Shoot the Rhino

A new article of mine is up at The Internet Writers Journal

http://www.internetwritingjournal.com/articles/shoot_the_rhino.htm

The analysis of Gladiator is an occassional element of the theme course at Kingisher Barn (Newbury, Berkshire)

Almost Back

The last two months have been a bit sloppy, so September we'll be blasting. There's room for a few new BCers if you're interested.

Meanwhile...



PROMPTS

Deadwood, Dead Wood

Merde Happens

You Drive Me Crazy

How Many Saucers Do You Need?

The virgin with the child; the birth

It is another country

Riding the Yellow Trolley-Car

So there was nothing?

MARGARET FUCKING THATCHER

I want you to know how it was.

She turns paint to flowers

Two Black Labradors

Three boatloads of Dublin's unemployed

The Credit Check

The meaning of everything

Middle, no middle

The scene you must imagine is a square, and inside, circles

SENSATIONAL DISCLOSURES!

Ich, Ni, San, Shi, Go

Prize Update 50 REACHED!!!

FIRSTS




001 Fleur wins $2,000 Guardian/Virgin Trains Prize


002 TomC wins Mary Gornall ($150)


003 TomC wins Grace Die Writers ($400)


004 Caroline wins Blaenau Gwent ($170)


005 Cally Joint Winner BBC Sedbergh Prize (Broadcast)


006 Cally wins $400 Lancet Prize and publication.


007 TomC wins $200 Pier Pressure Short-Story Prize


008 RVJ wins $200 Pier Pressure Poetry Prize


009 DPJ wins Momya






SECONDS - Runner-Up




001 DaveP RUNNER-UP in Biscuit. WINS Digital Voice Recorder ($84)


002 Cally runner-up in Cotswold Prize ($50)


003 Jenny Jackson $100 second at JBWB






THIRDS




001 Lexie 3rd in Grace Dieu ($100)


002 Fleur 3rd in Charnwood Arts


003 Alex in Cadenza $100


004 RVJ 3rd in Liverpool Comp $20


005 RVJ 3rd in Yeovil Novel Comp $200




FINALS




001 Colin named shortlist at Happenstance


002 Lexie Highly Commended at Cafe Writers


003 Cally HC at JBWB


004 Caroline HR runner-up at Flashquake


005 BCer shortlisted (results TBA) at Philip Good


006 Cally shortlisted in Biscuit


007 ColU shortlisted in Biscuit


008 Joel shortlisted at Tonto


009 RVJ shortlisted at Earlyworks (1)


010 RVJ shortlisted at Earlyworks (2)


011 RVJ HR'd at JBWB


012 Cally HR'd at Twisted Tongue


013 Caroline HR'd in Spring JBWB


014 TomC shortlisted at Earlyworks


015 Alex named shortlist Cadenza (Santiago)


016 Colin named shortlist Cadenza (Jared Williams)


017 Cally HR at Writelink Weekender


018 Joel longlisted at Cadenza


019 Joel shortlist at Writelink


020 TomC at Kings Lynn - 1


021 TomC at Kings Lynn - 2


022 TomC at Kings Lynn - 3


023 Lexie at Kings Lynn


024 MJH at Kings Lynn


025 JJ HR at Frome


026 MJH Rec at Leaf Books


027 Cally HR at Momaya


028 RVJ shortlisted in Liverpool comp


029 MJH shortlisted, Pier Pressure


030 TomC shortlisted Pier Pressure


031 Debbie shortlisted Pier Pressure


032 RVJ Finalist First Writer ($60)


033 Alex last 3% in Glimmer Train

August

August Hits, tidied up

03 First Places
01 Third Place
05 Finalists

09 TOTAL

15 Total Hits, seven paying $ 981 earned.

AUGUST




125 TomC wins Pier Pressure Short-Story Prize $200


126 RVJ wins Pier Pressure Poetry Prize $200


127 TomC (2nd story) shortlisted at Pier Pressure


128 DPJ shortlisted at Pier Pressure


129 MJH shortlisted at Pier Pressure


130 DPJ wins Momaya Short Story Prize $260


131 TomC story taken by "Behind the Wainscott"


132 Jason Jackson acceptance at 3 AM Magazine


133 TomC at Written Word Mag ($6)


134 MMW places "Rupert's Arms" at Afterburn SF ($30)


135 AK places at First Writer $60 Free Year


136 RVJ 3rd in Yeovil Novel Comp ($200)


137 Matt Plass into Flashquake $25


138 TomC Poem at Mythic Delirium


139 Alex makes final in Glimmer Train with "My Son, Going Under"

Back to Work!

