SOMETHING TO SING ABOUT – PIPPIN WINS YULE SING ME ONE SONG

Our annual festive song writing contest produced a fine crop of entries which caused our judge, musician and song writer, Julie Holland a lot of head scratching as the quality was so high.

As well as having to express the sentiments of the season, lyrics needed to lend themselves to being set to music so after much deliberation, Pippin’s Silent Night took the honours. This will be recorded by Julie and turned into our 2009 Christmas screensaver.

The runner up prize of tickets for http://www.nunkie.co.uk/ production Oh Whistle went to Hmassey and Hurrah for the Holly.

Our latest competition is Shape Shifters. A flash fiction contest for 200 words. Entries close 10th January so you’ll need to be quick!
http://www.writelink.co.uk/arena_main.php?cat=a_shapeshifters

STARLIGHT SHINES THROUGH THE WINDOW
With 141 entries submitted to the site, our Through the Window competition must be the most popular to date! This didn’t faze Starlight however, who beat off some very stiff opposition to take the top spot with “Farewell.” A beautiful tale of transcending grief and loss. Along with all the other entries, it can be read here, but don’t forget to read our judge’s report first!
http://www.writelink.co.uk/arena_main.php?cat=a_throughthewindow

Judge’s report: by Helen Yendall
You were clearly inspired by this theme: there were 141 entries! Each was read, without reference to the stars or members’ comments and without knowing (until the end), the author’s identity.

I was looking for a ‘compelling piece of fiction’ and one which clearly encompassed the theme of ‘Through the Window’. Some of your window links were slightly tenuous! You also had to tell the story in 100 words maximum including the title. Do read the rules carefully! With so many stories to judge, I had to be fairly ruthless: if you went over the word limit, I’m afraid you were out.

Many entries were brooding and introspective and there were several about death, suicide and murder! Oh, you’re a cheery lot! The stories that made me smile (eg: a talking television, a peeping tom and a Bollinger-swilling vicar), stood out from the crowd and crept further up my list.

I wanted stories that made every word count! Many writers repeated lines or words or didn’t think about the title. Titles are important and I particularly liked the intriguing ‘What Miss Butler Saw’, ‘Georgia Mourning’ and ‘The Troll In the Mirror’.

My shortlist was eventually whittled down to 15 and 4 of those rose to the surface, the more I read them. I just had to decide on the winner. I slept on my decision and in the morning, the same story was still my favourite: ‘FAREWELL’ by starlight. It’s a beautifully- written, magical and uplifting story about love, loss and hope, which created pictures in my mind long after I’d read it. Quite a feat in just 100 words, so well done to a worthy winner!
Others that almost made it to the top of the pile, were ‘Yellow Flowers’ by Wordmate – a spooky and well-crafted tale, which encompassed the ‘window’ theme perfectly, ‘Going Back’ by spirit - a poignant ‘what if?’ story about a priest and ‘Village Green’ by nicolacleasby - one of the few entries set in the past, which has a spine-tingling last line!

Well done to all of those writers and to every one who took part in the competition!

YULE SING ME ONE SONG OPEN
Our next Arena competition is a lyrics contest for a festive song. Check out the details here:
http://www.writelink.co.uk/arena_main.php?cat=a_yulesingmeonesong

ANGELS AND DEMONS – A DEVILISH WIN FOR JCMOORE
Our Angels and Demons Arena poetry contest produced a plethora of spine tingling verse causing our judge, Jay Smedley much head scratching and a run on cocoa! Hitting the top spot with She Comes Softly was JCMoore whose second entry, Angel Falls, came a close second. Jenny is rapidly becoming one of our most successful poets so well done to her. Pamela’s entry, Cornflowers and Poppies also made the top three so I’m sure we’ll be hearing more from her.

Don’t forget our new Arena competition is open for entries. Through The Window gives our fiction writers their chance this month. Details up on the site, but don’t forget to read Jay’s report first!
http://www.writelink.co.uk/arena_main.php?cat=a_throughthewindow

Angels & Demons – Adjudicator’s Report by Jay Smedley
It was with much delight that I received Sue’s request to judge the ‘Angels and Demons’ Arena contest. My method of judging is to print out all entries and retire to bed with a mug of cocoa. Would you believe, I ran out of cocoa!! What a superb entry – there must have been 40+ and all good reading.

