winter_time |

That's how long it's been since I last biked outside. Criminy. Today broke the longest streak of garage-biking I've had in... more than 30 years. The endless stretch of cold fog has finally broken, and temperatures are warming up to the low-mid 50s, which I can work with. BUT... we're also entering a period of probably two solid weeks of rain. Ideally, there will be some breaks in that and I'll be able to get outside again. Biking out in the world is not only less boring, it lets you stretch out your muscles more. Stationary biking is a grind. Literally.

You may have seen a bunch of Idol entries pop up recently. The current challenge involved assembling a portfolio that included two new entries, a letter to a past participant, and an overview page to pull it all together. We only have 5 contestants left now, so the poll is very small. Please vote if you can, and thank you for your support!

Christmas tree tomorrow, I hope? We replaced the excellent stand we lost to the fire, and we were lucky enough to get our ornaments back. No outside lights yet, though my son and I put up the mug hooks under the eaves for them. But they're not due to be delivered from Amazon until tomorrow. To be fair, I am ALWAYS behind at Christmas time, regardless of the year. \o?

halfshellvenus

Portfolio
Idol Wheel Of Chaos | Week 17, #1

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We're down to just five writers for Idol: Wheel Of Chaos now. This week, we're writing a portfolio that centers on five key components: our favorite story we've written, our favorite story by another author, a letter to an author from earlier this season, and stories for the prompts 6 7 and Banner year.

Choosing favorites is always hard! For my own stories, I wrote a lot of humor this season, but also some drabbles, two poems, a couple of entries with pathos, and a horror story. I considered choosing the acronym fun-fest (Going BATty), the caustic self-help guide (A New Man), the baking witch (Cursecraft), The Three Trolls from last week (Piplet!), or the souful Little Metal Hearts. But I think my best story was unlike all the others. It was a classic, timeless sort of tale with a tinge of bittersweetness. It was hardly read, because I was poisoned that week and it wasn't included in the poll, but it's the one I'm proudest of.

My favorite of my stories: Here Be Dragons

Weighing other authors' stories was just as hard. There were so many I really liked this season. From week 1, the Quality entries by bleodswean and static_abyss really stood out.

rayaso's week 2 War Of The Words (the evils of ChatGPT) was a riot, as was

flipflop_diva's Week 11 beleagured aliens story.

serpentinejacaranda's Week 6 dreamlike political satire (Affliction In The Form Of A Question) really stuck with me, as did

xeena's Blair Witch Idol Meta and

l0lita's hard-hitting zombie apocalypse story. But the one I finally picked used a difficult prompt and featured a great child's voice and very real drama disguised as fiction. It was both beautifully written and painfully true.

My favorite other-author's story:

inkstainedfingertip's Week 5 Toi, Toi, Toi

Next, we were to write a letter to a former contestant from the Wheel of Chaos season. There were so many to choose from: static_abyss (never here as long as I would like), bleodswean (such talent, and such a great Idol supporter), rayaso (so funny, week after week), alycewilson (talent and soulfulness all in one). I couldn't choose inkstainedfingertips because I'd picked him for my favorite other-author entry, plus he's still in the competition. So, I chose one of my overall favorites from this season AND last season (Idol Mini). She was the author whose season this was to lose, I thought, and apparently so did others because she was taken out by a targeted elimination vote after Week 10:

My letter to xeena

And finally, there were two entries to write for specific prompts:

6 7

Banner year

I hope you've enjoyed my portfolio, and the range of offerings it provided! If so, please vote for it here.

halfshellvenus

All Anticipation
Idol Wheel of Chaos | Week 17, #4 | 2227 words
Banner Year

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"These are the best years of your life," Lanie's mother always said. With her senior year of high school just a few months along, it seemed as if her mother was right.

Lanie was kneeling on the floor of the art room, working on the Homecoming banner for the game this weekend. She was dating the quarterback, and was every bit as invested in Homecoming as he was. Her best friend Chloe was there with her, helping out and keeping her company. Chloe's boyfriend was on the basketball team, so she was more interested in painting neat letters than what the banner represented.

"How do you think you did on the SATs this time?" Chloe said.

"I feel like the math went better?" Lanie said, "And I'm hoping that will be enough."

"I can't believe you took it twice. I mean, your original score was better than mine!"

"I just want to have the best options for where to go to college," Lanie said. "Could you hand me the yellow?"

Chloe passed the can of paint. "Well, there's always Podunk U."

"Don't remind me. My dad went there–it's why my mom keeps reminding me not to settle."

"She chose him, though," Chloe said.

Lanie moved around to the other side of the mural. "Yeah, but we all thought he was a better person than he actually turned out to be…"

( Read more... )

If you enjoyed this story, please vote for my Portfolio here!

winter time

3 1/2 weeks (or 25 freakin' days)

LJ Idol Wheel of Chaos: "Portfolio"

LJ Idol Wheel of Chaos: "All Anticipation"

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