Nero's News for April Options

[Cleo_Serapis]

Hello everyone!

I can't believe it's SPRING in New England! Time to dust off the cobwebs and cultivate those seedlings that are ready to bloom from your muses! There are some reminders about our poetry home that I'd like to share with you all.

I wanted to start with the changes that took place at the close of our sixth annual Mosaic Musings Holiday Classic. As circumstances for this contest have changed the past couple of years, we've decided that the best method for selecting the winning submission is to ask 5 non-participating guest judges (either from MM or external or both) to use a points method (similar to the Odin's Opposition winners). Each of the five would select their three favorites and assign a point score to them: 3 points for the top choice, 2 for the second and 1 for the third (of their three nods). This method allows for a total points scoring of 30. Whichever submission receives the highest cumulative score will be deemed the winner. We could also combine two processes by polling the members and taking those scores and adding them to the guest judge scores to determine the winner.

Here are the new rules on being a MMHC judge:

1. Each judge (non-participants of the contest) will carefully read the entries submitted and select their top three, taking into consideration artistic quality, uniqueness, content, structure and interpretation.

2. Once each judge has chosen his/her top three entries, they will be given a points rating - 3 points for 1st place, 2 for 2nd, and 1 for 3rd. The results will then be PM'd to the admins (AMETHYST, Cleo_Serapis & Imhotep) or another designee who is not in the competition or a judge.

3. The admins will enter the points onto a spreadsheet and then post an announcement listing the winner on the relevant thread on MM.

4. In the event of a tie, a tie-break will take place between the tied submissions. Judges will submit their votes to the admins, giving 2 points for 1st place and 1 point for 2nd. The admins will then post a revised announcement listing the winner on the relevant thread on MM.

Beginning with the 2010 MMHC, we will no longer be awarding a monetary prize, and will consider other options as we move closer to that time of year. Have you read Eisa's winning entry? Please have a read along with all the other seasonal offerings of poetry and prose by those who posted this past year. For all the details, go to our forum as noted here. MMHC Forum. Visit our MMHC archive forum as well to read all the wonderful submissions from holidays past.

Try your muse in this month's Pandora's Chaos challenge located here: You must create a response to the Mixed metaphors: A spoonful of delight and a course of sorrow in a response no shorter than 16 lines in length. Also in Pandora's Box is the newest Book Title Challenge with a twist: The 15 titles are actually PC & video game best sellers.

Our quarterly Odin's Opposition Chapbook Competition will be closing on April 3oth, so please post your PROSE entries (max of 2) in that forum by that date. Since we had just barely the minimum required for the last Prose comp, Odin #15, with (5), we would like to combine the entries for Odin #17 if there are no objections. For all the details on this free competition, please visit our forum at: this link. Perhaps you'll rise up, drink from the Well of Wisdom and be crowned the Bringer of Victory?

Lastly, a suggestion for some changes has been put forth to archive the exhibition poetry forum, Plato's Pearls and change the format of posting in the poetry crit forums, Herme's Homilies, Seren's Synapse and Shogun's Psalms. The idea is that you would have to post a tag line either in the title description or in the beginning of your thread stating a desire for critique. That can be done by simply using CR vs NC with a star, or a series of stars if light, medium, & full critique is desired. As Merlin put it, "This way, whoever wishes critique can request it, and any not desiring any will not get any. This way, a person need not feel compelled to thoroughly parse a piece, which may be well beyond his/her capabilities at the stage they might be." This would in no way change the 1:2:2 rules - for each topic you post, you must still comment on 2 other member's posts (and if you seek a crit, then you must provide 2 crits as expected). Merlin's suggestion does not take away workshopping. We're all in favor of improvement and recommend it to those who feel they can benefit. The idea is to offer a choice to crit or not to crit, within the existing forums. Please reply in this thread or PM me your thoughts on this idea.

Cheers all!
Cleo and the entire Mosaic Musings Management Team