Dave Hanson's picture
Dave Hanson from Connecticut is reading Incredibly pulpy fantasy and sci-fi December 6, 2011 - 6:21am
Liana, Sound Waves
30% (3 votes)
Chester, Mind over Matter
70% (7 votes)
Total votes: 10

Liana's picture
Liana from Romania and Texas is reading Naked Lunch December 6, 2011 - 10:58am

Good luck Chester!! I'll read your story soon...

avery of the dead's picture
avery of the dead from Kentucky is reading Cipher Sisters December 6, 2011 - 11:50am

You guys did really well! 

Chester Pane's picture
Chester Pane from Portland, Oregon is reading The Brief and Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao by Junot Diaz December 6, 2011 - 6:39pm

Back at you Vraj!

Thanks A.D., and thanks for the review.

Chester Pane's picture
Chester Pane from Portland, Oregon is reading The Brief and Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao by Junot Diaz December 7, 2011 - 5:59pm

I just had to vote for the better story. 

Tied.

R.Moon's picture
R.Moon from The City of Champions is reading The Last Thing He Wanted by Joan Didion; Story Structure Architect by Victoria Lynn Schimdt PH.D; Creating Characters by the editors of Writer's Digest December 7, 2011 - 8:24pm

You guys did awesome. I'm still trying to figure out who to vote for. Maybe I'll create a new account and vote for both...

Liana's picture
Liana from Romania and Texas is reading Naked Lunch December 8, 2011 - 11:05am

Starting to look like I'm buying a book! Four voting days left...

Chester Pane's picture
Chester Pane from Portland, Oregon is reading The Brief and Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao by Junot Diaz December 8, 2011 - 3:34pm

Hang on. Four days is a lot of time...don't pull a 'Dewey defeats Truman.'

Good luck down the stretch. You shouldn't have cancelled out my vote like you did!

R.Moon's picture
R.Moon from The City of Champions is reading The Last Thing He Wanted by Joan Didion; Story Structure Architect by Victoria Lynn Schimdt PH.D; Creating Characters by the editors of Writer's Digest December 8, 2011 - 3:38pm

Yeah, a lot can happen in four days.

Chester Pane's picture
Chester Pane from Portland, Oregon is reading The Brief and Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao by Junot Diaz December 8, 2011 - 3:44pm

We'll have to get creative to find ways to encourage voter turn-out from the general populace.

R.Moon's picture
R.Moon from The City of Champions is reading The Last Thing He Wanted by Joan Didion; Story Structure Architect by Victoria Lynn Schimdt PH.D; Creating Characters by the editors of Writer's Digest December 8, 2011 - 3:46pm

Could offer blowies like Danny... Hey, just an idea... :)

Chester Pane's picture
Chester Pane from Portland, Oregon is reading The Brief and Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao by Junot Diaz December 8, 2011 - 4:00pm

On that note,,,I was thinking that the Battle should have fluffers to get the writers primed.

Although I have always been told by instructors that it helps to be as horny as possible while you are writing. Kinda like boxing. Keep that me-so-ho-nee edge.

R.Moon's picture
R.Moon from The City of Champions is reading The Last Thing He Wanted by Joan Didion; Story Structure Architect by Victoria Lynn Schimdt PH.D; Creating Characters by the editors of Writer's Digest December 8, 2011 - 4:06pm

Boxers are supposed to be horny when they box? Does the same go for wrestling?

Liana's picture
Liana from Romania and Texas is reading Naked Lunch December 8, 2011 - 4:48pm

Now I know the missing ingredient in writing my story. For the next contest, I demand the proper inspiration.

R.Moon's picture
R.Moon from The City of Champions is reading The Last Thing He Wanted by Joan Didion; Story Structure Architect by Victoria Lynn Schimdt PH.D; Creating Characters by the editors of Writer's Digest December 8, 2011 - 5:00pm

It distracts me. I work on my computer and internet porn is too readily available. 

Liana's picture
Liana from Romania and Texas is reading Naked Lunch December 8, 2011 - 5:34pm

I was talking about wine.....

R.Moon's picture
R.Moon from The City of Champions is reading The Last Thing He Wanted by Joan Didion; Story Structure Architect by Victoria Lynn Schimdt PH.D; Creating Characters by the editors of Writer's Digest December 8, 2011 - 5:49pm

Oh... My bad, Liana. With the theme of the last few threads, i just thought...

Chester Pane's picture
Chester Pane from Portland, Oregon is reading The Brief and Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao by Junot Diaz December 8, 2011 - 5:51pm

Wine and orgies.

avery of the dead's picture
avery of the dead from Kentucky is reading Cipher Sisters December 8, 2011 - 7:55pm

I can't imagine that is true.  Chester, are you making that up?  I'm not going to Google it.

Dave Hanson's picture
Dave Hanson from Connecticut is reading Incredibly pulpy fantasy and sci-fi December 8, 2011 - 8:03pm

Not to be a buzzkill but the "no orgasm before the fight" thing for boxers is a myth. Wine and orgies on the other hand....

avery of the dead's picture
avery of the dead from Kentucky is reading Cipher Sisters December 8, 2011 - 8:41pm

David - good to know!

