Hellooooo comrades! It's NaNo time! And you know what that means? A Squid challenge. That's right, dear ones, it's back. For those of you who have been around a while, you know what the Squid Challenge is. For those of you who have no idea who I am, you might be confused.

Seeing as how I am entirely selfish and want to be in everything, I like to issue a challenge (with prizes!)

It's simple. The only thing you have to do is put a squid in your novel. It doesn't matter how. It doesn't matter if it's living, dead, tangible, talked about, in a painting or in a can. It just has to show up at some point! (Extra points if you make it something integral, but you all get points just for partaking in my ridiculous challenge anyway.)

What is the reward, you may ask? This year, I'll offer one of two options. The traditional option, which is that I'll make cookies! Sometimes this takes a long time to collect on because I don't always make it to the TGIO party, but at some point in your life you'll get cookies from me and the satisfaction of putting a squid in your novel. Or! If you come to one of my write-ins (which I'll be adding to the calendar shortly), I'll buy you a beer! Or a drink, if you're underage! Or a little snack! Mmmm, food.

WRITE ON, MY FRIENDS! And don't forget to post your snippets of squidiness below!

I don't think I ever got my cookies from the last two times. And for one of them, I named an entire projectafter you, so it's mentioned 48 times! This is from a previous year:

"What's the project?"
"It's code-named Squid. Its top-secret.
She glanced left and then right. "Should we check for bugs before you tell me more?
At his shocked look, she hastened to add, "I was kidding."
He smiled. "I realize I sound overly dramatic, but this is the company's best chance to take a competitive lead. We're paranoid about word leaking out early."

Ask for squids, and you shall receive:

"The North Hall was dedicated to Stormsong, so it was cloaked in blues as deep as the arctic oceans, and adorned with mother of pearl, and the murals depicted Stormsongs attendants, the dream squids, holding the stars in their long tentacles and the moon in their eyes. Sun had never before wanted to eat a squid, but this morning, she could think of nothing else."

Ah, yes! I remember not making it to any of the same things as you... I also seem to remember you telling me what kind of cookies you like. SO. If you refresh my memory, I'll do my darnedest to get you some this year. ;) Complete with a nice bow on top.

I love it! The squids sound gorgeous... it should be a crime for Sun to want to eat one!

I will definitely do the Squid challenge this year. Thanks for offering it up again; I've enjoyed the Squid cookies in the past.

Most of my past Squid challenge entries came in the form of calamari (mm... calamari...!) but this time I'll add you to the book (but it won't happen until near the end of the book, since I'm writing my memoirs in (mostly) chronological order).

--Tim

once i actually start writing this weekend...adding a squid will be EASY because my main character LOVES to eat...so i can see her eyeing that ika sushi as it makes it's way around the revolving belt (and CURSING because she debated too long on it and when the belt comes around again...no more squid sushi)...or drooling helplessly when she finds out that the restauraunt serves fried calimari...

but i can't complete the challenge until i put words down...XD...i guess i should get off my butt...because no time like the present!

Ahahah I love it! Hopefully your character will complete her desire and manage to get herself some nice sushi.

Oh, I can do this one easy this year. Strange things can happen when the ship's captain gets into a prank war with his passenger... Although I have no idea when I'll have time to write that part!

I understand that feeling! Why did no one tell me that writing when you have no free time is hard?

YUS! I'm in! And I've got my squid! Novel's about space alien tentacle people, and so naturally their ships are squidly! Yaaay squids and Squiddish!

Also, do cuttlefish count? They're cephalopods too. One of my aliens has cuttle-fish-tentacle-like tails.

"The under-ship is structured roughly like a squid. It has a flattened, shell-like section that makes up most of the mass, but behind it (or in front of it?) are a number of tentacle-like arms. They look like they might have been flexible at one point, because they appear frozen in the act of drooping down into the since-solidified molten rock."

I put dolphins in my novel, but I probably could have replaced them with squids. Hmm, maybe there's still a better opportunity.

cableshaft wrote:I put dolphins in my novel, but I probably could have replaced them with squids. Hmm, maybe there's still a better opportunity.

Dolphins eat squids.

Thanks for that. Because of that, I now have squid in my novel! Although they're going to become food, but at least they made an appearance!

I don't have the exact words for it (because currently I am on my work computer at lunch) but my MC was shipwrecked on a south sea island and her host feeds her some squid stew! Hope that counts.

I love all of this!

Ray threw two canisters of thermal smoke grenades. As the smoke rose, the gunfire from both sides petered out. No one could see anything, not even with their HUDs. The smoke interfered with the systems used by their electronics to monitor motion; infra red for watching body heat, light amplifiers for low-light condition, even the motion trackers that ran off the visible spectrum of light. Then, out of the white haze, came a sound. Heavy boots on polished floors. Something rattled with every step, and then there accompanied a gentle purr.

The space once again exploded with gunfire from a chain gun. They werent aimed, rather thrown in the general direction the enemy was. Emerging from the smoke cloud came Anderson, the hulking soldier in his heavy armor, lugging a large, under-slung gun more at home on the nose or in the door of a VTOL. As he came out of the smoke, tendrils of it clinging to him like the tentacles of desperate squids, he cut an imposing figure. He was also now able to see.

Anderson swept the minigun from one side of the room to the other, the bullets tearing through not only the enemies but also the cover in front of them.

One of the many unique people whom I met through NaNoWriMo was Katherine aka Squiddish. A red haired teenager, she came to some of the write-ins and, although fairly quiet, wowed people with her fast typing skills, winning some word wars. She may have been around fourteen when we first met.

Over time, she became one of the more colorful members of the region and of the Journey. I can remember her driving to a Journey outing in her new jeep. I don't now recall why, but she drove without the top of her jeep in pouring rain.

She participated in many of our jabber chat meetings. She was someone who seemed to be fascinated by murders and the macabre (in her writing). She and Carly (thePiratess) one year had a terrific idea for a short story anthology: Twisted Westerns. Todd (writertodd07) joined their Editing team. Unfortunately, though, this anthology (Anthology 10) didn't make it very far in the process. Maybe it might be revived some year.

Squiddish was funny, multi-talented, well-read and very artistic. One year she surprised me by making and giving me on behalf of the region a heavy wooden chest filled with many beautifully hand-painted, smooth story stones. That year, she gave out velvet bags of story stones at her hosted write-ins. The story stoneswere lots of fun at the NaperWriMo parties.

I love the creative use, rather than just throwing a real squid in there. You go, Glen Coco.

Aww, I can't believe it's been so long! <3 Looking forward to many more years to come, too! Honored that you've written me into your memoirs!