Evening Fuzzy, no doughnuts or coffee for me, its 9:30 in the evening and I will soon be heading to bed. All is good down under, the first hints of autumn are about,

Quote by naughtyannie

Thanks for filling me in! We don't get that show in the UK any more (though I googled it and apparently the late, great Bruce Forsyth did it for a few years in the 1990s). And now I know who Drew Carey is too!

I hate missing my favourite TV shows - thanks heavens our box has "catch up".

I refuse to admit I know who Bruce Forsyth is.

Shhh, just between you and I ... its the naughty one's birthday tomorrow, the 23rd of March ....

and of course all Lush Annie's share the same birthday.

Self promotion, who would have thought I'd be capable of that 🎂

Quote by KimmiBeGood

Pimping this author... Frank Lee. I don't know him, but he writes like a professional author.

https://www.lushstories.com/stories/love-stories/siren-ii

Omg Kimmi, seriously. Wow, if I had to say who I thought Lush best writer was I would say Frank. His ability to get into a broken or flawed character's head is the best. He writes women so well too. I love all his stuff, not that I have read it all yet.

Quote by Denim_Daisy10
WBC final is today Team USA v Team Japan

Is this big in the US, its one of the few times baseball makes the Down Under press,

In a way, Kimmi, my answer is all of the above. And it varies a bit from story to story.

As writers we know a couple of things (how the story came about, and what we did to realize it) that our readers don't understand. So when I evaluate my own stories, they certainly can succeed in terms of what I set out to achieve. This resonates for me:

Quote by cydia
When you've had fun writing it, and then have fun again reading it after a while.

I have a number of stories that I'm thrilled with because of the research or effort or perspective that I have brought out. I often try different things including allusions to other author's work and I have a lot of fun writing like this. And happy memories when I re-read them.

One example is my Noir story: it is modern day Australia grounded in reality and is written in a category that more serious Australian writers than I have publically stated they have struggled to get attention in. I rate it highly and the icing on that cake was, as Carlton said, comments from someone I admire, Jake in this case (The bolding is mine

You do what you do so well here - take the well-worn tropes of a long-standing genre and reshape them in terms of era, sexuality, culture, the works. Simultaneously noir-as-fuck and unlike any noir that's been written before. It bristles with sexiness, intellect, and outrage - has the reader rooting for justice or payback (like Trousseau mentioned), yet delivers a bleak and fearless gut-punch ending.

In my terms this is a huge success, confirmed by some writers I admire.

But as Kistin said:

Quote by kistinspencil
I've written a few stories that I can reread with some real pride of accomplishment, but that is no indication of any sort of greatness outside my own head.

So my reality for the Noir story is that readers generally didn't rate the story up to top ten level in the competition nor RR worthy. I've had more than a few top tens RRs and EP's so in that sense the message I have to make myself accept is that this isn't one of my better stories as independently judged by those who judge more stories than I do.

With most of my stories I do spend time pondering 'why;' not in an aggressive 'why didn't my story do better' way, rather in a, 'what could I have done differently so the stories are better.'

I'm actually trying to do less of this as frankly I wonder if that question will eventually suck the joy out of writing. If the only measure of football success is winning super bowl then disappointment shall surely follow us nearly all of our days. I started writing for stress relief and my significant other will surely tell me to stop if pondering results creates stress.

Congratulations Rachel, Jake, and WW, as well as all the others who entered this fabulous competition. Thanks to all who read commented organised shortlisted and judged.

Quote by Trousseau
could the next one have a rule that everyone lives (more or less) happily ever after?

Lol, lets just say 'everyone lives' ... happily every after would rule out so many story ideas 😈

Fond of the mermaid 😜

So sad, I didn't know Kiteares as well as Larry, but he was a writer whose stories I read and enjoyed. Decent men, both of them.

The online connections are deep, and yet tenuous in a way: two of my besties have just vanished, one close to two years ago, the other almost a year ago. I miss those that aren't here more than I can say. The wonderful thing for me though it is scant relief for those really close to them, is that their creative side remains ... a source of inspiration to us all.

Vale friends.

Quote by KimmiBeGood
I hope you all know how much I like you all. ❤️

Amen to that Kimmi ❤️

Arrrr, pirate pussy. I'll be having some of that ... I mean the free drinks; lets see, a refreshing ale before bed would hit the spot on this sultry evening. I hadn't meant to start a paeon of praise for Steampunk, but its justified, I had so much fun researching and writing my first chapter. Cheers, Buttercup and Miss Pixel. Though Kimmi, 40 email?

smh, why am I not surprised. ❤️

Quote by Dasiydoes

White g string😲

OMG, you're wearing panties?

East, east east cos Sydney > Perth ❤️

Quote by AmuseBouche

Many. 😜 And married an Englishman.

Mon Dieu, (isn't that Edith Piaf singing) an Englishman ... foreigners can be so sexy, though I've never been with an American, wonder what they are like?

Ahoy, matey. Shiver me timbers ... nice booty

Quote by Seeker4

Let it snow!

Let it snow!

Let it ... oh, please, stop. That's quite enough. sigh Shovel time again.

Let's have a red wine down here. A merlot would be nice.

Afternoon all, what I wouldn't give for a little snow. Still hot and humid though we are close to halfway through March.

Now I have a story announcement. And any remarks about me just wanting to get my category count up are as accurate as they are cynical.

It's a steampunk series ... the first chapter of which, Kimmi, is SPANKING. Here's the link, do go read my Victorian down under story:

Steampunk Sydney: The Governor, His Wife, A Lady-Engineer, … Plus One Harlot.

Quote by Myrrhhhhhh

A blondie

Being blond, words fail me ... for me, red wine.

