COUNTING DOWN THE STORM (Temporarily Unavailable) A Novella by D. Ryan Leask
For two days the storm has taken over the city, and two people's lives. A man convinces himself that his life is worthless when his lover leaves him for another man. Alone and depressed, he allows his life to sink into the bowels of civilization. When a wife and mother discovers that her husband is having an affair she abandons logic and gives in to the perilous abyss of jealousy and revenge.
Re-Launch Tentatively Scheduled for Oct 17th:
¦Goodreads - For All E-Readers ¦Smashwords - For All E-Readers ¦Diesel E-Books Store - E-Pub ¦iTunes - For Your iPad/iPhone/Mac¦ ¦Kobo - For Your Kobo¦Sony - For Your Sony E-Reader¦Barnes & Noble - For Your Nook¦Direct From the Author - Mobi E-Pub or pdf¦

Wednesday, August 24, 2011

WE HAVE A WINNER!!!!!!! - #Humpday Challenge Week 11

HUMPDAY CHALLENGE
WEEK 11
Wow!  There were a dozen entries this week!  Not bad considering the last minute change up in location and all! I have a little something something to say about each entry:
@DL_Thurston: Love the flow of your prose!
@theglitterlady: Sweet, sweet death!
@ravensdragonfly: The universe does indeed have a sense of humor.  I hope your next word verification is vixen!  Oh, and remind me never to visit that church!  Yikes!
@caramichaels: Wicked alien!  Wow!
@SweetSheil: Suicide by alien sex, what a way to go!
@MLGammella: I used to think weather satellites were rather inert.  Thanks for clearing that up!
@redshirt6: Makes me wonder why Conrad Storm went to a place with no extradition treaty with Earth.  Hmm, there is a story here my friend!
@nicolewolverton: Absolutely loved your visual!
@qualitywriting: Perhaps a new pheromone, or maybe Lavalife?
@JenD_Author: Great commentary on our own waste!
@saraheolson: Wonderful visuals!
@julie_glover: Good for her!  Great story of triumph

So, here are the winners
@julie_glover - Best non SciFi entry!
@qualitywriting - Best name drop! - "Oh well, at least I always have Tracey Hansen as a backup." 
@caramichaels - Best Alien - "My hatchlings spilled out with focused determination, bonding as I watched. One knelt before my dying form."
@MLGammella - Best use of my word storm - A storm was brewing, a big one that threatened the entire planet.

AND THE WINNER IS
@nicolewolverton
Her story just filled me with delight in it's mysticism!  Here is her winning entry:



The planets swirling around Aberdeen’s head slowed their roll, tilting and winking in the night. She adjusted her headpiece, carefully arranging it at a jaunty angle – not too far to the left, lest she shake the aliens living on Pluto out of their hammocks.

It was time to sleep, return the universe to its usual glide. The day had been hectic, a storm hobbling across the equator of Mercury that spread like a virus, planet to planet.

Aberdeen arranged a silk pillow about her neck and reclined, the lids of her sunbeam eyes fluttering closed. Tomorrow would be another day.





▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄
It's Wednesday and do you know what that means?
Get out your pens and paper keyboards and fingers and get ready to write!

Tracey isn't available to run the challenge this week and I know that all of you are dying for a challenge so I asked her if I could run it this week and she said, "[no response given]" so I took it into my own hands.



This was kind of short notice so I didn't line up a guest judge; looks like I am Judge, Jury and executioner.  Don't forget to stop by her blog and buy some really cool swag!

So without further ado:

Contest is open Wednesday at noon and closes at 8pm (est time)

Incorporate all five words below into a story of no more than 100 words. Any genre! Post your story directly into the comments section.


If you copy and paste from WORD you may have some punctuation errors because my blog hates WORD. Just let me know D.RyanLeask@gmail.com and I will fix it.

Make sure to leave your twitter handle or email address at the end of your post.

The winner will receive a #HumpDayChallenge Winner badge to post on his or her site as well as recognition via Twitter and Google+. Each contestant also agrees to lavish kudos upon said winner!



As always, I encourage offensive language and profanity as long as it is not hateful.
As I am hosting not only this but Steve Umstead's blog tour as well, this weeks words are all SciFi-y:
Universe(-s)
Return(-s, -ed)
Planet(-s)
Alien(s)
And my extra super duper special word is Storm.
WAIT! Did I mention that all winners will get a copy of my novella "Counting Down the Storm" and the overall winner will get it in hardcopy?


15 comments:

  1. See the Universe they said. So I did.

    Visit aliens they said. So I visited them. Saw their history, learned their ways.

    Explore strange planets they said. So I went to them. I saw vistas that brought tears to my eyes, and weathered acid storms that nearly killed me.

    It'll be the time of your life they said. So I went out for a year, did the grand tour.

    I just wish I hadn't done it all at ninety nine percent light speed, so there might have still been an earth when I returned.

    Relativity is a bitch I say.

    @DL_Thurston

    ReplyDelete
  2. Anonymous10:31 AM MDT

    Like the Returner I would skip through time to repeat these moments.
    “You don’t have to do this.” Your whimpers will do no good I’m the master of this planet and your just in the middle of it.
    “That storm drain is your future, my friend.” I pick up my utensil and sharpen it on the grate.
    “No, you…” I stuff the gag in your mouth. No need to waste your last thoughts on deaf ears.
    “I’m not alienating you from the world. I’m saving you.”
    Not sure why I feel compelled to explain to my husband.
    He knows what he did.

    102 words
    @theglitterlady

    ReplyDelete
  3. patricia holdiman10:55 AM MDT

    “When the planets align, it will be time for the alien races to return and probe our bodies.” The preacher man said to the eager crowd of parishioners. “We must practice and be ready.”
    “Wha…?” was all I could utter before the crowed turned to stare at me
    “Look what the universe has brought to our gathering!” the man said “The first volunteer for the anal probing has arrived! Let us give thanks before we begin.”
    That night I learned that it’s safer to stay out in the lightening storm than to go into an old abandoned barn for shelter.

    100 words
    @ravensdragonfly
    btw - just thought it was funny that I am feeling fat this morning and my word verification was 'piginess'..the universe has a sense of humor...

    ReplyDelete
  4. Carrying my precious burden across the universe, I'd rejected this place only to return as my time ran out.

    The planet glowed unlike others, in a swirling storm of blue, green, and white. At first, I merely observed the dominant species. How alien they seemed to me, with their bipedal locomotion and emotional instability.

    Such expressive freedoms were dangerous for my kind, I knew. But I had no choice.

    :Go forth, children.: I thought.

    My hatchlings spilled out with focused determination, bonding as I watched. One knelt before my dying form.

    "Blessed integration, Mother. We two are now one."

    @caramichaels
    100 words

    ReplyDelete
  5. I quaked with pleasure as I felt myself return to the universe. My alien bed partner Cohum had taken me to new heights. Then the storm that was Fossa, Cohum’s mate entered the room. Cohum grabbed me in a clinch which I fought with all my might but how do you fight an alien with six arms and four legs? I was at last happy the planet of Mortis had lived up to its name. I had won in the end suicide by alien.
    @SweetSheil

    ReplyDelete
  6. A storm was brewing, a big one that threatened the entire planet.

    Fucking aliens and their weather satellites

    They used those infernal devices to control their captive planets across the universe. Right when my fellow Rythgarns planned to assault our alien captors, the Dastivas would activate the satellites, devastating our world with electrical storms, furious winds, and everything in between. It was never enough to completely kill everyone but it kept any thought of an uprising far, far away from my suffering people.

    The winds of change were with me. I would not let the Dastivas stop me from returning.

    @MLGammella
    100 Words (tough one this week)

    ReplyDelete
  7. I know I can't win, put that doesn't mean I can't still play!

    The Edge of the Universe is a Lonely Place
    This place was probably causing Douglas Adams to roll over in his grave. "The Amusement Park at the End of the Universe" but Hackensack New Jersey was hardly the end of the universe and there was little amusement. But why was I here?

