No more than I would. I might have a good guess at one entries author, figure 50/50 shot at it.

Edit added: I suspect there are two, possibly three new authors entered in this CAW. Note, the probability of three is based on the chance the three entries I suspect are single-entries. Otherwise, we have only two.

 

It official I have read all of the story's. I would like to thank all the writer's for as much as I complain and critize about your work it is/was by far better than mine. I enjoyed every moment of it (well except maybe the minute it took me to fish my iPad out the bath) and will be sure to vote for some of you.

 

iPad in the bath? Rookie mistake, sir. Next time, do what I do with my kindle - put it inside a ziplock bag thingy first. Works like a charm for me, but not sure if it'll work on touch screens.

I'm about halfway with the stories, and I don't have a single idea who wrote any of them. Not even one.

 

The lesbian porn was distracting my hand.

 

I am reading and having troubles doing so. I currently have about half the list finished and will hopefully finish the rest this weekend but I cannot say for sure. GAWD, I hate depression.

There have been a number of good stories in the mix that I have finished so far and a few have a familiar feel to them but I will be savoring my guesses until right at the end if I even voice them then.

 

As the Four Seasons sing I am Working My Way through the stories having hit the half way point in my travels. I am looking forward to completing my journey in the near future.

 

Once again, we have another fine CAW with not only excellent stories, but insightful commentary from the readers, and cultural insights as well.

When this CAW is done, I am going to go back and study each story in turn to see what new writing tips I can learn and discern.

 

I have quite enjoyed reading the entries in this challenge and wish to thank Horse and NEW for running it. I really like the concept of writing a story based on a song. So I was thinking about how in the future we could do something similar, and I came up with the idea to choose the top billboard 100 song on either the day you were born, or when you reached 18. They arrange the charts by weeks, so you would pick the week it came on top closest to your birthday. What do you think?

 

The theme/ concept is decided by the winner of the last CAW. So since Horse won the last competition, this one was all his idea. He just asked me to help him run this contest.

So while I thank you for the kind words about the running, I had no say in the subject.

NEW

 

About halfway through the reading so far.

Observation -- there aren't as many "death" stories this time, though some are dark. On average, the mood of the entries I've read thoroughly has been a bit more upbeat than a few CAW collections in the past.

Something else -- people approached the task of writing a story to fit their song choice from a number of angles. Some were creative, but relied heavily on the song to guide the story. Not necessarily a bad thing, especially if the song title or some lyrics are worked seamlessly into the text.

Thank you again to the hosts for a clever theme. It broadened my musical horizons. Maybe next I'll write a story inspired a song by the one of the most well-known peace, love, and romance bands of all time, The Beatles. Just listen to these tender lyrics.


[YOUTUBE]Ab4I1MAaK-c[/YOUTUBE]

 

Well, as NEW pointed out, pretty much the sole consolation for winning a CAW is getting to choose the next CAW's theme. Putting something out there like this might inspire or influence someone, but typically each winner has their own lil pet project in mind. But hey, if ya' enter and win, I'd be in favor of it, sounds fun to me.

Thanks for your kind words about the "running" of the CAW, but there's an inaccuracy in your statement. NEW and I have not been running it. Not exactly. NEW and I started together and ran through the writing phase for the most part, but since then, it has been all NEW. She handled the transition to the reading phase on her own, has been handling questions to CAW SOP, has been keeping up with posts here, and most importantly, has been dealing with posting all of the comments onto stories from our authors.

I, myself, have been mostly sitting on my dead ass for the past few weeks. This wasn't intentional. But I thought something might happen, which is why, for the first time, we had a CAW Co-Host who had not actually won the previous CAW. I knew I was going to enter the hospital for a major operation. I just wasn't sure when, nor was I sure in what condition I would exit. Well, initially I thought it would not be a major operation. Wrong. Not only was it major surgery, but, over this past weekend, when I thought I would be getting much better and be able to again resume normal duties here as CAW Host and site Moderator, I got blindsided by a trip to the ER. So, in a nutshell, the accolades belong to NEW. I'm back, but, I simply can't get my mental faculties in order to do much around here. I'm pretty pissed (not sure who at, just pissed) and more than a bit upset that I haven't been able to help NEW with all of this (the all being that she became a Moderator too, and under the worst time to become a Moderator, as the site has been undergoing huge turmoil due to programmatic issues). So, I myself would like to thank NEW for her tireless efforts and huge support for me, for this CAW, and for the site in general.

Thank You, NEW!

 

My hat off to Horse and NEW :rose:

 

I want to extend my apologies to everyone involved in this CAW. I intended to at least read, but the company I work for is run by nuts...

The good news is that all of the travel has allowed me time to finish two novels I was working on. They are both out to the proofreader now.

The Bad news is that I still have no idea when I am going to have time to sit down and be a couch potato...

On the other hand, I have lost more than twenty pounds in the last month, so I guess soon I will be a couch carrot.

 

Well, I finished reading the last of the entries. There are several that really stood out to me, but for the first time I have exactly the same number of favorites as the number of votes I have to cast, so there will be no uncertainty for me this time around. Congratulations to all the authors who entered! Even if you don't win, you're still winners in my opinion.

 

holy shiznit! I'm way behind in my reading I'm only about 5 stories down and most of those I haven't had a chance to comment on. hopefully I'll have time in the last 9 days of reading phase and or a couple of days in the voting phase to finish the rest.

 

I have my Guess List typed up listing all the stories and who I think authored what entry. I might make some changes to it if I have any second guesses before the proper time for guessing arrives which Horse will announce.

 

I have a list going too. I have guesses on over half the stories, but without knowing for sure who entered, it's really a crapshoot.

 

Right now with any kind of 'guess list' on my part I can summarize it thus: no idea for sure.

 

I'm looking forward to the long holiday weekend, to get some reading done.

 

While I have not yet read every story on the list, I notice that many of them consist largely or even exclusively of archetypal scenarios and concepts this time: a wedding night story, a bondage session, a hooker turning tricks, a woman sneaking out to meet her lover, a couple getting frisky in the woods, a sleazy bar hookup, etc.