Fifteen days, no posts. If I ever get the time I will try to fill readers in on everything that's gone on in the intervening fortnight, a strange and trying time personally (and a quiet time for Boot Camp.)


HITS

I think our last hit was number 133 for 2007

134 was DMW having an acceptance from Afterburn Scince Fiction Magazine and a payment of $30

135 was RVJ making the finals at First Writer and getting a years subscription ($60)

136 was yours truly $200 3rd at Yeovil for "The Bella Archipelago"

137 was Boot Camp NEWBIE Matt Plass getting his first-ever hit at Flashquake , and it pays! ($25)

138 was TomC's first-ever poetry hit at Mythic Delirium

139 was moi, a very near miss at Glimmer Train (see below)

Dear Writer, Although your work did not make it all the way to the top 25, it did make it a long, long, LONG way through the judging process (top 3%) and you are a finalist in our first Family Matters competition--nice work!
(If you log in and click on "My Submissions," you will see that designation.)

Be sure to mention your finalist status as you send your stories out into the world. We'll look forward to reading more of your work!

All best to you, Linda -- Linda Swanson-Davies, co-editor


That story was a strange one for me. A little while back my son had a nasty broken wrist requiring an operation and I wrote about the complex thoughts and emotions I experienced at the time.

The most difficult moment was that as my son went out, under the anaesthetic, he whispered, "I love you Dad" and at the moment it felt the same as seeing him die. I was hit for six, then endured 3-4 hours of agony while he was operated on and then waiting for him to come round.

A few days before that I had been witness at 3AM to a vet putting down a deer. That found its way into my consciousness also, and somehow to I flipped everything in my head and saw ME dying with my son standing and saying "I love you Dad."

A few other things "impinged" too, and though the piece meant a lot to me, I believed it was far too messy and difficult to place anywhere.


I was wrong, and the last 3% at Glimmer Train is a damn good hit.


Moral, submit, submit, submit.




Alex

Thursday prompts

Great crowds are fleeing from a major disaster

For as at a great distance of place

The spaces between houses

Hideous bridesmaids

The Cucumber Story

How comforting it is, once or twice a year

The smell of fresh earth, improvised crosses

I will never come down

A small boat, tugging on its rope

Runt of the litter

Before she was a virgin

Either lunch or dead soldiers

The Money Tree

Cheating in the pub quiz

Whether I live or die, what proceeds

I sold him a toothless, beakless, canary: sucker!

Pedigree chum

Despatched with a mattock

My Own Beach

Fearing Tigers, Snakes, Malria, Lost Japanese

And in the red corner, hate

We don't like your white cottage

It's not because yer dirty, it's not because yer clean
It's becaise you live in a council-house and eat margarine

Prompts, Tuesday

Rib Cage

Hamilton has the answers

Alarm set for six

Half of a yellow sun

But will you be COMFORTABLE?

I am sure I would not survive

Miscellaneous Words

This season you'll need both

When can we expect to see you playing again?

Rich and Ugly or Poor and beautiful?

Emotional Sat-Nav

Meat Pies and Toothless Men Shouting Abuse

The first step into the unknown

Haunted Hero Tired and Emotional

Bread Pudding

Buried, Burried, Berried

Oop Narth

Trams and Pies

She shows she has what it takes

Monday Prompts

Young Male Drivers
Lethal Injections Can be Painless
On the other hand
A thorn is a thorn is a thorn
Six or so hills
Ring my wife, she has my number
Notes on Performance
Driving age set to rise
The Game
Blackmailing Mother Theresa
Offer applies to stickered items only
Set inside the four walls
Chug
Hair to Dye For
Ten Thousand Hungry Vultures
Don’t be a goon, Boris
Rapid Breakdown Recovery
Sewage! Minister Steps In!
Horrid Henry
Winds Create Pacific Dead Zone
After Five Years of Suffering I Have No Pain
In Times of Doubt Listen to Kipling
The Jag or the Land-Rover?
Hello Dolly
Enhance Your Retirement, Consider the Options
We’ll Work Something Out
Chief Plots Next Step
Creaking America
Bald Guiseppe

Another Hit for Tom

TomC clocks BC's 133rd hit of the year, a story taken by Written Words Mag and paying!


Question is, how many meals out does £3:20p cover?

Sunday's prompts

He was an old man who fished alone in a skiff



An apple fell



The sun rose thinly from the sea and the old man could see other boats



I waited for the duty sister



He looked down into the water and saw tiny fish



Night Sweats



Pretending to work, I retire to my office



Today will have three parts



It is not what they built. It's what they knocked down.



The days come too early, they move slow



That's why I went and kicked the bucket



Even your name is ugly



I look up at a strip of grey autmn sky



We fuck them up. In return they kill us.



