Valentines Day Contest Support Thread 2025

[nicksouth]

I doubt it, I think it will take high 4.8's into the 4.9's to place or win.

My stories are never this high
Oh well. They are written at least.

 

[thanagar]

Impressive! You might make the top 3!

Don

I doubt it, I think it will take high 4.8's into the 4.9's to place or win.

Don’t count yourself out. I lost four points off my story yesterday on trolls. Moderators haven’t done any sweeps yet so anything above 4.8 is still in contention.

 

[Erozetta]

I doubt it, I think it will take high 4.8's into the 4.9's to place or win.

I won Halloween with a 4.9 after sweeps. Before that I was sitting at a 4.7something.

The score isn't the score in a contest until the sweeps have been done.

 

[Bassytian]

I've forgotten about the contest until now.

My entries, while not bad, haven't done as well as I would have liked. Writing two stories at once hurt them both, my attention is best left undivided, lesson learned. I thought I had a real shot at winning the Winter Holidays contest, but I clearly have no chance of winning this one, which is fine, I got some followers out of it at least.

Good luck to everyone!!

 

[TheLobster]

Well, I did expect a bit better:



That's after five days; I suppose MC isn't exactly a popular category.

 

[Wineandcheese]

I know the submission deadline is passed, but when does vote count stop? It stands to reason that if contest entries are accepted up to a certain point, there must be a period afterwards for those last-minute entries to gather votes.

 

[Agent0069]

I know the submission deadline is passed, but when does vote count stop?

> Winners will be announced on: February 13

As far as I know, they'll do a sweep and then count ratings right before announcing winners, at least that's how it worked in the past.

 

[Wineandcheese]

Makes sense. I have zero hope of winning, but I’m very happy with the reader response. I’ve added 15 new followers in about as many hours. Ratings are good; 4.67 with 198 votes. Back catalog stories are getting attention as well.

 

[Voboy]

I won Halloween with a 4.9 after sweeps. Before that I was sitting at a 4.7something.

The score isn't the score in a contest until the sweeps have been done.

Yuuup. The swings in the last few hours are WILD.

Those of us who've been doing this awhile know that it's best just to buckle up and enjoy the roller-coaster ride. We've done our part. Time to quit worrying and watch the wheel spin.

 

[ChloeTzang]

I know the submission deadline is passed, but when does vote count stop? It stands to reason that if contest entries are accepted up to a certain point, there must be a period afterwards for those last-minute entries to gather votes.

Winners announced on Feb 13th, so votes and sweeps up until the last minute. Submissions closed off last night midnight, so votes are taken into account right up until the morning of Feb 13th. Usually there's a final sweep or two before the winners are announced and that's when things get a big wild, usually.

 

[ChloeTzang]

Yuuup. The swings in the last few hours are WILD.

Those of us who've been doing this awhile know that it's best just to buckle up and enjoy the roller-coaster ride. We've done our part. Time to quit worrying and watch the wheel spin.

So very true. And scoring before the final sweep mean nothing. Once, I had a story go from under 4.5 to over 4.9 in that last hour or two. You just never know what's going to happen.

 

[RBeemer]

My entry, "The Photo Op", is doing pretty well. We'll see what happens when we get down to the wire.

The Photo Op

As others have noticed - it's done wonders for my followers list!

 

[PennameWombat]

After a bit of churn (on my part), Succubus Weekend is live.

I submitted a day before the deadline, it was approved in under 24 hours. Then I found one of those annoying editing boo-boos, so edited it prior to it going live and resubmitted, expecting a delay. No, it was again approved within 24 hours and it went live last night. So all kinds of thanks to Laurel, who must be working 24x7.

 

[MillieDynamite]

I'm pretty sure She is always working 24/7 on this site.

After a bit of churn (on my part), Succubus Weekend is live.

I submitted a day before the deadline, it was approved in under 24 hours. Then I found one of those annoying editing boo-boos, so edited it prior to it going live and resubmitted, expecting a delay. No, it was again approved within 24 hours and it went live last night. So all kinds of thanks to Laurel, who must be working 24x7.

 

[Five_Inch_Heels]

After a bit of churn (on my part), Succubus Weekend is live.

I submitted a day before the deadline, it was approved in under 24 hours. Then I found one of those annoying editing boo-boos, so edited it prior to it going live and resubmitted, expecting a delay. No, it was again approved within 24 hours and it went live last night. So all kinds of thanks to Laurel, who must be working 24x7.

But is the submission date past the deadline now, taking it out of the contest?

 

[ChloeTzang]

But is the submission date past the deadline now, taking it out of the contest?

No, once it's submitted and in the queue, I think it generally goes ahead - as long as its just editing Boo-boos and it's already queued, Laurel would likely let it pass, whereas a major mod or rewrite would get it booted. I've never tried it myself but I do remember someone saying they'd done that a long time ago.

