Matt Attack
from Richmond, Va. is reading As I Lay Dying, William FaulknerOctober 28, 2012 - 3:34am
@Dino -the prompts are kinda like the one Utah gave me above. Or they'll be a poem, or be a list of things, it might even be a picture. All I can tell you for sure is if Jessica is making them you will both hate and love them. Mostly hate. I'm really hoping to get a few good short stories to whore out. Don't even care about winning, I just want finished products, because I suck on my own.
Chester Pane
from Portland, Oregon is reading The Brief and Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao by Junot DiazOctober 28, 2012 - 4:54am
I have to give a preposition on Friday. But, not at the end of my jail sentence, thank the almighty Mayans for that harmonic convergence.
drea
from Rural Alberta, Canada is reading between the linesOctober 28, 2012 - 7:03am
I take HUGE liberty with prompts. Imagine that. La Emme, I would encourage you to not stress and do the same; fly that freak flag, girl!
avery of the dead
from Kentucky is reading Cipher SistersOctober 28, 2012 - 7:25am
First round will not be literary prompts. And the prompt will never be a book or anything...
Gordon Highland
from Kansas City is reading Secondhand Souls by Christopher MooreOctober 28, 2012 - 7:47am
I just want finished products, because I suck on my own.
Some guys would never leave the house if they could do that.
Dino Parenti
from Los Angeles is reading Everything He Gets His Hands OnOctober 28, 2012 - 8:43am
This is all good to know. The "length" of the prompt worried me a lot more than it's "difficulty." Bring it on, whatever it is.
Matt Attack
from Richmond, Va. is reading As I Lay Dying, William FaulknerOctober 28, 2012 - 9:28am
Some guys would never leave the house if they could do that."
Someone's a Tool fan.
bryanhowie
from FW, ID is reading East of Eden. Steinbeck is FUCKING AMAZING.October 28, 2012 - 10:15am
Everyone is a Tool fan.
wickedvoodoo
from Mansfield, England is reading stuff.October 28, 2012 - 10:37am
I'm not. Tool are very boring in my opinion.
Liana
from Romania and Texas is reading Naked LunchOctober 28, 2012 - 10:40am
Wouldn't it be a great prompt if we wrote not based on a book, but based on a writer! Like this: "Write a story imitating perfectly the style of Herman Melville" (or Chaucer, or Charles Dickens, Kafka, Faulkner, O'Connor, Shakespeare!!!). Then many will give up and then we'll all have fewer stories to read. And you think I have no solutions to problems.
Americantypo
from Philadelphia is reading The Bone ClocksOctober 28, 2012 - 2:56pm
Ack! It still bugs me to lose with "The Executioner's Son" (in a health competitive way). It's been with Dark Moon books for quite a bit and the editors are still deliberating over whether or not to print it.
Chester Pane
from Portland, Oregon is reading The Brief and Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao by Junot DiazOctober 28, 2012 - 8:14pm
Renfield
from Hell is reading 20th Century GhostsOctober 28, 2012 - 8:26pm
REACTWAR
THIS THAT THUG SHIT
leah_beth
from New Jersey - now in Charleston, SC is reading five different books at once.October 29, 2012 - 4:46am
Hey all y'all in the northern East Coast - be safe today!!!!!!!!!
(That is un-WAR-like, but so be it.)
voodoo_em
from England is reading All the books by Ira LevinOctober 29, 2012 - 5:07am
@Richard ~ I remember Vision Quest and Bring out the Sheaves
Class Facilitator
Emma C
from Los Angeles is reading Black Spire by Delilah DawsonOctober 29, 2012 - 7:10am
OK, I'm just going to come out and say this: I have no idea how to read the brackets. I know who my first opponent is, and I'm just going to roll with whatever happens after that.
Dino Parenti
from Los Angeles is reading Everything He Gets His Hands OnOctober 29, 2012 - 9:00am
@Emma. Short term projection: if you win your first match, you will then compete against the winner of averydoll vs. ispeiler. If you can beat that person, you've got ME (assuming I don't get my ass handed to me beforehand)!
Sound
from Azusa, CA is reading Greener Pastures by Michael WehuntOctober 29, 2012 - 9:01am
And if you beat Dino, you'll go up against me. After that, you don't need to worry about any future rounds.
Jonathan Riley
from Memphis, Tennessee is reading Flashover by Gordon Highland October 29, 2012 - 9:23am
@ Emma, let's assume you do make it to the fourth round undefeated you will face me after 3 consecutive upsets. Includuding my 80% majority vote over Sound in round three.