    Sheltered inside a café that was supposed to be modelled after his fictitious alien stop-over, I sipped my coffee from a spaceship mug and pondered my existence on this god-forsaken planet. My return to the storm reminded me of my cold existence; I let the rain wash me away, back into my pit of despair.

    ReplyDelete
  8. Anonymous12:47 PM MDT

    As the low orbit elevator came to a stop and doors opened, Conrad Storm stepped out onto the landing deck.

    “Welcome to Farpoint Station,” a voice softly blared throughout the cavernous terminal. “Farpoint,” it continued, “is the farthest outpost humanity has settled on its journey out into the universe.”

    “And,” Storm said quietly, “an outpost that has no extradition treaty with Earth.” Too bad, he thought, you could make some serious credits threatening to return people back to that broken planet.

    Looking up, Storm could see the thin fullerene cables as they disappeared, rising into the alien, midnight blue sky.

    100 words
    @redshirt6

    ReplyDelete
  9. The planets swirling around Aberdeen’s head slowed their roll, tilting and winking in the night. She adjusted her headpiece, carefully arranging it at a jaunty angle – not too far to the left, lest she shake the aliens living on Pluto out of their hammocks.

    It was time to sleep, return the universe to its usual glide. The day had been hectic, a storm hobbling across the equator of Mercury that spread like a virus, planet to planet.

    Aberdeen arranged a silk pillow about her neck and reclined, the lids of her sunbeam eyes fluttering closed. Tomorrow would be another day.

    @nicolewolverton

    ReplyDelete
  10. It shouldn’t be unfathomable to find love in this universe, should it? So many alien life forms just roaming freely, you would think one of them would find me desirable. Of course when you come from a planet as fucked up as mine, it’s not likely. Maybe, I should return the Star Trek shirt and the Han Solo blaster, and concentrate on a new pheromone concoction that doesn’t attract cows and fleas. When times are this desperate it feels like I couldn’t find ice in a hailstorm. Oh well, at least I always have Tracey Hansen as a backup.

    99 words
    @qualitywriting

    ReplyDelete
  11. Jen DeSantis1:35 PM MDT

    “When the storm clouds return, the battle will begin.”

    Our planet, Rivulon-5, hasn’t been the same since the aliens came, dumping garbage in our fertile, blue pastures. They ruined us. It’s been two years since I saw my once beautiful home; but now we will have our revenge.

    We’ve traveled through the universe to find them on their blue-green planet. It’s clear why they brought their filth to us. Trash everywhere, smog choking the sky: they ran out of room.

    “It is time,” Raven says as the first drop of acid rain spirals down the plasma shield of our ship.

    100 words
    @JenD_Author

    ReplyDelete
  12. The storm devastated her landscape, thundering through her fertile valley and hammering her bones to dust. Ravaged and sore, she returned to her planet an alien, unrecognizable and unknown.

    She rebuilt herself slowly, developing the delicate mounds of her breasts and the slight swell of her womb. She carved away the excess with a sculptor's chisel.

    She marveled at her creation, from the depths of her soles to the heights of her widow's peak. The universe asked for more, but in order to create, you must first give birth to yourself.

    91 words
    @saraheolson

    ReplyDelete
  13. I lay still on the carpet with my face buried in the shag. The outside storm pelted rain against my windows, matching the downpour from my eyes. The phone’s ring jolted me. I’d lost track of time, forgetting that the planet still rotated on its axis.

    “Sorry,” his rough baritone growled. “You must’ve thought I was an alien. I’m coming back.” My heart wanted to shrug, to agree to his return. Yet, the bruise across my cheek and the lurch in my gut warned it wouldn’t be the last time. “Not in this universe,” I murmured, hanging up and sighing.

    100 words
    @julie_glover

    ReplyDelete
  14. Wow! A shocking win, that!

    Thanks for hosting this week, Ryan!

    ReplyDelete
  15. I finally got a chance to read all of these this morning! Great job everyone! And thanks again to @DRyanLeask for taking my last minute tech troubles and continuing the challenge! : )

    ReplyDelete