[Jan 2019] - AIR - Voting Thread

[xiagan]

Congrats, Bradley!
Your story was so good it attracted some onion ninjas. 

[JMack]

What an excellent story, @J.R. Darewood.
It got one of my two votes. The other went to @OnlyOneHighlander.
I was stuck on two others for third place, and decided to just do two.

Great stories, everyone!

[Jake Baelish]

Congrats @J.R. Darewood. I think you've only posted a couple of times since I started doing this, and I've loved your stories both times - please do more 

Any story that elicits an emotional response is a winner for me, and I had tears in my eyes reading the father's realisation he had to go to save his daughter. Despite not being much of a sci-fi fan (Star Wars aside) that alone made it my number one.

Also voted for @JMack  and @Jenny HJ
Loved trying to figure out what was going on in the room along with the MC; although I agree with Scarlet - what was that ending???

Jenny, your spiders were sweet and I felt so bad for them. Another great sci-fi story 

Almost went with @OnlyOneHighlander  too. It was really well written and enjoyed it a lot!

[OnlyOneHighlander]

Well done Bradley! That story was a real tear-jerker. Brilliant work.

The others I voted for were: @Jenny HJ and her spiders - I like a story from a non-human perspective and the spiders were very well realised.

And: @Cell18 - I really liked the idea of giving someone a slice of history. Reminded me of both Calvino's Invisible Cities and the Sandman story about Baghdad. Great stuff!

Thanks to all who voted for me. I had fun with my story. Might need to bring those characters back for another trip

[D_Bates]

This was a tough one to choose from. There were 4-5 really good ones, but strangely most had one minor flaw around the setting that threw me out, so it became a tough balancing act of which was more pervasive.

In the end I went for Cell18, OnlyOneHighlander, and JennyHJ, but Bradley's was right up there and totally deserving the win.

Cell18's captured my vote with its interesting moral premise and the happy ending. Those are few and far between and, tbh, really hard to do, but I thought this one was done pretty darn well and worth recognising despite the strong competition.
OnlyOneHighlander nailed the characterisation of a pirate crew with great humour and an enthralling environment, and I'm still awed at how much characterisation he delivered on that ship just by giving it a cool name.
And I confess, I also fell in love with Jenny's spiders. The perspective of a different species always interesting to me and one of the appeals I have with fantasy, and the way she drew the twist into the theme of the month was beautifully done.

[ScarletBea]

Funny how some of you praise Jenny's spiders - they just gave me the creeps, hehe (which I suppose is also a compliment )

[J.R. Darewood]

Wow this is such a nice surprise!!!! I'm working on some project proposals all weekend and while short stories are totally unrelated to what I'm doing, all your nice words really lifted my ailing self-esteem and self-doubt. Thanks for the kindness!

Spoiler for Hiden:

especially Jake, that was very sweet. My muse does not like to follow rules, so I end up posting my stories that do not qualify in the discussion sections about 50% of the time!

I had a 4-way tie for who I liked, and in all honesty I debated changing my vote almost every time I logged in.

@Jake Baelish I loved yours because a story about farts is just beyond perfect and right up my toilet-humored alley

@Cell18 you did a really phenomenal job of hitting the theme on the head with a parable-esque story; I enjoyed the feel of it all

@JMack is the master of voice (as usual) and I loved your gentlemanly rivals letting the claws out

@OnlyOneHighlander you really deserved my vote as well, but I only had 3.  Honestly yours was probably the best put together and you had a very clean arc... though I guess I edged it out because it didn't nail the theme quite as solidly as the other three.  Give me 30 seconds and I woulda put it back in tho.

Another one I didn't vote for but really enjoyed was @Carter 's story.  I really frequently like your writing, Carter, and I loved the worldbuilding you did this time around! I wish you had 10,000 more words to develop that idea further!

[Jake Baelish]

Wow this is such a nice surprise!!!! I'm working on some project proposals all weekend and while short stories are totally unrelated to what I'm doing, all your nice words really lifted my ailing self-esteem and self-doubt. Thanks for the kindness!

Spoiler for Hiden:

especially Jake, that was very sweet. My muse does not like to follow rules, so I end up posting my stories that do not qualify in the discussion sections about 50% of the time!

I had a 4-way tie for who I liked, and in all honesty I debated changing my vote almost every time I logged in.

@Jake Baelish I loved yours because a story about farts is just beyond perfect and right up my toilet-humored alley

@Cell18 you did a really phenomenal job of hitting the theme on the head with a parable-esque story; I enjoyed the feel of it all

@JMack is the master of voice (as usual) and I loved your gentlemanly rivals letting the claws out

@OnlyOneHighlander you really deserved my vote as well, but I only had 3.  Honestly yours was probably the best put together and you had a very clean arc... though I guess I edged it out because it didn't nail the theme quite as solidly as the other three.  Give me 30 seconds and I woulda put it back in tho.

Another one I didn't vote for but really enjoyed was @Carter 's story.  I really frequently like your writing, Carter, and I loved the worldbuilding you did this time around! I wish you had 10,000 more words to develop that idea further!

I appreciate those snippets you give us in those discussion thread too, J.R. 

Also, thanks for making me not the only one who can appreciate the acquired taste of finding flatulence at least mildly amusing 

[xiagan]

@Jake Baelish I loved yours because a story about farts is just beyond perfect and right up my toilet-humored alley

Also, thanks for making me not the only one who can appreciate the acquired taste of finding flatulence at least mildly amusing 

Oh boy, you should see my four years old son. He looooves farts. He's imitating them with his mouth instead of giving us kisses and his favorite insult/nick name for grown ups (especially me is 'Pupsnase' (Fartnose)).