The Official Author's Hangout 2014 Earth Day Contest Support Thread

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Ay carumba! Splinters!
 
Before refrigeration there where hundreds of way to preserve food so it would last through the winter. Mince meat was one of them.

Strip the last of your grapes and let them dry out not only concentrated the sugars but helped preserve them. Same for most fruits.

They added chopped animal fat, ( similar to the way we use lard or shortening now) for taste and to add caloric intake and to keep it from going bad.

They would pack jars of this mixture and fill them with left over brandy, (never a really big item, wonder why) or other spirits and with what spices they could find.

They would also use the grape skins from wine making and other such types of cooking things so that they let nothing go to waste.

When sugar began to be made more easily they moved away from mincemeat as a savory main dish or side and more towards an desert.

It's one of those things like fruitcake. It's meant to travel well without spoiling and, to last a long time without needing to be stored in the cold.

:D

So why the hell did we have it at grandma's for Thanksgiving every year? She had a freaking Whirlpool side-by-side, for Christ's Sake.
 
So why the hell did we have it at grandma's for Thanksgiving every year? She had a freaking Whirlpool side-by-side, for Christ's Sake.

Tradition. Mid Winter feast.

When you ate up the food that wouldn't make it much further into winter.
 
Why am I working on my summer stories and Nude day stories?

Because you ran into a block on the Earth Day stories. :rolleyes:
 
The Sky is Falling

Ack! An asteroid is going to pass closer than the moon later today. So much for "Earth Day"! :eek:

Sorry. Couldn't resist. :D

Seriously, DX110 is predicted to make it's closest approach today. But, since it's only about 45 to 130 feet across AND it's going to pass somewhere around 217 thousand miles, I think we'll be all right. I'm gonna keep working on my ED story just in case anyway.

Ooh... unless it's a planned event by aliens to dust us with an immunovirus to sterilize ninety-nine percent of the worlds population to make us easier to invade in about fifty or sixty years. :eek:
 
Ack! An asteroid is going to pass closer than the moon later today. So much for "Earth Day"! :eek:

Sorry. Couldn't resist. :D

Seriously, DX110 is predicted to make it's closest approach today. But, since it's only about 45 to 130 feet across AND it's going to pass somewhere around 217 thousand miles, I think we'll be all right. I'm gonna keep working on my ED story just in case anyway.

Ooh... unless it's a planned event by aliens to dust us with an immunovirus to sterilize ninety-nine percent of the worlds population to make us easier to invade in about fifty or sixty years. :eek:

And what's wrong with that plot bunny? :D

The one percent work their, uh, tails off to repopulate before the invasion.
 
When worlds collide, other things can too?

The last time something really big collided with us the Dinosaurs disappeared. At least the big ones anyway. A few remained to become birds and alligators. There is a plot bunny in there but I'm not quite feeling it yet.
 
Just a bump to the top of the forum.

Think I'll go through mine again seeing I have extra time this time out.
 
I finished my very first Sci Fi story for this contest. It might not get a lot of reads, but I had fun writing something different, and I've always been a fan of sci fi stories.
 
I finished my very first Sci Fi story for this contest. It might not get a lot of reads, but I had fun writing something different, and I've always been a fan of sci fi stories.

Mine will be in a new category for me as well

First time.

And yes, of course its about an 18 year old virgin:rolleyes:
 
Added about 700 words today, been the first time in a long time that I've gotten a chance to work on it. No idea what category this one is going into yet.
 
I was spending some time trying to make something out of one idea and then another one popped into my head this morning. Written and off to the editor now.
 
Oddly enough seeing I'm not big on the theme a second bunny began to emerge.

But I caught it and put it back in its cage until Nude day.
 
Going back and tweaking mine a little. The angle I was going with for the relationship tension only seemed to lend itself to a quick resolution or making one or both of them out to be a bit of a jerk. I need that tension to hold on a little longer to keep the right flow with the rest of the plot. So, I'm shifting a little more of the "weight" of the tension to her, and that feels like it's working in my head.

We'll see how it goes once it moves from my head to the MS.

I just had to do this one with an established relationship :rolleyes: Would have been a breeze if I'd had them meeting in the story :p
 
Bogging down. Not because I'm out of ideas but because having physical issues with typing. That's irritating. :mad:

Starting to wonder if I will finish one even with starting early (before this thread even posted).
 
Got time to put down couple thousand words today on one story and rewrote part of another that seemed wrong and was. :rolleyes:

Now it flows better and I might actually find the end of it.
 
Still fiddling with two stories, can't really get inspired to put my nose to the keyboard until I'm closer to the March 28th start date.

I noticed this contest only has a two week window as compared to the nearly four week windows for the Halloween and Christmas contests. I assume that's due to the limited popularity of Earth Day compared to the other two holidays?
 
Still fiddling with two stories, can't really get inspired to put my nose to the keyboard until I'm closer to the March 28th start date.

I noticed this contest only has a two week window as compared to the nearly four week windows for the Halloween and Christmas contests. I assume that's due to the limited popularity of Earth Day compared to the other two holidays?

Its about the same as Valentine's Day. Then the others are longer. Winter seems the longest.

On the bright side less time for the trolls to attack the people who post early on.
 
Oops. I wasn't paying attention and posted in the windbag's thread. Unintentional bumping. :p

Anyway, I wasn't sure I was going to get in on this contest but it seems fate had a different plan for me. I got tossed a plot bunny along with a lion's share of inspiration, and am currently three thousand words into a new story. There's a strong environmental theme to it, which sort of happened by accident, in a way. A little more drab and depressing than most of my stuff, but I like it.

It's gonna go into the Sci-Fi category. Can't see anywhere else to put it.
 
Excellent, Slyc!

And that reminds me ... this dryad story I am VERY slowly writing ... which category would that belong in? Non-human? Fantasy?
 
For Earth Day I'm guessing you could even get away with putting it in Romance or EC, depending on the content. But if you want to take the longer view (ie finding more readers after the contest) I think NH or Fantasy is better.

Looking forward to reading it no matter what. Dryads are hot ;)

And that reminds me ... this dryad story I am VERY slowly writing ... which category would that belong in? Non-human? Fantasy?
 
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