The business of floating



Motorised Mirrors



Ring of Barbed Wire



Moth Balls

Loada Prompts

I love you as one loves certain obscure things

Sipping a cup of camomile tea

I would like to watch you sleeping

When rain is needed

I bought a brown paper bag of peaches from a boy at the end of the road

Our shutters are shut, our fire is low.

I loved my father most as he walked home from work

Why don't we say goodbye right now?

I may love you so I've hidden my shoes

An apricot commode is forever

Pink rubber gloves moiling in dishwater

Lucy lives behind this house

Children kill their parents many times

The many difficulties of being alone

Because my mother hurt my father, I will abandon you.

I gave my dog a stone.

In your sleep you mumble those things you almost said when you were drunk

A Martian came in through a window and sat on my bed last night

What silence when you are here!

A wife shoved a bayonet into her husband's head

When I looked at my parents I never thought of tragedy

I sit still, overwhelmed, worn out by the night

Three times in my life, my heart has opened, closed.

Insomniac Prompts

At Smollensky's we drink words and smoke

Oyster smacks, crabbers, the dead

Like my father's rose-bushes

Gerald Gerund, Thinking

Ivan Ellavanitch and the Recalcitrant Flea

Candled Eggs, Lovers

My smile is ingeniously camouflaged

Asleep on a razor-blade, trying not to wake

I sit quietly on the bed and think

Because animals are slaughtered

Great White Bollocks

Guy Ropes

Under My Kilt, Another Kilt

This is the story of the dead

My date waits outside the organic butchers

The long curtain, the short

Notice, I do not have grace

My father, as his boot comes down

Old rotten planks, rope

You do not know how long you have been here

Yes, and my answer is this...

Everything should be fifty-fifty, six of one

Wise words come true

TomC writing:

Back in May , AK wrote on this blog:

I knew I'd be away for the last 8 days of May and we were a long way short of our monthly subs target when i left, but I'm happy to note that for the third month in succession the subs target has been met and exceded.

It takes 6-20 weeks for the effect of this subbing to show, but it will show!

Look at the rush of hits that BC has posted in the past few days - it works...

Latest Hits Stats

BC Prizes and payments now total $4,543

I have finally put this on a spreadhseet and discovered we were abnnouncing about $300 less than actual.

Congrats to recent prize-winners and also to Tom who has an acceptance from "Behind the Wainscott" and Jason who has placed a story with 3AM Magazine, a very tough market

We failed to separate June-July (34 total hits) fractionally better than one every other day (see below) whereas Agust has got off to a flying start with EIGHT hits earning $660

JUNE-JULY



091 TomC story in Ballista (Print)

092 Alex places collection at Salt (print)

093 Jason Jackson places at six sentences

094 NW places at six sentences

095 Tom places at Underground Voices $30

096 Amy places at six sentences

097 Jason Jackson places at Smokelong

098 TomC paces at Defenestration

099 Cally at Liars League

100 Alex places at Parameter (Print)

101 TomC shortlisted at Earlyworks (print anthology)

102 Joel in Pen-Pusher Magazine (print)

103 Alex Named Short-List at Cadenza (Santiago)

104 Alex 3rd at Cadenza (Sparrow)

105 Colin Named Short-list at Cadenza

106 Cally HR at Writelink Weekender

107 Joel named longlist at Cadenza

108 Joel shortlist at Writelink

109 Cally Joint-Winner Sedberg Prize

110 TomC shortlisted at Kings Lynn (1)

111 TomC shortlisted at Kings Lynn (2)

112 TomC shortlisted at Kings Lynn (3)

113 MJH shortlisted at Kings Lynn

114 Lexie shortlisted at Kings Lynn

115 JJ Highly Commended, Frome

116 MJH Commended Leaf Books SF Comp

117 Cally story at "tobereadoutloud" ($100)

118 Chrissie at Smokebox

119 Chrissie

120 CallyHR at Momaya (Anthology)

121 Joel in Twisted Tongue

122 RVJ places 3rd and shortlist in Liverpool Comp

123 Cally a First Place Winner at Lancet $400

124 BC Member places in comp. Results not yet public



AUGUST



125 TomC wins Pier Pressure Short-Story Prize $200

126 RVJ wins Pier Pressure Poetry Prize $200

127 TomC (2nd story) shortlisted at Pier Pressure

128 DPJ shortlisted at Pier Pressure

129 MJH shortlisted at Pier Pressure

130 DPJ wins Momaya Short Story Prize $260

131 TomC story taken by "Behind the Wainscott"

132 Jason Jackson acceptance at 3 AM Magazine