The official Authors' Hangout Summer Lovin' 2019 Support Thread

[ChloeTzang]

You obviously haven't gotten as far as boat maintenance in your research yet.

Oh I did, I did. It’s waaaay scary. And don’t get me started. I’ve been reading up on hurricane damaged boat resale scams, and freshwater vs saltwater, and the cost of rebuilds, aluminium vs steel vs fibreglass, delamination and all sorts of scary stuff.

 

[ChloeTzang]

A boat is a hole in the water you have to fill with money.

Hire someone else's!

But the romance! The mystique! A life on the ocean wave! (Pass on the hurricanes). The secret seems to be to be either incredibly wealthy or able to do most of the work oneself. Passing on doing it myself, I must now aim for incredible wealth. Altho owning a boat could change that.

 

[Javahead]

A boat is a hole in the water you have to fill with money.

Hire someone else's!

Several friends had big boats. ‘Had’ for just that reason.

If you ever read any of John D. MacDonald’s Travis McGee novels (and if not, why not?) you might have noticed that they often start with Travis doing maintenance on his houseboat, or work scenes of it somewhere into the story line. MacDonald knew what he was writing about.

 

[TarnishedPenny]

Several friends had big boats. ‘Had’ for just that reason.

If you ever read any of John D. MacDonald’s Travis McGee novels (and if not, why not?) you might have noticed that they often start with Travis doing maintenance on his houseboat, or work scenes of it somewhere into the story line. MacDonald knew what he was writing about.

I was thinking just that as I read my way down the new posts.

 

[TxRad]

As a guy who builds boats... Oh wait, my boats aren't big enough to be the dingy for what you're talking about.

 

[ChloeTzang]

As a guy who builds boats... Oh wait, my boats aren't big enough to be the dingy for what you're talking about.

Ah but experience counts. It’s merely scale. She says, confidently. I’ve been reading up on extending the life of old wooden boats by stripping them down to bare wood, recaulking with epoxy, layering over the old wooden hull with layers of goop , marine ply and epoxy. As a cheaper alternative to buying or building. On the other hand, I’d hate to be halfway across the Pacific when it all dissembles! Eeeek.

 

[TarnishedPenny]

Ah but experience counts. It’s merely scale. She says, confidently. I’ve been reading up on extending the life of old wooden boats by stripping them down to bare wood, recaulking with epoxy, layering over the old wooden hull with layers of goop , marine ply and epoxy. As a cheaper alternative to buying or building. On the other hand, I’d hate to be halfway across the Pacific when it all dissembles! Eeeek.

Where's that plot bunny emoji when you really need it?

 

[Javahead]

Ah but experience counts. It’s merely scale. She says, confidently. I’ve been reading up on extending the life of old wooden boats by stripping them down to bare wood, recaulking with epoxy, layering over the old wooden hull with layers of goop , marine ply and epoxy. As a cheaper alternative to buying or building. On the other hand, I’d hate to be halfway across the Pacific when it all dissembles! Eeeek.

Hey, if you ever want to write a story with a cute mermaid (or hunky merman), you’ve got a great lead in . . .

 

[darkoverlord6]

A question - I know that according to the rules a story for the contest has to be a standalone, or if it’s part of a larger work they must all be submitted together as one story. I am assuming that once the contest ends there is no reason I couldn’t add additional chapters if I was so inspired? What I mean is my story wouldn’t be disqualified because I decided to add to it the day after the contest closed right?

 

[ElectricBlue]

A question - I know that according to the rules a story for the contest has to be a standalone, or if it’s part of a larger work they must all be submitted together as one story. I am assuming that once the contest ends there is no reason I couldn’t add additional chapters if I was so inspired? What I mean is my story wouldn’t be disqualified because I decided to add to it the day after the contest closed right?

Yes, you can do that. I reckon a lot of us have a contest or anthology story which spawns sequels and second, third, and fourth chapters.

The intent of the "It must be a stand-alone story" was to stop writers waltzing in with Chapter twenty-two of a well established series, with a well-established fan base, and blitzing the contests. Which is what used to happen.

If you do plan a second chapter, you probably should make sure the contest entry is self-contained and resolved, and wait at least five minutes before you submit Chapter Two.

 

[vanmyers86]

A question - I know that according to the rules a story for the contest has to be a standalone, or if it’s part of a larger work they must all be submitted together as one story. I am assuming that once the contest ends there is no reason I couldn’t add additional chapters if I was so inspired? What I mean is my story wouldn’t be disqualified because I decided to add to it the day after the contest closed right?

