Poem in "Out of Love" Anthology
03 Laurie (Nartje) in "Out of Love" Anthology
04 Lexie, State of Being" HR at HISSAC (only winner is announced)
05 Lexie, second story finalist at HISAAC
06 Colin finalist in HISAAC
07 Colin HR in JBWB
08 Cally in Final of Belvedere
09 Lexie in Fish Anthology ($100)
10 Lexie last 140 of 1800, Fish
11 Haz named in Best of the web shortlist
12 Lexie Final of Writers Forum
13 Alex last 3 in Carve "Overseas Writer"
14 TomC HR'd in Bank Street SS Comp
15 TomC 4th in Twisted Tongue
16 Alex at Philip Good Memorial (second story placed 3rd)
17 Lexie at Philip Good Memorial (second story placed 2nd)
18 Cally HR in Lymm Festival $20
19 Colin Finalist, $40, dinner at Frome
20 Cally Finalist Flash FictionComp
21 TomC finalist, ditto
22 Britbird shortlisted in Pier Pressure
23 Colin HM in Momaya III, in Anthology
24 XXX in Mere Final
25 YYY in Mere Final
26 Cally in Bournemouth Shortlist
27 Chrissie in Bournemouth Shortlist




00 Laurie recently left but was also HR'd at Bank Street (not counted)

Lexie also recieved $25 & $10 payments


Winnings in Dollars, £ = $2, Euro = $1
for simplicity of calculation

Details of Frantic Flash (Sep 30 & Oct 1st)

See the Seventh Quark Magazine Website

www.7thquarkmagazine.com

for further details



The Seventh Quark Frantic Flash Competition. (Sept 30th & Oct 1st)

TWO Entry Days ("First weekend of the month")
SIX separate time-slots. (0900-1800-2100) (UK Times)
SIX sets of prompts. (6-20 prompts)
Entrants can enter 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 or 6 times with appropriate fees.
£5 per story. 3 stories for £15 if pre-paid.

NO word limit, minimum or maximum.
75/80 Minute time-limit for added pressure!

All entrants can access all stories for discussion (author-blind)
Within 30 minutes of story time-slot closing.

Titles scored and updated on website in real-time with scores
Short-List by Monday Midnight.

Independently Judged Results by Thursday Midnight
or
A Reader Vote, Shorter Short-List published in Seventh Quark

£100/$200 guaranteed First Prize.
Prizes updated on line as entries increase.

Minimum of 50% of Entry used for prizes, average 60% before costs.
To date:
3,527 in Entry Fees
2,130 in Prizes = 60.4% paid in prizes
Costs are taken out from the 39.6% surplus
All surpluses go to Seventh Quark magazine

Peer feedback available on all stories, if desired.
Feedback from Alex Keegan available on all stories
Note this is done privately so stories are not "published"
Any entrant can request their story NOT be seen by the group.
All stories are author-anonymous

Up to ten stories may be published in Seventh Quark Magazine
(maximum to date 5)

Run by a team that between them has won almost 40 first prizes.
Readers have won almost 100 First Prizes

Win a Prize. Free Entry

Talking of prompts (and see the Boot Camp Keegan blog most days for BC Prompts) I took a scan of my email trash and found this lot in about two minutes.

A bit like those "found poems"

IMO these spammers are wasted. They should be writers.


Anyway, an Alex Keegan Novel of your choice to the best story using some of the below as inspiration. Second prize is two AK Novels...

I'll judge FIRST on quality of story and second on ingenuity.

TIP: prompts work by "letting them happen" not by tortuously engineering texts to fit them in.


LOOK!


