Prediction Winner

Well, this is interesting. With Blogger down for a horrible 48 hours, everything - posts, results, life - has been hold. Is that some kind of Mercurial lesson?

I prepared the following for the Prediction Results from last week, but since Blogger's hissy fit it has sadly lost William Davoll's final entry. William - I have commented below anyway, but if you'd like to post it again, then we'll all know what I'm blathering on about!

So let's see if this works, or if they're having us on over at Blogger Land.
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I've had a great time this week, watching with joy as these diverse and sublime entries poured in. Knowing I couldn't keep up comments because of tedious daily commitments I decided I'd go for a super comment/summary fest at the end of the week instead. And here it is.

Flesh - or Pimento?

• Sue H - Honey, I'm Home. Jackson Petrie's a pizza-pickin' bad-ass who can't wait to re-arrange his ex-woman's face.
  Love the attitude here Sue. Clever descriptions that make me picture this slime-ball slob, picking his teeth and nodding at how clever he is. Hope Marie sniffs him out first.
• Michael Solender! I’m Hooome!! A splattered massacre stumps this well-seasoned (hur, hur) cop.
  Fab bizarro scenario - the whole thing resembling a doll's house of victims marinaded in chili-sauce. The image of vics one and two still watching I Love Lucy with no eyes is brilliant.
• Lily Childs (that's me folks) - Crust. Pro-chef Geraldo treats the food critics to a unique speciality in this culinary competition.
  I've always loved the term long pig for cooked human flesh; thought I'd give it some posh treatment, fit for the snobs to sink their bleached white teeth into.
• Chris Allinotte - My Game, My Rules. A vegetal game of strategy shows you can play anything, but someone always has to lose - one way or another.
  I smiled at the idea of the pimento bishop and the winning gherkin, bemused by the little strop between play-mates. But then you twisted it to another world completely and sent a chill through me with the missing jigsaw piece. Classy writing.
• Steven Chapman - Picasso. Creating a masterpiece seems so easy with this how-to guide of gore and grind.
  Straight in with the horror I, of course, adore the visceral quality of this piece Steven. Killer first line and inspired sewing of the ear to the cheek. A work of gruesome art.
• Phil Ambler - untitled. Taxidermy is at the heart of Steve's obsession with capturing a leprechaun in this irreverant dark fantasy that will have the faery underworld of Ireland crawling to Phil's door for revenge. ;)
  I so want to see this in a graphic animation - preferably over at http://www.geeksyndicate.co.uk. This is a gorgeous faux-fairy tale that would give the kiddies nightmares. "Pimento or kumquat" made me laugh out loud.
• Pixie J. King - The Pimento Prophecy. Here we are thrown into a scenario where we observe the observer as they torture their fairy-victim to reveal her(?) secret.
  Clever cruelty, unambiguous. I liked how the master plan is referred to with "affection" as the jigsaw. Well crafted with a disturbingly convincing bad guy.
• Aidan F - Seduction. No-one is safe from a sucking, even within the sacred black walls of the church where lovers confess and conspire.
  Aidan, you are such a cunning linguist. This vampyric tale is delicious in its rolling of meaning; it provokes more questions than it answers. The story itself is lush with intent. I adored it - and read it with a Romanian accent. Twice.
• StForce - The Case. A vicious attacker teases the cops with a fake identity before revealing himself to the streets.
  Welcome Jack! A tidy piece of noir tinged with horror. Is this a murderer that wants to get caught? A great twist that is crying out for more.
• John Xero - Witness. A stuttering of visions, of remembrance plays in and out of the victim's mind until it reveals the killer to the narrator.
  This  makes me feel as though I am drifting in and out of consciousness with the victim, yet looking on at the same time. How soon will this be the future of crime detection? Extraordinarily skilful writing, and highly effective.
• Anthony Cowin - Dirty Fingernails. A loner unwittingly tricks her shrink - with disastrous consequences, as her mother no longer looks on.
  The line that really hit me in this was "Finally, a breakthrough" because (to me, at least) it was the girl saying this. A pile of twists had me reading this several times - and I still saw something disturbingly new each time.
  Pimento Smile. A modern day nursery rhyme weighed down with menace as it sings of the Picture Box Monster calling from under the bed.
  Great rhythm to this nasty, little poem. I read it in my head with a child's voice then imagined it played back in slow-motion. Even creepier - like the intro to a horror film. Loved it.
  Susan May James - Waiting. Time ticks by slowly, where our MC patiently makes pretty pictures of pimento as he waits - for her.
  You managed to 'capture' the delay of waiting so well, and I am intrigued as to whether the pair are lovers, or criminals - or both. A lingering tease of a write.
  ttoffee - Beauty in the Eye of The Beholder. A collector desires to achieve the ultimate by slicing the most beautiful parts of his 'collection' to reconstruct as a whole.
  Greetings ttoffee! I enjoyed the deliberation as the collector chooses the preferred parts from Chloe, Julie et al. I think my Dressing Up Box demon would like this character. A juicy read.
• AJ Humpage - Jigsaw. A serial killer ponders the atrocities of his past, before falling from the hangman's noose.
  A trembling, poetic dance of words belies the horror of what this murderer has done. His wistfulness as he faces his own death is well played, and we wish that he might experience the full scale of regret before the rope takes him. Beautiful writing as always.
• David Barber - And You Wonder Why. A photographer captures the beauty of the red pimento, and has the image made into a puzzle for his kid. The ex-wife is not impressed.
  David, we can tell you're a photographer by your talk of capturing light and beads of condensation. You are the master of dialogue, placing your characters without need for setting or descriptive prose whether it's this separated couple or The Two Blokes. Love it.
• William Davoll - Fragments. (This was there pre-Blogger flop, honestly!) A room crowded with death - the dead and the grieving, all seeking the light in tragedy tinged with hope.
  Very clever use of colour to define the fading trackmarks of the spirit of Gary's son's killer - an addict. Is the narrator a friend - a medium? Or is the narrator the son - dead, or not yet dead? Do tell. Intriguing.

How can you do this to me everyone? This is an impossible task. You are all such incredible writers - I feel so privileged that you display your art on my pages. But if I absolutely must choose a winner, then I'm going for Steven Chapman's gore-fest Picasso. It's a slavering, horror ride - and I loved its quirky delivery. Congratulations Steven.

There are two runners-up: AidanF's ignoble Seduction - a lush transgression, and John Xero's future crime-solving, film noir - Witness. Well done both.

Fabulous. Thank you all. Now please - allow me to sleep and soak in the frothing ocean of your words. Back tomorrow (Saturday) with a new Prediction challenge.

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