March 5 - April 27 2008
Spring Showers chase away the winter blues and we’re hoping for a flood of entries in our Spring Challenge to help us cope with the last remnants of the winter blahs. This time 'round your point of inspiration is in the word 'shower'. Think about all the different ways showers could fit into a story. Hmmmm...let's see, there are rain showers 
, and wedding showers 
, not to mention baby showers 
and the all important shower shower 
Let your imagination run wild with one of our intros or song related choices. You may enter the challenge twice – but you must use a different intro for each entry and you must post your stories one at a time. All stories must involve at least one of the characters from Sue Thomas FB Eye. Poetry entries are the only exception to this rule. Poems should, however, have a Spring or shower theme. In addition, original poetry within a story will be considered for the Rain Shower : Best Poem category.
Please remember to rate your entry, and, if you enter the short story category, please remember to add your final word count at the bottom of your last post. Our voting categories are listed below – new ones are bolded.
Voting Categories:
Wedding Shower - Best Romance
Sun Shower - Best Comedy
Cold Shower - Best Drama
Shower of Blessings - Best Inspirational Story* Since Spring reflects hope in many cultures and religions, and since our challenge timeline spans important religious holidays for many faiths we thought this would be a nice one to resurrect! (no pun intended!)
Navy Shower : Best Short Story (up to 7,000 words)
Hollywood Shower : Best Full Length Story
Rain Shower : Best Poem (original poems, standalone or included within a story)
Surprise Shower : Best Original Character
Singin' in the Rain : Best use of a song in a story
International Shower : Best Foreign Writer for authors writing in English as their second language
Baby Shower - Best Novice Writer * No more than three completed stories on the Board
Fresh Shower - Best New Challenge Writer* Have not entered a challenge more than once before
Meteor Shower - Best use of a shower in a scene (rain shower, baby shower, wedding shower, etc,)
Hot Shower : Steamiest scene (remember our PG17 guidelines!)
Thunder Shower : Best Case
Your intro options are listed below. Select one and start writing! When you’re ready to begin posting click on New Topic, fill out your topic title and topic description, add your first post and click on submit. Your topic area should look like this.
Topic Title: Rainy Days and Mondays - kav
Topic Description: PG17
As always we request that you do not post your challenge story elsewhere until the challenge and voting have been completed. The Challenge begins Wednesday, March 5 and ends Sunday, April 27th at midnight in your area.
Intro #1
Choose a song with a rain or spring theme and incorporate it into your story. Please give your story the title of the song you have chosen. (see example above).
Intro #2
A Splash of Spring Please use this as your title.
Rain on the grass;
Rain on the tree;
Rain on the housetop,
But not on me!
A reluctant smile made its way to his lips as he listened to the childish chant, punctuated with shrill giggles and the occasional squeal when a cold raindrop managed to penetrate the big golf umbrella that dwarfed the tiny body happily splashing in the puddles.
“Come on Daddy! You won’t melt!” A small hand reached out from beneath the sheltering nylon and beckoned to him.
Such innocence! Her happiness was almost contagious. Almost, he thought grimly as he plastered a smile on his face and loped off the verandah, wincing as the cold rain pelted against his body. He was drenched in the seconds it took to cross the lawn but that didn’t stop his daughter from standing up on her tippytoes, trying to stretch as high as she could in an attempt to offer him shelter beneath the huge umbrella. Rivulets of water dripped down his face as he hunkered down beside her. She beamed up at him, his little ray of sunshine and he suddenly found himself at a loss for words.
Intro #3
April Showers Use this title for your story please.
“I hate rain.”
“You love rain!” He winced when she pinned him with a fiery glare. Perhaps now wasn’t the time to remind her of her love for all things spring.
“I hate rain almost as much as I hate showers.”
“But you love showers…”
Eyes narrowed, lips pinched, the look matched the blue tinge to her skin. “And how would you know?”
“You’re…uh…dripping…” He had the audacity to point at growing pool puddling at her feet…and onto his new carpet.
“Using those keen observation skills again, are you? Amazing how you’ve managed to hold onto all that Quantico training.”
Yep she was steamed…or soaked to the skin…either way, it didn’t bode well for him. He was the one who had fixed her car…and the hot water tap in her bathroom but he hadn’t ordered the weather though it looked like she was going to pin that on him too. He was working his way into an indignant defense when she sneezed…and followed it up with a violent shiver.
“You’re cold.” If looks could kill he’d be six feet under.
“That’s likely due to the cold shower I was forced to take this morning, followed by the walk in the cold rain since my car broke down half way here and you wouldn’t answer your phone and now that I am here our plans are ruined anyway because I can’t go out like….achoo….this.”
“Ah…you don’t look so bad…I heard the wet look was coming back in.” That, evidently wasn’t the right thing to say either.
“C-c-c-can y-y-y-ou just drive me h-h-h-ome, P-p-p-please?”
“What and ruin the leather interior of my car?” He ducked even though a violent shudder took the impact out of her halfhearted jab. “I’ve got just the thing to improve your outlook,” he hastened to assure her.
“What?” She asked in grumpy disbelief.
“A shower…lots of steam…endless hot water…” and endless possibilities…now where had that thought come from?
Intro #4
Like a Sudden Rain on a Garden of Flowers... Use this title please.
“That’s so creative! Where did you get the idea?”
“On TV.”
They both looked upon the tiered cupcake bridal shower confection with satisfaction. The individual cupcakes had been baked in ice cream cones and then topped with a swirl of meringue browned to perfection and glistening with silver candy balls. Each cone was nestled into a cupcake stand that rose impressively up from frothy white tablecloth.
“They look exactly like Dairy Queen cones, right down to the swirl at the top. How on earth did you manage it?”
“I ate all the duds. No sacrifice too great for the perfect bridal shower.”
“She’s going to love it! You’ve done an incredible job.”
“We’ve done an incredible job. You helped a lot too, remember.”
“But this is the piece d’resistance…”
“Not if we can ‘t keep the gruesome twosome away from it. Why didn’t we think to write ‘adults only’ on the invitations?”
“Who brings their four year old twins to something like this anyway?”
“Apparently the bride’s cousin.”
They peeked into the living room and shuddered when a potted palm nearly met its fate and sighed with relief when Donna took both ragamuffins in hand and headed for the back door while the oblivious mother chatted animatedly with another guest.
“I’m calling Tanya for backup!” she declared before the door slammed shut behind her.
“We better go help.”
“It would be cowardly to leave her out there alone with them.”
“I wish the bride would hurry up…it’s not like her to be late.”
“Are you worried?”
“No, why should I be worried?”
“Because of everything that’s happened this week. It hasn’t been easy on any of us.”
“Which is exactly why we’re going to make sure that this shower is perfect. We all need the distraction. I think it was a brilliant idea to go with the coed version. I was getting bored of those silly clothespin party games.”
“And it was very generous of Myles to let us use his place. Definitely sets the right ambiance.”
They looked at each other in horror.
“The roses!” they exclaimed together.
“We’ve let Thing 1 and Thing 2 loose on his Crimson whatsitsnames!”
“And no Cat in the Hat to whisk it all right again.”
They both ran for the door as faint cries of help could be heard coming from the garden.