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I think short writing prompts are fun to write and read, so I am creating my own:

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You have won an advertisement in this week's edition of The Creative Corner News--the forum's most ignored e-magazine! Your ad can be a 300-word maximum (and if you twist my arm I can find space for one and a half pictures). Ads can be submitted by responding to this thread; they must pertain to a story game (or thread) you are writing, reading, or have recently finished. Due to limited server space, the 300-word limit will be strictly enforced; however, we strangely have no restriction on the number of entries. I look forward to reading your advertisements!

Note: links do not count against your word total.  

Are you ready for...

You have been hired to retrieve the Stone of Vul-Kar, a purple gem located in an ancient temple on Woban Island's highest point. But this mysterious and recently discovered speck of land in the South Pacific is inhabited by a fierce tribe of three-eyed natives who are determined to kill any and all intruders. And as forbidding as that sounds, the Wobans are just some of the obstacles that stand in your way to glory and avarice: greedy collectors, ruthless murderers, and scorned colleagues all await you on the adventure that lies ahead.

Will you be able to retrieve the jewel and bring it back to your employer safely? Or will you be just the latest victim of this deadly island?

COMING SOON!

That looks really good! Wait until after I read the secret of the grass planet to release it, but I look forward to it! I should have thought about how this might affect my reading list...

Are you still writing that Saint Hunter story?

I am planning to come back to that next. The problem was that I was trying to write the story without charting it out first, and so all I was doing was churning out wads and wads of exposition. There was that one good page that I shared in the forums, plus one other good page, and then close to a dozen other pages that I set aside as "notes." I was getting frustrated with it, and found myself finding excuses not to write. The writing process should be fun, so when a project is causing too much trouble, it's time to move on.

I like the premise of Saints of Kaitoo too much to abandon the project, but when I resume working on it I'll go back to drafting the story in Excel first, as that seems to work.

I switched to Woban Island because it was something I first wrote when I was 13, after playing the board game Fireball Island. Therefore I had an existing draft to work with, allowing me to go straight into the writing process. Basically, I'm treating it like a collaboration with my younger self: taking a preposterous idea for a story and populating it with interesting characters.

                                                         Presenting... the Jewel of the Eastern Seaboard…

                                             

Tell me, reader of Creative Corner News, has a crystal ever whispered the secrets of the universe into your tender ear?  Have you spoken with the arbiters of your ordinary life, and begged them for change?  Uncle Rob was there, ten years ago. Broken, defeated, and aimless.  When he stumbled upon the powers that be, he was as skeptical as we imagine you are now.  

Enter: Uncle Rob’s Self-Empowerment Emporium.  

At the Emporium, we strive to strengthen your connection with the unknowable, the arcane.  We offer once-in-a-lifetime readings, conducted by the prolific Uncle Rob himself, along with a wide variety of high-quality spiritual conductors.  This includes: candles of every imaginable color, papyrus crafted on-site, personalized crystalline phalli (for channeling powerful spirits), and relics native to the Carolinas.

Just listen to this powerful testimony from our esteemed customer:

“I’ll be honest, I just walked in to use the restroom.  But, when Uncle Rob pulled me aside and spoke to me personally, it was just incredible.  How did he know I had the Sight? The man is magical, and so is his emporium. Never did get to use that bathroom though.”     

-One-Eye Dave

So stop by today, and liven up your existence!

Sold! I am calling the number. Seems hilarious.

Good and evil. Yin and Yang.

Balance exists to preserve order in the world. Opposing forces keep each other in check, and since the beginning of time light and dark have been two of those forces. Shades, demons, and all manners of evil beings are known as the forces of darkness; Humanity fears the dark, choosing to live in the comfort and warmth of the light. This is how things have always been.

Anytime darkness rises against humanity, paladins and other forces of light rise to challenge it. No creature of the night, no matter how powerful, can overwhelm them. Light is the saving grace of humankind. But what happens when ancient forces of light rise against humanity? 

Will darkness rise to defend the world? Or will the unbalance of light and darkness plunge the world in chaos?

