June Contest Winners

Okay.... as of little while ago, I received word from the last judge and rather than torture everyone and make them wait until tomorrow, I am going to announce the June anthology contest winners tonight.

It was close. Second and third place were so close together I wasn't sure which direction the judges would go - and apparently they weren't either. You'll see in a minute.

In fact, the person who ended up in fourth was sooooo close to making it too that it came down to counting the number of actual typing/grammar errors to see who made the fewest per word average to determine who moved on to one of the three finalists.

Because of this, I really want to point out the importance of editing and proofreading and tweaking and perfecting and reading and rereading before you submit. In this contest this month, one entry was disqualified for not following the submission guidelines. Two other entries had really good story lines, but the writing itself was weak and riddled with some amateur mistakes, while one in particular was very well written, but the story just didn't work well.

Anyway, when a contest is so close that it's tough to decide which gets what place, it's gotta come down to something other than just judge's preference - and we just couldn't do it - so, exercising my right as the owner and operator of the forum and the contest, I decided there would be a tie.

What we have is a tie for second place. I, in my infinite benevolence, decided it's not fair when the rules say there will be three places, so this contest has four winners, and three places - first, two seconds, and a third. The tie for second is simply because they stories were just too close to decide. One was better written but the story was weaker, the other weaker writing but stronger story. Nope, not going to say which was which.

So without delay, let me announce the third and second place winners:

THIRD PLACE, winner of $10 cash, inclusion in the Accentuate Writers anthology, two free copies of the anthology, and a few other cool prizes goes to:

MelanieS - Entry #457 - M. Lori Motley

This entry is actually well written grammatically with decent flow, but the the one thing that kept it from ranking higher was that it seemed in places to be dark and raunchy just for the sake of being dark or raunchy. Also, the judges thought the ending was just a tad too 'pat' for suspension of disbelief. However, the writing was good and the story flowed well, thus earning it a third place win.

SECOND PLACE, winner of $15 cash, inclusion in the Accentuate Writers anthology, three free copies of the anthology and a few other cool prizes goes to:

Now, these were both fine stories and decent writing - you have no idea how the judges and myself agonized over which one had the edge.

So the winners of the second place, in no particular order are:

LaurieM - Entry #900 - Dreamweaverr

moonshadow68 - Entry #505 - Lucinda Gunnin

Laurie's entry was a nice fairy tale type story that left a heartwarming feel. While there were some technical writing issues that a good editor would need to work with her on, the story itself unfolded well. Some comments by the judges though were that the story didn't quite feel complete and perhaps needed some fleshing out, particular toward the end. Also, the 'characterization' of the ring left the reader unsure of exactly what it was. This, we understand, might have been intentional. Overall, a solid entry with a sweet story.

Lucinda's entry left two of the judges rolling with laughter at the end, while it did get a chuckle out of me too. The humor used to wrap this story up, if interspersed more liberally throughout the story, would have made this a clear cut winner. However, there were some minor technical issues and a few awkward phrases that could stand a good edit as well. Lastly, where the story fell weak to three of the five judges and myself was the main character needing to be 'rescued' so to speak. Didn't quite fit with her earlier characterization. All in all, a strong entry and worthy of sharing its spot in second place.

And now... drum roll please.....



While we may have argued and nitpicked over the other places, there was never any doubt from any of the five judges and myself that the story that wins first place was clear cut, hands down, the UNANIMOUS decision of the judges as standing out amongst the others.

Jennifer Walker offers us her short story, THE FIRE, which had all the elements a short should - it was technically sound, with only minor editing, the story flowed well, characterization was good, story flow was good, and just flat out, we liked the story itself too, though emotion evoking as it is.

So our first place winner is clearly: