The Wordsmith's Forge

Based on an audience poll, there will be a bonus fishbowl featuring Fiorenza the Wisewoman on Tuesday, February 17.  In honor of Valentine's Day, prompts about her romance with Giacinto the witch-son are encouraged.

We've reached the three tallies needed to activate a bonus fishbowl this month, slated for Tuesday, February 17.  It's time to select the series to be featured.  Everyone is eligible to vote in this poll.  I'll keep it open until at least Thursday morning.  If there's a clear answer then, I'll close it.  Otherwise I may leave it open a little longer.

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This poem is spillover from the Febrary 3, 2015 Poetry Fishbowl. It was inspired by a prompt from Readera. It also fills the "celebratory kiss" square in my 1-3-15 card for the trope_bingo fest. This poem has been sponsored by janetmiles. It belongs to my main science fiction universe, in the Freedom System colony.

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This card is for the Valentine's Day and Anti-Valentine's Day Bingo Fest over on allbingo hosted by vexed_wench. The opposite of a Great Truth is another Great Truth -- "Love is great!" and "Love sucks!" -- so here we go. I really liked a bunch of prompts on both lists, but knew I'd have trouble making bingo on two separate cards. Therefore I mixed them into a single card.

I'm hoping to attract some new readers through this fest. People are starting to show interest in specific prompts. If you'd like to sponsor a particular square, especially if you have an idea for what character, series, or situation it would fit -- talk to me and we'll work something out. I may still post some of the fills for free, because I'm using this to attract new readers; but if it brings in money, that means I can do more of it. That's part of why I'm crossing some of the bingo prompts with other projects, such as the Poetry Fishbowl. Any other ideas for monetizing this? Let me know.  See all my 2015 bingo cards.

Underlined prompts have been filled.


Valentine's Day Bingo Card

Platonic love	Just found out allergic to (food or flowers etc)	They never look like their profile	I can't stop thinking about you when we're apart	Contraceptive mishap
Have a nice life. Ahh who am I kidding I hope you get hit by a moving truck.	You make my world a better place	I'm thankful for you	You complete me	You are my strength
Jewelry	Feb 15th cheap chocolates day	WILD CARD	You're the best thing that ever happened to me	Sweat/Yoga Pants
You bring happiness to rainy days	You give love a bad name	You give me wings to fly	I want a lifetime with you	I worship you
Candle lit dinner for one	You are a blessing in disguise	You are my world	Defective aphrodisiac	You are my treasure

This poem is spillover from the December 2, 2014 Poetry Fishbowl. It was inspired by prompts from lynnoconnacht, redsixwing, dialecticdreamer, alexseanchai, siliconshaman, and LJ user Wyld_dandelyon. It also fills the "WILD CARD: Relative Values: Families" square in my 6-11-14 card for the fanbingo fest. This poem has been sponsored by Anthony & Shirley Barrette. It belongs to the Antimatter & Stalwart Stan thread of the Polychrome Heroics series, and is a direct sequel to "Bluff and Show."

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This story is from the January 2015 Torn World Muse Fusion. It was inspired by LJ user Sassy_bovine. It also fills the "flirting" square in my 9-1-14 card for the ladiesbingo fest. This story belongs to the Torn World project, although it has not yet been approved by the Canon Board.

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This poem is from the December 2, 2014 Poetry Fishbowl. It was inspired by prompts from helgatwb and janetmiles. It has been sponsored by rix_scaedu. This poem belongs to the Danso & Family thread of the Polychrome Heroics series.

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Here's an interesting piece about falling in love on purpose.  

While there are no guarantees, given two potentially compatible people, it is possible to generate love by going through steps of increasing intimacy.  This is how the more effective arranged marriages work.  There is a culturally framed series of meetings and activities through which the couple-to-be grow more involved with each other.  As long as they're both decent human beings and want similar things from the relationship, love (or at least a strong friendship) tends to result.  Some people find this more appealing than love by random chance, which can stick you with someone who is neither decent nor compatible in ways that may be difficult to unstick.  

If you aren't looking for a sex/romance partner, bear in mind that the same techiques work for building friendships and other connections.  You might want a different set of questions, depending on what kind of partnership you want.

Intellectual Foreplay and Virtual Foreplay are good resources.

This is the second freebie of today's session courtesy of new prompters Martha Rochat, Ross Edwin Rochat, and Andrea Rochat.  It was inspired by prompts from janetmiles, ng_moonmoth, ellenmillion, rix_scaedu, the_vulture, and DW user Librarygeek.  It also fills the "action / adventure" square in my 7-30-14 card for the Genprompt Bingo fest.  This poem borrows the World Tree setting by bard_bloom.

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This poem is spillover from the April 1, 2014 Poetry Fishbowl. It was inspired by a prompt from finch. It also fills the "celebratory kiss" square in my 1-2-14 card for the trope_bingo fest. This poem has been sponsored by Anthony & Shirley Barrette.

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