Your cash, orange throated
Your future, oyster tree
Your future, pearl hardening
Hi, narrow-necked
Your money, palm honey
Hi, much-branched
Your Health, North-Seeking
Your cash, olive family
Better future, woman movement
Hi, pale bark
Your health, pale reddish
Aggressor Punk
Guesswork Numb
Order status mid-thoracic
Top-hat letter-size
Encore hot seat
Out, his ferocious stars that about you have to us back
Gasp overtime
Bonjour/Salaam from marrakesh
Unauthorised Access to Your PayPal Account
Merciful
Spelled try different key words
Clutton Bunfight
And Maybe it's yours about
Fire hydrant
News maps
Wails on Sunday
Typo Merciless
Narcissism Predisposition
New Moderator Needed
Lard Ass Blake
South-East Yesterday
Axis of Two them, Appeal to Buy Off Enemies
Join Alerts Create
Mountainous Curse
Monday and Strikes
Sure Words
Substantially
And tackled him
Floodlight Anglican
Canal people
Overpower Acrobatics

More Hits and Yet More Prompts

A few more hits to report. Two for Eclectica, one at Southern Ocean Review, a shortlisting for Caroline at Bournemouth and another finalist (results TBA) for "Britbird", takes the total to 166 for the year, down on last year, but we should pass 200.

Comp wins are still stuck at 14 for this year (compared to 26 last year) but places and finals take us up to 53 comp hits for the year

7Q4 is shaping up nicely, the Children in Need Marathon has 19 signed up (we want 50-100) and we are up to 181 stories 339 numbered flashes and 75 "recent" for the year, a total of 595 shorts/flashes.

Work-wise we've had

1600 Flash Crits & Scores
1500 Full Story Critiques and Grids

3100 Crits in 600 threads

add to that a hundred or so discussions of Quality Published stories and a few dzen craft threads, we are obviously getting lazy



TODAY's PROMPTS

I am heat, I am open flesh

Soli has a television, Peter has a radio

Cambrensis Redux

BLANK

Soup in the Basket, Ma'am

BLACKBERRY

Leonardo, the Other One

The Bastard

Pretty well every day now, at noon

Chink, Chink, Chink

A Silence Falls, a Small Bird Dies

I Know My Alphabet

Do Ghosts Fall in Love?

The Ex-Lovers Annual Reunion

It's 6 AM. Do You Know Where You Are?

Ambitious Flower Girls and Crusty Old Men

The Red Mini and the Yellow Rolls-Royce

Jago's forehead trembled against the glass

A woman, brazen

How did mother get here?

All of this happened when I was about fifteen

Monday, September 18, 2006

Buzz!

Boot Camp is buzzing this weekend!

Eight stories (not flashes) in for the weekly critique session, and five crits in before the official crit period (they must have wet the bed)... and plenty signing up for The Children in Need Writeathon. Oh and the hit-count has gone up by four more!


Monday's Prompts

Mundane Monday

Thugs, Garroters, Pickpockets, Sweep the Fl;oor fer Yer Mister

People falling

Put Your Left Leg In, Pull Your Left Leg Out

Will be credited to your account

Peter Piper Picked a Peck of Pickled Pepper

Nothing for Breakfast

Last I Heard, They Were Running a Pub

A face like dirty parchment

Twins

Prison Break, Wghat's Next?

Before the Funeral

Metal Wrist, Metal Knee, Metal Shoulders, Hearts of Stone

Fire at Hayes or Langley

Wraps

What the Dickens!

The Difference Between Testicles and Bollocks

Going there a bit early

Marzipan

The Plum Tree

Mangificent Michael and the Problem With the Angel

Saturday, September 16, 2006

More Prompts and a Heads Up

Children-in-Need Night is Friday November 17th.

We are looking for 100_ writers to join our group (23 last year raised £10,000) to write-write-write to prompts throughtout 30 Hours from 1800 THURSDAY to 23:59 Friday.

The main challenge is 2100 Thursday - 2100 Friday (24 Hours) but the time-slots are widened to allow for different countries etc.

Individuals may choose much shorter times - you do not have to sign up for the 24 or 30 Hour stints.

Entry is £25, of which £10 goes to prizes (as incentive), £10 goes to CIN, and £5 is for copies of the anthology at cost.

Entrants would also raise sponsorship and we would like to aim for £50,000.

We are liasing with a publisher as we speak but there WILL be quality publications from this.


Boot Camper TomC has signed up again. He writes: How could I say no? After last year's CIN Blast I sold eight pieces for £120!"

The above should tell you that the burst of energy (early) and writing when out of your skull, produces quality, stuff that suprises us all.

Join us and help kids.




Saturday 0805 Prompts

Maida Vale

I'm transitting from Oz, meet you for twenty minutes?

