Greetings all. I thought I too would get on the self-promotion band wagon and promote my entry, A Crown Of Lilies.

Just over a week in, I've had some lovely comments:

"I'm a romantic at heart and this was beautifully written." - Marisa

"You always write beautiful stories and this was no exception." - Naughty007

And from our own gorgeous Kimmi:

"Wonderful storytelling Piquet." - KimmiBeGood

I'm living proof of the old adage, 'You can take the boy out of the Mediterranean, but you can't take the Mediterranean out of the boy', but you'll just have to read the story to find out what happens. Many thanks all.

A Crown Of Lilies | Lush Stories

Quote by GreyMatter

I don't doubt that, but it's already not the story I intended it to be. This is my first shot at writing pure true fiction. All of my other stories are based on real-life experiences, so the stories come easily. They're also all part of either a 9 or 10 multipart story where each chapter averages about 5000 words. For me to tell a single story in just 4000...it's a challenge

For me, artistic integrity is paramount. I once wrote a 10K story for the 'Noir' competition and it was rejected as not being noir enough. I was then advised to change it and re-submit it. But I just couldn't, the story was perfect as it was (imo) so I withdrew it from the competition and posted it anyway. Think of the competitions as a work assignment - the boss has given you a brief and it's your job to deliver, in time and on budget and hopefully you'll have fun along the way.

Quote by GreyMatter

4000 words? No problem!

Looks at current word count : 7213

Edits..more edits...sections gutted....5621

More edits, remove another section...4836

Edit, reword things, look for brevity...4672

Be merciless, let go of treasured passages, drop subtext that gives the story meaning...4272.

4272 words...left with a story that no longer feels what it was meant to be, motivations are half-sketched, events don't happen naturally, only because they must...not sure if I can cut this down to 4271 words, much less 4000

Lush Gospel Truth #1 You'll get more readers at 4K than you will at 7+K.

Frustrating indeed Carlton. In 1961 Irving Stone published a novel called 'The Agony and the Ecstasy', about Michaelangelo painting the Sistine Chapel. The title refers to the artist's struggle (the agony) to create something good and then the sheer joy (the ecstasy) of having succeeded. Most creators go through this, I know I do. I had to cut about 1K words from my final draft but I'm keeping that material for a sequel. I'm really glad that you decided to enter btw - you always come up with the goods.

Quote by deviantsusie

I'm setting mine on Skellig Michael, location for Luke Skywalker's hideaway planet in episode 7

The Force is definitely strong with this one.

Quote by KimmiBeGood

Island.

Alien.

Tentacle Hair.

Sex.

I got this

You had me at KimmiBeGood, Kimmi.

'orrible, 'orrible, 'orrible. I'm thinking Tahiti, returning Demon Queen, fulfilling ancient prophecies, zombie apocalypse, international swimsuit competition disrupted... Hot, horny archeology graduates have to save the day...

Quote by KimmiBeGood

I love island settings and look forward to y’all’s entries! ❤️

I better sit this one out. My crazy mind went to “One tequila, two tequila, three tequila, Alien!” And you don’t wanna know what she does with her tentacle hair!

I'm in love ! ...with or without tequila.

Quote by CuriousAnnie

Tasmania then ... you know what category I slyly have in mind. Of course there is the question of whether Australia is an island for the purposes of this competition so anything goes.

Ah yes Tasmania, the island notorious for its family dynamics. Q : How does a Tasmanian guy know that his mother is having her period? ...well, you've probably heard it. Go for it I say.

Quote by RowanThorn

<_<

>_>

Why is my mind immediately jumping to horror? Oh well, it is what it is. Probably some mermaids...

Absolutely. I'm all about thinking and writing outside the square these days, so mine definitely won't be about a group of horny Uni graduates in Bali in 2025.

Quote by KimmiBeGood

I have figured out we all love our own writing, else we wouldn’t write it. And none of us can be completely objective when analyzing what we write. To grow, a writer must be open to other’s critiques. And if one isn’t, the same prose is written again and again. And on here likes can be misleading as to the quality of a story. Many truly inspiring unique writings are overlooked by readers for various reasons in which RRs and EPs can help balance things out. You tried to help and it wasn’t acknowledged, so I wouldn’t waste my breath again. I’ve found very few who I think truly appreciate critiques, check their egos, and so I privately discuss or collab with those few.

Excellent point Kimmi. There's only one thing that I value more than a comment on one of my stories, and that's a constructive criticism. Over the years I've made an effort to politely offer my opinion and, sometimes give a little advice to other writers to help them improve. This is especially true with new or first-timers. I've mostly done this privately and generally, my efforts have been well received.

Quote by Zhai

I guess my story of a cheerleader getting off to listening to a nerdy dungeon master vividly describe his years-long high fantasy campaign, is right out

Plausibility is highly overrated in my opinion. Write what you like.

