Contest results

As usual, you guyz were in amazon form on this contest! No surprise there of course, each contest seems to get better and better.

Sadly, our own Kate Higgins had her entry dq'ed for time. (Cue wailing from professional quality mourners, and rending of garments)  Kate, it looks like you posted twice, deleted the two (maybe for a typo?) and the third and final post was at 9:02am.

Special recognition for using words I had to look up

pogonip (Kerry Bernard 9:02am)

Amontillado (D. Willadsen 10:34am)

rime (Amy Schaefer 10:47am)

luchador (Shaunna 11:26a)--which I first read as luNchador, and thought it was competitive lunching.

pogonophile (Terri Lynn Coop 5:52pm)

pomodoro (Lisa Bodenheim 8:15am)

Special recogniton for innovative use of prompt words

Hypogonadism. (Cally Orr 11:47am)

Hippo goop (Karen McCoy 1:46am

Not quite a story, but zowie, evocative!

Emalborn 9:06am

Not a story in the slightest but cracked me up completely

Steve Stubbs 12:23pm

Steve Forti does not disappoint with his dexterous use of prompt words. I tried to foil him with "pogo" but got him instead with letter! as in Let'er ride, not Lett' er ride!

AJ Blythe's entry about Steve Forti's entry cracked me up

A shark once thought she'd have the last laugh
But with letters Steve's too clever by half
"Tempo Gone" he wrote
Pleased he could gloat
“Sublime” carved the shark for his epitaph

An idea whose time has come: slalom pogo

Dena Pawling 7:55pm

Not to mention: pogo-a-gogo

John Davis (manuscript) Frain 2:01am

I'm pretty sure this is brilliant but I didn't quite get it

Lisa Bodenheim  8:15am

Long list

Just Jan 8:44pm

Scott Sloan 10:51am

Megan V 11:20am

Madeline Mora-Summonte 4:19pm

Marie McKay 5:33pm

And the short list

Timothy Lowe 9:18am

Approach plotted, Excelsior. Commence flameout.

(A murderous tempo. Going down fast.
No way to attain the speed of the last
Man to fall from the sky like a sublime lost sun -
Shot from a gaping black hole like a gun.)

You’re too shallow, Excelsior! Pull up!

(Streaming down from the stars, a diaphanous cape
Filled with burning unease and a need to escape.
It’s like killing a miracle, just give in and pull it.
It’s dancing with fireworks, ballet with a bullet.

Terminal velocity: so easy, achieved -
But beginnings are deadly if not well conceived.)

*slap!*

“Fuck off, pickup artist!”

You have to read this carefully and realize there are two points of view. One is a guy getting shot out of a cannon. (Or so I surmised. There are a couple interpretations possible.)

Amy Schaefer 10:47am

“Get up.”
“No.”
“Get out of bed.”
“No!”
She staggered as another blast rocked the building. The glowing letters on the skyscrapers outside disappeared under rime.
“Please. The city needs you.”
He hid under a pillow. “I won’t fight Captain Cold. He’s bush-league.”
She grabbed the pillow. “You petty… The city is trapped in an ice fog!”
“It’s called pogonips,” he muttered. She flared her nostrils. “What?”
She sighed. “Fine. I thought asking you was a compliment, but they’d better find someone else.” She paused. “Maybe Batman—“
Whoosh!
Lois caught her balance and smiled. “Faster than a speeding bullet.”

 This cracked me up. It's a complete story with a delicious little twist.

Cecilia Ortiz Luna 2:04pm

“Where did Mr. Hippo go?”
Michael talked about hippos . I reached for the phone inside my pocket, pressed the letter S - just as Mama taught me.

Last night, while Mama hid her laptop behind Mr. Hippo, she said Michael might show up in my room and invite me for a ride.
“He’s creepy”. I said.
“Go with him”.
“No!”
“Please, sweetheart. Do this and Papa will be gone forever”.
I like that. Gone forever - Papa, his guns, his hairy hands.
“Okay”.
Mama said she’ll find me. “Just keep Michael talking”.

“… lime sherbet.”
“That’s my favorite!”

This one stopped me dead in my tracks. At first I thought "oh no, someone is actually duplicating another entry!"  We'd never had that happen before! I was aflutter. Then I realized that far from lifting someone else's entry, Cecilia had written her story around Michael Seese's entry:

Michael Seese's entry at 9:35am

“Where did Mr. Hippo go?”

Children lack the capacity to understand “gone forever.” So you ease them into it. With a story, perhaps.

“Hippos are what's called an endangered species. To protect them a man takes them somewhere safe. Like a zoo. There they practice the letters of the alphabet. And eat lime sherbet.”

“That's my favorite!”

“It is? Imagine that. So I think Mr Hippos’s at the zoo, with his friends. Koalas, tigers ...”

“No. He's at my house. When are you taking me home?”

I imagine her parents will have trouble wrapping their heads around “gone forever” as well.

 

This is utterly brilliant and a deft feat of imagination and SPEED!, given Cecilia had to first read Michael's entry and THEN compose her own.  As I said, this knocked my socks off.

flashfriday 8:34pm

You want fellas, this is the happening place, the matchmaker says. No more boyfriend roulette.

Really??? I say.

Yep. Og—

Ogres? No way, I say. Dated those. Scars to prove it. See?

Ogres’ll never hassle you here, I was gonna say, she says. And that’s gross.

I want brawny knights, princes on horseback, fellas like that.

Huh, she says. You got expensive tastes for a scaly ol’--

Please, I say. I’m so flaming hungry.

Hungry!?

Lonely! I meant LONELY! I shout, but she’s already gone.

I weep a little for myself. Slim, exotic, gorgeous—so why’s my love life draggin?

I'm a sucker for a good pun, and anything with dragons has my vote, and Hungry? I mean lonely, just cracked me up completely.



This week it wasn't hard to pick a winner.  It's  Cecilia Ortiz Luna for her amazing imaginative work.  Cecilia wins the prize, but Michael Seese also gets a prize since he was provided the spark.

Thanks to each and every one of you who took the time to write and enter this contest. It's always a highlight of my weekend to read your work and see what new and amazing things you come up...not to mention new and amazing ways to make me laugh. You are a talented bunch, even the ones not on this list.