Soul Transplant

Then she began to move her arms, in a short, intricate dance

The Complicator

As she undressed she said, "Does it have cobwebs?"

The Varying Quality of Air

The Difference between a squared circle and a rounded square

I won't tell

I Have an Old Dictionary, About 500 Years old

The Man Who Hated Trees

The groom was losing his studied patience

101 Delicious Cat Recipes

When the Doctor's Wife Vanished, He

SCUM

Oh, come on, everything you DO is bent!

My Mother, Behind the Front-Room Door

and earlier, from Lexie

Spinach: Lethal Weapon

The Greatest of These is Charity

The Lion's Share

Roger the Lodger

The Phoenix: A Tale of Spontaneous Combustion

The Reds Versus the Reds

A Pair of Silver Scissors

Steradent and Spectacle Chains

The children will sing as the coffin disappears from view

How DO you solve a problem like Maria?

Friday, September 15, 2006

Seventh Quark Issue 4

Good News Bad News?

A New Issue of 7th Quark goes out next Friday (Printer Dependent) and I have some time on my hands (oh time, time) so expect to see Issues 5 & 6 following close behind.

Still desperate for GOOD material.

If you look at a piece abnd think, "Yeah, I could send that..." it ISN'T good enough.

Winning Writers. We are happy to reprint comp 1-2-3s as part of our policy of showing aspiring writers what wins comps.


PS read the "winners" of a large international competition last week. One was utter DRIVEL and of the rest I don't think one was good enough for Seventh Quark



PS Today's hits take the BC total to 164 for the year.



Alex

Four Hits, Four Hundred Prompts

Rushing out now but turns out we have four more hits to post including one finalist (Results TBA)

Here are Two Batches of Prompts

The Holy Bubble

Heart Recycling

Jesus Wants Me for a Bridge Partner

Swim, Very Early, Tescos, Dying

Monogamy

Extracts From Forest Bibliography, Zagreb, 1909

The Extra Glass

If Oswald Missed

What to Do in London

68.9% Will Do

Shoot the Arch-Duke? Can't Mate, Girlfriend is Coming Over

Fair Traid

Alphonse Klauders was a Member of Seven Libraries

The Man Whose Penis Became a Chicken
Marries a Girl Called Hutch

Two Front Teeth and Passion

Everyone is in a Minority

The Most Beautiful Fire is in My Heart

Crocodile Aberdeen


and from Lee at some ungodly hour this morning

Whatever People Say I Am, That's What I'm Not

Ballad Of The Broken Seas

The Back Room

Through The Windowpane

Coles Corner

The Warning

Black Holes And Revelations

Melting Pot

Beloved One

White Bread, Black Beer

This Is My Demo

The Eraser

Thursday, September 14, 2006

Loads of Them!

TWO Batches of Prompts, one posted by Lee at 02:30

On Thursday we will add 73% extra Funny

I'm English and I'm talking in French, trying to explain to my Japanese friend why it is when Saudi men crash planes into American buildings that British boys have to die in Afghanistan.

Oh look, here come the Vikings

Visitor Pass, Space Hopper, Chicken Sandwich Postcard Rejection

Valley of the Mists

Sun spin a grave grey

The Death of Loc Mac Emonis

How to be a Bad Birdwatcher

Original Pirate Material

Tell Me About Your Drugs

Inebriate me, venerate me, penetrate me

Do You Believe in Human Sheep?

It's a Raymond Chandler evening and I'm slowly turning grey

How graceful the falling man looks

The Fool Reversed and other Omens

See What You Made Me Do and other Life Games

The Stone Mind

No Attachment to Dust

Proceed from the Top of the Pole

Awaiting snow,
poets in their cups
see lightning flash.
- Basho



and...

No Musician Left Behind

A Different Kind of Tea

Girl in a Flammable Skirt

Issue

Madwoman in the Attic, Madman in the Cellar

Montreal, Again

Everything Ravaged, Everything Burned

His Schedule

Write a WORTHWHILE story with an animal protagonist

The Life and Work of Arbuthnott Grimes

The Difference Between Possible and Probable

Tiny, Smiling, Daddy

Brief Interviews With Hideous Men,
Extend Interviews With Pretty Women.

