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Second 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

Completed stories will be due to me via private email by Saturday, October 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.

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

Prizes?

None at present, but feel free to offer one! Unfortunately, I have no reliable post office access at present, or I'd come up with something myself.

Participants

We have nine participants for this second ficathon:

The Stories

[NOTE: Not all stories are up; I'm not sure what happened, as it's been four years and I've lost my records.]

Simon Gill/Yoritomo Somori

What Might Have Been: A samurai is haunted by his own deeds after he (or she) kills his (her) superior.
A playwright must put on a play for a supernatural audience, commissioned by a Fortune.

Yoon Ha Lee/Moto Maratai

Crossroads: A magistrate with nothing material to prove who he is must persuade a border guard/warden/magistrate as to who he/she claims to be.

Rob Mathews/Ikoma Uitukake

Winds: While guarding a caravan for his lord, a samurai is faced with an unexpected form of danger.
Stung by a lover's betrayal, a samurai plans an appropriate revenge.

Sébastien Michaux/Tsuruchi Nakata

Brent Morgan/Kakita Koshin

Ways of Justice.

Nancy Sauer/Daidoji Gisei

Glory: A wounded Crab warrior becomes an ambassador to the Phoenix clan and discovers the serenity and peace he had been denied for years thanks to the Phoenix gardens under the winter snow.

Paul Thorgrimmson/Hida Togeriso

Kitsuki Ikeda

Dark Fate: While guarding a caravan for his lord, a samurai is faced with an unexpected form of danger.
[Due to a snafu on my part, I sent the same seeds to two people. The results were two very different stories, though!]

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