Sound
from Azusa, CA is reading Greener Pastures by Michael WehuntOctober 29, 2012 - 10:12am
@JR
Dino Parenti
from Los Angeles is reading Everything He Gets His Hands OnOctober 29, 2012 - 10:54am
Emma's gonna talk SO much shit when we're sitting in the loser brackets trying to climb our asses back out while she coasts through this thing unscathed:)
Richard
from St. Louis is reading various anthologiesOctober 29, 2012 - 10:56am
thanks, voodoo!
underpurplemoon
from PDX
October 29, 2012 - 12:31pm
Emma, I'm so stoked that I know who my opponent is! There were names on the list that I didn't even know existed. I guess most people aren't as chatty as others. I think they're like the silent killers.
Matt
from New Zealand is reading This is how you lose her by Junot DiazOctober 29, 2012 - 9:54pm
There were names on the list that I didn't even know existed. I guess most people aren't as chatty as others. I think they're like the silent killers.
I like to think of myself as the sniper in the tower, looking to pick off each of my opponents with a single shot.
avery of the dead
from Kentucky is reading Cipher SistersOctober 30, 2012 - 7:27am
I like to think of myself as the winner. I also like to think of myself as important, well-liked, and kind.
Pretending is fun!!
Stacy Kear
from Bucyrus, Ohio lives in New Jersey is reading The Art of War October 30, 2012 - 7:30am
FRIDAY!!!!! I'm terrified excited!
Moderator
Utah
from Fort Worth, TX is reading Lonesome Dove by Larry McMurtryOctober 30, 2012 - 7:35am
!!!!!
Okay, everybody, serious discussion time.
I've been talking with averydoll about this really briefly and we are playing with the idea of pushing our start date back a week, to Nov. 9. We're ready to rock, our structure is sound, no production worries. However, a bunch of our contestants are residents of the East Coast or other areas currently being affected by Thunderstorm-followed-by-light-rain Sandy. At this moment, some of those folks are concerned about their practical ability to paricipate in WAR2 because of the very real possibility of power outages. I am also concerned that, even after Sandy passes off to Canadia--where people are tougher and the land absorbs adversity in much the way Russia does--that those folks will still be occupied with ancillary Sandy-issues. Like restocking their food, or finding where their cars floated to.
What do you guys think about this?
I'd love to hear from our East Coast peeps as well, so we can have a decent idea of how well-founded these concerns are.
Mess_Jess
from Sydney, Australia, living in Toronto, Canada is reading Perfect by Rachael JoyceOctober 30, 2012 - 8:04am
I'm more than happy to push it back given a lot of people won't even have electricity. It sounds brutal.
(I'm sitting on the beachfront with free wifi in Florida, how much of a jerk do I feel like?)
SConley
from Texas is reading Coin Locker BabiesOctober 30, 2012 - 8:10am
When Hurricane Ike hit a few years back, we were without water for 2 days and without power for 5 days. Totally understandable.
Sound
from Azusa, CA is reading Greener Pastures by Michael WehuntOctober 30, 2012 - 8:11am
Evil Matt says:
Screw that, I wanna start now!
Good Matt says:
I live in the west coast, so I don't really know what these folks are dealing with and it would suck to have half the participants drop out. So, we should probably wait if a good chunk of our roster is east coast.
.
October 30, 2012 - 8:20am
Push it. Push it real good.
wickedvoodoo
from Mansfield, England is reading stuff.October 30, 2012 - 8:59am
Oh dear. This could be bad for me.
I am having to very carefully balance my time for the next month or so. I have to move house, with no extra time off from work and a lot of stuff to plan. I arranged for time this weekend for WAR writing - if we push back I am gonna struggle. The week following the 9th - I can handle that as a reading week, I can print the stories and read them at work, but I won't be getting much writing done. Never can when I am working, and when I am home I am going to be packing. Once we're in the later rounds I'll be more setlled, but might be too late by then.
So on a purely personal note - I am very much against a delay.
But I understand some people have bigger problems - so I won't be too bitter if it has to be so. Better me not be able to compete than half the roster have to drop out because their power doesn't work.
Seems this happens every other year. America being brought to a standstill by weather, that is. What are you, a cricket match? You should all move to Europe where the wind doesn't try to kill you. It's bland weather here, but predictable.
wickedvoodoo
from Mansfield, England is reading stuff.October 30, 2012 - 9:01am
Stupid double post.
Hope you hurricane-hit folks are okay.