Yes, you can add chapters afterward. I did that with one of my contest entries. As electricblue66 points out, it's all about keeping the playing field relatively level for the contest, although some writers have larger fan bases than others, of course.

 

[TxRad]

Congratulations to the 2019 Summer Lovin Contest Winners!
Manu and I would like to thank all the authors who submitted during this special contest! The reader votes are tallied, and we are happy to announce the winners of our 2019 Summer Lovin Story Contest.

First Place ($150 Cash Prize Winner):
Stranger Things on Heaven and Earth by DragonCobolt

Second Place ($100 Cash Prize Winner):
Her Eyes Did The Talking by GoneGray

Third Place ($75 Cash Prize Winner):
The Sweetest Fruit by Poppy_Dryden

Congratulations to all winners, and big thanks to all participants - readers and writers alike!

Congrats to all

 

[KeithD]

Congrats to the placers in the contest and to all who participated.

My results certainly justified entering the contest, with all five stories (three under this account name, two coauthored with Sabb under Shabbu) went to Hot and the sweeps brought recent main file stories up in rating as well. One KeithD story finished at 4.81 as did one Shabbu story.

 

[darkoverlord6]

Ah! Man! So close yet again - a 4.84 for my story "A Boy's Last Summer" put me just behind the third place story at a 4.85. This is the third contest out of the last four where I have finished one-hundredth of a point away from being in the top three! Uggg! It's like the Universe is teasing me.

Oh! Well! Congratulations to the winners! I'll just have to try again.

 

[Rustyoznail]

Yep, second that. Congratulations people, well done. A bit of reading is in order now. I had a quick look at Stranger Things, and I’ll definitely finish that over the weekend.

My I/T story got 75 likes and 762 votes, but my First Time story looks like it only had 5 one bombs. Ten likes and a final score of 4.75, and takes the top billing of the four stories I’ve put up.

And I’m very happy about that. I really cared for the main character, and I actually wanted to beat the shit out of one of the other characters. Strange...

 

[oggbashan]

Congratulations to the winners!

A couple of my entries eventually reached over 4.5

 

[ChloeTzang]

Congratulations all winners and especially to the Dragon dude who won! And to everyone who got a story in as well. And to those who were fractionally beaten out. Better luck next time.

And to those of us who failed to get a story in at all (cough cough) - move your butt and start writing for Halloween.

 

[ThisNameIsntTakenYet]

Congrats to the winners.

My story didn't do as well as the previous one, but I think I know why that is. Still really happy with where it ended up though. All in all a very educational experience, looking forward to the Halloween contest.

 

[SolarRay]

Congrats to the winners! And to everyone who entered for making this a great contest!

 

[TxRad]

I put four stories in. The high score was 4.77, the low score was 4.25.
High views was 112.7K High votes were 1.8K.
Total favorites was 330.

Two of the stories were teasers so i didn't expect much. The other two were just fun writes.

Again, congrats to the winners and to all that participated.

Out of 425 stories posted, only 70 don't have a red H. Only 6 are below 4.0.

I love my fan base.

 

[A_Little_Show]

Congratulations to the winners and all the contestants. I've read almost all the entries [I draw the line at 13 Lit pages per story ], and I think the stories are some of the best at Literotica. You are all very good at this craft. I am humbled.

 

[TarnishedPenny]

Well done, you lot!

 

[SimonDoom]

Congratulations to the winners! And good job to everyone who entered. There were many entrants in this contest. I'm going to try to get around to reading as many as I can.

 

[Voboy]

Well done, y’all!

It was a good crop of stories across the board.

 

[PennameWombat]

Yes, you can add chapters afterward. I did that with one of my contest entries. As electricblue66 points out, it's all about keeping the playing field relatively level for the contest, although some writers have larger fan bases than others, of course.

I'll get to congratulations in a moment, but all of my contest entries so far have taken place in a shared universe. However, each one has focused on new characters and generally been located a fair distance away from related tales both in time and space. There are threads that connect them but you'd have to be a diligent reader of my stuff to find them. But they're there, subtle, not meant to be obvious.

I've also used the contest entries to kick off a couple of series that provide deeper interlocks into the shared universe in case anyone is interested. But the contest entries are stand-alone tales that can be enjoyed on their own since that's the Rule. I like it, the shared universe helps in giving me a few threads to begin the weaving and then it's off from there.