The Red Hot Pawn Prose Competition 2

bump

bump

We just need one more entry for round 3, someone out there must have a story worth telling or a creative side that can no longer rest dormant. I understand that 1001 words is more than some of you write in a year 😉, but now's your chance to break those bonds and allow your pent up ideas to take form and be transduced into literature! Grab a pen, pencil, a keyboard, a razor blade, whatever it takes! Write people, write and be free!

Originally posted by Starrman
bump

We just need one more entry for round 3, someone out there must have a story worth telling or a creative side that can no longer rest dormant. I understand that 1001 words is more than some of you write in a year 😉, but now's your chance to break those bonds and allow your pent up ideas to take form and be transduced into literature! Grab a pen, pencil, a keyboard, a razor blade, whatever it takes! Write people, write and be free!

Is there a lower bound? I'm at just under 400 and I could probably get more in, but I like it enough as it is.
My last one was quite short too, and that was quite well recieved 🙂.

Originally posted by jimmyb270
Is there a lower bound? I'm at just under 400 and I could probably get more in, but I like it enough as it is.
My last one was quite short too, and that was quite well recieved 🙂.

As long as it's not voodoo it willdoo 🙂

Okay, I'm just polishing it, I'll have it completed within the hour.

The voting is now closed, and here is the final ranking:

1) Nameless... Faceless... (40points)
2) No Salvation (27 points)
2) Voodoo Hoodoo (27 points)
3) Under Cover of the Night (21 points)
4) Fight at the mess (15 points)

Note that there is a tie for second place!

Thank you guys so much for voting, and thanks very much to the writers!

The person behind Nameless... Faceless... is Ragnorak! Congratulations to you sir.

I must confess, I actually made an agreement with Ragnorak when I received his email two weeks ago. He consented to allow me to reveal his identity even if he didn't win, because I wanted him to step forward and elaborate on the history behind this piece of prose for all of you...

Well done Rag, please enlighten us on the story.

Also, why so little voting this time? C'mon people, it only takes a few minutes to reda the pieces and vote.

Congratulations Rag.

And we now have 5 pieces for round 3 🙂

Originally posted by jimmyb270
Congratulations Rag.

And we now have 5 pieces for round 3 🙂

No we don't. We have four. And I'll be jumbling up the order I post them this time.

shhhhhhhhh!

Originally posted by hopscotch
No we don't. We have four. And I'll be jumbling up the order I post them this time.

shhhhhhhhh!

Well I sent you another one since Starrman said we needed one more. Maybe you haven't got it yet

Originally posted by jimmyb270
Well I sent you another one since Starrman said we needed one more. Maybe you haven't got it yet

I think he's chickening out from entering himself.... 😛

I was going to enter, but I left my piece at my house, and I won't be returning there until next week.

We need one more entry.

Originally posted by hopscotch
I was going to enter, but I left my piece at my house, and I won't be returning there until next week.

We need one more entry.

Oh, how convenient.

That reads like chickening out to me.

Originally posted by hopscotch
The voting is now closed, and here is the final ranking:

1) Nameless... Faceless... (40points)
2) No Salvation (27 points)
2) Voodoo Hoodoo (27 points)
3) Under Cover of the Night (21 points)
4) Fight at the mess (15 points)

Note that there is a tie for second place!

Thank you guys so much for voting, and tha ...[text shortened]... ed him to step forward and elaborate on the history behind this piece of prose for all of you...

Thanks G,

It was inspired by a trip to Cambodia in 2003, which took in Tuol Sleng (The Khmer Rouge's main interrogation camp) and the Killing Fields, just outside Phnom Penh. More specifically, it was inspired by this man...
http://members.fortunecity.com/donallyne/pics/PP2.jpg. For some reason, the dejection and complete lack of hope seemed to communicate to me from his bruised and starved face, and despairing eyes.

His was just 1 of thousands of mugshots within Tuol Sleng. The Khmer Rouge took great pleasure in accurately recording their atrocities, even so far as taking pictures mid torture, after death.
http://www.reisebilder.ch/bilder/ka092-700.jpg

The bed described is like one of the rooms we saw, with blood stains on the floor even now...
http://gregoire.leclercq.free.fr/en/travels/asia/cambodia/0052%20-%20Phnom%20Penh%20-%20Tuol%20Sleng%20S21%20prison.JPG

The 10 security regulations...
http://www.yatesweb.com/Cambodia/Tuol%20Sleng%20April%202002/pages/f.%20Instructions.htm

The Killing Fields were the opposite of what I expected. It was in a
beautiful area, very lush with vegetation, surrounded by lakes and
there really were butterflies everywhere. It was blighted with deep
trenches, marked with signs saying things like "150 dead, mostly
babies" or "100 dead, mostly headless"
http://www.smallbagbigworld.com/images/cambodia/killing_fields.jpg

I guess the story came about due to thinking about the horror of the atrocities that must have taken place in such a beautiful location (a large percentage of the babies that were killed had their heads smashed against trees to save bullets), and what must have been going through the condemned peoples' minds as they awaited death, surrounded by wildlife and nature's magnificence.

The tragic undertones of the end, where the main character was joining his family in death was just to highlight the massive death toll of the genocide. Estimates go as high as 40% of the entire Cambodian population dying due to execution, disease, starvation and overwork.

I hope you enjoyed reading it as much as I enjoyed writing it, and I'd appreciate any feedback that you wish to give.

D

Originally posted by hopscotch
The voting is now closed, and here is the final ranking:

1) Nameless... Faceless... (40points)
2) No Salvation (27 points)
2) Voodoo Hoodoo (27 points)
3) Under Cover of the Night (21 points)
4) Fight at the mess (15 points)

Note that there is a tie for second place!

Thank you guys so much for voting, and tha ...[text shortened]... ed him to step forward and elaborate on the history behind this piece of prose for all of you...

I want to know why you don't reveal the names of everyone who submitted. I'm sure they don't all want to toil in anonymity perpetually.