dola, I meant the Illiad was great pick :)

Nice, I was going to take him in my picks so you just beat me to it.

Oh, you're such a Homer.

1. Fiction
2. Single Short Story
3. Poem 1.9 "The Wasteland" - T.S. Eliot
4. Fantasy/Science Fiction
5. Series (A set of books continuing the same story and intended to be read sequentially)
6. Sport Related
7. Children's
8. Non-Fiction
9. Biography/Autobiography
10. History

Love, hate it, but you can't deny the power, epicness, beauty and influence of The Wasteland. It was a poem that influenced generations of poets long after him and even today, there's college courses where the entire syllabus deals with just this poem.

The magnum opus of one the greatest poets of all time.

All good choices, these recent ones.

darn. I was totally going to try to get to that next time around.

Is "The Wasteland" anything like "The Waste Land"?

I once had somebody drunk-dial me and read The Wasteland to my answering machine.

1. Fiction
2. Single Short Story
3. Poem
4. Fantasy/Science Fiction
5. Series (A set of books continuing the same story and intended to be read sequentially)
6. Sport Related
7. Children's
8. Non-Fiction Danse Macabre - Steven King
9. Biography/Autobiography
10. History

I couldn't resist the temptation to snag one of the most popular writers of all time and it is even better since this is a fascinating study of the horror field and into the mind of the man who filled us with it.

I'm honestly surprised it didn't go earlier.

I considered it, but think there are fewer "great series" that are recognizable than there are great poems.

Sorry about that.

Ugh, in my still flu-struck state, I misspelled The Waste Land. Would you guys mind if I went back and fixed the title?

I think everybody knew what you meant, I don't see the harm in editing it.

I have not read Danse Macabre, and I don't doubt you when you say this about it. But I must admit I am disappointed that this is the selection that ends up eliminating all of his other works, among which might have included On Writing (as either Non-fiction or Autobiography), several amazing possibilities for Fiction and Short Story, and lastly, the Dark Tower series for either series or scifi/fantasy.

Having not read Danse Macabre, I cannot say whether it deserves its first round pick (for which it may very well be deserving). Just disappointed this is the choice for King.

well that's the way of it, isn't it?

But isn't part of the strategy to gather the best authors we can? It's easier to fill other categories and while this isn't a top ten book it's a worthy non fiction entry I'd say so I was going with strategy.

So is the overall strategy is get the works only a few heard of out of the way in the first two rounds and leave the more obvious stuff for later?

I mean, as a voter, I will be looking more at the works themselves and not the author.

If so, then I have misunderstood lordscarlet's intent. I thoguht we were drafting the best works of fiction, not the best authors. If we were selecting best authors, why even mention specific works of fiction?

That's open to interpretation, I'd say, though you're probably right. That being said, I've got a decent sized board for series.

Well, good, at least I was not the only one to think this (even if Bucc is not a drafter).

Agreed. I think that is a great value pick.

I'm going for best works. If I can block an author who covers several categories with top works, I'll do it - but I wouldn't want somebody's 4th best work.

Yes and no. The primary emphasis is getting the best collection of works possible, best of course being open to interpretation.

That being said, there is a bit of author strategizing here, but strategizing too much on authors runs the risk of watering down the works selected.

1. Fiction
2. Single Short Story
3. Poem
4. Fantasy/Science Fiction
5. Series (A set of books continuing the same story and intended to be read sequentially) The Harry Potter series - J.K. Rowling
6. Sport Related
7. Children's
8. Non-Fiction
9. Biography/Autobiography
10. History

Again, I couldn't pass up the wildly popular and quite entertaining series that has captivated so many peoples imaginations. Seems like another no brainer at this point.

Again, as a voter, I would have slammed that pick if it was in History. As a non-elite voter (which will make up a percentage of us voting), wouldn't think it would fit in Poetry as much as Fiction.

Hint, don't pick obscure works if you want votes (or try to be too clever and pick a popular work in a wrong category ;) ).

Otherwise, why bother to limit it to one work per author unless the contest is to collect the best authors. Wouldn't really make sense though I'd play in either or both kinds of drafts. I may be confused though so who knows.

