2021 Prose competition reading and voting thread

@moonbus said
I said this in another thread, but I'll say it again here. Trolls, like tumors, come in two varieties: benign and malignant. Benign ones are unsightly and take up space, but they don't kill the host; whereas malignant ones grow into critical (t)issues and cut off the nerves or blood supply to a vital organ, killing the host.

For example, cutting off the Black people from v ...[text shortened]... ecrasher (or two) notwithstanding.

This show's over. Time to go home now.

See y'all next year!

You want to see real trolls?

Check out twitter! 😉 Feb. 10, 2021— Twitter permanently suspended Trump's personal account after the Jan. 6 Capitol insurrection, citing “the risk of further incitement of violence”

All we have here is some ribbing going on with long time posters!

-VR

@moonbus said
I said this in another thread, but I'll say it again here. Trolls, like tumors, come in two varieties: benign and malignant. Benign ones are unsightly and take up space, but they don't kill the host; whereas malignant ones grow into critical (t)issues and cut off the nerves or blood supply to a vital organ, killing the host.

For example, cutting off the Black people from v ...[text shortened]... ecrasher (or two) notwithstanding.

This show's over. Time to go home now.

See y'all next year!

I look forward already.

@very-rusty said
You want to see real trolls?

Check out twitter! 😉 Feb. 10, 2021— Twitter permanently suspended Trump's personal account after the Jan. 6 Capitol insurrection, citing “the risk of further incitement of violence”

All we have here is some ribbing going on with long time posters!

-VR

Trump is a malignant tumor on the body politic. Best to excise him.

@moonbus said
Trump is a malignant tumor on the body politic. Best to excise him.

Agreed, but you were talking about trolls and Twitter is the place where you find the real trolls, so I have been told I don't go there personally. Same as Facebook the trolling there is so bad people have committed suicide from being picked on. Now that is dangerous stuff!!! Another place I don't venture.

-VR

@very-rusty said
You see fmf,

Isn't it good to be able to express yourself. By the way you can think I mean malice if you wish, that is not the case. You are still free to think in anyway that you wish. So now you believe I'm a sociopath that also is your prerogative, also doesn't make you correct in that statement. I think you just enjoy arguing for arguments sake, which you've proven over your time on here.

-VR

I see that you said isn't it good to be able to express ourselves. Then you said, by the way, I can think I mean malice if I wish, but you said that is not the case. Then you said I am still free to think in anyway that I wish. Then you saud "So now you believe I'm a sociopath that also is your prerogative, also doesn't make you correct in that statement". Thank you. You then said you think I just enjoy arguing for arguments sake, about which you say "you've proven over your time on here."

@fmf said
I see that you said isn't it good to be able to express ourselves. Then you said, by the way, I can think I mean malice if I wish, but you said that is not the case. Then you said I am still free to think in anyway that I wish. Then you saud "So now you believe I'm a sociopath that also is your prerogative, also doesn't make you correct in that statement". Thank you. You then sai ...[text shortened]... I just enjoy arguing for arguments sake, about which you say "you've proven over your time on here."

I don't think I quite understand what you're trying to say fmf.

Could you simplify for me? 😉 Like spit out what you want to say without beating around the bush!

Too long and confusing for my simple mind fmf! 😉

I don't understand this at all "Then you saud"? Perhaps a typing error, or a word in English I don't understand?

-VR

@very-rusty said
I don't think I quite understand what you're trying to say fmf.

Could you simplify for me? 😉 Like spit out what you want to say without beating around the bush!

-VR

Oh look you've just posted these words: "I don't think I quite understand what you're trying to say fmf. Could you simplify for me? 😉 Like spit out what you want to say without beating around the bush! "

@fmf said
Oh look you've just posted these words: "I don't think I quite understand what you're trying to say fmf. Could you simplify for me? 😉 Like spit out what you want to say without beating around the bush! "

Correct fmf and there was a word there I didn't understand at all 'saud', an English word I am not familiar with or typing error? English is hard language, Eh!!! 😉

-VR

@very-rusty said
Agreed, but you were talking about trolls and Twitter is the place where you find the real trolls, so I have been told I don't go there personally. Same as Facebook the trolling there is so bad people have committed suicide from being picked on. Now that is dangerous stuff!!! Another place I don't venture.

-VR

The trolling here is pretty tame compared to that. I like to think that ability to play chess filters out the radically stupid people whose final post reads “I’m going in!” and the next thing the world hears from them is a livestream of themselves shooting up a synagogue.

@moonbus said
The trolling here is pretty tame compared to that. I like to think that ability to play chess filters out the radically stupid people whose final post reads “I’m going in!” and the next thing the world hears from them is a livestream of themselves shooting up a synagogue.

I actually mentioned those two Twitter and Facebook as you will find the trolls who actually mean real malice to people. I and others like me tend to be more like pests you have to keep swatting, but no harm in us.

Without us though no controversy, would that be a good thing or bad thing for the forums. I've been on sites like that and the forums soon die out pretty quick. I've always said you need the good guys, bad guys, funny guys, logical guys, and jokers to make a forum site work. No doubt we have all these aforementioned on this site.

EDIT: I almost forgot the most important of all the Moderators to make sure things don't get out of hand.

-VR

@trev33 said
Then I'm happy 😀

And I liked it, too! ("The Cat Did It" )

<Irish Spring whistle>

@moonbus said
@Ponderable


For me, the great mystery of murder is less the 'how it happened' aspect, than the motivations involved in such an extreme act. Murder when committed as a crime of passion is often thought to be irrational and uncontrollable, but I doubt this, and I tried to conjure up scenarios in which a crime of passion is indeed committed but for which there could be rati ...[text shortened]... he crime of passion.


My thanks to all who read and voted. A writer knows no finer appreciation.

Wow! Three solid stories, well-contrived and well-written.

Also, thank you for posting your own notes about the stories. Often when I read anthologies that have story introductions or afterwords, I'll ready everything but the stories.

@ponderable said
I myself wrote #15. I am happy to have gotten a point for it. Actually I think this would have made a whole novel...if there weren't so many novels out already 🙂

I really liked the matter-of-fact tone of your police procedural. Somehow it reminded me of Simenon.

@neilarini said
Congratulations to our deserved winner and all entrants and everyone who took time to read and vote. (And Pondy of course!).

I wrote Murder Miss Teri and Say That Again, so thanks for my votes!

Congrats on somehow fitting a full old-fashioned manor-house mystery into 1000 words, complete with jokes! ("Say That Again . . . Miss Scarlett . . ." )

Also really liked the concept and RHP jokes in "Murder Miss Teri."

@ghost-of-a-duke said
I hold my hands up to Forty Whacks. (You beat me by 1 point sir, which troubles me greatly).

As it transpires, I am not a natural when it comes to murder.

The rhymes and whimsy had me thinking it was either you or @Indonesia_Phil, but that did not influence my vote. Good job keeping the rhymes going throughout the story. That was one of my top three. ("Forty Whacks" )