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Ouch!  I made a last-minute entry (at about 23:35) and realized I'd omitted something, so I edited the version out there.  The edit was completed at about 23:53.  Does the contest get the edit or not?

vern wrote:

Really? 4 days and still only 4 entries. I'm liking those odds, but geez folks/writers, you ask for contests and then sit on the sideline. Oh well. Take care. Vern

Comment from the side-lines. (Warning; subjective opinion is expressed).

We do ask for competitions, and as you know, I’m always usually up for them. The occasional competitions are possibly the only factor that persuade me to continue my subscription here nowadays.  However, this particular competition is not for me. It has strict, specific genre and plot requirements. I’m not knocking that; the few people that asked for such exacting story requirements and criteria are obviously up for it and are happily knocking one out.

However, I don’t think the few who asked for it should ask why ‘others’ are sitting on the side-lines.

I did actually give this competition a go; ideas formed and I even put pen to paper. The classic ‘locked room’ mystery has two main elements the ‘whodunnit’ and the ‘howdunnit’.

IMO the howdunnit without the whys and wherefores of the whodunnit is a half inflated balloon.

The ‘whodunit’ requires a lot of preparation with characterization, character back-story, actions and foreshadowing. The misdirection, the red-herring, the subterfuge and stratagem. The revealing of the perpetrator should be un-obvious and a shock, yet with hindsight the evidence is hidden but readable when carefully back-tracked.

I found (quite quickly) that I couldn’t condense my story into 15,000, let alone 5,000. Deliberately writing something that I, the author am not happy with, is a big compromise, is a non-starter. Time and creative effort are better spent elsewhere.   

Fair-play to those who asked for the competition criteria and who entered. It is your competition and you are entitled to enjoy it.

From the side-lines, I’ve had a look at the entries (doesn’t take long) and as much as imaginary worlds populated by biologically diverse intelligent alien lifeforms, talking dragons, naked gnomes and such is so not my thing (or within my comfort zone), I found that the entries all came across as a rushed ‘howdunnit’ with little or no developed ‘whodunnit’ element.  A non-descript perp of convenience is hurried-in as the curtain closes. 

Personally, I like the traditional more 'general' kind of competition that might ask for (with a finger in the air), maybe a ‘Winter based murder mystery’ within 5,000 words. Or a Summer based story that involves treachery between siblings or blood relations… or something very broadly of that nature. It is non-restrictive allowing all genres, styles and preferences to enter; from off-world fantasy to real-world factual.  Heaven forbid, but it would also include poets. Writers would pile into a competition like that. It would guarantee some really good entries too.

In the meantime, I’m on the bench with the people on the side-lines happily letting this particular competition pass by unacknowledged and thinking, “hey-ho; no matter, maybe next time.”

vern wrote:

C J Driftwood wrote:

seriously, vern?

Not so much

foot in mouth

The number of published stories with deaf, mute, or blind investigators is small.  It's been done, but it's rare.  Of course, the victim or perp could have the handicap ... or a witness.