Thursday 16 February 2012

Featured Writer for Challenge No 3, Friday Feb 10 - The Long, Cool Aphrodisiac.



Hi fellow RFWers and new followers. It's great to see new names on the member list and new followers each week. It's even better when the new writers post stories for us. Two new writers participated in this fortnight's challenge - Erin Kane Spock and Weissdorn (aka Celeste.) Due to my not having updated our Submissions page since the beginning of the year when we trialled a 400 - 600 word limit, both our new writers were over the limit. Remember how hard we all thought it was to keep to 400 words, but now we take it in stride most of the time.

In the Submissions page it's clearly stated that you have to be a member to be in the running for Featured Writer and Runner Up - you submit your link in the right sidebar (the one with thumbnails) and hopefully post for us on a regular or semi-regular basis.

We had a couple of delays this week - Nancy Williams had an Internet glitch. When she tried to publish her story the net crashed. She only got it up a couple of days ago. Some of you have seen the late link and been to read Nancy's story. That's great and it gives me a warm and fuzzy feeling to see your heartfelt comments on Nancy's story. Weissdorn's been having google problems and her comments had been disabled. At a late hour she reinstated it, but you had to be in the know and click on the time of posting to comment. Tricky. I've come across that before. Weissdorn was wondering why she'd received no comments, but I assured her there were comments on our site as you couldn't leave your comments on hers. I hope you read them Celeste!

I collaborated with Donna Hole once again this week for help in choosing which we considered the best stories. I'm sure you'll all agree that the standard is improving and there were several possibilities. To be FW there must be a romantic element and appropriate response to the prompt - there was no problem with that this week. You also need to be only slightly over the word limit.

So to Runner Up this week. This goes to two of our members - Andy, for capturing the essence of the aphrodisiac - a single thing that makes the heart quiver with desire. For second Runner Up, after much discussion, we're going to award Anna. Her concept of a whole country as an aphrodisiac (France of course) was charming. Anna's prosetry may need a little more tweaking, but the sentiments were heartfelt. Considering Anna is learning to write in English, we think it's time she was awarded for her amazing improvement.

Andy and Anna, copy the badge to your site and link to your story!
Featured Writer this week is a double whammy also. Madeleine Maddocks captured us all with her perfectly-structured flash fiction. As Donna said: 'She told the whole story in one circumstance. There was character and plot growth and a romantically-satisfying ending.' I was also blown away by new member, Erin Kane Spock. I loved Erin's story so much - I went back for several reads (as did others). I didn't have her in the mix for a FW due to her 600+ words, but when I realised that was still in our guidelines I couldn't disqualify her. So Erin, please consider yourself a FW this week. What a great entry!

Madeleine and Erin, please take the badge for your website and link to your  story.
I don't have time for a rundown on all of your stories this week. Suffice to say, all entries were of a ripping high standard! I appreciate the time most of you take to visit each other and comment and critique. I saw Celeste (Tales From the Rhoen) everywhere. It's great to follow each other's blogs, twitter and FB etc...

Looking forward to what we come up with for Challenge No 32, 9.5. Check the Challenges page for extra ideas. Really, it's whatever you make of it. Keep the romance element coming!

Don't miss Challenge No 33, 'I Love You Because...' for March 9th. I'm sure this prompt needs no extra help.



No entries over about 420 words next week o writerly ones.

Denise (L'Aussie)

12 comments:

  1. Oh wow thanks so much ansd congrats to Ann, Andy and Erin. I'm glad my muse returned for this one :O)

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  2. I am wondering though about Perfect 9 and a half. Surely 10/10 is perfect? ;O)

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  3. Oh and Thanks Donna & Denise for the wonderful review of my story. :O) x

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  4. Thursday 16th February 2012

    Dear Denise, Donna and all other RFWers,

    Oh my goodness! Thank you so much for the runner-up award for my post about the Childs!

    Congratulations to the other winners: Andy, Madeleine and Erin.

    Best wishes & hugs,
    Anna

    'To Paul and Julia' Anna's RFW challenge No.31

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  5. Congrats to Madeleine, Erin, Anna and Andy. Well Deserved all round. It was fun reading your stories. 9.5 sounds interesting. Can't wait to read what my fellow RFWers have in store. Well done Denise, for keeping us going.

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  6. This was a wonderful note to come home to tonight. Thank you so much. I read some great stuff so far, so am really honored to be a featured writer. What a wonderful welcome, really. :) Congrats to Andy and Madeleine.
    Again, this was a much needed confidence booster. Very appreciated. And my next submission will be 400ish words. :)

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  7. Congratulations to all winners.

    I love you because makes me think of the poem, How do I love thee, by Elizabeth Bronte. It was a favorite when I was young. I can already visualize a story forming.
    Nancy

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  8. congrats to all you guys for the awards this week - some fab entries there...
    Looking forward to next week.
    Laura x

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  9. Hello friends.
    A warm congratulations to Madeleine, Erin & Anna!
    We had some exciting & thrilling entries this week.
    The next one should be fun too.
    Denise & Donna, thanks a lot.
    See you next week all. Enjoy the weekend & have a great week ahead!

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  10. That was a great write up Denise. Congratulations to all the winners, and just to reiterate; everyone did a splendid job of writing for this prompt. Kudos to all the participants.

    I'm not sure I'll be participating in the 9.5 challenge but I will get around to reading everyone's submissions.

    Happy writing everyone.

    ........dhole

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  11. You know what? Now I remember. I did want to join, but where it says:

    If you're not a member and would like to join, click here...It's FREE!

    And you click it - You get a message that reads "This blog is no longer available". So does that mean I'm blocked or something like that?

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  12. Well done to all the winners and runner-ups.

    Thank you, Denise. I look forward to this weeks challenge.

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