Dino Parenti
from Los Angeles is reading Everything He Gets His Hands OnOctober 30, 2012 - 9:02am
Another vote for pushing it. The election will be over by then as well, so for better or worse, at least we'll be able to focus.
avery of the dead
from Kentucky is reading Cipher SistersOctober 30, 2012 - 9:08am
American weather is always trying to kill someone. That's what makes it American
Matt Attack
from Richmond, Va. is reading As I Lay Dying, William FaulknerOctober 30, 2012 - 9:11am
East-Coast Matt says: I'm in Richmond. We're fine. Let's do it on Friday.
Cabin Fever Matt says: Just for the record, if you would have sent it out last Friday, it would have given us East-Coasters PLENTY of time to think and write since we've been doing nothing for two days now.
Moderator
Utah
from Fort Worth, TX is reading Lonesome Dove by Larry McMurtryOctober 30, 2012 - 9:18am
Okay, so far the only votes I'm seeing to push are from people who are not affected by the storm.
Let's hear on this from Stacy Kear, since she lives in NYC. I know she was excited to start Friday a couple hours ago. How are things where you are, Stacy? Personally, since bumping could adversely affect other contestants, I'm inclined to say we engage as originally planned.
Meredith_103
October 30, 2012 - 9:27am
Would this be too much of a headache to administer?
By default all groups get pushed back to 11/9. Then each pair could discuss and if both parties agree, they PM you with their request to get a prompt on 11/2 with a deadline of 11/9. Up to sixteen pairs could move up to the 11/2 group.
I am okay with either date but agree that people dealing with the storm probably need the delay.
Matt Attack
from Richmond, Va. is reading As I Lay Dying, William FaulknerOctober 30, 2012 - 9:29am
Hey! I went through it, I'm looking out my office windows still seeing it!! I vote Friday! Provisionally.
I thought Stacy was in Jersey. I will say it seems, judging by my giagantic maps here at work, West Virginia and North Carolina are now buired under snow and New England got quite a bit of the storm.
Why not send out the prompts, but give two weeks and then each pairing can submit when they're ready as long as it's before the two week deadline. Most outtages are set after 24-48 hours. The lonest I've been through was during Irene when I was out for five days.
Bill Tucker
from Austin, Texas is reading Grimm's Fairy Tales (1st Edition)October 30, 2012 - 9:29am
Not involved in the contest yet, but right now there are 600,000 people in the NYC area without power right now, including about a third of Manhattan. The East Village is pretty much underwater, Battery Park may need to be renamed Lake Battery Park and there's a crane teetering on the edge of a 1000 foot building on 57th Street. Not to mention the subways are full of water, the outer burroughs are a mess and everyone I know in Jersey, aisde from my mom, has been taken back to the Middle Ages.
Luckily, my area of NYC is fine. Power, running water, the works. But I could absolutely understand if people who aren't so lucky have more on their minds than a writing competition right now. Sucks to push things back as that gets into the holiday season where nobody has time, but I think it shold be seriously considered.
avery of the dead
from Kentucky is reading Cipher SistersOctober 30, 2012 - 9:30am
I'd be less inclined to do anything that caused me to think very much.
Bill Tucker
from Austin, Texas is reading Grimm's Fairy Tales (1st Edition)October 30, 2012 - 9:31am
Oh, and Con Ed thinks that some people may not get power for a week to ten days. Not saying you should push it that long, but this is much worse than Irene, at least for NYC.
Jonathan Riley
from Memphis, Tennessee is reading Flashover by Gordon Highland October 30, 2012 - 9:33am
It's tricky this one. On one hand if no one on the east coast objects then it's probably o.k. to precede as planned. On the other hand if none from the east coast objects they could already have power outages and no way to communicate. I'm fine with whatever you all decide.
Matt Attack
from Richmond, Va. is reading As I Lay Dying, William FaulknerOctober 30, 2012 - 9:38am
, but this is much worse than Irene, at least for NYC."
Yeah Baltimore turned into the zombie apocalypse during that one. And it wasn't as cold. I can understand, I don't like it, but understand. I vote for the two week option and stagger submissions. Just me though
drea
from Rural Alberta, Canada is reading between the linesOctober 30, 2012 - 9:34am
IMHO, you will never please everybody. Administrative types, do what you see fit with the start date and we will live with it. This is WAR, and sacrifices must be made.
Moderator
Utah
from Fort Worth, TX is reading Lonesome Dove by Larry McMurtryOctober 30, 2012 - 9:35am
Drea, why did I always think you were from Texas? Your avatar tag makes it plain you're not.
sean of the dead
from Madisonville, KY is reading Peckerwood, by Jed AyresOctober 30, 2012 - 9:39am
so far the only votes I'm seeing to push are from people who are not affected by the storm
Agreed, let's see what people who are affected have to say, THEN decide. No offense, but anybody voicing their opinions right now who are NOT affected by the bad weather are kind of like the people who call in to vote on a TV news poll and select "No Opinion."
avery of the dead
from Kentucky is reading Cipher SistersOctober 30, 2012 - 9:41am
"No offense"
I've never seen this preface anything that was not offensive.
