It's time to announce the winners of the July story contest!

We had a lot of great entries this time around. I want to make sure every last author who wrote for the contest knows just how much I appreciate their hard work. It's the stories that keep a site like BCTS alive, and without your dedication and effort none of us would have this wonderful place to call home.

Just a reminder to people that the Staycation story contest closes entries on Tuesday, July 31st at Midnight whatever-the-heck-your-local-time-zone-is, so if you've got an entry waiting to be written then hop to it, and if you've got one waiting to get posted, then what's the hold up huh?

:)

It's been a week, and huzzah! The votes are in!

All the stories in the contest did quite well, but two in particular managed to grab the most thumbs-up from our readership, and those two were:

Cursed, by Nuuan

The Fairy, by Bru

Congrats, young authoresses! I get paid this coming Thursday, upon which each of you will be given your prize, a three month subscription to the BCTS Hatbox!

Just a reminder to anyone with plans to enter still, today is the final day of my Fairy Kiss-and-Tale contest! I'm working on the honor system here, so as long as you have your entry in by midnight your time (May 31 2018) we'll call it gravy.

We've had a lot of great entries, and I've already got plans for another contest here in July! Sadly I actually haven't finished my OWN entry for this one yet, though since I'm ineligible for the prize anyway it doesn't matter much :)

Melanie E.

So who's ready for another not-in-any-way-sanctioned-by-management story contest?

Melanie E.'s Fairy Kiss-and-Tale Contest

Dates: May 1st 2018 - May 31st 2018

Everyone loves a little romance, and everyone loves a good fairy tale, right? Well, here's your chance to write your own mash-up of the two!

I've said it before here, and I'll say it again: I'm a huge game geek.

I've been looking to re-obtain a 360 for a while now, since I have a stack of games for it and the original Xbox I've acquired over the last couple of years via yard sales and thrift stores because they were too good of deals to pass up, even if I didn't have the console at the moment.

That all changed last night, when I traded a friend of mine at work a spare NES I had lying around plus a few carts for his old 360 he doesn't play any more. Now I can play all those games, horray!

Spreadsheets.

Word documents.

Games.

Email.

Skype.

All of these things, when used on a modern PC, rely heavily on a keyboard. I use mine constantly, and though I'm not what I would normally call a particularly picky user... I'm starting to have some issues.

I may be on the early side of that particular designation, but I'm pretty sure I qualify, right? Born in the late '80s, some college but no degree, blah de blah. Yep.

So here's the deal. I've spent the last 3 months looking for a new job. I've applied for quite a few, as a receptionist, at call centers, more than a few sales positions from Best Buy to Target... all in all, I've sent out probably 10 or 12 resumes/applications.

I've gotten a call back on all of 2, and an interview out of only 1.

A tale of storms, poisons, and misdirection.

Today I am officially starting my third decade of life.

Interestingly enough, I've been a contributing member of BCTS for just short of a third of the time I've been on the face of the planet! Weird huh?

Melanie E.

And that if you don't vote when you can, you shouldn't (not CAN'T, never 'can't,') complain most of the time, but this year....

This year.

I was registered on time. I've been following things, planning to cast my own vote (the 'Deez Nutz' ticket, if anyone's curious.) But when it came down to actually going today, seeing every single Trump sign up and down the roads, knowing just how the ticket would fall regardless of whatever I did.

Call me a coward, but I stayed home.

We authors here at BC are blessed by our readership.

Really! BC has a large, mostly active community of readers and writers, and comments on stories are quite common, which is a wonderful change from the majority of other fiction sites I've seen, even mainstream ones. The community here is supportive of new writers, positive in their outlook on most tales, and generally a great place to be a part of.

Now, having gotten THAT out of the way, on to the point of this blog.

An interesting and worthwhile TedX talk to listen to that says a lot that can be applied not only to her situation, but the situations many of us find ourselves in as well.

https://youtu.be/8Qb3hM7CVBQ

Melanie E.

I quite like Sherlock. Not only is Benedict Cumberbatch a great choice for the role, but the individual cases are usually interesting, if not quite as complicated as I'd like at times. Then again, I've only made it through the first and second seasons, so I may be missing some of the best.

Back on point, the series has a lot of great elements, but one of the ones I've found most attractive is the concept of the Mind Palace. I loved the concept from the show, and after doing some (very superficial) research into the ins and outs of its purpose and the method of using such, I decided I should have one of my own.

I've been watching a Travel Channel series on Netflix called Expedition Unknown. Not only is the series itself great -- Josh Gates was always amazing on Destination Truth too, and is more than a little hunk-y -- but the places he goes and the things he sees are nothing short of awe inspiring.

Anyone who has spent any length of time talking to me already knows this, but just so it's stated... I'm a video game geek. Not like some casual "yeah I play on occasion" or "I like X series but not much else," but a dyed in the wool, I-can-name-you-the-processor-chip-from-every-console-ever-made kind of obsessed gaming geek.

We may not have always agreed, but you were always gracious about it.

We may not have been close, but you were always there with a kind word and a helping hand.

Thank you for everything you gave me, us, the site... everyone.

You will be missed.

Melanie E.

The March 2016 "On An Adventure" contest is officially closed!

Entries are short, and the deadline is near.

I was going to ask if people wanted an extension, but eh, I'll just go ahead and do it. The March "On An Adventure!" contest deadline is being moved to the 19th, giving interested authors who have uncompleted stories an extra week to finish them, with votes likely being tabulated the 24th.

Please, more entries! Everything's been great so far, but a contest without competition isn't a contest at all!

Melanie E.

Thanks to how successful my last contest was, Miss Erin has given me permission to run another one of these things! As such, it is my pleasure to announce the BCTS contest for March 2016:

I keep the BCTS main page, as well as my own tracking page, open at all times, and routinely refresh them throughout the day to check for content. I keep the site's scaling slightly smaller than my monitor, though, so along each edge of the screen there's about an inch of the site's default background color.

Imagine my surprise today when I refreshed, and that went from a very very soft, creamy pink to a much darker maroon with dots!

After recovering from the surprise, I think I like this better though. It mellows the site's appearance a little bit. Good choice, elves!