I'm proud to announce that the entries for Prose that Blows 11 are all in, I've checked them all and posted them to the WordPress site.
We have 10 in total, and I'm delighted with this number so thank you very much to all the authors, the identities of whom will be made known once voting ends.
Just to recap on this contest's theme:
This eleventh iteration of the popular Prose that Blows is all about emotion… specifically emotion-fired inflation. What we want you to do is write a story where the inflatee’s emotional state and state of inflation are intimately linked. This can take one of a number of forms, it could be that the emotion somehow causes the inflation, but we want you to be as creative as possible about about how the link is manifest. We’re not just saying focus more than you normally would do on the emotions the inflatee feels, we want to see it become a plot point.
ENTRIES
As you may well know, all entries must come in under a word limit, in this case 1000 words. This is to keep them to a bitesize length to encourage people to read them all. I recommend that everyone read all the stories; they are also all standalone pieces of original fiction not continuations of previous stories, reuses of existing characters, or stories set in external fictional universes. They should be accessible to anyone who is able to read English.
The entries are, in alphabetical order:
VOTING
I've set up a poll, people wishing to vote can do so here:
http://carnatichall.polldaddy.com/s/prose-that-blows-11-voting
Or you can vote below. The categories and stories are all arranged into a single matrix, with one column selectable in each row.
Voting will remain open until midnight GMT on Monday the 20th of April (i.e. votes must be in before the end of Sunday the 19th of April... GMT). I will then count the votes up and announce the winners, as well as the indentities of all the authors.
Edited by LVK: Replaced email voting with PollDaddy links
True, we used polldaddy last time but I'd completely forgotten. I looked for a poll site where it wasn't stupidly easy to vote multiple times, then came to the conclusion that we must've used email voting in the past.
Now you've brought it up, I've dug out the old voting thread to see how we did it and rediscovered polldaddy so I'll get the voting set up on that.
OK, I've set up a poll, people wishing to vote can do so here:
http://carnatichall.polldaddy.com/s/prose-that-blows-11-voting
Of you can vote below. The categories and stories are all arranged into a single matrix, with one column selectable in each row.
OK, the iframe is viewable in the preview but not when I post it, you'll just have to follow the link to the polldaddy site ;)
Edited the post to get the iframe working. Will also add this to the main post.
Muchas gracias Luthero
A gentle reminder that it is douchey to vote for your own story. If you are an author in this event, please vote for stories other than your own. Your endorsement of your own work is implicit. :)
So hard voting on this one XD This round more than any others there were stories that I would love to see fleshed out bigger and longer, so good...
I have one additional story. It appears that someone sent a story in in February but it never arrived, they got the right email address so I'm not sure what happened, It might have gone into my junk folder but I've never seen anything in there. Admittedly I've just checked the junk mail settings and it appears that any mail put there is deleted after only a few days, and sadly this setting cannot be changed, nor can the junk filter be disabled, so if ever I go away for a week it could well be that stories get submitted and then lost. I think a couple of those who entered might remember issues where I didn't recieve emails from them, could be that the same happened to their submissions.
Anyway, they noticed that their story wasn't in the list of entries and have emailed it in.
What do people suggest I do about it? If I'm honest this is a bit of a disaster, we've already recieved 28 votes. I could restart voting from scratch and ask everyone to make sure they've read the new story and cast their votes again but I fear this could scupper the contest for everyone, not just for the person whose submission I didn't recieve as faith in the contest may be lost and many may be unwilling to vote again.
In future I'll ask people to either make their submissions using some other method such as PMs on this site, or to submit via email but assume that if I don't respond within a few days confirming I have their story, then I haven't recieved it.
You already have 28 votes, which is more than than the total votes for most Prose that Blows competitions. I think it's too late to reset the voting now. You'd do more harm than good.
The options alternatives are adding the story to the voting options mid-voting or not entering the story ito the contest at all. Adding the story at this point puts it at what is most likely an insurmountable disadvantage, but there's almost a month until voting closes so it might have a chance. That's what I'd recommend, unless the author objects.
Presumably, however, if carnatic were to dump the current votes and restart, he could also readjust the voting timeframe. Set the new poll closing for 27th to give those who have already voted ample time to do so again.
Then again, we run into the convience of voting as mentioned earlier in the thread. Having to vote again may prove to be too great an annoyance for some of the voters.
Now I kinda feel bad about mentioning the polls verses emailed ballots thing. If I had kept my mouth shut, everyone who had voted could be contacted about a makeup vote.
Also, carnatic, you may want to see if a prosethatblows at gmail.com is available. Gmail doesn't delete spam until a month after receiving it.
Voting on Prose that Blows has been temporarily suspended while I sort out how to fix it in a fair way.
When voting reopens you will have the option to read and vote for the new story.
People who have already voted will have the option to change their votes if they wish to do so once they read the new story.
Any particular reason why we are emailing in votes rather than using an anonymous polling system? I'm somewhat concerned that readers may choose not to vote if they know their vote is not strictly anonymous, or if they consider emailing their vote too inconvenient.
Formerly known as unknown.