Posts Tagged ‘twitter’

Last night, the word for the final round of NYCMidnight's "Tweet Me a Story" contest was provided: BELOW. Here are my entries, all 140 characters or less (titles added afterward for fun):

Keeping Your Spirits Up

"Still below the weather, hon?"
"Much better now."
"The nap helped?"
"No, finding the poison you used on me and dosing your tea did."

Finding Your Inner Freak

“Huh. We tried abuse, vinyl, shoes, nothing.”
“Can't I just not have a fetish?”
“C'mon,” she said, lashing me from below, “that’d be weird.”

The Final Battle

“I’m a wizard,” he cackled, from his room below our stairs. And maybe he was. But it turns out that the wizard’s natural enemy is the Taser.

Results will be posted January 7th, and I'll be sure to harangue… um, ask nicely for your vote, if I make it that far.

Today is the last day to vote for the "Tweet Me a Story" first-round finalists, of which I are one. Actually, I are two.

Recap: NYCMidnight's "Tweet Me a Story" gives contestants 5 hours to write a story of 140 characters or less which must include a supplied word. My word was BETTER. Entrants could submit up to 3 stories, and 25 finalists were chosen. Two of my stories made the cut. Now the judges will select the top winners, but there will also be a reader's choice winner and that's where my shameless begging comes in.

If you've got a mind to, please consider going here and voting for my stories. They are:

From my blanket, I watched the surf. "It doesn't get any better than this."
From his time machine, me from 2023 sighed. "No, it doesn't."

"That's it, I have to know. You've been with me and with Mike. Which one is the better man?"
I smiled. "The one who didn't have to ask."

Both are marked as BY CHRIS BRIDGES. You can vote for as many as you like, but only once. No registration required.

VOTE VOTE VOTE VOTE VOTE VOTE VOTE VOTE VOTE VOTE VOTE VOTE VOTE VOTE VOTE VOTE VOTE VOTE VOTE VOTE VOTE VOTE VOTE VOTE VOTE VOTE VOTE VOTE VOTE VOTE VOTE VOTE VOTE VOTE VOTE VOTE VOTE VOTE VOTE VOTE VOTE VOTE VOTE VOTE VOTE VOTE VOTE VOTE VOTE VOTE VOTE VOTE VOTE VOTE VOTE VOTE VOTE VOTE VOTE VOTE VOTE VOTE VOTE VOTE VOTE VOTE or not, you know. Up to you.  You can see the rest of the finalists in the other groups here. Voting ends 6 p.m. EST tonight.

Thanks.

It started out as  a simple little poll…

AfterElton posted a poll looking for Man of the Decade, and with an impressive lineup the race between Neil Patrick Harris (How I Met Your Mother, Dr. Horrible) and John Barrowman (Dr. Who, Torchwood) was within 20 votes of each other.

Then Twitter got involved.

First NPH posted a low-key appeal. Then Barrowman, new to Twitter but enthusiastic, responded. And then the battle was on, as the titans of Twitter began marshalling their forces to support their allies.

UK host Jonathan Ross supported Barrowman. Nathan Fillion and Felicia Day threw in between NPH. Comedian Chris Hardwick and actress Alyssa Milano also rallied to NPH's side which should have been it, but author and Twitter Lord Neil Gaiman cast his lot for Barrowman ("Captain Jack asked first.").

Follow #biggaybattle to see the soldiers fighting to rally other big name Twitterati as they battle for Man of the Decade! And go vote yourself. For whichever one; I'd be happy if either man won. Or if they tied, and had to fight it out with some sort of oil.

The results of the first round are in, and of the 25 top stories selected in my group, two of them are mine. This pleases me, and causes me to weep for the next generation of writers.

Starting at midnight, you can vote for your favorite Tweet Me a Story story, and I'd appreciate it if you would consider voting for mine. If you thought them worthy, of course. Or even out of misguided friendship, shameless pandering, or guilt. It all works for me.

The stories chosen were:

From my blanket, I watched the surf. "It doesn't get any better than this."
From his time machine, me from 2023 sighed. "No, it doesn't."

and

"That's it, I have to know. You've been with me and with Mike. Which one is the better man?"
I smiled. "The one who didn't have to ask."

And you can vote here. Vote early and vote often!

NYCMidnight started up their "Tweet Me a Story" contest again last night, and once again I'm taking a swing at it. Rules: entrants must write a 140-character-or-less story using the supplied word. Entrants had 5 hours to come up with up to three entries. My group's word was BETTER. Here's what I submitted, with titles added here for the fun of it:

Self-Improvement

“Dammit, could you be a better man just once in your life?”

