I don't have administration privileges over the PtB website which explains much of the dissatisfaction over it. I would address your concerns and tidy it up and even attempted to do that during the previous competition, but was unable to affect that much over it, I'm essentially nothing more than a 'contributor' to the blog and will admit I'd pretty much given up on it as anything other than a place to host stories. It never even occurred to me that there were people in the inflation community who didn't use this website. I'm not a fan of wordpress for this sort of thing anyway, and will be creating a new website on a new service between now and the next contest.
Prose that Blows 11 Results
Hello!
Voting closed a few days ago and I have the result to share.
The identities of the authors are as follows:
- A Note About Inflation - Degausser
- At The Flick Of A Switch - TryalandError
- Check, Please - Inflate 123
- Katie - Habermann
- Lust - Hourglass Lover
- Rage Read - Throwaway261
- Serenity - Lopni Lopnesh
- Stress Inflating - FloatingHigh
- The New Rules - HeliumGirl77
- Untitled - Ironcat5000
- The One Mile Circle - Chatter While Sleeping
Before we start though I must offer my deepest apologies to Chatter While Sleeping. Their story arrived late due to an issue with my spam filter that was entirely my fault not theirs. I did try to find a workaround where it still stood a fair chance of gaining recognition but unfortunately I have come to the conclusion that didn't work, and the story 'The One Mile Circle' was handicapped by this.
But on to more positive news. Here's the top three that you've all voted for in each category (and yes, people do seem to see a real distinction between best and sexiest).
Best Overall Story
It is maybe testament to the quality of entries to this contest that it was such a close-fought battle for the big award. Inflate 123 just nicks it by a single vote ahead of 4 authors in joint second place.
- 1 - Check Please - Inflate 123
- 2 - At The Flick of a Switch - TryalandError
- = - Katie - Habermann
- = - Rage Read - Throwaway261
- = - The New Rules - HeliumGirl77
Sexiest Story
People do indeed differentiate between sexiest and best, and we have a different winner for the sexiest story. Congratulations go to Habermann.
- 1 - Katie - Habermann
- 2 - At the Flick of a Switch - TryalandError
- 3 - Lust - Hourglass Lover
Most Original Interpretation of the Theme
It is always good to reward originality since it is easy for fetish writers to fall back to cliche; and so I'm delighted to see that every single entrant had at least one vote in this category, plaudits though are shared between HeliumGirl77 and Degausser.
- 1 - A Note About Inflation -Degausser
- = - The New Rules - HeliumGirl77
- 3 - Rage Read - Throwaway261
Best Depiction of a Negative Emotion
Well, well, well. I know this category doesn't cover the entire field (although 8 stories recieved votes in it) but Throwaway261 can be justifiably proud to have gained 75% of the vote in this category.
- 1 - Rage Read - Throwaway261
- 2 - Stress Inflating - FloatingHigh
- 3 - At the Flick of a Switch - TryalandError
- = - The New Rules - Heliumgirl77
Best Depiction of a Positive Emotion
It is left up to voters to decide whether a particular story is eligible for categories such as positive and negative emotions, and all but one story recieved votes for this category, many recieving votes for both this and negative emotions. Degausser though, who shared his previous award, gets this one to himself.
- 1 - A Note About Inflation - Degausser
- 2 - Check Please - Inflate 123
- 3 - Katie - Habermann
Most Sympathetic Inflatee
Some people like to root for the inflatee, and those people clearly like the work of Inflate123 and Habermann.
- 1 - Check Please - Inflate 123
- = - Katie - Habermann
- 3 - The New Rules - Heliumgirl77
Least Sympathetic Inflatee
Finally, we have the award for the inflatee people were really rooting against, and once again it was won by a landslide by Throwaway261, who clearly has a talent for the darker side of the fetish with almost 40% of the votes.
- 1 - Rage Read - Throwaway261
- 2 - Serenity - Lopni Lopnesh
- = - Untitled - Ironcat5000
And that brings to an end the results. While I'm disappointed that ChatterWhileSleeping didn't get a fair look it, I'm absolutely over the moon that every other author made the podium in at least one award, which really shows off the quality and variety of writing in the community.
