Lily's Friday Prediction - Thank you and goodnight

Damn it, but I can't see; I seem to be awash with emotion. As if the Olympic Torch starting its journey to the UK today and Donna Summer dancing over to the other side aren't enough - letting go of The Prediction has hit me even harder than I thought it would.

I'll have a few more words to say after I announce last week's winners...

Winners of Last Week's Prediction Challenge

Stunning, stunning entries. How could I possibly choose? But it's tradition, and so I declare the winner of the Feardom's final Prediction challenge with a spiralling, mythical tale of primal beauty is...

R.S. Bohn, and One Night. The extraordinary vision, so beautifully crafted drifts us in and out of the creation process, grasping and grateful for freedom. I loved it. Your writing never fails to stir me and this is a wonderful example of your delicate skill. Congratulations Rebecca.

I have two runners-up, because I could not choose between them, different though they are:

Aidan Fritz's Brüder - so clever, so inspired. As I said in my comments, Aidan never fails to educate me - pointing at historical or mythical events and characters I feel I should know. I genuinely suffer from a very short memory so no matter how passionate I am about a topic - I will forget. I did know about the Deutches Wörterbuch - once. Thank you for the reminder, for bringing Grimm and the 'players' together and for that last word. And please sell this as the next box-office smash.

asuqi's Smile and No Harm Will Be Done gathered together so many symptoms of society's expectations and failures in 100 words, and despite a daily urban horror event in itself asuqi's unique wordcraft lifted this piece to an ethereal level. "bites through his crust and impersonates a woman" will stay with me forever, as will those creaking Northern Lights - do they...?

Very well done Aidan and asuqi, and all the rest of you too.

Words for 18 May 2012...

...are up at The Prediction's new home at 9am UK time where the weekly challenge rises like a fiction Phoenix, courtesy of Phil Ambler - to whom I will be forever grateful.

A Last Word, or So

To all the friends that have come, gone, stayed awhile, and hung around for two years. Thank you - you've changed my life, and for once - I'm struck dumb.

I do hope you'll come back and play in my darkened hallways; the doors will always be open to you. Pull up a velvet cushion, take a sip of wine, tea or whatever you need and tell me your story, even if it is filled with silence - I will still hear your words.

ALL HAIL THE PREDICTIONEERS:

• Absolutely*Kate
• Shaun Adams
• Chris Allinotte
• Phil Ambler
• Hilary Ashton
• asuqi
• Stu Ayris
• David Barber
• P Blacksaw
• Rebecca Bohn
• Col Bury
• Steven Chapman
• Lily Childs
• Erin Cole
• Colleen
• Steve Cormier
• Anthony Cowin
• Sandra Davies
• William Davoll
• Craig Douglas
• Jenny Dreadful
• Elspeth
• Matt Farr
• Aidan Fritz
• Ellie Garratt
• Reginald Golding
• Grogan
• Sue Harding
• Herbedaceous
• Matt Hilton
• SJI Holliday
• Jack Holt
• Helen Howell
• Lee Hughes
• AJ Humpage
• Susan May James
• Joleen
• Kallandra
• Kim (scratchypen)
• Andie King
• Pixie J. King
• kittylefish
• Reba Kovar
• laplace
• Laura
• Veronica Marie Lewis-Shaw
• Lissa101
• Jodi MacArthur
• MRMacrum
• Henrietta Maddox
• mimimanderly
• Melenka
• Marietta Miles
• Marc Mimouni
• Nick Mott
• Sandie Owen
• Bill Owens
• Paul (Crimson Archer)
• Phantasmagoric
• Nina Powers
• Ragemore
• Ravenways
• Sean Patrick Reardon
• St Force (Jack)
• Nick Roberts
• Darren Sant
• Rosalind Smith-Nazilli
• Ronnie Soak
• Michael Solender
• Sulci Collective
• Liam Sweeny
• Alfred M Taitague Jr
• Amber Taitague ( Muckie Duckie)
• Nathaniel Tower
• ttofee
• Cindy Vaskova
• Charlie Wade
• Carol Wills
• Dion Winton-Polak
• Antonia Woodville
• John Xero
• Zaiure
• Angel Zapata

Don't stop telling tales...

Prediction Winner

A short, but extremely sweet number of entries this week.

• Aidan gives us a fascinating insight into the history of the Origins of the Wyrm Cult, with a gentle play on the name Salem (Samuel) Parris. Encyclopædia Universsica: On the Origins of the Wyrm Cult
• William delivers the finale of his compelling Plague series - on The Feardom at least, with a promise of more bones elsewhere in After the plague. Finale!
  With Rex-Erection William wipes away the glamour of rebirth. No pale and red-lipped gothic hunk here; more shrivelled, compound dust.
• Rebecca plays a morbid game with friends and a dead cat at the riverbank of childhood in Girls Club, before coming full circle to the tragic present day.
• Reba whips up a new world, a corrupt yet banal cult that people take for granted. Yet someone small awaits deliverance in Thursday.
• Chris makes human pancakes out of Zach, at the hands of Zach's wife Eileen. Eileen probably follows up with a few sugary, happy-clappy routines in The Butterworth Rites.
• John's Queen of the Hive has something more to hide than a dodgy obsession, and with a mouth oozing with furry creatures she is a force to be reckoned with.
• Antonia's Doorstep Salesman is a pain in the freakin' arse. First he turns up at the most inconvenient time, and then inducts and kills her without a 'by-your-leave'. Charming.
• My Miss Sickly Sweet 2011 takes an appalled and disgusted look at the farce of children's Beauty Contests. 
• AJ's runaway opens her veins for the cult, her lifeforce pooling across the cold floor in the atmospheric Bleed.
• David's Two Blokes are back with another in-depth and inspiring conversation, hanging out at the bar. That's 'Cult'. C - U - L - T.
• Phil (Greetings Phil!) serves up a glorious pagan platter of deity, misplaced by a latter incomer in his untitled piece.
• Susan returns with pretty words with a dark side; her poem confessing the truth behind the syrup.

All very different.

I have joint winners. The first is Aidan with his fascinating faux facts in the Encyclopædia Universsica: On the Origins of the Wyrm Cult, and for teaching me the word ochlocracy. My joint winner is Rebecca Bohn with the tomboy vs. grown-up woman's Girls Club. Congratulations both.

I loved everyone's entries though for a whole load of reasons from the dark and dangerous to the crude and base. Naughty.

I am encumbered by slumber so will be back in the morning with a new temptation, I mean - Challenge.

Sleep well...

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