Quote by KimmiBeGood

I agree and also have no clue where to find poetry punctuation rules. Do you? I usually try to find a poem in a similar structure to mine and then copy punctuation. Ha! It’s the best I can figure out. Poetry is a strange animal to me.

I don’t really understand the rules of free verse either.

Good question Kimmi. The rules are the same as in prose. This still applies where you have a rhyme scheme; as in most songs where the lyrics rhyme. There has to be some sort of structure to ensure the lines make grammatical sense. Shakespeare mostly used free verse but made sure that each of his lines had an equal syllable count.

Now let's talk about poetry. I'm immediately turned off of poems without punctuation. In my opinion, a poem calling itself a 'love poem' or an 'erotic poem' still has to convey some sort of logical, coherent story and follow most of the conventions of English. That is hardly possible without any punctuation. Secondly, anyone writing in one of the classical forms of poetry needs to look up what these forms actually are - a sonnet and a haiku for instance, are structured forms. Think of the lyrics of your favourite song and you are closer to writing what in my opinion is good poetry.

Quote by WannabeWordsmith

That was a one- or two-off event recently because a kind benefactor sponsored the top 10.

Ok, thanks WW 😉

Quote by Ascendant

Thank you everybody for putting me on top, I didn't really expect to win (then again, I never do). And congratulations on everyone else too, there were some interesting entries, among those I had time to check

Congratulations and well deserved.

Naughty chat is fantastic, especially in the picture chat rooms. Eye Candy is my particular haunt, and I've had many arousing and intense cyber-sex and role-playing sessions there. Thank you ladies and gentlemen.

...er, I know the competition is over and everything, and I'm quite happy with my RR but didn't we also receive coins in the past for making it into the top ten? Is this still a thing? Thank you.

Well done to everyone who took part in the competition - authors, readers, judges and organisers. Lush competitions bring out the best in us. Speaking personally, competitions provide me with the impetus I need to write. Well deserved congratulations to the winners in particular and to my fellow 'top tenners'.

Quote by Seeker4

Can we just give the prize to this one?😁

No prizes required, but thank you.

Quote by WannabeWordsmith

Haha. Very nice. Can't say that mine fits into any of the above, but I think Hallmark might be giving me a call at some point!

https://www.lushstories.com/stories/love-poems/small-riches

I'm looking at you WW. Worthy of Hallmark or not, I'm glad you made it in.

As end date approaches,

The poems keep flowing;

Full of fucking and sucking,

Cunts cumming and blowing,

Tales of Dommes, sluts and subs

And those tasty wet nubs,

Bi-curious and straight folks,

Daddy's girls and breeders,

But what we authors love most

Are our horny old readers.

Quote by RowanThorn

Been trying to write a poem and failing so far. Unfortunately I recently blew my poetry load on something I’m proud of, but already published. Ah well, have a few more weeks to eak out some inspiration.

https://www.lushstories.com/stories/love-poems/i-dream-of-you-dreaming-of-me-2

Mine is at the 'two A4 pages of scribbling and crossing out' stage. Hang in there Rowan.

As per instructions, here are links to stories by me mentioned in Meet the Authors 3 - Oceania Edition.

1. New Life New Life | Lush Stories

2. I Fuck for Satan I Fuck For Satan | Lush Stories

3. Sphinx Sphinx | Lush Stories

Favourite stories of mine by other authors mentioned :

The Stolen Apartment | Lush Stories by AmuseBouche

Ephemera | Lush Stories by AmuseBouche

Le Métro | Lush Stories by AmuseBouche

Lo! Baphomet! I. Cult As Fuck | Lush Stories by StarBelliedBoy

A Christmas Carol Cock-up | Lush Stories by CuriousAnnie

Thanks again to all who took part in this event.

Quote by Ensorceled

If you could provide us late risers with a copy of the text after the chat, that would be awesome!

I believe that the previous two 'Meet the Author' episodes are saved in Forum - Chat. I'm sure this one will be too.

Quote by Ensorceled

I TRIED THAT!

As a clever and creative kaiju (with three heads no less) I'm sure you'll come up with something. Hang in there.

I propose Lush introduces a new 'Comment Collector' badge. One of the competition entries is now past 80 comments and WELL DONE 👏

Totally off topic, but here's an idea for a future competition. All entrants pick one of their old stories and submit it. Include only non series, non poetry and no previous competition entries. Word limit might apply. This would be a great way to get some of our older stuff read and since we don't have to write, we can concentrate on reading. The fun comes in choosing what to submit...

A new competition ! Woo Hoo ! ...and with fewer words, the number of re-writes goes down while readership goes up. WIN/WIN

A huge 'Well Done' to TheShyThespian, Sprite and KatieTheWriter. I read and greatly enjoyed all three winning stories. To all the runners up and to everyone who participated in the competition, either as a writer or a reader - You are awesome !