Todd, a master of dark magic in a world that forbids it, only recently learned of his magical potential. He dreamed of being powerful, and now he is. He will either become the dark lord they fear or the savior they didn’t expect. Will Todd become a hero, or is he destined to be the villain?

The name Todd makes me laugh.

Yeah, names aren't my strong point (lol). I love the drawing! 
But he isn't supposed to sound like he fits the mold. The idea is he isn't what you would expect for a "dark lord". Of course, he can turn into one, but it is supposed to be a game where you decide between good and evil.

Todd sounds like Luke Skywalker, actually. There is a dark and light side to the force, and Luke could swing either way. (Ultimately he just quits to go live on an island.)

I'll take a comparison to starwars! That is sort of that I'm going for with a non-island, more knights and magic, type of story.

NOW PLAYING!

SECRET OF THE GRASS PLANET

The critics are raving!

"It’s almost as if the extensive planet described in the story has been completely transferred over into the story, allowing the reader themselves to also dive into the exploration aspect of the storygame." @ghost11

"Overall this is just another great story, and I’m already hyped for part 3!" @ShoujoAddict

"The Iib Ch’iib are really cool and total CHADS." @Cricket

"Perhaps the best aspect of SotGP is the sheer amount of content involved. Over 100K is certainly a lot of content to explore. Reading through is an exploration in itself." @ninjapitka

"Really great immersive stories — loved the many branches!" @Nrutas

"Grass Planet already basically has the Best of 2019 contest in the bag." @mizal

Was going to reeeee about being tagged a bit, but I approve of that quote too much for that.
Cool thread.

NOW PLAYING! Vicious Moles of Nature

As evening arrives on Thanksgiving Day, Hammie Dansker is still struggling with the recent death of his father — and the even more recent marriage of his mother to his uncle. After a tense dinner prepared by his mother Gertrude, and former girlfriend Ophelia, Hammie steps out onto the porch of his late father's farm… and notices that the dogs, Guildenstern and Rosencrantz, are dead. A familiar but unwelcome sound can be heard out in the pastures. This can mean only one thing: the Vicious Moles of Nature have returned!

This is a horror story… based on a tragic misinterpretation of Hamlet.

Important Stats:

- 8 endings

- 1 night of terror

- ??? vicious moles

COMING WINTER 2020

 

Manuel Rodrigues dos Santos is a colonist living on KAI 222-d, an Earth-type planet orbiting a distant star. One of 37 travelers who endured many decades of cryosleep on the one-way journey to "Kaitoo," he and his wife escaped hit squads and rape gangs on Earth for an opportunity to forge a new life on this unknown new world. But upon their arrival, Manny emerged from his tube only to discover that Marisol had perished during the journey.

Now, many years later, Manny hunts the creatures known as the "saints" — an arboreal invertebrate that is the primary source of protein for the Newfoundland Landing colony. As he leads a multigenerational group of his fellow colonists on an annual hunting trip into a remote mountain range, he struggles to control his secret desires for a certain beautiful young woman who reminds him of his dead wife. By day she seeks to learn his craft; by night she seeks a more intimate kind of connection.

Is she who she seems to be? And as their encounters become more intense, is it worth hazarding everything he has built for himself by pursuing a forbidden romance?

Hmm that picture is a bit of a spoiler...

Really loved the intro of this one you posted before, so I'm looking forward to this.

Thanks. I'll see how the actual story turns out, and reassess how much of the plot should be revealed in the introduction once I complete the writing process. From what I recall of the contest entries last summer, several of them played the "S" card way too obviously, leaving nothing to the imagination about who she was and what she was up to. There was little or no mystery in those stories. In this case, I'm handling the subject matter somewhat differently, so for the moment I'm not concerned if the picture sets a certain expectation.

And at any rate, I have yet to come across an alternate illustration that addresses the story as well.

I am also exited for this one in particular! It sounds like a story right up my alley!

In the meantime, you can read this, which will be the second page of the story.

I will check it out soon!