Featured Member Interview with Tantzaerine (and special thanks to Newm for conducting the interview).

Congratulations on being named January’s Featured Member!

What? Me? How did that happen?

A Happy New Year of fruitful writing to you all.  For the first challenge of the year, I'm picking up a topic that was suggested a couple of months ago.  Write a story about dreaming.  That's it: you can write about a single dream, a series of dreams or the process of dreaming, or any other spin you want to put on it.  The only rule (apart from the usual) is that dreaming must be central to the story.

Please read on for the complete rules. Failure to follow the rules will lead to disqualification, whether you read the rules or not.

December is just going so quickly, and so it is time again


Nominations for January's Member of the Month are now open. Nominations will be taken for one week and end on midnight, the 27th (see server clock). You may nominate any member you like save for those on the list below, but you may not nominate more than one. To nominate, please send me, pmmg, a PM with the word NOMINATION in the subject line.

Exempt Members below:

First of all, apologies for the lateness of the results.  A relative of the thread-monster ate one of the stories, and in all fairness I needed to wait till the judges had managed to get to that one too.

With a record number of entries, places are at even more of a premium than usual, and a large number of excellent stories haven't placed.  I just want to congratulate everyone who tackled the difficult art of writing very compactly.

First Place:  Sweepers  by lesliweird
A flood story for the contest.

Second Place:  The Dreamtime  by MAUL
This has been posted once as my November challenge entry. I've been advised by the mods to resubmit due to its unexplained disappearence! (thanks to the mods in question!)

Third Place:  Bloody Vampires  by writerguy
A frenzied visitor bursts into Merry's Tavern with a message of impending doom.

Members Choice:  Anaxus  by pmmg
The Alliance broken, and its champion fallen, Anaxus moves to destroy it all.

Congratulations to everyone.

Another month, another well-loved member and talented author. Please join me to congratulate our December Member of the Month: the other dude with the guitar , the one and only.... Tommygunn45!

Me?? But…but…my speechwriter is on vacation! Seriously, I’m honored to join the ranks of MoMs. Thanks!

'Tis December, the month of Christmas, Yule, or whatever festival you celebrate in the deep midwinter.  I'm not going to ask you to write a Christmas story (that would be unfair to members who prefer invented worlds) but your challenge is to write a story containing the following elements: a gift, a tree, a feast, someone wearing red, and (in honour of Santa's sledge) a flying object that doesn't usually fly.  You can interpret these elements as you like (and connect them to Christmas or not, as you please) but each of the five must play a significant part in the story.

Please read on for the complete rules. Failure to follow the rules will lead to disqualification, whether you read the rules or not.

Wow...its that time again.

Nominations for Decembers's Member of the Month are now open. Nominations will be taken for one week and end on midnight, the 27th (see server clock). You may nominate any member you like save for those on the list below, but you may not nominate more than one. To nominate, please send me, pmmg, a PM with the word NOMINATION in the subject line.

Exempt Members below:

Sorry these are a day late: the downtime at the beginning of the month made it a little difficult to catch up.  There was a very high standard this month, and a lot of stories were within reach of placing, but these are results the judges finally came up with.

1st Place:  Bane of Text by writerguy
Writerguy goes on an expedition across several genres to find the perfect story for the October Challenge!

2nd Place:  Romeo Jones and the case of the necromantic nanny
Welcome to the world of Romeo Jones, the world's only professional exterminator of the undead. He hates hauntings - and this is why.

3rd Place:  The Death of Buri by tommygunn45
The struggle of two boys as their friendship is tested by outside forces.  Pulled in different directions, the substance of each is laid bare.

Members Choice:  When Wolf Met Jude by jas
This is a really short tale of how two of my favorite characters met one another.....a cool October night, a masquerade and a little play on the rules of attraction.   Hope you like.

Congratulations to all the winners.

The crown has been passed and November has a new Queen. Many thanks to Bowfinder for her interview of this months featured Member, Warriorchick.

Hello there, WC.  For any FWO members who don’t already know you (and that means any who’ve been living underground for the past year), tell us a little about yourself.

Wow, where to start? I’m 23, from Oklahoma, have brown hair and blue eyes, am 5’3, and weigh...uh, well, you all don’t need to know about that. I come from a large family with 7 kids and more aunts, uncles, and cousins than you can shake a stick at. I’m the proud aunt of Robert, 2 months old; the proud great-aunt of John IV, 8 months old; and the adopted “auntie” of most of the little kids at church. (I love kids.) I’m a full-time, online college-student--and just got invited to join my second honor society! Along with my two sisters, I’m a homeschooling teacher, and have been for the past six years. My current “motivational” songs are Red High Heels (Kellie Pickler) and Mountains (Lonestar). 

This came out of the discussion of the forum, and it's a little different from usual.  Your challenge this month is to write a "flash" story (ie no more than 1000 words).  Since we're expecting a "flash flood", your story should in some way involve a flood - and you can interpret that as you wish.

Please read on for the complete rules. Failure to follow the rules will lead to disqualification, whether you read the rules or not.