"Oh, sure," he laughed, lunging for her.

“Could you hurry?” she said, and fired.

Memories

From my blanket, I watched the surf. "It doesn't get any better than this."

From his time machine, me from 2023 sighed. "No, it doesn't."

Dying to Know

"That's it, I have to know. You've been with me and with Mike. Which one is the better man?"

I smiled. "The one who didn't have to ask."

I'll keep you posted on the results, because you know you're desperate to know. And here's one that didn't make the cut:

Keeping Your Spirits Up

"Are you feeling better, hon?"

"A little."

"Did the nap help?"

"No, but finding the poison you used on me and slipping it in your tea did."

The West Port Book Festival is hosting their first Literary Twestival in Edinburgh on August 14th. But you don't have to be within a thousand miles of the place to participate…

Just post your short-short-short story to your Twitter account and include the hashtag #wpss (for West Port Short Story). The best will be presented ay the Festival, as people on site are invited to create their own on the spot. Or submit a Collective Noun for their approval (such as "A wunch of bankers," " ______ of mime artists,"A whorde of prostitutes," etc).

No prizes (that I know of), just the fun of stretching your mind in a little tiny space. And check out the ones already submitted here.

If you're not following @drhorrible on Twitter, you're missing some good stuff and sneaky updates like this one. Just sayin'.

I won the audience award! You like me! (sniff) You were shamed, guilted, and/or pressured into admitting you really like me!

Thanks, everyone, for voting for me.

Didn't get the judges' prize but I did get into the top ten, which means I also won entry into NYCMidnight's 2009 Creative Writing Contest, which starts this Friday night. Forget Father's Day, kids, daddy has to get his write on.

The new contest is a bit different, and only slightly less complicated than a March Madness betting chart made with a Spirograph. It works on a points system.

Once again I'll be in one of several writer groups. Starting this Friday night, we'll be given a location that must be featured, an item that must be included, and a specific genre, and we'll have 2 days to write a 1,000 word short story.

The judges will read them all, put them in order of preference and award points for our placement (#1 gets 25, #2 gets 22, etc). We get more locations, items, and genres and we write another 1,000 word story in July. Our points get added together, and the top 10 writers in each group move on to the next round.

We get reassigned to new groups, do it all over again in August, and the top ten from each group gets points but only five writers from each group move to the next round, based on the top three stories along with the next two highest point-total writers.

The last round is in September, all the writers left get a location, an object that must be in the story, and a genre. The judges choose the best 15, points get assigned, and then a variety of prizes get awarded to the top writers and the top points-holders. More details here.

Got all that? Me, neither. I plan to just write whenever they tell me to and see what happens. The prizes are decent, the challenge is a fun one, we get critiques on everything we write, and we get our own forum to tear each other apart help each other out.

I'll keep you posted, whether you like it or not, and continue posting my stories here. So, heads up.

Remember NYCMidnight's "Tweet Me a Story" contest? Hundreds of writers wrote stories of 140 characters or less, using a supplied word? And then some of the writers made it to the final round, and we all got the same word? And I posted my entries here?

One of them made the top 25, chosen by NYCMidnight's judges, and now the final vote begins. So I'm shamelessly asking for votes.

Head to http://www.nycmidnight.com/2009/tweet/tweet.htm and vote for me (if you feel my story deserves it, of course). You can also vote for any other of the entries you like. No registration required, no e-mail, nothing. Mine's the 4th one down:

"Aren't you skydiving?" "Yup." "You're calling from midair? That's sweet!" "I love you…" he said, watching the tear in the fabric spread. CREATED BY Chris Bridges

Voting ends Wednesday, 9pm EST. Thanks!

New at ThinkGeek, the shirt for Twitterers who haven't yet quite pinned down their perfect avatar, the tiny image that captures who and what they are. Or, as ThinkGeek suggests, the perfect avatar for disguising who and what they are.

Sometimes people say stupid stuff. Sometimes people Tweet stupid stuff. The difference with the two is that teh Intarwebs is forever. Sure, you can delete it out of your stream after you've realized it was a Bad Decision, but, as many subjects of federal investigations have discovered, digital never really goes away. That's why we've created the "You Don't Know Me" Anonymous Twitter Shirt. Spend the last 140 characters bitching about your boss? Take an inebriated TwitPic that's suitable for your MySpace page? Never fear! Abandon your old feed and create a completely new identity. Sign up for Twitter anew, fresh as a newborn babe. And please — don't mess it up this time.

Either way, cool shirt.