The Halloween Contest

[NOIRTRASH]

I looked at a dozen of the entries, and theyre all equally worthless. And these stories come from the best LIT writers.

They aren't scary, theyre not even interesting.

 

[oggbashan]

The Halloween contest stories don't have to be scary. From Laurel's official post:

Story must have a Halloween theme: costumes, supernatural, scary, etc.

"scary" is third on the list.

My two are based on 'supernatural' with dead people as major protagonists.

 

[NOIRTRASH]

http://www.amazon.com/Language-But-Cry-Laurel-Leaf-Library/dp/0440364574

Read this horror story.

Its a tale of a doctor who treated a girl fried in a skillet by her parents. Its not unusual, I have a thick book filled with autopsy photos of kids murdered by their parents.

 

[NOIRTRASH]

The Halloween contest stories don't have to be scary. From Laurel's official post:

Story must have a Halloween theme: costumes, supernatural, scary, etc.

"scary" is third on the list.

My two are based on 'supernatural' with dead people as major protagonists.

They aren't scary! Did Laurel suggest they be interesting?

 

[redzinger]

The Halloween contest stories don't have to be scary.

Unless they're in Erotic Horror, which many of them are. I would expect scariness then.

 

[elfin_odalisque]

http://www.amazon.com/Language-But-Cry-Laurel-Leaf-Library/dp/0440364574

Read this horror story.

Its a tale of a doctor who treated a girl fried in a skillet by her parents. Its not unusual, I have a thick book filled with autopsy photos of kids murdered by their parents.

Nothing to do with Halloween.

 

[redzinger]

Mine's nothing to do with Halloween, not sure it's even a 'story', in the traditional sense of the word, as it's not really fiction, just the inner workings of my fucked-up brain.

 

[NOIRTRASH]

Nothing to do with Halloween.

I shoulda submitted a story about the time a tornado hit my house Halloween night. It was 1973. Scary as a mutha fucka.

 

[Penuche]

I looked at a dozen of the entries, and theyre all equally worthless. <snip>

I had one almost ready in longhand, then lost a couple of days and missed the submission deadline. I'll hold it over for next year.

 

[sr71plt]

I had one almost ready in longhand, then lost a couple of days and missed the submission deadline. I'll hold it over for next year.

Or you could go ahead an submit it to come up closer to the Halloween date this year. I've opted for Halloween rather than the contest this year myself.

 

[oggbashan]

They aren't scary! Did Laurel suggest they be interesting?

"Interesting" is a value judgement.

It is up to those reading, voting, and commenting to decide whether they personally find the particular story interesting.

Some don't find any story that doesn't fit their own particular sex trigger as uninteresting and boring. Loving Wives is the obvious home for the one-trick ponies as readers. Others are more wide-ranging in their tastes.

I'm not particularly happy with the commercialisation of Halloween. In my youth, Guy Fawkes (November 5th) was more important and more celebrated in the UK. Halloween was about bobbing for apples and not much else. 'Trick or Treat' didn't really exist, nor Halloween costumes.

Now every supermarket has aisles of Halloween goods. Even the charity shops have Halloween themed displays. It's a retailers' marketing scheme imported from the US, not a genuine UK folk tradition.

But - locally we have a Zombie Crawl for Halloween. That is a massive event with a children's parade followed by an adults' pub-crawl around our town centre. It is a great occasion, very good-humoured, and almost everyone involved behaves well. The adult costumes can be very inventive. The children's ones are usually supermarket bought.

My Halloween stories are usually about ghosts or costumes, not Trick or Treat. I think some readers object that I'm not 'on theme' but I am writing specifically for 30 October, not the commercial version of Halloween.

If the readers think I'm cheating? They can (and do) vote low.

Added PS. Thinking about how things have changed since I was young - Death was more commonplace and personal then. Almost every school I went to had one or more children die each year. WW2 wasn't long past when people were killed in The Blitz, or by V1 Flying Bomb or V2 rocket. Left over ordnance killed people each year. We didn't celebrate Halloween because death was too close and too familiar.

 

[NOIRTRASH]

"Interesting" is a value judgement.

It is up to those reading, voting, and commenting to decide whether they personally find the particular story interesting.

Some don't find any story that doesn't fit their own particular sex trigger as uninteresting and boring. Loving Wives is the obvious home for the one-trick ponies as readers. Others are more wide-ranging in their tastes.

I'm not particularly happy with the commercialisation of Halloween. In my youth, Guy Fawkes (November 5th) was more important and more celebrated in the UK. Halloween was about bobbing for apples and not much else. 'Trick or Treat' didn't really exist, nor Halloween costumes.

Now every supermarket has aisles of Halloween goods. Even the charity shops have Halloween themed displays. It's a retailers' marketing scheme imported from the US, not a genuine UK folk tradition.

But - locally we have a Zombie Crawl for Halloween. That is a massive event with a children's parade followed by an adults' pub-crawl around our town centre. It is a great occasion, very good-humoured, and almost everyone involved behaves well. The adult costumes can be very inventive. The children's ones are usually supermarket bought.

My Halloween stories are usually about ghosts or costumes, not Trick or Treat. I think some readers object that I'm not 'on theme' but I am writing specifically for 30 October, not the commercial version of Halloween.

If the readers think I'm cheating? They can (and do) vote low.

