Daylily Tales - 2013

Announcing a Fun Writing Contest for Daylily Lovers

Sharon is joining Char and Juli in sponsoring a fun Daylily Related Contest!!!!

All you have to do is ENTER for a chance to WIN!

There will be THREE winners, chosen by YOUR votes!

FIRST PLACE: 150 ACORNS !
SECOND PLACE: 100 ACORNS !
THIRD PLACE: 50 ACORNS !

Description: This contest is open to all ATP members and here's the general idea:

Write a short story using names of daylilies found in the ATP database or the AHS database as the primary text of your story. Our theme is Holidays, and you choose which holiday to write about and what daylily names you want to fit into it.
(Please keep in mind that ATP is a family oriented site.)

Here are the rules:

• Each person is allowed to submit ONE story. Your story should be approximately 150 to 500 words.
• Choose a holiday, then choose the names of daylilies appropriate to that holiday.
• Use registered names of daylilies to tell your story. Daylily names must be found in the ATP or AHS database.
• Use all capital letters for the names of the daylilies.
• Make sure your story has a title for people to use when voting.
• Your story must be submitted in secret by Tree-mail to daylily, Char, or Sharon no later than midnight September 30, 2013

Here is how we will post the stories and you will vote for the winner:

• Your story will be copied and pasted to a separate thread, just as you wrote it (with no editing) on October 1, 2013 and will be posted anonymously by one of the three of us.
• After we finish posting the stories, we will announce that voting can begin. All members of ATP are invited to select your 3 favorite stories and you can vote for them by sending a tree-mail to Char, Sharon or daylily listing the stories by their titles. Vote for the stories you enjoy most.
• Only vote for your three favorite stories.
• Voting will close at midnight on October 5, 2013. We will count votes on the 6th, and announce the winner on October 7, 2013.
• The story with the most votes will be the winner. The story with the second most votes will be 2nd place etc. In case of a tie, the story that uses the most daylily names will win. If you use the same daylily name multiple times in your story, it will only count once in a tiebreaker.

To verify the names you are using and to help you find names to use in your story....
Here is a link to the ATP daylily specific database The Daylilies Database
Here is a link to the AHS database http://www.daylilies.org/Dayli...

This should be lots of fun - we have a great group of creative people!

Lots of daylilies have names that can be fit into Halloween, Christmas, Easter, even Veteran's Day theme - so get those creative fingers typing and lets have some fun with DAYLILY NAMES!!!

Here is Juli's example - though it does not follow the holiday theme. Feel free to ask questions about how Juli found the names to use, ask questions or make comments about the contest!
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MIDNIGHT TANGO

MAL and GERDA BROOKER were SO EXCITED that their DEAREST FRIENDS, LEE PICKLES and his wife JEAN PICKLES were visiting and they were going OUT ON THE TOWN. They wanted to make a BIG IMPRESSION and show their friends what a HIGH CLASS place Cleveland is. MAL arranged for a STRETCH LIMO to pick them up. Gerda planned for a night of DRINKING WINE WITH FRIENDS at the SANFORD WINERY, going on a DINNER DATE, to see the BIG SHOW LION KING put on by the VICTORIAN GARDEN DRAMA CLUB, a drive along the waterfront to see the LAKE ERIE SUNSET, where they would sit by the LIGHTHOUSE in the EVENING BREEZE and watch the FIREWORKS DISPLAY of a SHOWER OF STARS before GOING DANCING at the local HOT SPOT, where they planned to enter the MIDNIGHT TANGO dance COMPETITION.

Gerda and Mal were GOING IN STYLE. Mal wore his new COAT AND TIE, and Gerda took the OPPORTUNITY to wear her FRILLS AND FINERY, COMPLETE with a STRING OF JEWELS and her WHITE MINK stole. She didn't want to be DOING THE TANGO in her FIVE INCH HEELS, so she wore her FAVORITE satin DANCING SHOES instead.

Their OLD FRIENDS called to say their FLIGHT landed late. The FLIGHT COMMANDER didn't NOTIFY GROUND CREW the landing instructions and they had flown ROUND AND ROUND. But, they managed to ARRIVE AT FIVE and they waited for the car to pick them up.

When the limo arrived it was a BIG EYED SURPRISE. It was OLDER THAN DIRT, a DECKED OUT, RUSTY, PINK LIMOUSINE driven by a CLOWN IN A GOWN, STRUNG OUT from taking kids to a CHILDRENS FESTIVAL and was in no FRAME OF MIND for a FUN TIME.

Their friends LATE ARRIVAL caused some issues. The winery had closed, and they missed their dinner reservations. They ended up at the PARADISE BAR AND GRILL, just in time to be LAST TO THE BUFFET LINE, where there were SLIM PICKINGS. Greasy SHORT RIBS, PIZZA PIE covered in HOT PEPPER and MANGO, a wilted TOSSED SALAD, and soggy LEMON CREAM PIE for DESSERT.

