The little writing community on Labyrinth is my second home.  I’m very much not a fan of the review trading side of the forums, but the writing community side of things more than makes up for part-that-must-not-be-named (again). 

This contest, there’s 12 heartfelt entries ranging from romance, to action, to sci fi and thriller. 

If you love reading, or even if you just like it, or do it when there’s nothing else to do, I strongly encourage you to head on over, read the stories, and vote for your favourite.  Usually, I have 1 or 2 that stick out as my favourites, but this time, the calibre of writing is so good, that I really don’t think I can pick the best. 

I made the mistake of reading Solemn’s Total Net Value, Fifteen Thousand Likes before finished my entry, which had me shitting my pants.  He’s a great writer, and it’s evident in the way he’s written a seemingly normal train encounter into a strange, wonderful, and bleak future-world. 

Emerald Viper’s Hyde and Seek is your typical fantasy short story, with likable characters, tight plot, and all the right fantasy elements –  rouge, wizard, princess, necromancer, rare artefact, escaped shadow.  Everything you could want in an adventure. 

T Rasa’s outdone himself with a fractal city in Powerless, which stars a mundy man in a magical world who is anything but powerless.  He has this uncanny way of approaching things from a rare angle, with entertaining results.  All  I can say is that you never want to cross this man  - the character, yes, but the author too.

Jazzy’s done her best to punch readers in the face with intense emotion, and just continues to turn up the dial from there in Penance.  There’s an interesting twist towards the end that adds a whole new layer to the story. 

You may have heard, the winner is getting two teacups from yours truly.  I’m pretty sure that this isn’t the motivating factor, but it’s just a bit of a bonus.  Here’s what they look like:

T Rasa thinks he’s going to get them.  

I was going to go with a Chaucer story, but recent weather patterns provided so much story fodder that I complete re-wrote my Labyrinth contest entry in 24 hours.

Four days ago, things weren’t looking good for the top end of Australia.  News was dominated by the ‘cyclone sandwich’ that threatened two states.  A Category 3 and Category 4 were rapidly growing and headed to the Northern Territory and Queensland.  Needless to say, as I was the closest to the action, I got more phone calls and texts than usual asking if I was safe.

On Thursday, I went for my usual grocery shop to find that milk, bread, and bottled water had all been sold out.  Man, I thought, this shit just got real.  So I called my clients and offered to reschedule if they wanted to.  All of them wanted to. 

Friday was when the ‘calamity’ was billed to hit the coast.  Cyclone Marcia, was building to a Category 5.  The day opened with blue skies.  It was eerily quiet; all the birds had disappeared.  The air was so muggy it was hard to breathe.  Everyone, yours truly included, watched the radar throughout the day as the cyclone rolled down towards us haphazardly.  Schools were closed.  The office was quiet.

It was weird.  My partner in Brisbane said that it was raining hard.  The news showed pictures of flooding further north.  And yet, here’s Hervey Bay in the middle of it all... fine.  

By Saturday, the remnants of the storm had rolled past us, its effects barely felt at all in the bay.  Even Brisbane got more rain play than this place.

Which prompted the question: What happened?  My partner and I joked that it was my pure optimism that had warded it off.

And that’s how Disaster Squad came to be.  

Since I haven’t been able to write anything, I’ve gotten back into drawing.  How I’ve missed the smell of sharpie markers.  Other than that, my animal adventures have continued.

A cat

I come home one day to find a cat sitting in my yard.  It was huge.  More monster than cat.  It looked at me with blue eyes that chilled me to the core.  It said nothing, but the message was clear – I was the intruder.  Eventually, it left, presumably because it had more important things to do. 

A cat...erpillar

There’s no clearer sign that I’m either lonely or insane when I let live a greedy little caterpillar I found raiding the kitchen herb planters that my mother brought up on her last trip (her thought was that living herbs in my kitchen would somehow transform me from a hobo-soup making neanderthal into some sort of gourmet chef).  Not only did I not smite it, but over the next few days I watched it and realized that it was my brother in gluttony.  Who am I to deny it the existence of excess when I would do exactly the same thing should circumstance prevail?

It took the caterpillar five days to reduce the plants in my kitchen.  Today I went out and bought some more, plus a plastic box to put plant and caterpillar in.

I go to transfer the caterpillar to its new food wonderland and...

Psych!  There’s two of them! 

My partner named them Basil and Dawson.  What an adventure.