Moderator
Utah
from Fort Worth, TX is reading Lonesome Dove by Larry McMurtryOctober 30, 2012 - 9:44am
@Dino -the prompts are kinda like the one Utah gave me above. Or they'll be a poem, or be a list of things, it might even be a picture. All I can tell you for sure is if Jessica is making them you will both hate and love them. Mostly hate. I'm really hoping to get a few good short stories to whore out. Don't even care about winning, I just want finished products, because I suck on my own.
I have to give a preposition on Friday. But, not at the end of my jail sentence, thank the almighty Mayans for that harmonic convergence.
Is there some war thing going or something?
Okay.
WAR.
I prefer LOVE.
However, there are some good things about war.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5N1o8zQGmTI
Like Josh walking in his boots.
Or Howie.
"Me love you long time."
This is great dialogue, no?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9EKqDCFcIck
I take HUGE liberty with prompts. Imagine that. La Emme, I would encourage you to not stress and do the same; fly that freak flag, girl!
First round will not be literary prompts. And the prompt will never be a book or anything...
Some guys would never leave the house if they could do that.
This is all good to know. The "length" of the prompt worried me a lot more than it's "difficulty." Bring it on, whatever it is.
Someone's a Tool fan.
Everyone is a Tool fan.
I'm not. Tool are very boring in my opinion.
Wouldn't it be a great prompt if we wrote not based on a book, but based on a writer! Like this: "Write a story imitating perfectly the style of Herman Melville" (or Chaucer, or Charles Dickens, Kafka, Faulkner, O'Connor, Shakespeare!!!). Then many will give up and then we'll all have fewer stories to read. And you think I have no solutions to problems.
Ack! It still bugs me to lose with "The Executioner's Son" (in a health competitive way). It's been with Dark Moon books for quite a bit and the editors are still deliberating over whether or not to print it.
REACTWAR
THIS THAT THUG SHIT
Hey all y'all in the northern East Coast - be safe today!!!!!!!!!
(That is un-WAR-like, but so be it.)
@Richard ~ I remember Vision Quest and Bring out the Sheaves
OK, I'm just going to come out and say this: I have no idea how to read the brackets. I know who my first opponent is, and I'm just going to roll with whatever happens after that.
@Emma. Short term projection: if you win your first match, you will then compete against the winner of averydoll vs. ispeiler. If you can beat that person, you've got ME (assuming I don't get my ass handed to me beforehand)!
And if you beat Dino, you'll go up against me. After that, you don't need to worry about any future rounds.
@ Emma, let's assume you do make it to the fourth round undefeated you will face me after 3 consecutive upsets. Includuding my 80% majority vote over Sound in round three.
@JR
Emma's gonna talk SO much shit when we're sitting in the loser brackets trying to climb our asses back out while she coasts through this thing unscathed:)
thanks, voodoo!
Emma, I'm so stoked that I know who my opponent is! There were names on the list that I didn't even know existed. I guess most people aren't as chatty as others. I think they're like the silent killers.
I like to think of myself as the sniper in the tower, looking to pick off each of my opponents with a single shot.
I like to think of myself as the winner. I also like to think of myself as important, well-liked, and kind.
Pretending is fun!!
FRIDAY!!!!! I'm
terrifiedexcited!!!!!!
Okay, everybody, serious discussion time.
I've been talking with averydoll about this really briefly and we are playing with the idea of pushing our start date back a week, to Nov. 9. We're ready to rock, our structure is sound, no production worries. However, a bunch of our contestants are residents of the East Coast or other areas currently being affected by Thunderstorm-followed-by-light-rain Sandy. At this moment, some of those folks are concerned about their practical ability to paricipate in WAR2 because of the very real possibility of power outages. I am also concerned that, even after Sandy passes off to Canadia--where people are tougher and the land absorbs adversity in much the way Russia does--that those folks will still be occupied with ancillary Sandy-issues. Like restocking their food, or finding where their cars floated to.
What do you guys think about this?
I'd love to hear from our East Coast peeps as well, so we can have a decent idea of how well-founded these concerns are.
I'm more than happy to push it back given a lot of people won't even have electricity. It sounds brutal.
(I'm sitting on the beachfront with free wifi in Florida, how much of a jerk do I feel like?)