GOAT

Why He Isn't a Fireman or a Train-Driver

Wednesday, September 13, 2006

Two Lots of Prompts

Stingray! Stingray!

Finishing the Assignment

Women's Lib? Yeah, Right!

One Chocolate

Two Teas and a Tea

A History of Respectable Fears

... and in my OTHER hand...

I Would Rather Not

Yam

A Wild Justice

Occasionally, Being Dead I Do Not Like

Poppycock, Balderdash and Nonsense, Solicitors


and earlier

In the long, slow, ungirling of our wives

Exiled Pumas

eDonkey is Dead. Long Live eMule

Put the Bunny Back in the Box!

Slut and SuperSlut

Stone, Paper, Scissors

The Voice of the Empty Page

The Night He Locked the Door

Death: The High Cost of Living

Tuesday, September 12, 2006

Two Batches of Prompts

Me and the Goat

The Girl Who Married a Dog

The Sixties

Captain Correlli's Trumpet

The Loneliness of the Long Distance Runner

Black is Black, I Want My Baby Back

Hunger is Good Sauce

What's Better Than a Cello Under the Bed?

Protest

When Poverty Comes in the Window, Love Flies Out the Door

I Would If I Could But I Can't

Upper Crust, Well bred, Loadsa Dough, the Toast of the Town

What's For Tea? Shit and Sugar

Aubergine





and earlier


In the long, slow, unfurling of our livers

How to Make a Woman Happy

Whoever Used this Bed Last

Bush Tucker

The Man who Married a Kangaroo

Dandy versus Beano, Home and Away

Spencer Speaks

Leather and Soap

I Spy Something Beginning with Car

Monday, September 11, 2006

Six Hits, Ten Nominations, Two Dozen Prompts

Heard over the weekend that ten Boot Camp stories have been nominated for inclusion in a University Funded Anthology. In the old days we would have considered mere nomination a "hit" but these days we simply acknowledge these minor hits as "notes". Still it's nice to be nominated!

A flurry of acceptances for Michael J Hulme, Tom C, myself at Eclectica and another for TomC at WingSpan Quarterly, six in all taking us to 160 Hits for the year, 14 First Prizes, 9 Second Prizes, 5 Thirds, 25 Finalists and $5,950 in prizes total.

Monday is Crit Day for Primaries (stories, not flashes) but we have a set of prompts nevertheless. Just reading and re-reading odd lists can make a germ set root. Try it!


PROMPTS on Monday at 0707

One Kit-Kat, an Apple, one Tangerine, a Packet of Crisps

The Best Girlfriend You Never Had

In the long, slow, unfurling of our lives

Sitting on the Toilet

Nobody Shot Before Noon

Broccoli

Then it is Dark

His Shoes Filled With Snow

The Bedroom Window Was Accessible From the Street

The Way Out of the Jungle

Stairwell B

A Perfect Day in the City Always Starts Like This

The Man Who Bricked Himself In

Write a Story "THe Half-Skinned Steer" only do better than Annie P




Prompts from Lexie: Sunday/Monday 0015

Pelicans, Cranes and Blue-Footed Boobies

More than Kin and Less than Kind

Arthur's Depression

The Place of Skunks

Gnat

Having Your Colours Done: The Emotional Spectrum

A Plectrum and a Pint

School Buses

The Water Carrier

A Very Public Convenience

Friday, September 08, 2006

Another Finalist, Another Set of Prompts

One more Final Placing, XXXXX in the final of Mere. Results announced October.

That's our 53rd prize/Place/Final this year.


This morning's prompts follow.



FRIDAY PROMPTS

The Resemblance Between a Violin-Case and a Coffin

Apples and Pears

Hitch-Hikers

When the Famous Turns Out to be Shite

The Dying Editor

Holiday on Man.

You Can Fool Some of the People

Albert Einstein's Not-so-Clever Elder Brother

My Dead Brother Comes to America

You Hear the One About Rankin, Bennett, and Runyan?

Inside the Sun

Where Are You Going? Where have You Been?

