It's been six days since my last post, and I'm proud to say that I had one person take me up on my offer to buy the PDF copy of "Limerents in the Bog." The offer is still open to anyone interested.

Six days. It's not that I didn't have anything to post about. I've just been so godawful busy. But the bright side is, it's time for the final exquisite corpse writing exercise of 2018.

Who's Kissing this Exquisite Corpse?

If you didn't get a chance to read the last exquisite corpse, a story composed of multiple talented Steemit writers, then I encourage you to check it out here. It's a wild, wild ride.

Meanwhile, the volunteers for this exquisite corpse include:

@blueteddy - Always faithful and always a strong contributor
@fromage - Very imaginative
@quillfire - Never boring
@stever82 - A new entrant whose writing ability gets stronger by the day
@angelurquiola - Another new participant
@sarez - Not his first rodeo
@blueeyes8960 - A new contender
@bennettitalia - An extreme overachiever whose writing will simply mesmerize you
@yestermorrow - Another newbie whose contributions I am totally looking forward to seeing

That's a total of 10 writers counting myself. This is the largest exquisite corpse we've seen yet. And some of these writers can get a bit long-winded. Still, lock your hat down. You won't be waving your hands in the air on this ride.

And Now For Something Completely Different

Exquisite corpse exercises are not genre-specific. I generally tend toward the weird and speculative because that's how I'm bent. But we're all bent differently.

Typically, I kick off the story myself and then pick the random order of writers to follow me. This time--and this is our third exercise (not a very typical one, I might add)--we're going to do something different. I'm going to pick the starting talent by random draw, but it will be someone who has participated in at least one of the previous exquisite corpses. Then I'll pick the rest of the order, again, by random draw, including myself in the mix. This will give me an equal chance at pulling up the rear--not a coveted position by any stretch (unless you're into that)--and give someone else a chance to set the pace.

Isn't that a cute little twist? And it doesn't even involve lemon.

So I've placed all the names in a random wheel and spun it 10 times. The person kicking off in this story is @bennettitalia, a good pick in my opinion because he had the unthankful task of completing the last story (which took three blog posts). It's always easier to be the first.

After that, here's the random order of story tellers in succession - @blueeyes8960, @blueteddy, @fromage, @angelurquiola, @blockurator, @sarez, @quillfire, @stever82, and @yestermorrow will yank at the end of the chain (don't become a missing link!).

Rules (A Royal Pain, But Essential)

Every game needs rules, so here be the obligatories for this round robin.

@bennettitalia will pick the genre, initial characters, and set the pace by writing an opening scene of 300 to 750 words. It doesn't need to be complex. The idea is just to get the story going and introduce the main characters. Then he'll hand it off to the next writer on the list. Please do this within the next three to five days.
Each writer should write a post of 300 to 1,000 words, advancing the story as much as possible.
Writers can take the story anywhere they want. So it starts off as a murder mystery. Who cares? If you want to turn it into a romantic comedy, you're telling it. Just make it plausible, and keep the same characters and general plot line in play.
Tag the next writer so they know they're up.
Tag everyone involved so we can each follow the story.
Use the #exquisite-corpse tag as one of your five #Steemit tags. It doesn't need to be the first tag.
Try to make your post within a 3-5 day window. After five days, we'll move on to the next writer. That keeps the story flowing.
This isn't required, but feel free to resteem each of the writer stories, and if you have the RCs, upvote them. You might even comment on them if you feel so inclined.