When Hurricane Ike hit a few years back, we were without water for 2 days and without power for 5 days. Totally understandable.
Evil Matt says:
Screw that, I wanna start now!
Good Matt says:
I live in the west coast, so I don't really know what these folks are dealing with and it would suck to have half the participants drop out. So, we should probably wait if a good chunk of our roster is east coast.
Push it. Push it real good.
Oh dear. This could be bad for me.
I am having to very carefully balance my time for the next month or so. I have to move house, with no extra time off from work and a lot of stuff to plan. I arranged for time this weekend for WAR writing - if we push back I am gonna struggle. The week following the 9th - I can handle that as a reading week, I can print the stories and read them at work, but I won't be getting much writing done. Never can when I am working, and when I am home I am going to be packing. Once we're in the later rounds I'll be more setlled, but might be too late by then.
So on a purely personal note - I am very much against a delay.
But I understand some people have bigger problems - so I won't be too bitter if it has to be so. Better me not be able to compete than half the roster have to drop out because their power doesn't work.
Seems this happens every other year. America being brought to a standstill by weather, that is. What are you, a cricket match? You should all move to Europe where the wind doesn't try to kill you. It's bland weather here, but predictable.
Stupid double post.
Hope you hurricane-hit folks are okay.
Another vote for pushing it. The election will be over by then as well, so for better or worse, at least we'll be able to focus.
American weather is always trying to kill someone. That's what makes it American
East-Coast Matt says: I'm in Richmond. We're fine. Let's do it on Friday.
Cabin Fever Matt says: Just for the record, if you would have sent it out last Friday, it would have given us East-Coasters PLENTY of time to think and write since we've been doing nothing for two days now.
Okay, so far the only votes I'm seeing to push are from people who are not affected by the storm.
Let's hear on this from Stacy Kear, since she lives in NYC. I know she was excited to start Friday a couple hours ago. How are things where you are, Stacy? Personally, since bumping could adversely affect other contestants, I'm inclined to say we engage as originally planned.
Would this be too much of a headache to administer?
By default all groups get pushed back to 11/9. Then each pair could discuss and if both parties agree, they PM you with their request to get a prompt on 11/2 with a deadline of 11/9. Up to sixteen pairs could move up to the 11/2 group.
I am okay with either date but agree that people dealing with the storm probably need the delay.
Hey! I went through it, I'm looking out my office windows still seeing it!! I vote Friday! Provisionally.
I thought Stacy was in Jersey. I will say it seems, judging by my giagantic maps here at work, West Virginia and North Carolina are now buired under snow and New England got quite a bit of the storm.
Why not send out the prompts, but give two weeks and then each pairing can submit when they're ready as long as it's before the two week deadline. Most outtages are set after 24-48 hours. The lonest I've been through was during Irene when I was out for five days.
Not involved in the contest yet, but right now there are 600,000 people in the NYC area without power right now, including about a third of Manhattan. The East Village is pretty much underwater, Battery Park may need to be renamed Lake Battery Park and there's a crane teetering on the edge of a 1000 foot building on 57th Street. Not to mention the subways are full of water, the outer burroughs are a mess and everyone I know in Jersey, aisde from my mom, has been taken back to the Middle Ages.
Luckily, my area of NYC is fine. Power, running water, the works. But I could absolutely understand if people who aren't so lucky have more on their minds than a writing competition right now. Sucks to push things back as that gets into the holiday season where nobody has time, but I think it shold be seriously considered.
I'd be less inclined to do anything that caused me to think very much.
Oh, and Con Ed thinks that some people may not get power for a week to ten days. Not saying you should push it that long, but this is much worse than Irene, at least for NYC.
It's tricky this one. On one hand if no one on the east coast objects then it's probably o.k. to precede as planned. On the other hand if none from the east coast objects they could already have power outages and no way to communicate. I'm fine with whatever you all decide.
Yeah Baltimore turned into the zombie apocalypse during that one. And it wasn't as cold. I can understand, I don't like it, but understand. I vote for the two week option and stagger submissions. Just me though
IMHO, you will never please everybody. Administrative types, do what you see fit with the start date and we will live with it. This is WAR, and sacrifices must be made.
Drea, why did I always think you were from Texas? Your avatar tag makes it plain you're not.
Agreed, let's see what people who are affected have to say, THEN decide. No offense, but anybody voicing their opinions right now who are NOT affected by the bad weather are kind of like the people who call in to vote on a TV news poll and select "No Opinion."
"No offense"
I've never seen this preface anything that was not offensive.
No offense, avery, but your
feet
still
stink.