Away we go then. We needed a poem with an Angels/Demons theme, sort of spooky, to make the hairs rise, etc. There were some unusual takes on the theme ranging from a Dr Who episode to a kid brother (‘Resident Evil’ – worthy of mention, this, and eminently marketable, I should think!). Most folks stuck to the 20 line rule, which was great because it’s heartbreaking for a judge to have to discard a good entry because the rules are disregarded or overlooked.

Those that fell by the wayside were mainly put to one side because of forced and contrived rhyme and, in some cases, poor punctuation, which was a shame because there were some wonderful ideas and imagery. It is always worth revisiting a piece of work and reading it out loud to see how it sounds. Nine times out of ten you will feel it jar when it’s out of kilter.

Those who know me are aware that I refuse to savage the work of others. It has happened to me too often in the past, to the point that I gave up writing at one stage; all I would say is, keep at it and if you believe in yourself you will go on to succeed in your writing. It is always worth revisiting and rechecking your work and having a bit of a polish up! I confess to being a bit picky when it comes to rhythm, particularly in a rhyming poem and I try hard to be constructive, not destructive! Try not to mangle a line, just to make it fit. I try not to be too pedantic but it really is worth getting it something like, as we say. We are fortunate indeed to have the wonderful Writelink site to bounce our ideas off others and get sensible and useful feedback – it does help.

I was ‘blown away’ by some of the imagery and evocative phrases – absolutely beautiful and the hairs certainly did rise. Too numerous to list in entirety, they include:

‘but half limbed men cry for their mothers’ (Silent Dead)

‘a thought alone marked where she’d been’ (In the Morning Mist)

‘..The Word is God, but He has long since died.’ (Omega)

‘..sensuous mouth, with flexing tongue and graveyard breath,’ (Demon Lover)

This was a particularly difficult competition to judge because of the quality of the entry. I ended up with a “short list” of 12! In addition, there were at least 5 entries in hot pursuit. Marvellous work! It was so hard to choose and in the event I recorded them onto my tape recorder, walked around listening, finally managing to boil it down to 3 poems. I agonised over these, believe me. In the end, I plumped for ‘SHE COMES BY NIGHT’ by JCMoore. This poem is mysterious, well-crafted and slots comfortably into the competition’s remit. I loved it. Snapping at its heels were ‘ANGEL FALLS’, by JC Moore a cracker of a poem with a clever structure, almost visual in its execution, and the lovely and heart-wrenching ‘CORNFLOWERS AND POPPIES’ by Pamela which made me cry and shiver in unison.

Thank you for your poems – every good wish for your future writing.

FAMILY FALLOUT WINS TRAVELLING LIGHT
Our latest Arena flash fiction contest, Travelling Light, proved a big hit with members with over thirty entries posted to the site. Our judge, Paola Fornari had a tough time coming up with a winner, but the honours eventually went to Hmassey with a Family Fall Out. Incredibly, the same author was also runner up so well done to her!

Our latest Arena competition is Angels & Demons which calls for a spine tingling verse. You’ll find all the details on the Arena page:
http://www.writelink.co.uk/arena_main.php?cat=a_angelsanddemons

But first check out the judge’s report below and the winning entries.

Adjudicator’s Report – Paola Fornari

The inventiveness of the entrants in this competition was impressive: very few wrote about travel in the conventional, holiday sense. The phrase ‘Travelling Light’ lent itself to a whole range of interpretations: among others, we had journeys into space, through birth canals, to the afterlife, to the electric chair, out of war, and into prison. We had scenarios ranging from the Olympics to the Garden of Eden. There was humour, irony, beauty, pathos and drama.

Only two entries were disqualified for being over the stipulated length, and I discounted half a dozen more which had a tenuous or contrived link to the theme. Some moving, beautiful pieces were descriptions rather than complete stories; others tried to pack too many themes into the 250 words. A couple had mixed viewpoints which I found confusing. A couple of great pieces of writing were spoilt by a sentence or phrase which jarred. I also reluctantly eliminated a few excellent entries in which ‘light’ was interpreted as a noun, and ‘travelling’ as an adjective: the brief stated that the piece should feature ‘a traveller with very little luggage’ rather than a light that travelled.