Nice one, Axxon.

See?

The Harry Potter series was high on my board, I was VERY surprised it lasted that long.

As a voter, I might make authors a consideration if I can't decide between a few drafters when it's time to vote, but someone taking a not-so-good/not-well-known work from that author will be a strike against them and not a plus. With this pick (the King pick), Axxon's going to need to a have a great draft the rest of the way to make up for this bust of a 1st round pick.

I think Non-Fiction will actually be the easiest catagory to fill, so I don't see the need to throw an old, not-well-known work from King into it.

Axxon needed that pick.

Surprised to see any Fiction picks so early; it's such a large category that I figured it would be held for last behind the harder to fill niches. That being said, you can't argue against Twain and arguably his best work.

Now as far as Twain being the greatest author... I can't say the names of the people who would argue against that :p

Excellent pick, Axxon. I'm surprised it didn't go in the 1st round.

Well, by then I realized that this wasn't the kind of draft that I thought it was. If I can do anything, it is adapt and fact is, I still have Steven King. ;)

I always thought of it as poetry. We learned it as part of the importance of meter in poetry and how that would make things easier to remember and learn as an ancient loremaster.

Also, I thinkn it could be debated whether it fits in fiction or history. I went the safe route and used it as my poem.

1. Fiction 2.2 Lolita - Vladimir Nabokov
2. Single Short Story
3. Poem 1.9 "The Waste Land" - T.S. Eliot
4. Fantasy/Science Fiction
5. Series (A set of books continuing the same story and intended to be read sequentially)
6. Sport Related
7. Children's
8. Non-Fiction
9. Biography/Autobiography
10. History

I thought a long time about this pick and eyed some other possibilities, but in the end, my list wouldn't feel complete without what in my personal opinion is the greatest novel ever written, by one of the two authors who have had the biggest influence on me as a writer.

Is it a reach? Maybe, especially with some other options I was strongly considering in this slot, but the end, an Izulde draft without Lolita is like a Dolphins team without Dan Marino.

It just wouldn't be right.

I agree with you. A couple of the requisite authors have been picked already but those would be a given and it would come down to chosing the best known works by such authors, for those that would have nothing to do with taking English Lit.

In other words, there is nothing Izulde can do now to win this draft. :)

Steven King? Would he be related to Stephen King by any chance? :)

Finally, there's my 1.1 pick. Harry Potter, like it or not, trascended the world of books and set so many ridiculous records that it goes beyond literature. Nice pick, Axxon.

Total reach. You could have had that one as a UFA.

;)

Splendid HP pick, by the way, Axxon. :)

What I don't see is why even have a rule about only using one work per author if that's only going to be a minor point. It's a lot of limit for minimal strategy and there really aren't many rules to this thing to start with. I'd think the ones that are there would mean something.

So, I am adapting and will draft according to what the audience wants but since this wasn't really clear, I think you should cut me some slack for not realizing how trivial the most restrictive rule in the contest was going to be. :p

Not when you're trying to take an octagenarian with alzheimers through a password reset while you're typing. :)

That was a bad one though.

I know, I know... and the rest of my board is glaring at me and saying "Hey you! Our adjusted grade is a lot higher!"

Ah well.

I think that si what we've learned from the previous draft contests. You leave the most popular category for later unless there are a few first rounders that have to be gotten out of the way, if that makes sense.

To be fair, this is the first draft contest I've ever participated in, so I can chalk it up to rookie mistake combined with a foolish sentimentality?

I have somehow totally missed all the other draft contests. What a darn shame.

I thought it was primarily there to ensure a diversified draft. How fun would it be if half the drafters took King novels? If half the drafters took works from Mark Twain, or poems from T.S Eliot?


It's not trivial considering a lot of the greatest works out there are from a small group of authors. Yeah, it would be important for someone to grab King because he has written some of the greatest works for the 20th century. It is very important to grab the most known and respected authors (because they've made the best works and it prevents other people from taking the other great works).

Your pick just sucked. :p