Irony can be described as an incongruity between what is expected and what actually occurs.

On the left side of the screen this morning is a message discussing the apparent demise of Storysite. On the right side is the display of contributions to Hatbox.

First of all -- Storysite has been "gone" before and seems to come back every time.

Sometimes you just don’t feel like making all that much effort. You know the feeling — when you know you should look good, but all you can manage is a brush or two through your hair and a little lip gloss. It’s the same thing with writing. You get a good idea for a story, sit down, and finger regurgitate onto the screen.

I’m more likely to heavily research a story before I start writing, but once in a while I’ll just wing it. The first two stories I entered in the Halloween contest were light-hearted affairs that took very little time or effort to construct.

Today another fine writer paused at the threshold to BC, spun on her high heels, and chucked in the towel.

Even though this ink-stained wretch. . .er. . . carpal-tunnel pained, sometimes kvetch. . .never employed clichés in her writing, her reason for ending her story mid-stream was shop worn — “general indifference”.

For the last eon, or longer, I’ve posted the following message in a variety of forms:

As disclosed in another blog this weekend, Erin is $100 short of what she needs for the month for BC.

In the past Hatbox has worked best when there are a steady stream of new pieces being offered for the subscribers.

I've never bought into the numbers put out by Fictionmania. Fifty-seven million hits in the last dozen years seems a bit much by several fold.

AOL this morning has a story about Jack Norworth, the man who penned “Take Me Out to the Ballgame”. The refrain to that song is almost as familiar as the Big Closet melody, There Are No Rules, which is chirped every time someone suggests a methodology for writing.

Rules are made to be broken, but it’s easier to successfully engage the reader if you put the ball close to the strike zone.

"Waiter," the man with the scraggly beard and frantic eyes asked, "do you serve virgins?"

The waiter, quite surprised that a man who looked like he was in his fifties or maybe even older could still be a virgin, nodded. "Of course, sir."

"That's wonderful," the man said with obvious relish. "Me, I'd like two virgins with nothing on them, to go."

The waiter gasped. "I. . . . Sir, there's been a misunderstanding."

Several month's ago I wrote Tis a Gift.

http://bigclosetr.us/topshelf/fiction/16088/tis-gift

Now this story comes out in the press.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/financetopics/bernard-mad...

I didn't miss by much.

Jill

A person shouldn't be judged by whether or not they write excellent stories.

Lately a certain author on several TG websites has come under attack for his clumsy efforts.

Sure, his writing is pathetic in that it lacks any degree of normal structure, but is that adequate reason to bury him under scorn?

It's nice to see contributions running slightly ahead of projections. Obviously, people appreciate this site and understand that Erin needs financial help to sustain it.

Should any of those who subscribe to Hatbox find the stories I've written to support this site "less than compelling", they should let me know. I will immediately send them triple the money I receive as author.

Jill M I
Angela Rasch

If you’re looking to read an excellent story, you might just want to read Boys’ School by Sarah Lynn Morgan.

http://bigclosetr.us/topshelf/fiction/11243/boys-school-chap...

This is a story for those who love scintillating/realistic dialogue, compelling characters, and engaging plots.

As you may have noticed — I have a tendency to complain ad nauseam about votes, comments, and hits.

When I set out to tell the story of Bob Isle and Mattie Grant in I’ll Grant You My Wish I decided to draw heavily from my youth. In my original outline, Bob’s a twelve-year old boy who is dragged into femininity by a domineering Mrs. Grant who is seriously disturbed by the loss of her own daughter. In the end, Bob decides he has to stand up to Mrs. Grant and rebels. Since he is basically a nice boy, when he puts his foot down it is done quite gently.

I've said it before, but I just have to say it again -- the new Random Solo feature is an absolute smash hit.

One of the features of BC that I absolutely love is the ability to quickly and easily edit your old stories. When I have an odd moment I often bring up one of my old stories and go through it looking for ways to improve the quality of the writing. Some I haven't read for years. It's like reading someone else's writing. I almost never change the plot, but I always find something to fix. Sometimes it's humbling to see how much needs attention.

All of us have our calling. For a while, I thought my calling was to be a monk. That passed.

Currently I feel my calling is to express a qualified opinion regarding hits, votes, and comments at least once a month.

There appears to be a number of people who think the number of votes a story or part of a story receives has a correlation with the quality of the writing. In my experience this just isn't remotely so.

In order for the law of large numbers to come into play -- which makes statistics creditable - there obviously has to be LARGE numbers.

A huge part of marketing food is obtaining shelf space. Big corporations have been known to actually pay to have their products displayed by grocers at the right height and in a large enough amount to suggest huge consumer demand. Coke and Pepsi have gone to the mattresses several times over shelf space wars.

What I'm going to suggest is only logical since we are talking about a limited resource. (I have an economic degree and will use it to justify my premise if needed. You are warned.)

Intellectually I know that the number of votes, comments, and hits have no direct correlation to the quality of the writing. Good pieces go unnoticed. Badly written pieces sometimes hit all the right buttons. But in my heart I would love to be elected homcoming queen. Caring what others think of you is called sanity.

The level of quality of the text is quite plain; stories drop like rain from a throng of gifted writers upon BC. The process is twice blessed: to those who read these gifted words and also to the keyboard pounding wretches who enrich their own lives through their hair-pulling efforts.

BC has enjoyed talented writers for as long as it has been in existence. Some who post today have been here for the duration, many others have come and gone, but never in the time that I have been part of this site have there been such a huge number of outstanding writers producing so much good literature.

Yesterday someone voted for thirty-eight of my stories. The person had (1) vote so it wasn't an author. That person didn't leave a comment on any of them so I don't know how to say thanks except in an open blog.

If this mass voting was meant to be some sort of lifetime achievement award, I accept the honor under the protest that I'm not that old.

On some of the older stories it was the first vote the story received other than sympathy votes from me. I hate to have my stories feel completely unloved so I vote for them so they don't think they were totally scorned.

Jill

If you were to believe the vocal minority who write most of the comments and probably do most of the voting for stories -- no one likes forced fem.

Their wailing and gnashing of teeth anytime a story ventures close to femdom asserts that such writing should be banned from this site as inappropriate.

Recently two very good authors suggested to me that they wanted my help to make sure their stories didn't cross the line into femdom. They were concerned about adverse reader reaction. Arrrgh!

This is the time of the year where my light-colored and white wardrobe takes a beating from my dark foundation and powder.

How do others avoid getting makeup on their collars?

Jill

Reading Jill Micayla's recent blog caused me to think. She felt badly because Terry did not include any of her stories in the contest. Jill suggested she has never been a winner.

A few days ago Sue Brown listed seven basic plots and asked if there were more. A lenghthy discussion ensued during which I mentioned non-confrontational plots. I ascerbically stated I didn't think anyone would want to read a TG story based on a non-confrontational plot.

After additional thought I decided to write U Go To Hell which I posted yesterday. It features a non-confrontational plot. It is a slice of life leading to a revelation.

You can judge for yourself if anyone would want to read that kind of story.

Dimelza Cassidy asked me to delete her stories and blogs, which I did. She told me why and it rang true. . .but I won't repeat what she said because she didn't ask me to provide an explanation.