Civil Rights

The Half-Skinned Sheep

Lower Back

You're Pretty Too

Various Kinds of Tea

Olive Oil

Pink, Blue, Black, White, Pink, Blue

Since 1945

Tuesday, September 05, 2006

BC Prize Update

I don't know if this is complete but we've hit 52 Prizes/Places/Finals for the year now and are just under $6000




Total Winnings $5,950

FIRST PLACE

01 Colin $200 First Place in Slingink's Eurofiction
02 Mike Joint-Winner in 7Q FF9
03 Dave Joint-Winner in 7Q FF9
04 Lexie Wins Adult SS of the Year ($600) in "Killie"
05 Cally Wins Dark Tales ($60)
06 BCer wins 7Q FF10
07 Hazera wins Doorknobs & Bodypaint First Place
08 Alex Wins Pencil Bantry $300
09 Lexie Wins Cotswold Prize $1,000
10 Cally wins Bank Street SS Prize $140
11 Alex wins Lichfield Prize $250
12 ColinU wins Cadenza $400
13 Caroline wins Poetry Prize TBA ($200)
14 Gabiotas wins FirstWriter $400




SECOND

01 Lexie $150 Second Place in "Dame Throgmorton"
02 TomC gets $100 second in JBWB
03 BCer 2nd in 7Q FF10
04 Cally Joint second in Writers Dock Comp
05 Lexie $300 second place Philip Good Memorial Prize
06 Cally in Woman's Own (Prize Value estimate $250)
07 Colin Second in FlashFiction Comp $50
08 Lexie 2nd in City of Derby Comp $400
09 Tom gets $200 2nd in Twyford with CIN Story

THIRD

01 Lexie in 7Q FF9 Third Place
02 BCer 3rd in 7Q FF10
03 Tom's $25 3rd in Oz
04 Lexie $200 3rd in The New Writer
05 Alex $150 third place Philip Good Memorial Prize

4ths, HRs, NAMED FINALISTs

01 Alex Night Train Yates Comp, Last 12 "Floating"
02 Alex Poem in "Out of Love" Anthology
03 Laurie (Nartje) in "Out of Love" Anthology
04 Lexie, State of Being" HR at HISSAC (only winner is announced)
05 Lexie, second story finalist at HISAAC
06 Colin finalist in HISAAC
07 Colin HR in JBWB
08 Cally in Final of Belvedere
09 Lexie in Fish Anthology ($100)
10 Lexie last 140 of 1800, Fish
11 Haz named in Best of the web shortlist
12 Lexie Final of Writers Forum
13 Alex last 3 in Carve "Overseas Writer"
14 TomC HR'd in Bank Street SS Comp
15 TomC 4th in Twisted Tongue
16 Alex at Philip Good Memorial (second story placed 3rd)
17 Lexie at Philip Good Memorial (second story placed 2nd)
18 Cally HR in Lymm Festival $20
19 Colin Finalist, $40, dinner at Frome
20 Cally Finalist Flash FictionComp
21 TomC finalist, ditto
22 Britbird shortlisted in Pier Pressure
23 Colin HM in Momaya III, in Anthology




00 Laurie recently left but was also HR'd at Bank Street (not counted)

Lexie also recieved $25 & $10 payments


Winnings in Dollars, £ = $2, Euro = $1
for simplicity of calculation

Sunday, September 03, 2006

I Can't Damn Sleep!

have the rottenest of colds (I hate colds) and my coughing woke me up at 04:30 (howling wind outside).

Ah well, I thought, at least I can write something... but nothing coes

So here's a batch of prompts, some mine and some from Lexie Fox

Airfix, oh Airfix!
The next night it happened again.
The Freedom of the Long-Distance Runner
Dog, computer
Putting on a Play For the Inmates of the Asylum
Why Was the Second World War Fought in Black & White?
Supermam Retires and Goes to an Old People's Home
SLOUGH
A Fire, Somewhere
Harry Palmer Grinds Coffee Beans
Majesty
The Three or Four Deaths of a Man Called Brian
Watching Osborne
Dorky Dorky Dorky!
After the Talkies, the Invention of the Silent Movie
Gaze of the Green Lady
Never Eat Shredded Wheat
Why is the Ecological Footprint of a Yeti So Small?
Trouble in Suburbia
Out of the Melting Pot, Into the Mould
Birth, Sickness, Death in the Royal Leicester Infirmary
Wildlife
David Hasselhoff: The Musical
First Steps
The Houses in Between
Tea and Crumpet
The Unbearable Lightness of Dying

Saturday, September 02, 2006

Stick This Lot With the Last Lot

I posted a load of prompts last night, expecting NOT to manage it this morning.

