New Story Event idea for 2024....

[gunhilltrain]

Mmm... Maybe if the area stretched a bit further west to India. I could use my contacts to come up with something.

There are a lot of events though, but not everyone will enter everything.

I don't mean to sound snarky, but that would be too far west I think. But the geographic boundaries are fuzzy, although maybe that should be up to the writer. (Someone here mentioned Malaya.) Does that include Thailand, the Philippines, Indonesia? I see that Chloe did try to set some geographic boundaries.

A digression: people have various ways of slicing humanity, just so they can get a grasp on it. (Then people will start identifying themselves as something, as if saying, "If you're going to categorize me, than I'm going to outflank you and do it myself.") "Asian" usually does not include Lebanon, although Lebanon is technically in Asia. Then there is "East Asian," "South Asian," and various other phrases that are approximations at best.

 

[KeithD]

I obviously like the thread exercise idea, but since I also don't have any trouble writing to the topic (or most of the other special topic ideas that come up), it doesn't matter to me much if actual exercises are built around the topics or not.

The plethora of author-sponsored exercises obviously does impact on Laurel's work. Many examples have been given of this, and if she won't cut back, I think it's legitimate that authors who'd just like to get their regular-file stories posted in a timely manner to an accessible listing to yammer about it.

I think limiting entries is a legitimate and fair measure. I'm sure I enter more to each exercise/contest I enter than most, but I do so because it's permitted and I have the material. If entries were limited, I'd go with the flow. It would be fair.

I think it's good to have some one-time and fresh topic exercises in the year. Fewer than more would probably be a good idea, though, because the site's capacities, in fact, are impacted by the contests/exercises.

I think the 750-word exercise is a good one to keep because it's a writing development exercise. And why stick to short works any more than to long ones? 750-words is an allowable minimum here. Limiting the number of entries would be fair, though. (It's perfectly legitimate to submit a 750-word story to the regular file, though.)

The pink cloud one is among those that are limiting, either closely limiting in topic or in who is really being invited to write to it. They would be on the bottom of my "keep" list. There are exercises here that are specific-invitation only. I'd ditch those as divisive and exclusionary.

 

[ChloeTzang]

Mmm... Maybe if the area stretched a bit further west to India. I could use my contacts to come up with something.

There are a lot of events though, but not everyone will enter everything.

I don't see any reason why it couldn't be stretched to include stories set in the Raj. I always thought John Master's Bhowani Junction was such a beautifully told story. The British Raj offers such a huge canvas to set stories in, and I've always loved romances in that setting - "Zemindar" by Valerie Fitzgerald, and "The Far Pavilions" by M M Kaye are two of my favorites, so yes, we could definitely broaden the scope.

I don't mean to sound snarky, but that would be too far west I think. But the geographic boundaries are fuzzy, although maybe that should be up to the writer. (Someone here mentioned Malaya.) Does that include Thailand, the Philippines, Indonesia? I see that Chloe did try to set some geographic boundaries.

A digression: people have various ways of slicing humanity, just so they can get a grasp on it. (Then people will start identifying themselves as something, as if saying, "If you're going to categorize me, than I'm going to outflank you and do it myself.") "Asian" usually does not include Lebanon, although Lebanon is technically in Asia. Then there is "East Asian," "South Asian," and various other phrases that are approximations at best.

India would be too far west to be the "Orient" but the event title could be adjusted to broaden the scope. And yes, I was thinking Thailand, the Phillipines and Indonesia as well - keeping in mind Indonesia was a Dutch colony back then, the Phillipines was US, and Thailand was the only independent state in SE Asia. Lots of scope for stories there, and one idea on my own list was a story set in Batavia and Java...

I think limiting entries is a legitimate and fair measure. I'm sure I enter more to each exercise/contest I enter than most, but I do so because it's permitted and I have the material. If entries were limited, I'd go with the flow. It would be fair..... I think it's good to have some one-time and fresh topic exercises in the year. Fewer than more would probably be a good idea, though, because the site's capacities, in fact, are impacted by the contests/exercises.

Yes, I agree. I think Geek Day's a great annual event, there's always interest in it, but a lot of the others I think are better as one-offs. I'll juse my own "Hammered" event as an example. I only ever intended that as a one off but Laurel asked me to run it last year and again this year. But after this year, really I think the novelty has worn off and it'd be better to not repeat it, and come up with a new one. That's why I liked the idea of the Crime and Punishment one.