I was looking for cohesion, reliability, and a strong sense of movement from one place to another, with extra credit for originality and suspense. In particular, I wanted to ‘see’ and ‘feel’ the scene. I wanted my emotions to come into play. Many of the entries fulfilled all these criteria, and it was a tough job whittling my short list down from over a dozen possibles to six.

Neil’s moving ‘Nothing to Declare’, JCMoore’s quirky ‘Down with the Caravan Club’, and Janjan5uk’s sad ‘Travelling Light’ all made the short list. However, in the end, my third place choice was Byknight’s ‘Ready to Go’, an atmospheric piece which stimulated all the senses and gave me goosebumps from the first word to the last. It fitted the brief perfectly: a traveller with no luggage, on the last short journey of his life, seen from the viewpoint of the person accompanying him. Excellent.
But there were two entries which I found outstanding: they leapt off the page at me immediately, and I found it very difficult to choose between them. And … what a surprise when I went back to see who had written them … both were written by the same author: Hmassey!

‘Baggage’ was a well-constructed piece with excellent dialogue carrying the story forward, unity of place and purpose, and a lovely interpretation of ‘light’ in both the physical and metaphorical senses. This had to take second place, because the winner was even better – despite a couple of little punctuation blips.

My winner, with the clever title ‘A Family Fallout’, again had a superb structure. I was drawn to read it again and again. The author stuck closely to the traditional story of ‘The Fall,’ but the interpretation and the viewpoint were original. The suspense was great, the irony cutting, and the ‘humanisation’ of The Almighty truly quirky. And all handled with a subtle touch. Congratulations.

Read all the entries here: http://www.writelink.co.uk/arena_main.php?cat=a_travelinglight

ALCAL HANGS IN ALTERNATIVE HISTORIES WINNER
Our Alternative Histories Arena competition really tickled members fancy with one of the biggest entries to date. The high standard and diversity of subject matter gave our judge, Lorraine Mace a tough time, but the top spot eventually went to Alcal with A Hanging in 1941. This is a first Arena success for Alcal so congratulations and also to everyone else that made the shortlist. I won’t give the game away and say too much about the story, read the judge’s report and then take a look here:
http://www.writelink.co.uk/arena_main.php?cat=a_alternativehistories

Judges Report by Lorraine Mace
This was a difficult competition to judge because there were so many good entries. Some excellent ideas were let down by comparisons with how history actually turned out, instead of leaving that comparison to be made in the reader’s mind. Another failing on similar lines was a tendency in some to say how the future would now proceed. If you are writing a story set in the past, the narrating character would have no idea of what the future would hold. Again, this should be left to the reader to imagine.

I disqualified six entries. Three for being over the word count and three for not being told in the first person. It’s always a good idea to read the rules carefully before writing your entry.

The sheer variety of alternative histories made for an interesting and enjoyable few hours going through them all, and it took several readings before I could even bring my shortlist down to ten! Eventually I limited myself to just six from which to make the final choice. Of these, three histories only just failed to make the grade. Rain by Eb2777, although well written, lost out because history would only have been changed by a matter of days or weeks. Once the storm passed, the bombers would return. Tudor Redemption by neebenj@hotmail.com, was also very well written, but lacking slightly in originality of theme, which counted against it. Seduction in Regent’s Park by David Axton, although amusingly written and a good read, wouldn’t actually have changed history because the decision was never down to just one man.

My top three were all a pleasure to read, well written and, had the events happened, would have changed history. I put Mein Leiber Sohn by David Axton in third place. I found the letter telling of the young Hitler’s death to be believable and was an original take on the stopping Hitler before he could carry out his evil deeds type of story. In second place I really enjoyed No Magic Answers by Mrs J. As writers we can all appreciate the despair of just one rejection too many causing the author to give up. Who knows how close this one came to becoming reality? Top spot goes to Alcal for A Hanging in 1941. The hanging of Churchill and presentation of an alternative history was very well handled, original and thought-provoking. In my view it was a clear winner.

NEXT ARENA CONTEST – Summer Time
Poems of up to 20 lines. Closing date, 10th August.
http://www.writelink.co.uk/arena_main.php?cat=a_summertime