The official Authors' Hangout Halloween 2020 contest Support Thread

Weeeeee. 4K words into “Halloween in Roanapur.” So okay, I’m doing a story or two for the Halloween competition. I just can’t resist.

4k words.

For you, that's an introductory note...
 
4k words.

For you, that's an introductory note...

Rotflmao. You know me far too well. It was the intro, where Trexy arrives in Roanapur. You’re going to love this one. She’s Revy’s cousin from New York and she’s on the run. She’s stiffed the Flying Dragons and the Siniloa Cartel for fifty million on a meth deal and she’s on the run.... and everyone wants her. But she’s Revy Two-hands baby cousin.... and it’s Halloween in Roanapur....
 
Rotflmao. You know me far too well. It was the intro, where Trexy arrives in Roanapur. You’re going to love this one. She’s Revy’s cousin from New York and she’s on the run. She’s stiffed the Flying Dragons and the Siniloa Cartel for fifty million on a meth deal and she’s on the run.... and everyone wants her. But she’s Revy Two-hands baby cousin.... and it’s Halloween in Roanapur....

If you don't include a running gag where people expect her to have Midnight Runners somewhere on her person, I'll be disappointed. Bonus points if she's too young/mainstream to understand the pun.
 
Second entry, that was draft story five, is now posted.

I'm not sure about drafts two, three and four.

Draft two is longer but only has a tenuous link to the contest.

Draft three is Halloween but is non-erotic so why bother.

Draft four is possibly taking my solid ghosts too far into reality.

So maybe I'll finish draft two as a non-contest entry, and put the other two into the sometime, never file.
 
^^ Tie them into the AG series. If they're back in history, make them pre-quels.
 
Never done a contest before and Halloween ain't my bag, but I've decided to have a go. Just needs a final read through.

Wrote it in my head on holiday and crashed it in mostly as I envisaged so hopefully it will work.

Not done Erotic Horror before, so a new experience after 40+ submissions! Wish me luck!

Just one silly question, though - I assume the HALLOWEEN 2020 tag is just that and not in the quotes it is shown in the briefing?

Cheers

BS
 
Not done Erotic Horror before, so a new experience after 40+ submissions! Wish me luck!

Just one silly question, though - I assume the HALLOWEEN 2020 tag is just that and not in the quotes it is shown in the briefing?

Congrats and good luck!

And yes, no quotes.
 
If you don't include a running gag where people expect her to have Midnight Runners somewhere on her person, I'll be disappointed. Bonus points if she's too young/mainstream to understand the pun.

Dexy’s Midnight Runners? (I had to look that one up..... I’m too young and mainstream- 😞 )
 
Never done a contest before and Halloween ain't my bag, but I've decided to have a go. Just needs a final read through.

Ok read and submitted.

Must be the quickest ever between putting 'pen to paper' to getting it out there, so hope I picked up all my usual typos etc.

Also pretty short by my standards (11.5 Word pages), so someone may actually read it!
 
Also pretty short by my standards (11.5 Word pages), so someone may actually read it!

How many words is that? I’m usually pretty long winded, but now I managed to fuck both the police and the patriarchy in less than 4K words, so I’m pretty pleased with myself. Maybe I’ll get the hang of this “short story” idea one day :D
 
How many words is that? I’m usually pretty long winded, but now I managed to fuck both the police and the patriarchy in less than 4K words, so I’m pretty pleased with myself. Maybe I’ll get the hang of this “short story” idea one day :D

About 6,100 words, which is probably my shortest ever.

Last 3 were in the region of 25k, so be interesting to see the readership this time!
 
How many words is that? I’m usually pretty long winded, but now I managed to fuck both the police and the patriarchy in less than 4K words, so I’m pretty pleased with myself. Maybe I’ll get the hang of this “short story” idea one day :D

I know exactly what you mean.
 
Anyone else get a random 1 star bomb early on? Doing the math most of my ratings have been 4 or 5 which is my usual, except for one early low rating. Could be someone trying to get ahead...or maybe they genuinely thought my story was trash lol.
 
Anyone else get a random 1 star bomb early on? Doing the math most of my ratings have been 4 or 5 which is my usual, except for one early low rating. Could be someone trying to get ahead...or maybe they genuinely thought my story was trash lol.

I keep getting them, every time one of my two entries gets close to 4.5. In the first ten votes on each there were three 1-bombs.
 
Anyone else get a random 1 star bomb early on? Doing the math most of my ratings have been 4 or 5 which is my usual, except for one early low rating. Could be someone trying to get ahead...or maybe they genuinely thought my story was trash lol.

Nah, that's normal. Putting a story in a competition is like painting a big red 'X' on it. You just know a squadron of trolls in Stukas will arrive and randomly target everyone.

Take shelter, sit back and watch. The clean up crew will sort it out towards the end of the comp.

FWIW I've just posted a non-Halloween story in Mature. It's also copping a bit of a beating early on, but it's settled down now.
 
I slapped together a stupid idea I've had in the back of my mind for a while. I have really become annoyed at the Zombie genre, so I took it out in a Halloween entry. I wasn't paying attention so I didn't get to see the fast zoom up and the quick nosedive in the scores. So all I know is that it is holding at 4.5 right now.

Good luck to everyone who participates.

James
 
Yeah, good luck to everyone.
My assumption right now is that I won't finish in time. But my plan is to finish and submit next year...
 
Anyone else get a random 1 star bomb early on? Doing the math most of my ratings have been 4 or 5 which is my usual, except for one early low rating. Could be someone trying to get ahead...or maybe they genuinely thought my story was trash lol.

Checked this a.m. to see if my story was posted, noticed that I had a good score although I doubt I would get the required 25, let alone get a high enough score to be a contender. Checked once more just now, and the bombs had been dropped.
 
It's been so damn long since that April Fools debacle as PuckIt, I'm not even sure I remember just how to submit a story. If I could even get something actually finished.

But, what the Hell. I'm sitting here, working on a second bottle of Sangria on the third anniversary of my wife's death.

We'll see if I can actually get something done fitting for Hallow-weenie.

Does anyone else remember that old haunted house gag where the guy sits in a box with his head and hands sticking up through holes? And patrons walk up to see "his eyeballs" and "his tongue" sitting in a bowl in front of him?

Or was that a regional thing?
 
Checked this a.m. to see if my story was posted, noticed that I had a good score although I doubt I would get the required 25, let alone get a high enough score to be a contender. Checked once more just now, and the bombs had been dropped.

They're out in force! Mine started at 4.8 from around 60 readers, down to 4.7 yesterday from 150 odd and now 4.67 from 186! I don't think I've read many high scoring stories at all yet in the comp which has surprised me as I've read many that I thought were great.
 
Heh, might be that the story sucks

Ah well, checked the scores. Either the trolls are out in force, or the story is pretty bad.

So, when's the next contest?
 
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