Gerda gave Mal a DRAMATIC LOOK, and made a CHOICE COMMENT about their LASTING IMPRESSION. They returned to their limo, and headed to the theater. Mal had to give the clown a NEW DIRECTION several times but they finally arrived after SHOWTIME, missing ACT ONE. They found the play was so poorly acted it was NEVER BORING, and headed out hoping the LAKE EFFECT would provide the TURNING POINT and they would start to have a FUN FLING.

As they enjoyed the LAKES WIND AND WAVES, UNDERNEATH THE STARS, they noticed the FRESH AROMA of a MAGIC PERFUME on the RESTLESS WIND and realized that CLOWN FACE driver was blowing MIDNIGHT SMOKE RINGS of ACAPULCO GOLD into the NIGHT SKY.

They left the LAUGHING CLOWN there to his SELF IMPOSED PARADISE, called a BIG YELLOW TAXI and rode to the dance competition. They were TWO TO TANGO and soon took CENTER STAGE. At the END OF THE DAY, they didn't win the big SILVER TROPHY or the BIG MONEY. Instead, they had PRICELESS MEMORIES, made with OLD FRIENDS, and like LEE PICKLES said, "LIFE IS GOOD." AFTER ALL, THAT'S WHAT FRIENDS ARE FOR.

Fantastic idea!

Great sample story, Juli.

Love it!!!

It really was fun, and easy to write up the example.

There are SO many daylilies with names that can be fit into Halloween, Thanksgiving, Christmas especially -- just think of all the "food" named ones alone!

I think it sounds like fun.

Juli's story still gives me a case of the giggles. While we were finalizing the contest details this past weekend Juli wrote her example story in what seemed like no time at all. Maybe she can give some tips on how she went about doing it?

I will do that soon Char - a little busy right now... hopefully can sit down and write it up tonight.

HINT HINT HINT

Daylily lovers may want to earn extra some ---- because they may want to have extra on hand to "spend" soon!!!!!!

I'm just sayin'

Oh I wanted to ask, are you going to say who wrote which story once the contest ends and winners are announced? I know you will be announcing top three but what about the rest? Matching with names? Or do they forever stay anonymous?

They'll only be anonymous until after voting closes. When the winners are announced they'll be announced with names. And sure, I see no reason why we can't publish the names of all of them after the contest is over and awards have been given. That would be a big part of the fun of it!

Char?? Daylily?? Agree?

I am REALLY not much of a fiction writer as I am finding out from trying to write a story.

It's hard to write fiction and make it up as you go, but this is going to be fun because it can get so silly. Plus, it doesn't have to be very long! And none of it's true so there's no way you can make a mistake as you could in a factual story. AND it doesn't have to really make a lot of sense.

You know the example I gave in the Porch Swing thread? I was going to do a Christmas theme but got stuck on the word 'Frilly' and couldn't get away from it. Sometimes things like that will just write themselves.

You'll do just fine, Rita. You have a nice way with words already.

I started one the other night, but it disappeared in the computer.

I started again (and tried to remember everything I wrote the first time), but I was worried going over 500 words (imagine that?! ), that I've been deleting tons of words and lines in it now.

I keep trying to count the words now, so I won't go over and I keep losing track.

Here I thought in the beginning that I'd never even get close to 500.

Yes, I agree. We could go back and edit each story post to add the author name above the title.

I didn't want to use a holiday for my example. I was thinking about what to write, when a Dancing with the Stars commercial came on the TV. I thought maybe I could write something about dancing, and thought about daylilies wIth dance names, and Midnight Tango came to mind. Ok... Start with a dance competition called MIDNIGHT TANGO. Then I needed to think of a husband and wife who have had daylilies named after them who could enter. Once I thought of Gerda and Mal, that worked for me because they lived in a city I know something about. I started thinking about having them do something before midnight. Well, they would go out! And, most likely with someone... This let me look up things they could wear, places they could go, things they could eat. Even how they could get there. Think up another husband and wife with daylilies named after them who could visit, and how they would get there. When I looked up "Limo" and found PINK LIMOUSINE... for some reason, I pictured a clown driving it, so looked up Clown... Lots of daylilies with clown in the name.

I made a long list of daylily names I thought I could work into the story. Items of apparel, foods, places to go, etc. then wrote up the story, plugging in names where I could. After that, I looked up individual words, and found words like "competition" were names on their own!

In the AHS database, you can look up names and specify (see my links above in the first couple posts)
"beginning of name"
"end of name"
Or
"anywhere in name"

So if i wanted to describe someone's "shoes"
I might click "end of name" and put "shoes" in the search
And come up with BLUE SUEDE SHOES
Or, if I did not find a name that fit what I wanted to say, I might go back and click "anywhere in name"
But also think to look up slippers, boots, heels, etc.

with over 70,000 daylily names.... It is amazing how many you can use!

(without saying Dear Santa, for Christmas I want the following daylilies... And then list 200 daylily names )

daylily said:(without saying Dear Santa, for Christmas I want the following daylilies... And then list 200 daylily names )

Where there went my chance of entering!

The 150-500 is a guide. If your a bit over, it's ok. We didn't want anyone writing in chapters, that's all.... It was so much fun, I had a hard time knowing when to stop....