Added PS. Thinking about how things have changed since I was young - Death was more commonplace and personal then. Almost every school I went to had one or more children die each year. WW2 wasn't long past when people were killed in The Blitz, or by V1 Flying Bomb or V2 rocket. Left over ordnance killed people each year. We didn't celebrate Halloween because death was too close and too familiar.

Plenty of writing is dull and unimaginative. Gee, I cant believe I make value judgments. That is so not me. When I shop I bring along a card with a spinner attached to it, so I impartially select boxes of cereal and loaves of bread and packaged meat. You know how white it is to buy what you like. You must reveal how you pick comments to like and complain about.

 

[Penuche]

Or you could go ahead an submit it to come up closer to the Halloween date this year. I've opted for Halloween rather than the contest this year myself.

Good idea, although not really an option this time, as I've only gone and overcommitted my time and energy both sides of this Halloween.
Two meet ups, a bit more work on a fundraiser, my birthday, and a religious festival all within 8 days of each other, plus the usual work.

 

[oggbashan]

Plenty of writing is dull and unimaginative. Gee, I cant believe I make value judgments. That is so not me. When I shop I bring along a card with a spinner attached to it, so I impartially select boxes of cereal and loaves of bread and packaged meat. You know how white it is to buy what you like. You must reveal how you pick comments to like and complain about.

Yes, you make value judgements but why did you propose that Laurel should make "interesting" a contest criterion? There would be even more arguments about the contests.

I find some of your posts "interesting" and others of no relevance to me. I'm sure you make similar decisions.

Let the readers decide what they consider worth reading.

 

[Penuche]

Mine's nothing to do with Halloween, not sure it's even a 'story', in the traditional sense of the word, as it's not really fiction, just the inner workings of my fucked-up brain.

Fair enough, mine started while trying to use a launderette in my third language (the machines had 5 language settings, none of which was English).

And then another idea based on a waking dream while coming out of a migraine. Even it's not fully fledged yet, it could become so later. It's all good.

 

[NOIRTRASH]

Yes, you make value judgements but why did you propose that Laurel should make "interesting" a contest criterion? There would be even more arguments about the contests.

I find some of your posts "interesting" and others of no relevance to me. I'm sure you make similar decisions.

Let the readers decide what they consider worth reading.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7R3GtAnO66o

For your consideration.

 

[oggbashan]

For your consideration.

Honesty from writers of fiction? What planet do you come from?

 

[NOIRTRASH]

Honesty from writers of fiction? What planet do you come from?

Honesty from anyone.

 

[redzinger]

And then another idea based on a waking dream while coming out of a migraine. Even it's not fully fledged yet, it could become so later. It's all good.

Sleep paralysis - similar.

https://www.literotica.com/s/the-night-time-visitors

Your brain can be a very powerful thing.

EDIT: and I'm duly trolled.

 

[49greg]

Sleep paralysis - similar.

https://www.literotica.com/s/the-night-time-visitors

Your brain can be a very powerful thing.

EDIT: and I'm duly trolled.

If sleep paralysis is when you're awake, still dreaming, but can't move because your body doesn't know you're awakening. Is very very scary. Horrifying. Has happened to me twice while in a nightmare. Awake, eyes open, still dreaming, paralyzed. The first time I was napping on the couch one afternoon while my mom was upstairs getting ready for a function. The sound of her heels on the floor made my sleeping mind think that a one legged man was coming to get me, stomping on his peg leg. I was ten and when mom came downstairs I was laying on the couch, covered in sweat, my heart pounding, eyes staring and whimpering. I couldn't move until she shook me.

Hmmmm, maybe a story in there somewhere.

 

[redzinger]

If sleep paralysis is when you're awake, still dreaming, but can't move because your body doesn't know you're awakening. Is very very scary. Horrifying. Has happened to me twice while in a nightmare. Awake, eyes open, still dreaming, paralyzed. The first time I was napping on the couch one afternoon while my mom was upstairs getting ready for a function. The sound of her heels on the floor made my sleeping mind think that a one legged man was coming to get me, stomping on his peg leg. I was ten and when mom came downstairs I was laying on the couch, covered in sweat, my heart pounding, eyes staring and whimpering. I couldn't move until she shook me.

Hmmmm, maybe a story in there somewhere.

That's exactly it. Well, one of the types of it, anyway.

As I say in the story, I've had it for years. It's only recently that the hallucinations have turned kinky though. Hence 'Erotic Horror'.

Some psychology undergraduate on Twitter asked me last night if I was sure it wasn't just a dream. Anyone who ever asks that has never had an episode.

I really cannot sufficiently describe how terrifying it is, though I've tried in the story. To be a prisoner of your own body, then have invisible hands feeling you up, while you try to move, scream, do anything to get away?

 

[geronimo_appleby]

I shoulda submitted a story about the time a tornado hit my house Halloween night. It was 1973. Scary as a mutha fucka.

not surprised it was scary, the ladies had them hairy muffs in them days.

 

[lovecraft68]

not surprised it was scary, the ladies had them hairy muffs in them days.

and think about the havoc it wreaked with all those bell bottoms

 

[geronimo_appleby]

and think about the havoc it wreaked with all those bell bottoms

and the mooshtashio!

 

[lovecraft68]

and the mooshtashio!

and the mess those fondue pots must have made!

Oh no, cheese in the mooshtashio!