Speaking of chocolate, yesterday the_dark_snack and I went to the state "Tourism Media Marketplace" where various tourist bureaus and attractions had tables where they would entice us with flyers and goodies, some of which were candies made in their respective places.

Meanwhile, at LJ Idol, last week was a non-elimination contestant-only vote in which people who ( Read more... )

This week in LJ Idol was an Intersection week, meaning contestants partnered up to tackle two topics.
I joined cemetaria, and we each set a story using one of the worlds she had invented in an earlier entry.
Mine was on the topic " Bridge"
Hers is on the topic " The Straw the Stirs the Drink"

I thank her very much for a fun collaboration!

Fortunately, thanks to ( Read more... )

This week was "open topic" for LJ Idol, so I came up with this story of how children may be toying with forces they don't comprehend without realizing it. It's based on true events (and thanks to Hollywood "based on true events" gives me a lot of author's license).

Feel free to read it, and other entries here, but there will be no public vote; it's ( Read more... )

Last week, we had the challenge of writing an entry inspired by another LJ Idol contestant. I chose the incredibly creative cemetaria, and wrote this. The vote was contestants-only, and I survived.

This week, the topic, inspired by the Ides of March, was "et tu, Brute." A certain cartoon Brutus came to mind, so I wrote this bit of inspired fiction. This ( Read more... )

When the LJ Idol topic was presented as "bringing a knife to a gunfight" I got this really twisted idea, based in part on the fact that I've seen dozens and dozens of stage musicals over the past decade (perk of the newspaper job). So when someone truly takes "all the world's a stage" to heart, perhaps he turns out something like this.

Voting on ( Read more... )

So the LJ Idol topic for this week was "Reinventing the Wheel" and I had a really big concept for a story about a man who builds a ferris wheel from scratch out in the wilderness. So for fun I looked up the name of the wheel's inventor -- though versions of the wheel predated him, the man for whom the carnival ride is named was George Washington ( Read more... )

This week's LJ Idol topic seems tailor-made for me: "Preoccupied" -- and to tell the truth other things kept coming up and almost prevented me from writing an entry. But write one, I did, complete with a hint of "Sandman" and mention of nonexistent books by E.A. Poe and Steve Martin. When you get around to it, you can read it here.

And I'd be very ( Read more... )

Yesterday was Valentines Day, which some say is all about "three little words" -- well how about "five little words?" That links to my LJ Idol entry for the week, topic was "Twitterpated."

And now I'd love for you to vote in the polls, open through Thursday night. The four tribes are concentrated to two, with bottom two in each eliminated (same ( Read more... )

For any on my list who are interested in LJ Idol, sign-ups are now open for "Second Chance Idol" (click here).

"Idol" is a writing contest with elements of TV reality-contests "American/Pop Idol" and "Survivor" with weekly writing prompts leading to polls for voting to keep contestants in the game. There are also some other twists along the way. FAQ ( Read more... )

Been quite a bit happening lately; spent last weekend with the Super Bowl hoopla, going downtown to visit Super Bowl Village on Friday and Saturday. Overall it was great, but when things got too crowded (200,000 people in a six-block area) they did some crappy pedestrian traffic flow. After walking around in the rain to too many dead ends Saturday ( Read more... )