Thank you for everyone who voted, and I hope that everyone who did vote, along with the authors and those who expressed an interest in writing but never managed to get a story it will consider entering the next one.
Regards,
Carnatic.
Sun, 04/26/2015 - 04:43
#3
Sun, 04/26/2015 - 14:36
#4
Thankyou for anyone that read my story and voted, the positive response definitely made me more confident about submitting stories in the future. To be in the running with people like inflate123 and hourglasslover who I've liked for ages was fantastic. Well done to all the writers, some really unique interpretations of the theme.
Mon, 04/27/2015 - 18:34
#5
Honesty, I'm shocked that I placed. This was my first entry, and when I wrote that story, I was just starting to get my feet under me. It is not my best work by a long shot, but I am happy to at least get my foot in the door. Thank you to all who voted for me. :)
Wed, 04/29/2015 - 04:51
#6
Thanks to all for reading and to organizers for the lovely experience.
I enjoy reading PTB since it started, and during a few previous ones I decided that I want to do it once. Kinda - tick a wish: take part in PTB. ^_^
The theme of my story is our family, several scenes being based on our life (like how we fell in love on the festival, the wedding and our home), and a few others on our RPs (like when she almost popped, and when she almost flew away).
Best regards from Maria. We tried to make it acceptable for both of us, the details that would be unsuitable were not mentioned. For the rest - yes, she is normally homely, quiet and cosy in a typical Russian way. Myself, being a Ukrainian jew, have a hotter blood, which helps when the time comes to save damsel in distress ^_^ again ^_^ Maria likes to impose as if she is filled with that happy calm only when I'm around, as if it's my influence, but I don't believe ^_^ Two weeks ago we celebrated our 5 years together.
It was definifely fun, the grade is consistent with what I normally get here, I got my wish, and even won a prize. ^_^
Thank you.
Honestly, I didn't think I did that well with my story to deserve those votes. I mean, I wrote Rage Read in the final 10 hours before the entry cut off and I felt my ending was shaky. Originally, the "punch line" would be a copy of 50 Shades of Grey sitting atop the deflated skin of the protagonist, but I didn't want to date the story. Feels like it lost some snap in the process.
As to The One Mile Circle, I don't think it is your fault, carnatic. ChatterWhileSleeping, I think you did a fine job with your story. It is a solid, enjoyable piece, and I look forward to future works from you, but I do not think it really fit with the theme of this contest. The contest was about emotion fueled inflations, but reading your story I did not see an emotional link to the inflation; just a physical link (magic spell physically links racer and car, car gets fresh tires, racer gains ever-growing spare). That might be why it received less attention than other entries.
I have some concerns and criticisms about how this and the last PtB have been run. Mainly, it feels like the Prose that Blows website has become an afterthought. There is no results page for PtB 10, and there is no announcement of voting or results for PtB 11. In addition, in the past, all entries were organized in the righthand bar under headings of the contests they were entered under. Now, they are just shoved there, organized alphabetically against other stories shoved there and the previous contest titles. The contest has been run under the assumption that everyone in our community comes here (bodyinflation.org) on a regular basis. What should be done is the PtB website should be the main point of contact for the contest, as it has been in the past. It should be that a person can simply post a URL to the PtB site and be able to get everything related to the contest: rules, entry information, voting, stories, and results. It's much easier to spread news of the contest to the various bastions of the community if it is all packaged in a coherent manner. I mean, even one of the contestants in this iteration had some difficulty getting further information. I'm hoping that the website is cleaned up in the near future, and that all future contests are thoroughly documented on the PtB site, if only so that it is easy to get information out to the many camps of the inflation community (bodyinflation.org, inflatechan.net, DeviantArt, Fur Affinity, the dozen or so Yahoo groups, etc.) to maximize participation and enjoyment. Heck, if you need help or are too busy to spruce up the website yourself, carnatic, I would gladly do it for you, having run a Word Press site before.
Still, I'm glad that this contest is still running. It continues to be a source of fresh material from newcomers and old hands alike, and is also surprisingly challenging, writing a story to fit a theme and word count limit. Excellent practice. I'm looking forward to PtB 12, and would like to extend a congratulations to all our winners.
Formerly known as unknown.