RHP Prose Competition 2019 voting thread

@Very-Rusty

Okay, so you voted for my #2 entry. But did you actually read it?!

I genuinely struggle to believe you read a story where I represented you as a woman with hairy legs living in a bedsit and then not only voted for it but made no comment about it whatsoever.

"A little annoyed, Dusty got up to stretch her short hairy legs and placed her laptop on the brown wooden coffee table, careful to avoid the sticky patch and half eaten packet of home brand digestives. The heavy drapes had been closed hours ago, the small bedsit spared twilight by an eclectic array of small lamps dotted around on the cupboards and floor. The old record player was on its third spin of Ricky Martin’s greatest hits and the air still pungent with the microwave meal consumed earlier that evening."

@ghost-of-a-duke said
@Very-Rusty

Okay, so you voted for my #2 entry. But did you actually read it?!

I genuinely struggle to believe you read a story where I represented you as a woman with hairy legs living in a bedsit and then not only voted for it but made no comment about it whatsoever.

"A little annoyed, Dusty got up to stretch her short hairy legs and placed her laptop on t ...[text shortened]... in’s greatest hits and the air still pungent with the microwave meal consumed earlier that evening."

@very-rusty said
Getting a good reaction from the attention of insults at me in this forum goad? 😉

You are an attention seeker, and a bit of a arrogant bully.

LOL...Sorry you didn't get the reaction you expected from me from your story! Well actually I am not sorry, I knew it would bother you and you'd have to comment on it. You are so predictable goad! 😉

-VR

@torunn said
My daughters love really scary books/movies, I like some a bit less scary and most of my friends would never ever try them. 'Let The Right One In' by John Ajvide Lindqvist is both horror and love.

@ghost-of-a-duke said
As I thought, you voted for something you didn't read.

That's cool.

@ponderable said
#1 Apartment 4420

On moving day his brother said, "At least the numbers don't add up to thirteen."

Cameron said, "That is correct." He had passed up another apartment with a view of the harbor precisely because of that superstition.

"A priest, a rabbi, and a witch doctor walk into an apartment . . . Did you check with management to make sure no one was murdered he ...[text shortened]... but still did not notice the hazy figure that watched him, so glad it was just the two of them now.

@ponderable said
#2 Are you in there?

The forum was unusually quiet. Twenty-three minutes had passed since she’d made her last post and still it sat there, unanswered. A little annoyed, Dusty got up to stretch her short hairy legs and placed her laptop on the brown wooden coffee table, careful to avoid the sticky patch and half eaten packet of home brand digestives. The heavy drapes ha ...[text shortened]... m his fellow posters. It read simply, “Oh, I ate her liver with some fava beans and a nice Chianti.”

@ponderable said
#3 Here be Unicorns

Fire shoots through the skyline, burning a trail through the clear evening. Lowering, as gravity takes hold, the shape coalesces into a dark grey mass, speeding through the atmosphere before slamming into the ground. The impact creates an enormous crater, the outer grey mass shattering, throwing up plumes of smoke and dust, darkening the twilight. ...[text shortened]... , as he jumps easily from the hole, standing at the bottom of the crater, Dracula roars with hunger…

@ponderable said
I really liked this one. It has an easy-going flow and caught the spirit of the contest well. However for my liking it was a bit too near our community (as intended if I got Ghost of a Duke correctly)

@ponderable said
#4 HOLLYWOOD ENDING

When I first saw it, I thought it was a pile of linen thrown from the window of a flop house, a gray-green wrinkly thing at twilight over an L.A. skid row park. It wasn’t – it was a ghost!

Ghosts. L.A. is full of them. Becoming a ghost is one thing. Remaining a ghost quite another. Where’s the off ramp? Obviously this ghost couldn’t find it.

...[text shortened]... It was no Patrick Swayze “Ghost” heavenly exit scene but I knew Casper had finally found his heaven.

@ponderable said
#5 The Last Metro

Startled awake, incoherent shards of dreams dissipate like smoke rings. Fallen asleep at the desk, again, project unfinished, deadline looming ever nearer. Look at the time! Dash! might catch the last metro. Throw on a jacket, run for the elevator. Race down to the ground floor, rush past George, the old security guard. He half-opens one eye. "G'night ...[text shortened]... ndow and see my reflection, my own expression. Frozen in twilight. Yes, ... the last metro.


fin

@ponderable said
I want to provide some feedback to our writers, and try to do it one story at a time.

This one is graet on atmosphere in my opinion, but probably suffers from the word count limitation. The part about the Ghost (the hazy grey figure) was not enough to really get the point, though I am really interested in what is that figure, why does it cause (?) the power outage in the flat. Why is the figure glad...This would be more than enough for a novelette I think.

@ponderable said
I really liked this one. It has an easy-going flow and caught the spirit of the contest well. However for my liking it was a bit too near our community (as intended if I got Ghost of a Duke correctly)

@ponderable said
#6 GHOST DOG

They always enjoyed the drive home, it was a long straight road that assured them a forced but welcome intimacy. This evening was particularly pleasant with the late summer twilight painting the now wilting leaves a calm russet.
Richard complained about office politics , Jennifer listened with a sympathetic look on her face whilst thi ...[text shortened]... s evening was particularly pleasant with the late summer twilight painting the now wilting leaves…..

@ponderable said
#7 Stray Cat
My sister, Julia, was always frail and reticent. I do not think she spoke before she was two. She was never adventurous, but shy and disinclined to climb trees or skip rope or do any of the usual outdoorsy things girls do. But she was alert and observant. She read avidly, and, from 'Nursey,' she learnt Viennese as a second language. Her life changed suddenly, ...[text shortened]... tonished.

"The cat's died," she added, matter-of-factly, "Have the gardner get rid of it."

fin