Probably because the person is wearing pumps. You could be right, though, if not for the caption, I wouldn’t have had a clue what the photographer was getting at.
I just went back to look at the photo again.
OK, now I know I need new glasses! (Or a better monitor.)
I seriously thought the person was barefoot! (Which got me thinking about my story…)
Then again, I only looked at the photo for about a minute.
I took a little extra time to go through some more of the pictures in the same album to get some views of the place from a different angle and (hopefully) with better focus, just to see what the stuff in that room actually was.
It was interesting to me to see how my first reactions to our source photo differed from what actually was in viewing other photographs.
I just added another story to the anthology. Just over ten hours left to go.
I was going to post a link to the photo here, but then I thought “Why? If readers want to see the photo, they should just go to the Anthology Thread, look at the words and the photo and then read the stories. And vote, after 10 tonight!”
So I won’t do anything to relieve your curiosity…
Looking at the thread with the stories, I’d have to say that it’s a lot easier to read with the spoiler box only containing the 101st word on. Thumbs up for this change.
Wouldn’t you agree, folks we hope will vote? 
I’m not sure, but can you tell me Le Ministre de l’au-delà if I did manage to send my entry on time?
Had to work longer hours today unexpectedly and I just managed to send it a few minutes ago.
The poll is established, and will close in ten days.
GIGObuster - your story was, in strict fact, late. I decided to include it in both the Anthology and the poll because I gave you the benefit of the doubt - you were close enough to 60 hours that it could well have been a misunderstanding on your part. In the end, I thought it was better to include a worthwhile story than to cavil about a few minutes…
Thank you **Le Ministre de l’au-delà **!
I agree too. A good idea, Le Ministre!
Surprised there are no comments yet–there are a number of good stories in this batch.
I think the voting thread has just gotten lost at the top of the forum.
All right, 60 hours left to go before the poll closes. We’re at 12 votes - I’m hoping to get more, but we’ll see how it goes. Any suggestions to get more votes welcome.
As far as commentary goes, I think it’s down to us to start the ball rolling.
I muse to myself that maybe for the next one, we should try no sticky and trust to ourselves and our readers to keep a conversation going that will naturally keep the thread on the front page of the forum. Any thoughts?
I’ve been wondering about that. I like the sticky idea, but it could also be said that after a while, it tends to blend into the background along with the Announcements and other Stickies that appear at the top of the various forum pages. Perhaps we could keep the anthology thread “floating” on the first page during the voting period if we had enough comments. And I’m wondering, this time around, why there are no comments–the last two FF contests garnered comments, but not this one. Curious.
Maybe add other options to voting:
- Other
- Kittens
- LOTR
- Beer
It is a little tricky to maintain the anonymity of the authors while making comments, especially if the authors respond. We seem to have managed it in times past, however.
I’m really impressed with our writers’ efforts once again, and I find it strange that there isn’t a lot more buzz about these. It isn’t in my nature to be an attention whore, but maybe I should become one .
Oh, go ahead. Can’t hurt. 
I’m also impressed with the stories. It is interesting to see what results from (a), given words and a photo; (b), a word-count constraint; and (c), a given theme. Especially the variety in this batch–yes, we have children, elves, and Santa; but we also have bus trips, a broken relationship, a mysterious old man at the mall, and a modern-day Western. Interesting!
Honestly, I’m always a bit reluctant to comment on things, because my votes will often come down to what I don’t like as much as what I think worked well. And I’d feel like kind of a dick responding with things like, “Person X, I thought your story read like it was written by a money having a stroke.”
That’s part of the reason I have yet to offer a critique or a comment. I’m very confident I could limit my responses to actual, constructive, technical advice, but I’d feel a little bit like an ass if I offer advice on how to improve to authors whose work generated more votes than mine!
I do like that we ended up with a really diverse field of stories though. I don’t think any two are alike, which is terrific, considering we all had the same prompts.
Oh, and you could also request for a mod to change the title of this thread to remind people to see the sticky and vote. Not sure if they would, but it would serve the purpose of refreshing this thread to generate more buzz.
I liked all the stories - thanks guys and girls. I voted for Spoons’ contribution though.
I didn’t like my story this time as much as the first two, but I don’t think it was that bad 
But really, it took too many words to set up what the narrator felt about the request for babysitting help. Oh well, I suppose it didn’t turn out awful considering I turned my story in after a day and a half. Hopefully I’ll like my next story better.