Congratulations to the three winners, very well deserved! Well done also to rest of the top ten - it's an honour to be considered alongside you all. On a personal kinky note, it was especially nice to have not one but four stories featuring messy food sex in the top ten (if we count pig faces as food). More, please!
Also, for those still reading through the entries, once you've read the top ten, I highly recommend the stories by two newcomers to the competitions, briacon429 and LuceDevlin. I was impressed by both and hope they enter more in the future.
Congratulations, Violet! It's a brilliant story, so this is 1000000% deserved.
Definitely deserved. Until I started writing again last year, I tried the two positive comments on my stories I got from Rachel way back in 2010/11 as the closest I'd ever get to an RR. They're still two of my favourite stories for that reason. Her stories are the main reason I kept coming back to LushStories even when I wasn't writing. And her "rule" that we all had to write a tentacle story was one of the main reasons I put so much effort into my horror series, which has improved my writing a huge amount.
So thanks, Rachel, you are a huge inspiration!
Congratulations, Phil, and the other two at the top, plus the rest of the top ten. I obviously have a fair bit of catching up to do with my reading as I haven't even got to the winner yet. I'm glad my favourite of those I did read was in that top 10 list. Well done everyone who took part - even if I'd had time to write, I had absolutely no ideas for this theme.
Hi everyone, and welcome, Ensorceled! I read your Flash, truly excellent!
I'll have a beer for the bus ride home. Hopefully no fights break out on it today, that's always a bit inconvenient.
Oh, and about five minutes after I was here in Friday, Curvy verified my Fight Club inspired story and very kindly gave it an RR, which was unexpected!
I'm going on holiday at the end of the week, yay!
Hope everyone is well.
I can confirm from recent experience both sides of the fence that if all you're doing is updating inter-story links and series names then it does not require mod intervention - it doesn't even go in the queue.
I direct electrons into esoteric mazes so that numerologists can divine gibberish to tell our overlords, who then use this knowledge to either pour gold into blackholes or purchase herds of white elephants and expect people to thank them for it.
When no one is looking, I write smut on my phone.
Thank you so much, everyone! I'm rather stunned. When I decided to write a story about black metal and fill it with gay sex, I really wasn't expecting much in the way of views, let alone awards.
Special thank you to those of you who supported me through this, knowing that others were enjoying it really pushed me to make it a full story the whole way through. I think my writing has improved a huge amount in the process, and I've made some great friends here as a direct consequence.
Morning all, I'll have a sneaky champagne breakfast on my way to work to celebrate the final part of my story getting verified and awarded an RR! (Thanks Curvy!)
And thanks James for the earlier congratulations. If anyone else funds they get stuck or aren't sure if what they've written is any good, I can definitely recommend sharing it a friend to get their thoughts, it really helped.
Evening all! Thought I'd pop in for a quick night cap. It looks like I've got alot to catch up on. Congratulations on getting the Omnium, Kat!
I've been trying to get my insane queer horror finished. I had a slight crisis of confidence, so got a friend to read a draft to see if it made sense to anyone but me, and now I'm very, very happy with it. I think it's a very satisfying end, so I submitted it an hour ago. It probably won't show up for a while, I'm sure the wonderful story verifiers are snowed under as usual and it's almost 8000 words... But anyway, I've put the link in my signature so I don't forget is later.
Now, I'd better go to bed after the last few later nights of editting... Goodnight all!
Given that they passed my story that involved slaughtering over 100 Nazis, I'd say they are not Nazis. As Volya said, the overall improvement in quality of writing here over other sites is what brings and keeps me here, as a reader and writer.
Also, Nazi Germany is not "Ancient History" it is Modern History, since it existed after the Middle Ages, and there are unfortunately a number of people who still share and propagate some of its key tenets. Many of them use "snowflake" to insult those who take offence at their offensive views. Actual snowflakes were are major factor in the downfall of the Third Reich, when they froze to death invading Russia, so it's a pretty dumb insult.
Well unholy shit, bend me over the altar and fuck me, Satan! I'm honoured to be listed alongside all those in the top ten, and congratulations to the three winners, they were indeed outstanding stories. I read all the top ten and most of the others, so it must have been hard judging. Well done, everyone!
Yes! Absolutely! Kimmi is awesome! She's been so welcoming and encouraging since I came back to active participation here. Lush wouldn't be the same without her.
between a lion and a polar bear. 
You are brilliant!!!
for me and whatever Rachel is having. Warm day here so I have enjoyed the sun in what has been so far a surprisingly wet summer - La Niña rather than El Niño - but that does mean limited bushfires.