Or Rach, find a teenager and ask. Do ignore the eye rolls 😇

I've been thinking about this for ages. Still not sure I have an answer. But the story I set out to write in a totally outrageous, sexy way (genuflecting to Wannabewordsmith's delicious flashing) was this:

https://www.lushstories.com/stories/flash-erotica/dissolute

Quote by naughtyannie

This is news to me too. To be fair, I was out of the loop quite a bit in 2022, so it's not surprising I missed the announcement about Lush being sold. Could some kind person please post a link to the thread where this was announced? I had a quick look and couldn't find it, but I may have been looking in the wrong place. Ta!

I suspect it was because you were out of the loop, hun; it was widely known (well at least I knew,) but not part of a forum post. Which I felt was a shame as it would have been good to acknowledge Nic's contribution. As far as I'm aware admins don't have an ownership interest in the business - not that it matters to me, but it means ultimate control isn't theirs.

The outage happened I think at about midnight London time, and lasted about 7 hours; lol maybe only I noticed but it was after all Sunday afternoon in Australia. It happened on Storiesspace too, so I had an inkling as to the likely reason and indeed while for me it seemed like a long time to get back, it was actually fixed in a couple of hours of a Sunday morning in the UK. Not bad all things considered.

Plans for the 23rd, naughty one?

Arrrrr, me hearties. Well, Arrrgon, the noble gas, masquerading as a pirate: more than one entry allowed?

Never have I seen snow at home

How can you be: there's a sexier Annie in town 😜

508

Quote by redcaramel01

Lake Macquarie, NSW

Current weather

5:14 PM

39° C / 102.2° F

Mostly sunny

Wind

13 km/h from the North

Humidity

Amount of moisture present in the air relative to the maximum amount of moisture the air can contain at its current temperature.

21%

Feels like

39° C

Me too, hit 40C in Sydney: the hottest day of the summer. Still is, so warm at 7 in the evening: about to B-B-Q

🎂🎁Happy Birthday, Chris 🎁🎂

Quote by WannabeWordsmith

They also mutiny.

I saw; arrrrh. I plundered, in verse even; with apologies to Robert Lewis Stevenson.

Quote by KimmiBeGood

Please drop by and congratulate the latest author (Longing) to earn the Omnium Badge. It's a difficult feat, and he's such a talented author. 😊

https://www.lushstories.com/forum/self-promotion-and-marketing/author-longing-earns-the-omnium-badge

I did that too, such an achievement. Longing's written about the same number of stories as me ... but I have only ticked off about thirty categories: too much micro and flash. Though I'm slowly writing a steampunk series which should get me three or four ticked off.

Have a great Saturday; hot today, so it was family beach time. This summer is so much better than the last. Have fun, keep writing.

Well done, so incredibly challenging and a fabulous club to now be part of.

With apologies (lots of apologies) to Robert Lewis Stevenson:

Fifteen mods on the dead man's chest—

...Yo-ho-ho, and a bottle of rum!

Drink and the devil had done for the rest—

...Yo-ho-ho, and a bottle of rum!

Shiver me timbers; proper English’s derring-do—

...Yo-ho-ho, no more literary scum!

Blimey. Crushed ye barnacles on the story queue—

...Yo-ho-ho, no more literary scum!

Now for arrr and arrr, maties, plonked on our arrrse—

...Yo-ho-ho, slap the redhead’s bummm!

Scuppered, me hearties, that addition letters farrrce—

...Yo-ho-ho, slap the redhead’s bummm!

A seadog’s one eye for booty, that’s our coxswain—

...Yo-ho-ho, make each other cum!

All jolly rogerers: plundering pussies till cocks’ wane—

...Yo-ho-ho, make each other cum!

Pirate wenches and strumpets a moderator? —

...Yo-ho-ho, an all-girl three-sum!

Sink me; bilge-sucking’s a multiple orgasm creator—

...Yo-ho-ho, an all-girl three-sum!

Batten down the hatches, lovelies, we’ll write up a storm—

...Yo-ho-ho, coining-a-phrase income!

We’re cunning linguists who’re in such hornswaggle form—

...Yo-ho-ho, coining-a-phrase income!

Planking now easier than: one, two, three—

...Yo-ho-ho, and a bottle of rum!

No rhyme or reason, it has to be Kee—

...Yo-ho-ho, and a bottle of rum!

Quote by DanielleX

Arrrhhhh! A bottle o' yer finest rum, please, bartender!

Cap'n Danny. Aaarrrh!

Um, Danny ... pirates don't ask, they plunder!

Quote by techgoddess
And a high five right back for your 4th place spot!

Giggles, I suppose by finishing 6th, I don't qualify for a high FIVE 😀

Do read my Lush competition story (thanks to those who already have

The Sin Preceding Original Sin: Adam Swiped Left

According to one pirate: Pride and Prejudice meets Lesbian Vampire Killers

But another pirate: this has me worrying about your eternal soul... seriously, brilliant story

Well I can't go past without mentioning: Slippery Dick; the perfect combination of politician and fish. Still giggling at Hal I Butt.

Moving right along, congrats to those Rumpies who entered the blue competition; we did well, especially you Kat. One thing I do like over there is that the competition banner stays on the front page past when the results are displayed. Here it is already gone.

Given our mods have come over all piratanical I suggest a new bar rule: “Drinking rum before 10:00am makes you a pirate, not an alcoholic.”

That's be me done for Thursday, you'll love it. Night all.

The dykes on bikes have ridden down Oxford Street. The first float is on its way, a rainbow First Nations snake. The crowd is enormous, WorldPride rocks. We shall overcome 💖

Quote by Dee_Licious

my finger

And the flavour (or flavor depending on were your finger had been?)