I am delighted to announce the winner of the skateboard competition. Christine and Colin took the snipped up story and rekonstrukted the fabulous flurry of ideas that follows. After the winning version you can see the “original” version of the story, once thought to be by Curt Finks, but now known to be a bootleg.
Christine and Colin wrote on 19 November 2023:
“Please find attached our short story as a contribution to the competition closing today, 12 hours precisely from now.
We only added 1 word and one acronym to the story; mutate and GANTOB.
With kind regards
Christine Clark aka Miss Missinformation aka PositiveMoon23 and Colin Clark aka Skellberts Pickles Est. 1680″
They win the GANTOB/ The Foundation Doktor skateboard art in snipped up words)
The 300 Twilight Years
It’s with some trepidation that I attempt to start on this autumn DIY pastime, using the dusty unpublished Norwich writing of the late Curt Finks.
In November I received a huge number of tomes from Charing Cross and Piccadilly, a Convent and a curry house. But in my reply, I have much to explain none of which will follow.
I find myself following father’s instructions. Then I decide to follow a combination of submissions along line by line instead. Operating through such a short time, I locate all I have; a selection of literary evidence from books, journals, diaries, a copy of the Beastie Boys album on record, a fresh undated photocopy, and a directory I cut up. It may take a day, it will be four, and yet no more. I know it’s been a Thursday, enough time gone on a black book watch.
I stall, be, catch a nose of greenery, elect to run downstairs, outside to be in the garden and drop an absolute, total favourite, they recorded in the 1980s and then take and mutate in 1990s. Life is Life.
Running back, as going through the pads of an ordinary day, leads to a small former courtyard. Here I noticed another narrow envelope, other sealed letters, and annotations too.
Overwhelmed by the plans, I stretched out at home, do a line, has a glass at nine, receive my father’s call.
The Father, where he is changing road just in case instead of going back up there to London. Are publishing prices down in Central London?
I am out at Norwich town shopping, and I buy a pastry lunch as a whim. Catalyse some bad American coffee. One does have an urgent need to go to the toilet.
I am going home quietly down by the new lights, holding the fruit that recently opened my eyes to a lust for change. The lights flash onto pavements, with a train soon to leave already. A submission captures a scene, appealing to my attempt to balance my slippiness. I shouted, “catch a train!” So, in a train it is, and not a bus.
I wrote not to bore. Buy me.
I am. One.
I am. Me.
I am. There.
I have my life back. Older, but tiny.
With the racket, I slowly catapulted the words I still had across the sofa cursing GANTOB… skateboard, skateboard, skateboard.
The Foundation Doktor “original”/ bootleg with covering letter to a literary magazine:
Covering letter
I am writing this with some trepidation.
Going through my late-father’s diaries I noticed that he had recorded a number of submissions to small literary journals back in the 1980s and 1990s. More recently I have been following up leads. Using my father’s annotations in a directory of such DIY publishing I wrote a total of nine letters. Four received a reply (none still operating); two bore fruit, one with a photocopy of my father’s submission (undated, unpublished), the other with a sealed envelope which I have not yet opened. At just 300 words, here is the former. It captures a fresh London scene through older eyes.
The twilight years of life
Autumn slippiness is holding me back. There is too much to do to be going so slowly. A day in London will catalyse me.
On Thursday I take the train from Norwich. Central line, changing onto Piccadilly line, up at Covent Garden. I follow my nose, lunch at a curry house, a huge American coffee stretched out on a sofa, a pastry from a stall. I take a short cut in an attempt to locate a toilet and find myself in a tiny courtyard, all greenery and lights. On a whim I buy a skateboard and pads and then follow an absolute racket downstairs. It’s a Beastie Boys album. I buy a copy. It’s a bad combination, and I drop the record as I attempt to balance down the narrow pavements along to Charing Cross Road.
I decide to go book shopping instead, a favourite pastime. I leave the skateboard outside. I am overwhelmed by the selection of dusty tomes. Some of the books in the glass case are appealing, and they know it, going by the prices. Where does one start. I have enough already. I will not be back.
I am running out of time to catch the train home. I elect to skateboard across town, but it has gone. Cursing (quietly) I call home instead and explain that there may need to be a change in plans. I receive shouted urgent instructions down the line, and am soon on a bus, and then another, in time to run to catch the train and watch the lights flash by as I am catapulted back to my ordinary life. I have no evidence of my day, but a new lust for life.
Curt Finks, November, Norwich
The original announcement:
This competition was originally set in a blog by GANTOB. In this announcement I am slightly loosening the rules of GANTOB’s competition.
I, known to you only as “The Foundation Doktor”, am taking full responsibility, acknowledging that I set out to deceive GANTOB into thinking that the snipped up story below was written by her late father-in-law Curt Finks. Check out my animated apology.
The following image shows the words in the story (and a covering letter). I confess that I hand delivered this to GANTOB, in Badenoch, on 29 October (I had forgotten that there is no post on a Sunday – silly me). I did this under my own initiative, inspired by a conversation that I had had with my Grandad (The Benefaktor).
On receipt, GANTOB took the snipped up story, laid it out in no particular order, but in a way that is hopefully legible for competition entrants, and sought help from her fanbase.
As with GANTOB’s original challenge, I want you to reconstruct a plausible story from these words. As before, email your entry (one per household) to 100percentvinyl2@gmail.com or direct message us on Instagram or Twitter(X): @GANTOB2023.
And here is the slightly looser part of the rules: Use at least 370 words shown above. You can add up to 30 words of your own choosing. Use your own punctuation and add or drop capitals as required. The end result (including title) must be between 390 and 410 words.
Entries must be typed, in the body of the message or in a standard word processor format. No late entries accepted – closes at 23:23 on 19 November (your timezone).
Please include your full name and postal address so that we can send the original artwork if you are chosen as the winner. The artwork will be unframed, A4 size, produced from printer paper and Pritt stick on 300g/m2 hot pressed grain satine paper. A stop-motion animation of the artwork will also be dedicated to the winner in due course (I am working on this).
Good luck!
The Foundation Doktor
5 November 2023
Send in your completed blog ideas by 27 November 2023 for a chance to win the book of this blog.
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