I was also thinking it might be better for Laurel to set up date/time slots for Open Events built in between the Contests, limit the # of them, and take bookings - build a calendar at the start of the year, mark the slots as "AVAILABLE" until someone makes a suggestion and has it approved. That way the year doesn't get overloaded, and we could suggest some slots are only available for new One-Off events.

There are exercises here that are specific-invitation only. I'd ditch those as divisive and exclusionary.

That's mostly Randi's events, she only runs one or two a year of those, and she has a different ethos and approach for those. They're invitation only, a lot of the writers for those events don't write for the contests or open events, so I don't think those conflict at all with the open invitation events. They really run in parallel to all the contests and events - I like the open events myself because they really encourage writers who might not have written for a contest to give it a try without that competitive edge, and there's no "am I good enough" or anything like that. For mine, I do reach out beyond the usual suspects in the AH to ask if people would like to write for the event but I don't think there's anything wrong with the invitation-only events either. It's just a different approach, that's all.

 

[ChloeTzang]

I don't think Chloe intends this thing to be an annual one, and I support that notion.

Correctemento. This one's intended as a one-off, like "One Night in XXX." Run it once and that's it, probably to replace the "Hammered" event because I think after 3 years that one is getting a bit stale. I do wish Noir was around to write something for it tho.

 

[Voboy]

I think it would be in keeping with Chloe's concept to limit the time and place like so:

• places that were under European colonization prior to WWII.
• places east of 70E and west of 150E longitude.
• places between the 40s latitude.
• set in any period between 1900 and 1940.

What do we think?

 

[ChloeTzang]

And as far as the event name's concerned, I got that from Kipling's "Plain Tales from Hills," and Charles Allen's trilogy, "Plain Tales from The Raj," "Tales from the Dark Continent," and "Tales from the South China Seas."

Plain Tales from The Orient was a play on that

 

[ChloeTzang]

I think it would be in keeping with Chloe's concept to limit the time and place like so:

• places that were under European colonization prior to WWII.
• places east of 70E and west of 150E longitude.
• places between the 40s latitude.
• set in any period between 1900 and 1940.

What do we think?

That would exclude Thailand and Japan and a good part of China, which I'd like to leave open, but I think the cutoff at 1940 is a good point. Maybe take it back a little to the 1890's, but no further back than that.

 

[Voboy]

That would exclude Thailand and Japan and a good part of China, which I'd like to leave open, but I think the cutoff at 1940 is a good point. Maybe take it back a little to the 1890's, but no further back than that.

Oh no. Thailand is smack in the middle, and Japan is included (not Hokkaido, but why not spread out to the 50s if we like?).

For China, anything south of Beijing is fine. Or the whole, if we go with the 50s latitude. So, let's.

 

[Voboy]

…very roughly.

 

[Duleigh]

A dark, foggy night in the poorest district of Singapore, she had never see a city as dark as this before. Somewhere the sound of revery from Japanese troops echoed through the streets, their time was coming. She tried to move as quickly as possible but she was separated from her embassy staff... her heels clattered on the cobblestones echoed through the streets, windows shuttered, even the homeless had found shelter tonight. She turned the corner and bumped straight into a Chinese city policeman.

"對 不 起," he said, apologizing for his clumsiness.

"No, it's my fault entirely," she whispered, then she looked up and her gaze was trapped by his eyes,

"我 們 必 須 找 到 庇 護 所... we can't be on the streets, not tonight."

Again she looked in his eyes, eyes too wise for someone his age, but she knew he was right. Her mouth was dry as she said, "Show me..."

--------------------------------------------

I'm going for Mickey Spillane meets Jackie Chan? It could happen...

 

[Voboy]

--------------------------------------------

I'm going for Mickey Spillane meets Jackie Chan? It could happen...

Not before 1940. Not in Singapore...

We could go to 1945, but I think that would include a BUNCH of WWII stories. And I don't think that's Chloe's intent?

 

[Duleigh]

I think Laurel is watching us, I just received a message on an unrelated topic and she happened to mention that she has a LOT of changes in the works for the website. Could this be what she was inferring?

