Compo Results! (And a sort-of announcement...)

We at FireStar are appreciators of the arts. And thus it is that certain of us sit, decidedly not overcome by powerful waves of irritation, not torn between extreme annoyance at the pervading air of po-faced pretension, and boredom, at a multi-artist performance of the songs of gloomy Frenchman Jacques Brel. But, at least there’s ice cream at the interval– cut right through irritation, that will.

No, at FireStar we prefer more earthy pleasures. Like the satisfying, plastic embrace as you squeeze one half of a Lego-man onto the other. Mmm. Or, packing a flowing black LEGO cape in with each and every LEGO Batman. Or, the feel of the paintbrush in your hand as you put the finishing touches to one of our NEW SUPER SPECIAL CUSTOM STAR WARS HELMETS! (Sneak peeks coming soon for blog readers!) Or just, you know, watching Derek Acorah being ‘possessed’ by a succession of identically gruff-voiced spooks. That sort of thing.

Such was the pleasure to be garnered in reading and judging your entries for the Lord Halloween renaming competition! Many thanks to all who entered, we truly appreciate your efforts, and we would send you all Lord Halloweens if we could. But…we can’t.

That said, cheers for the winner, who is Joshua H!

Congratulations, Josh, your entry of ‘Pumpkin Punk’ really captured the certain je-ne-sais-quoi we saw sparkling in the depths of the be-pumpkin’d one’s hollow eyes.

Commiserations to the runners up, though special mention goes out to Kathryn, whose evocative imagery accompanying her ‘The Gatekeeper’ entry, was simply spellbinding! So neat was it, we decided to reproduce it here so that all might share in its spooky premise. Thanks, Kathryn!

A solitary figure, the Gatekeeper guards the path across the ever-dying plains. Although I can think of no reason why any man, animal or creature would wish to cross such a dark and infamously perilous place; if they do so, first they must pay the Gatekeeper his tax. Do not think money holds any value in this place, payment is entirely of the Gatekeepers choosing. Failure to pay will be fatal.

To all of you readers – we’re grateful you come here and we always look for your feedback, which we’ll be asking for more of in the coming weeks. There’ll be more competitions to enter coming up, so keep a look out!