I wouldn't make it a habit for competitions though and I wouldn't do it myself, it's kind of skirting the edges of the submission deadline. But heys, you takes your chances and if it works, it works.

 

[ChloeTzang]

After a bit of churn (on my part), Succubus Weekend is live.

I submitted a day before the deadline, it was approved in under 24 hours. Then I found one of those annoying editing boo-boos, so edited it prior to it going live and resubmitted, expecting a delay. No, it was again approved within 24 hours and it went live last night. So all kinds of thanks to Laurel, who must be working 24x7.

I HATE those annoying boo-boos. I just found a dozen in mine and there's likely more. This is what happens when you submit 5 minutes before the deadline

 

[Duleigh]

I HATE those annoying boo-boos. I just found a dozen in mine and there's likely more. This is what happens when you submit 5 minutes before the deadline

I've been lucky lately, every characters name has remained the same, all homonyms, homophones, and homographs were correctly used and placed with care, and my bane of existence, Comma Splices, have been eradicated. Then just moments after posting a very big story that I sweated over for months, a reader asked, "What happened with the Radon in John's Basement?"

A HUGE plot point forgotten...

 

[PennameWombat]

I know. I gotta stop doing this. It's embarrassing. LOL. What was worse I was sitting there writing the last couple of hundred words and tearing up. I did the same thing with September Blue and Tales from Old Shanghai except with those I was crying the whole time I was writing...I almost needed a waterproof keyboard....this one wasn't anything like as bad though. Just a little sad at the end.

Anyhow, now I have to keep my fingers crossed and hope it's processed before the weekend starts. Along with the other last minute submissions. I'm happy I got it in tho. First story of 2025 - I only posted ONE in 2024. Awful. I have to do way better this year. So not it's back to Jeong and my Geek Day story.

And.....goes live on the 8th. I can relax now. lol

The notifications for our stories came side by side. I read your prologue, but haven't yet had time for more than that. Intriguing premise, so I'll get to it.

Unlike yours, mine isn't in any way autobiographical. Unfortunately .

I HATE those annoying boo-boos. I just found a dozen in mine and there's likely more. This is what happens when you submit 5 minutes before the deadline

I wrote the ending midway through, and used a place holder name. Then neglected to fix that. I've never before edited in that 'approved but not posted' window. In past, I just shrugged and fixed it later. But it's a slight twist (or twisted) ending and the name issue made it too confusing.

 

[PennameWombat]

But is the submission date past the deadline now, taking it out of the contest?

Dunno. The initial submission was prior to the deadline.

But I'm not fussed if it's disallowed I know my usual history and audience and haven't an expectation of being in the running for a top three I mainly use the Contests as incentive to push my lazy ass to actually finish and submit stories.

 

[ChloeTzang]

The notifications for our stories came side by side. I read your prologue, but haven't yet had time for more than that. Intriguing premise, so I'll get to it.

Unlike yours, mine isn't in any way autobiographical. Unfortunately .

You know what's really nice. I just got some South African feedback.....

Onder die Jakarandaboom is n baie mooi storie. Baie dankie.

Made my day, all by itself. TBH, I don't really mind where it places - that feedback just does it for me. And yeah, a lot of the story was autobiographical and all the places are real - here's a few photos I have from back then. So if you do read my story you can visualize just a little of the places

And this was Leyd Street, with the Jacaranda's blooming (that's not my photo - it's way better than my ones but it captures what it looked like so well). The rest tho are all mine, taken back then when I was there.



Koppies and an African sunset.....


Me with an old Bushman hollow in a rock in the Marico, where they used to scrape poison onto their arrowheads. The farmer whose land this was on told us it would've taken 20-30,000 years of constant use to form this hole. So this hole predates even the Sumerians by thousands upon thousands of years.


Old bushman paintings in a rock shelter high up on a koppie



"Danie" getting ready to light a fire in the early morning as the sun started to come up - we went out hiking in the early morning to see what wildlife we could spot


Rocks, thorntrees, brown grass -


Oh wow, I just found this. Literally this was where I stayed in Pretoria, just up the hill from this intersection - we used to walk down and then onto Berea Street and then around a couple of other streets to walk down to Sunnyside. Apologies for going all reminiscing on you all, but writing this story brought back so many memories.

 

[Voboy]

"Jacaranda" has always struck me as such a pleasant word.

 

[Rustyoznail]

There are some towns here with great displays of jacarandas.

 

[ChloeTzang]

There are some towns here with great displays of jacarandas.

They're lovely aren't they.

 

[Actingup]

They're lovely aren't they.

Not without their detractors though.

“Jacarandas are to biodiversity what Barbara Cartland is to literature, all saccharine and no substance.”