Then again, it could all be a conspiracy...

 

[KeithD]

Perhaps just gas.

 

[gunhilltrain]

I don't see any reason why it couldn't be stretched to include stories set in the Raj. I always thought John Master's Bhowani Junction was such a beautifully told story. The British Raj offers such a huge canvas to set stories in, and I've always loved romances in that setting - "Zemindar" by Valerie Fitzgerald, and "The Far Pavilions" by M M Kaye are two of my favorites, so yes, we could definitely broaden the scope.



India would be too far west to be the "Orient" but the event title could be adjusted to broaden the scope. And yes, I was thinking Thailand, the Phillipines and Indonesia as well - keeping in mind Indonesia was a Dutch colony back then, the Phillipines was US, and Thailand was the only independent state in SE Asia. Lots of scope for stories there, and one idea on my own list was a story set in Batavia and Java...

Okay, you have the right to set the parameters. I'd like to see somebody try New Guinea.

Ending in 1940 or so seems good. Although, wasn't The Quiet American set in - the 1950's? Is there a limit in the other direction, how far back one could go? How about the Boxer Rebellion? The Russo-Japanese War? Not that I have any ideas for those. Or did you already mention that?

 

[Voboy]

Okay, you have the right to set the parameters. I'd like to see somebody try New Guinea.

Ending in 1940 or so seems good. Although, wasn't The Quiet American set in - the 1950's? Is there a limit in the other direction, how far back one could go? How about the Boxer Rebellion? The Russo-Japanese War? Not that I have any ideas for those.

She's suggested 1890. Which sounds marvy to me.

 

[KeithD]

I don't see any reason why it couldn't be stretched to include stories set in the Raj.

 

[ChloeTzang]

The Quiet American is a bit late, but plenty of scope for French Indochina and those seductive Vietnamese girls, wealthy chinese and their white girls, a la L'Amante, and as for Malaya - those rubber planters and their sleeping dictionaries.... Borneo, the land of the White Rajah, the Dutch East Indies, Singapore, Burma, China.....and the Raj!

Sadly, Roanapur only emerged in WW2...., but gunboats on the Yangtze, Shanghai, Canton, perverted missionaries in the interior. So much scope....so many stories....

Okay, I'll give it the rest of this coming weeks for others to jump in and comment before I ask Laurel. Who knows what new ideas will emerge from the woodwork...

 

[ChloeTzang]

Absolutely! The Raj is included! Have at it, Keith. LOL. This could definitely be a good one.

 

[KeithD]

Absolutely! The Raj is included! Have at it, Keith. LOL. This could definitely be a good one.

These book covers be done deals already. Just to inspire thought on what could be done.

 

[Voboy]

I've already started writing, goddammit to hell.

Colonial administrators in Singapore in '29. Seduction of peoples' wives and daughters in the sultry tropical heat. The usual.

 

[Rustyoznail]

I don't see any reason why it couldn't be stretched to include stories set in the Raj. I always thought John Master's Bhowani Junction was such a beautifully told story. The British Raj offers such a huge canvas to set stories in, and I've always loved romances in that setting - "Zemindar" by Valerie Fitzgerald, and "The Far Pavilions" by M M Kaye are two of my favorites, so yes, we could definitely broaden the scope

I was thinking more along the lines of "Carry on Up The Khyber" but I suppose they work.

 

[Duleigh]

I was thinking more along the lines of "Carry on Up The Khyber" but I suppose they work.

Carry on Up The Khyber?

I'll make an American version, we'll dig up Hope and Crosby for The Road to Angkor Wat

 

[alohadave]

I meant the first page, though. It does make a difference.

The front page could have a lot more readable information on it by moving away from 1990s web design. A simple scrolling news/updates panel would go a long way to improving readability.

 

[Duleigh]

The front page could have a lot more readable information on it by moving away from 1990s web design. A simple scrolling news/updates panel would go a long way to improving readability.

I definitely agree. I was told the front page looks that way because it was designed for use with a cell phone, they saved time and money having one page for computers and the same page for mobile phones

 

[Trionyx]

I was told the front page looks that way because it was designed for use with a cell phone, they saved time and money having one page for computers and the same page for mobile phones

This may all be true however simply using paragraphs to separate the items would go a long way towards making things easier to read.