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First RicePaper Ficathon

"No wall stands forever. Only duty stands forever."--Kaiu Hosaru, A Perfect Cut

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How Does This Ficathon Work?

[NOTE: This took place in 2004, but I've left the rules up for reference.]

Over the course of a week, people who are interested in participating sign up. Each participant submits to me, via email two one-sentence story concepts they'd like to see written. I will shuffle the concepts and (again offlist) send two concepts to each participant, who is to pick one, write a story around it, and submit it back to the organizer by the deadline.

Keep concepts short and sweet, for stories in the ~500- to ~2,000-wordrange (not that anyone would preveng people from going hog-wild with wordage *looks at Helen*). Concepts ought to offer some wriggle room, e.g.
GOOD: A shugenja and a bushi solve a closed-room murder mystery.
vs.
BAD: Moto Maratai runs off and joins the Damned, where she is forced to kill and eat her horse, is denied a chance to commit seppuku because she is used as bait for a Shadowlands beasties, and turns traitor and joins the Shadowlands, betraying her tormentors among the Damned and running off to kiss the buttered toenails of the nearest oni while cherry petals are strewn after her in an attempt to confuse Gisei-san and Mirutai-san.
(Okay, this is bad for a number of reasons, but...)

Also note that all sentence-scenarios should be PG-rated by mandate of our Hatamoto. You don't have to write a PG-rated story as a scenario-recipient, but that should be up to the writer.

After all stories are in, I will post stories on this website for mutual preening and admiration, and of course people can send their own stories elsewhere for display.

Schedule

By Friday, June 18: Interested participants should email me (offlist) with two one-sentence scenarios.

I will shuffle the scenarios and email people their two scenarios-for-writing over hte weekend, at latest by Monday, June 21.

Completed stories will be due to me via email by Friday, July 16. Over the following weekend, I will put the stories up on this website, then post the URL to RicePaper for mutual preening and admiration. NOTE: deadline revised to Monday, July 19 by popular request.

If you have any questions or objections, please post them to RicePaper.

Prizes?

Helen Keeble generously offers the following:

(1) I shall send a pen/pencil/brush/writing implement of some description to each Ricepaperian who participates!

(2) Anyone who manages to write tales for both their assigned topics will receive a small decorated notebook (of the paper variety, before anyone gets too excited) as well, for surely a person of such output will always require more paper.

(3) Anyone who manages to combine BOTH their plots into ONE story shall be verily showered with awe, admiration, and goodies (of some description).

And, because this is me...the HELEN KEEBLE PATRON PRIZE shall go to the writer of the longest tale (by word count according to Microsoft Word--and I'm excluded from this *grin*). This voluble individual shall receive the right to add "Prolific" to their Traits box, and also a handsome large journal suitable for recording their voluminous thoughts.

Update: After the fics are written and the story-seeds are revealed, I will send a bonus prize (I don't know what yet) to the person who manages to correctly match the greatest number of story-seeds to their originators (the winner of this prize will also receive the right to add "Psychic" to their Traits box). No collaborating, though!

Participants

We have nine participants for this initial ficathon:

Various other parties have expressed interest. My email's always waitin'. *grin*

The Stories

Amanda Carlston/Yoritomo Reiko

White Chrysanthemum: An old retired samurai, now a monk, returns to the battlefield where he won glory years before.
A bandit and a monk have lunch together.

Matt Dalen/Tamori Shosei

Loyalty: Failing to live up to one of the virtues of the code of bushido costs a samurai their life in an unexpected way.

Simon Gill/Yoritomo Somori

Chains of Chugi and Makoto: An idealistic young samurai is ordered to testify to a lie.
Old friends meet again after years apart.

Helen Keeble/Kuni Mirutai

Stringing the Bow/Loosing Perfection [external link: RicePaper]. A legendary bowman teaches a lesson to a general with a single arrow.
[At the author's request, this story is only available to members of the RicePaper critique group, or by querying the author herself, and is not available on this website.]

Hiruma Nekokaburi

Old Habits: A Bushi opens an order signed by his daimyo and eventually requests seppuku.
A member of the Crane Clan meets a tsuru (crane animal-spirit).

Rob Mathews/Ikoma Uitukake

Ways of the City: A Dragon receives a lesson in humility as a result of a chance encounter in Ryoko Owari.

Sébastien Michaux/Tsuruchi Nakata

Call of Duty: A Matsu returns home from a long campaign to discover that his/her only child is woefully unprepared for his/her gempukku in one month's time.
The youngest child of a prominent family is kidnapped and taken into the lands of a rival clan.

Brent Morgan/Kakita Koshin

A Single Shot: A young Tsuruchi archer fresh from gempukku meets an Isawa fire tensai and tries to win her heart.

Three Riddles: A Tail of Enlightenment: A Ratling finds his way to the high castle of light (Kyuden Togashi/Hitomi/Hoshi) and is tested to become a monk of one of the orders.

Nancy Sauer/Daidoji Gisei

Questions: A samurai seeks answers to bushido within a shrine surrounded by war.

Yoon Ha Lee/Moto Maratai

The World's Chalice: A samurai is required by circumstances to rely on his sworn enemy in order to survive.
A not even remotely canon vignette in a possible future.

This is a bonus story, so to speak, for reasons I will explain later--also an homage in honor the works above. Thank you, all, for the lovely writing. Perhaps someday there shall be another ficathon!

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