Liana's picture
Liana from Romania and Texas is reading Naked Lunch December 8, 2011 - 8:45pm

See, with wine my story would have been less boring and in the morning I would have discovered that I'd written about orgies (and that I'd posted, so it would've been too late to take it back).

avery of the dead's picture
avery of the dead from Kentucky is reading Cipher Sisters December 8, 2011 - 8:47pm

Hey!  Your story wasn't boring!  It was my favorite.

R.Moon's picture
R.Moon from The City of Champions is reading The Last Thing He Wanted by Joan Didion; Story Structure Architect by Victoria Lynn Schimdt PH.D; Creating Characters by the editors of Writer's Digest December 8, 2011 - 8:49pm

I think I may have to go back to liquid creativity. It's called Jack Daniels.

Liana's picture
Liana from Romania and Texas is reading Naked Lunch December 8, 2011 - 10:01pm

Really? Thankie Avery!!

avery of the dead's picture
avery of the dead from Kentucky is reading Cipher Sisters December 9, 2011 - 5:54am

No, thank YOU for writing a great story!

both of you, to be diplomatic about it.

R.Moon's picture
R.Moon from The City of Champions is reading The Last Thing He Wanted by Joan Didion; Story Structure Architect by Victoria Lynn Schimdt PH.D; Creating Characters by the editors of Writer's Digest December 9, 2011 - 8:41am

Yeah, you guys wrote really great stories. It was hard to vote. 

Liana's picture
Liana from Romania and Texas is reading Naked Lunch December 9, 2011 - 1:15pm

You guys are too nice! But anyway, I'm glad I wrote the story. Even if I lose this round, I want to make it better and submit it somewhere, so for those who didn't like it too much, I'd be happy to get feedback on how to make it better!

Chester Pane's picture
Chester Pane from Portland, Oregon is reading The Brief and Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao by Junot Diaz December 9, 2011 - 2:14pm

Thanks to all of you for the great support. E-hug. I feel like we are becoming a little Thunderdome family (hopefully we'll propagate a bigger one.)

Liana's story was my favorite too. I hate looking at my own work. It always feels like when the guitar gets too close to the amp and you feel like plugging your ears and retreating to a corner with a bottle of wine (or Jack) and bundling your knees to make it more ergonomic to rock back-and-forth and whimper.

@Avery and David: I don't know if that abstinence thing is a myth or not, but I can only say that from my own personal experience it does build some drive. It's like the unused drive gets relegated to your brain and fingers. Just think about how you feel after, like a bomb went off and a bunch of energy was released?

A well-known writer I know said that sometimes when she's writing about sex the scene takes on a life of its own and she has to continually restrain herself and tell herself 'Oh no you don't, hands-off'. Sometimes she said she practically needs a chastity belt to keep from blowing all of that inspiration.

She said you know when you haven't been with anyone in a while, but haven't done anything yourself to remedy the situation and everything and everyone in the world makes you think of sex? She said that those are all things that you wouldn't give a shit about if you'd just had a good rogering (she's British). She said, you're a guy, you know that moment the vas deferens close and a relaxing emptiness replaces that engrained drive to procreate?

Well, she said, now imagine your readers. Do you want your readers to feel like they've just had sex? Do you want them to feel like their vas deferens have closed? Or do you want them seeing the sex in everything as they read so they just keep getting hornier and hornier on their way to climax?

I just listened to her British accent and nodded. I also asked her what she was currently working on and if she had finished it yet.  

Liana's picture
Liana from Romania and Texas is reading Naked Lunch December 9, 2011 - 4:06pm

Freud called that sublimation.

Liana's picture
Liana from Romania and Texas is reading Naked Lunch December 10, 2011 - 1:14pm

Only 9 votes? 2 more days!

Chester Pane's picture
Chester Pane from Portland, Oregon is reading The Brief and Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao by Junot Diaz December 11, 2011 - 5:59pm

I smell book.

Well at least that will balance out the Tom Spanbauer that I'm sending to Rennie for his Flash Me! book.

So Liana, at least your loss is going to a good cause. Well, indirectly anyway.

Liana's picture
Liana from Romania and Texas is reading Naked Lunch December 11, 2011 - 10:10pm

Congrats Chesters!!! It's already the 12th in half the country so I'll assume it's over. But wait, a book of your choice or a book of my choice? (GRIN)

Liana's picture
Liana from Romania and Texas is reading Naked Lunch December 12, 2011 - 4:18pm

Chester Chester Chester what am I sending you?

Chester Pane's picture
Chester Pane from Portland, Oregon is reading The Brief and Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao by Junot Diaz December 12, 2011 - 4:24pm

Core: A Romance by Kaasten Alonso.

Hawthorne Books

Thank You Vraj! 

I will PM you my address.

Liana's picture
Liana from Romania and Texas is reading Naked Lunch December 12, 2011 - 8:17pm

And you bet I'm getting it for myself, to see what you're reading hehe!

Chester Pane's picture
Chester Pane from Portland, Oregon is reading The Brief and Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao by Junot Diaz December 12, 2011 - 8:37pm

I see what you are up to.