All Comments on 'The Misadventures of Cupid's Bow'

I am not usually a fan of Sci-fi/Fantasy, but this was so well written (and super HOT) that I may have become a convert to this genre!!! 5 Stars!!!!! Thank you for sharing it with us all!!!!

I love the twist ending, though I should have suspected it.

5*

Tc

SO much going on here. I'll read it again and enjoy it just as much.

Nice work! I liked it.

I must say that I have never laughed as hard at any one story in quite some time as I have with this one! Truly, Thalia definitely erred greatly in some of her combinations, while in others.. she could not predict the unintended consequences that would unfold. It really became so hilarious that I couldn't stop laughing because of some of the pairings and some of the raucous behavior that ensued. I can say that I didn't anticipate the twist with Desmond, but that was also incredibly hilarious. What I appreciated most however- - aside from your unorthodox style of humor- was that Thalia realized how artificial the entire thing was, and was realizing it during the greatest irony of her life, which was having the man that she was infatuated with professing love to her.. but then she realized she only loved the repartee as it were. It's quite the powerful way to end it, although there is no obvious out for The madness of villagers' experience. You made me laugh so much, and I really appreciate it because of your originality. I had no choice but to rate this a hands-down 5!

This is a real gem of a story, hot and fun!

Wow! I cannot believe that this high quality of a story got so overlooked. I mean come on.. after my comments only one more person said something? I could see it maybe if you're if you were totally new here.. but you're not, as 22 stories means you've been plugging away for a bit. I realize there can be a number of stories that sometimes overshadow others, but this shocks me on several levels--especially without original your story was--to see that it didn't score better nor receive more comments.

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What disturbs me more is that from the time I voted until today when I came back to check and just see how you scored I saw that my vote was removed! I know no author has the power to remove any vote --nor would any author in one's right mind remove a five - - so when I leave a comment that supports an author, and yet somehow it disappears just for kicks.. that's the first time in the 10 years that I've been here, and been voting in at least several of these competitions yearly, that I can ever remember a single one of my votes getting blanked. I'm starting to see why about five authors that still submit here, but rarely do now, why they don't submit for these competitions for the most part: they've always made comments to make me suspect something was going on, but now I see what it is, and that's that a good vote like a five can just magically vanish. I know one in particularly made a comment to me that the reason why he no longer submits on a regular basis here, was that he commented to the effect that "well there's site politics and stuff going on, so when I submit a story anymore if it does well and when something great, if not I just chalk it up to the stuff that's going on." I never knew what he meant--and what those other authors were kind of obliquely commenting about--until I came to this competition. It's extremely infuriating to leave a legitimate vote and have it disenfranchised for some random act- and although it wouldn't have helped you win, that's not the point; the point is you should have had the benefit of that five, and now I'm wondering how many people may have voted for your story that could have helped, but those got removed randomly too.

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I really want to compliment you again on how incredibly original the story was, and I can literally recall six times where if a story was edited by Kenji Sato, that readers at least used to give the store an extra bump... because they just considered it the golden endorsement or Midas Touch if you will. This story flowed so smoothly, and it was a well-polished piece; even the instances where you punished a character or indirectly tormented another were well done to be humorous and basically absolved you of trying to "burn" any one person. I regularly see many readers that root for unsympathetic characters to be burned and taken revenge upon badly, and while I understand it, I rarely approve of the way some authors pursue taking revenge upon that character; usually the approach is far too extreme, and runs the risk of offending even your regular run of the mill reader. That's why what you did with the story touched me and made me laugh so much: you avoided every pitfall I could have imagined.. and while that's not every possible scenario that possibly could have gone wrong I know I wasn't missing much if anything. What I love about your story, and what I hoped other people would take the time to read and appreciate, was that you took a character that was incredibly well-intentioned--that legitimately acted on her many observations - - yet ended up causing so many unintended consequences in committing these different acts. That's what made it so enjoyable: it reminds us as humans that even when we think we have the best amount of information, we're going to create some problem we can't foresee; that's the real beauty of this, because it's an exceptionally mature piece...And so this story so thoroughly entertained and addressed the best side of human nature.. which even in the best of times still screws up! It is the perfect example of the law of unintended consequences, and that's what makes it all the more hilarious.

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I'm going to be really blunt with you: I don't give out fives easily, but that doesn't mean I never award them if author earns them. I have even awarded fives to authors that I personally had a beef with, because I can't intellectually rate somebody differently from what the work deserves- - precisely because I've gone through it. I remember acing this one presentation, and I got like several high fives from people in the front row: all the evaluations were anonymous in that no one had to write their name on the form. The professor in question threw out the absolute lowest score and the absolute highest score.. which was something I couldn't agree with in terms of throwing out one of the higher scores. Anyway, every presenter received evaluations back once the professor reviewed them. Here was the rub:

the professor read every one of them, but after getting rid of the highest and lowest score, left it as it was. I saw ridiculous comments on oh one star off because you chose a font I would never use; another one said oh I would have never preferred to use that color in my presentation. The professor, because he was going over and reading everything, should have thrown those out for being arbitrary and capricious.. but he did not so I ended up with a score significantly lower because of those five jerks that I didn't even know, and although we worked with each other all throughout that semester, I never got the impression of even one person in there that was going to try to knife me in the back when they got the first chance.. and yet there were five. I talked to the professor afterward and said look you saw this right... and of course I already knew he did. He said oh yeah I saw it; but I use that as a lesson to show every presenter that number one you can't control what anybody else thinks or does; number two life is just going to be unfair.. and I know that sounds horrible in a setting like this, but it's something I believe that everybody has to learn. And I was like what the hell? Everybody knows life is not fair, but when there's an instant where you can intervene and correct something that's deliberately wrong and clearly has nothing to do with the process at all.. because we were given an evaluation criteria to use.. and guess what none of the things those five people named were valid points on the presentation criteria. It was nuts and completely backwards.

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Please continue writing, and don't be discouraged by what did or didn't happen with this entry, as I'm absolutely convinced it got overlooked for whatever reason, and should have been weighed on the merits of the originality and creativity of the story elements. I certainly hope that in any future competitions that those items will be weighed, although I will say... just by way of my observation.. that in the last 6 months on this site, I've noticed fewer people seem to appreciate originality nor creativity; even this competition highlighted that, as there were at least three other stories I can think of off the top of my head that were just as creative in different ways, and clearly deserved higher scoring and attention... but didn't get it. I've also noticed that sometimes people just randomly go with some odd reason that doesn't apply, like one commenter that I normally see around on other stories, rate it down a star strictly because the essay was part of the 750 word competition, although it managed to present a full story and develop every possible element between two characters. I had never thought it possible to, but that author actually got scored lower than your entry. So be encouraged that you created something very unique, something very entertaining, and you have obviously more tools in your tool bag going forward.. and I look forward to reading some of your other stories, as I've noticed one that popped up with them the last few days, then I'll now be able to get a chance to read in the coming days too. Take care and all my best wishes for your future success.

@comentarista82 you are too sweet :) thank you for believing in my story and all of your kind words. I’m not too upset, its honestly the nature of the beast with stories, the rating system is always hit or miss. There us a lot that goes in to getting those high scores and I do notice the more original or away from the formula you go the lower the score gets. Which I’m fine with :) sorry to hear your score was taken off tho! Idk how any of that works with contests but I’ve heard of it before. Again thanks as always for your comments :) looking forward to your insight on future stories!