Mid-Week Blues-Buster Week 14 WINNERS

I’m just gonna shut up and let Judge Jesse James Freeman have the floor…

When Jeff asked me to judge the contest and I saw the song prompt I felt the power-house excitement. I’m a Skid/Mojo fan, but I kinda wondered how qualified I was all of the sudden. I’ve never really been a fan of Elvis.

I know all the songs, my grandmother worshipped him. I can remember being a kid and going to her house for Christmas, she had Elvis in his Hawaiian costume tree ornaments. She was living the dream.

And don’t every try to tell her he was dead, because she read in the Enquirer that he was still alive. “It was all that bitch Priscilla’s fault because she was really a space alien and she double-crossed Elvis and got him abducted.” (off the toilet, no less)

Then Priscilla became a Scientologist and I’m starting to think Granny Freeman might have known what the hell she was talking about after all — God rest her (and maybe Elvis’) soul.

I did listen to the Elvis channel on Sirius/XM for about three songs as research (one of which was the one he sang about the ghetto, because there’s no greater pleasure in all of music than listening to Elvis sing “geh-het-toe”).

Then I watched Bubba Ho-Tep.

 

Then I watched True Romance.

 

Then I was ready!

This was a hard decision and I loved all of your stories.

I know everybody says that every week, but I promise I’m not making it up (like I did that time when I told Elle Macpherson that I was a resistance fighter from the future and if we didn’t go to Tahiti together for the weekend that the entire time/space continuum would collapse and the planet would be thrown back into dinosaur times).

 

It was truly hard to make this decision, and I can assure you that me and Elle Macpherson loved all your stories!

(I’m just gonna throw out my thoughts, because we’re all adults and we write and nobody wants someone telling them how to write. And, ultimately, what the hell do I know about anything anyhow? They replaced part of my brain with a little bag of sand.)

First Place

@Valeriebrbr / “One For The Team”

I really like things that go off-kilter, over the top genre — and throwing Elvis imagery into such a fully realized and futuristic setting was a deal-maker for me. I found the piece very descriptive and layered and I kept reading it and going, “Who would’a thought to put this with your Elvis?”

 

It’s like that commercial where that kid on drugs trips and chocolate flies into the air and then lands in a bucket of peanut butter … wait, Elvis dug peanut butter.

And bacon.

And drugs.

Weird.

You put a lot of thought into this world, or you watch a lot of Star Trek (like too much), or you got really high in a Radio Shack one time.

(Great story, I actually want to read more about that world now — Elvis is optional)

 

Second Place

@bullishink / TUPELO TWO STEP

I loved you using Tupelo (I had to make a flying 24 hour road trip to there from TX one time — don’t ask). It was a great way to stay in theme. Your dialogue is fantastic, and I like short pieces that are dialogue heavy (I like full-grown pieces that are dialogue heavy too).

“Next time I’m late for work, they’re gonna cut me loose, and if I lose my waitressing job, I’ll have to drop out of beauty school.”

— I mean, we’ve all been there — in danger of dropping out of beauty school (this line made me laugh, like a lot). I can hear it playing out in my head, probably because I’m from the South and big-hair, and the licensed ability to pile it higher, is definitely a concern.

In fact, I just read it again and laughed again. It’s hard to make me laugh. I have a cold, mostly dead, heart.

Third Place

@BrewedBohemian / Cadillac Satin

I’m pretty sure you can turn on a police scanner in Las Vegas and hear similar tales of woe, one after another, but I loved the flow of this and the dialogue. It’s short, but visually it all plays out in my head like the opening teaser of a TV show. I also like to think that in some strange, alternate universe that Elvis and a Stripper are on a Bonnie & Clyde type crime spree — but it’s a nice crime spree, because Elvis makes people happy.

I guess strippers can too.

 I’m not saying anything else about strippers — but good to know that you’re not supposed to give them your bank account numbers.

Entertaining and educational!

I’d like to thank Jeff for asking me to judge this contest. I really enjoyed doing it and reading all your work. I’ll be seeking more stories out by all of you, thanks for writing them!

Say hi on Twitter: @jessejfreeman

 

That’s it…. Mazel tov, Val!  Here’s the Winner’s Badge!

Congrats to all of our winners and entrants.  Big thanks to Brother Jesse for judging.

See you all on Tuesday for another exciting edition of… The Mid-Week Blues-Buster!!!

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