Use these too. How many prompts can you incorporate and still produce a serious story?

Don't laugh. I've won two first prizes in literary comps with flashes incorporating ALL the prompts.

Sometimes it just doesn't happen, or sometimes you use one or eight, but using prompts, keeping their "buzz" alive often takes you into that place where all the connections are amazing.

The Ipcress Files

Sliced Bread, Tea-Bags, Spreadable Butter

Lady (Dead) in a Cello Case

The Rollerscate Archipelago

Hum of Night, Song of Morning

A story beginning: "An Egg...
A story ending: "an egg.

Picnic in Dachau

Shoot the Monkey

Blossom & the Idea of Fairies

Sugar

"Bollocks!" he thought as he started writing badly

Google "Wales Films"

How Many Exes in Sex?

Friday, September 01, 2006

Another Boot Camp Prize!

Well done to TomC for winning $200 for second place in "TWYFORD"

Here are a set of prompts for Saturday


Bandanas, Bananas

The Tiger Memorandum

POOP!

Tea With Truman Capote

CHERRY

Warts and All

The Sex Life of the Heffalump

Summer School

A Kind of Magic

Never Marry a Mexican

Tear Along the Dotted Line

Are These Actual Miles?

DO NOT BLINK!

My Mother's Memoirs, My Father's Lies

Why Don't You Choo-Choo, Deisel Train? Why Can't You Puff and Wheeze?

Golliwog

The Lizard at the Ritz

Helix, Cervix

Midgets and Dwarves

Sunday, Bloody Sunday

Today is Fish

Article, More Prompts

Take a look at my latest article, "Napalm"

http://www.internetwritingjournal.com/jun06/keegan39.htm



Written my story for the day (11:23) so here are a few more prompts




Hollywood & Trawsfynnydd

Woooohooooo!

One Grey November Day, Elliot Went to Boston for the Afternoon

You've Got to Read This!

The Card

The Tea-Bag is in the Post

I Don't Know What to Do About My Husband's New Wife.

A Good Thing, a Very-Good Thing

An Alternative to Rain

The Inn of the Sixth Happiness, Bedgellert

Badgers

Mrs Jones' Confinement

I Stand Here Ironing

Lessons

The Grandmother Didn't Want to Go to Florida

NDSC

The End of the Holiday

DVD

Abominable Snowman v BigFoot, Home & Away

The Bakery, Three o'clock in the morning

The Good Moslem Cleric

Pancakes

Why Tick-Tock and Not Tock-Tick?

Another Month, More Targets, A Hit

September 1st, so a fresh set of targets in BC.

Mine are 1,000 words a day BEFORE LOGGING ON, a story or a flash every day, at least 4 x 2K+ stories for the month, 60 subs and to crit anything that moves. I'll also read one quality short and one quality poem a day.


Congrats to Caroline for an acceptance at Poetry Monthly, our 152nd hit of the year.

Here are today's prompts.


Vic Glover awoke with the noon-day heat ringing in his ears

Finally, Finally

The wind blew down from the mountain for two nights

The Darkness of Cinnamon

Robert Hurley's wife died in September, and by the middle of Ocotber he had more or less settled everything.

London is full of boys named Alex

Among the Dangs

Black & White Ball

So help me God it gets more and more preposterous

Centifrugal, centripetal

There's an interesting road leading south out of Aristotle

Halifax, My Halifax!

He was an orphan, and, to himself, he seemed like one, looked like one.

She seemed to remember him, something about his face, from before...

One winter evening, she looked at them: the husband durable, receptive, gentle; the child a tener golden three. The sight of them made her sad and sick she did not want to see them ever again.

Harry Belten and the Medelssohn Violin Concerto*



*or use the IDEA