I’ve spent the last two days reading and re-reading the 280 stories entered in the Editor Unleashed/ Smashwords Flash Fiction 40 Contest. I’d like to commend every writer involved for taking up the challenge and getting involved in this decidedly unconventional writing contest.
It’s been a wild ride for all concerned, and I hope the process of getting behind the scenes in a writing competition has been enlightening. I’ve watched this contest unfold with enjoyment, and I’m amazed and inspired by so many of the great stories that were entered. It was tough competition—several of the editors assisting me commented on the quality of the entries. So thanks to all for helping to make this contest a success!
Congratulations to our winners in the Editor Unleashed/Smashwords Flash Fiction 40 Contest:
Grand Prize: Fairy Tales, by Ravenne
At Last, neenerspb
Being a Cop, lmckelvy
Blind Justice, TrinityWolf99
The Brain Eaters, Lady Lawyer
Buck and the Twee Fairies of Interstate 20, cubagw
Circles, TheRazor
Defection, drwasy
Dreaming Lies to Change the Truth, kaolin
Fate’s Heavy Hand, jimbernheimer
Food of the Gods, judy b.
Frangible Choices, KeMari
Grief Observed, Laurita
Guardian Demon, JRTomlin
Mirror, Mirror gretaigl
Monday, Selena Kitt
Night Becomes the City, MPBerry
In the Nuthouse, d o’brien
Parklife, AlanBaxter
Pirated Twinkies, soesposito
Pure White, Stephen Book
Reflection, rjkelle
Rough Trade, JRhodes
Running on the Iron Rooster, Michael J.
Sales Call, graywave
Savor the moment, Kupohunter
Sign Language, LCourtland
Sportsmen, JohnOBX
Ten One-hundreds of a Second, DeborahB
The Distraction, Nocdar
The Mercantile Exchange, kenaipi
The Nearest Thing, John Wiswell
The Vial, bentguy
The Vigil of Clouds, Alegra
Time for a Change, Carol
‘Tis the Season, jmar2
Unscrambling Love, Angel Zapata
Wake up, Please, everyhopejd
What’s in a Name, Craven
When Don Cristobal Eduardo Stabbed his Wife and her Lover, Christopher James
Please join me in congratulating our 40 winners!
Note: Winners are referred to by their forum handles. I’ll post an updated list with proper names later this week.
You can check out all of the stories on the Editor Unleashed forum. Also, I’ll soon have more details soon about the Editor Unleashed/Smashwords Flash Fiction 40 anthology, which will be available in a few weeks.
Special thanks to Mark Coker of Smashwords and Kat Meyer of Next Chapter Communications for their sponsorship and support of this contest. We couldn’t have done it without them.
Also, after reading 280 stories in 48 hours, I have a few thoughts about what makes a story a standout, so stay tuned!
-Maria Schneider
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{ 29 comments… read them below or add one }
Very cool. Congratulations, one and all. Some really great stories there.
~jon
Congratulations to all. Especially my mates. They know who they are!
How exciting – and congratulations to all who entered. It’s wonderful to see names of writers I’ve gotten to know over the years and am so pleased to see their continued growth and success.
A really fun contest, Maria. Congrats to _all_ who submitted to it.
Gary
Congratulations Ravenne! And yeoman’s work, Maria. That’s some crazy reading jag you were on.
–John
I am so flattered to have placed. I didn’t expect to. I needed this encouragement to continue to write, write, write!
Thanks so much to everyone involved.
Wow! With all our angst, we still managed to select the Grand Prize winner. Congratulations to all who entered and congratulations to the winners!
And I wouldn’t have liked to have the task Maria and her editors had in selecting the above. Well done.
Congrats to all! I am proud to be published with this group of stories and even more thrilled to see myself in print with some of my friends. I think all contestants should get a “I survived Flash40″ badge ;o)
Congratulations to all of the winners and to everyone who submitted a story! Thank you to Maria, Mark and the editors who made this contest possible.
Maria, thank you so much for this wonderful outlet and resource.
Ravenne, thank you for the kind email and congrats to you!
Fantastic!
Congrats, Ravenne and all the other winners! So happy for you guys!
Yowsah! It’s been a tad tumultuous in the Flash forum the past few days; I might switch to decaf. I read many, many fine stories, and am grateful to be included among the lucky 40. Thanks to everyone for the opportunity and privilege to read some good stuff. Maria, thank you (and keep that wizard’s hat close at hand).
Congratulations, everyone! I am so happy to see my favorites among the winners (yeah, I voted ;-)).
It’s been a lot of fun!
~2
Kupohunter here. I just wanted to say there was a lot of magic in reading stories of others who simply love to write. I’m honored to be a part of this anthology.
Love,
Greg
Thank you for this opportunity, Maria! I had a blast participating and found a lot of needed encouragement along the way. You have created a wonderful online community and ran a hell of a great contest. I hope you have the time to host another one somewhere down the line!
A hearty, well-deserved congratulations to Ravenne, those who made the Top 40, and all those who entered! It was a great contest and experiment and a pleasure to find such an outstanding and supportive writing community.
Looking forward to learning more about the community and connecting with all you very talented writers!
Congrats to Ravenne and the top 40!
Congratulations to the top forty winners and everyone else who entered. Also, well done to all the editors who put in so much effort to make this a good and fair competition.
Jai
Wow, I got in! That makes me so proud – thanks to all who voted and well done to all the other winners.
Congrats all! A special congrats to my writing buddies – you know who you are.
And congrats to a few of you who lurked in the middle and back pages – I am very pleased to see your stories here in the Top 40.
Peace, Linda
Thanks so much Maria. It was and interesting and enlightening experience. You have a terrific forum and a great group of regulars (I hope to become one, too).
Can we use the ‘Top 40 Icon’ on our blogs to link to the announcement?
Congrats to the 40 winners and everyone who entered!
There were some really good stories posted on the site and I enjoyed reading them.
Thanks for this contest, I learned alot and will apply those lessons to my writing in the future.
This was an fun and educational experience, and I thank you for it, Maria. Congratulations to Ravenne (an amazing story, and well-deserving of the #1 spot).
To all of the Flash 40 Winners: You’re more the welcome to use the Editor’s Choice badge (above) on your site.
Thank you, Maria. It’s been a wild indeed. I also want to thank Mark Coker of Smashwords and Kat Meyer of Next Chapter Communications for working with Maria to make this competition possible.
Congratulations to Ravenne for “Fairy Tales.” It’s a great story. And congratulations to the rest of the winners, as well as everyone who participated. Reading your stories was a fantastic experience. Some of you are old friends; however, many of you are new. The open exposure of the stories in the competition made this possible, and I now have the added blessing of meeting some talented writers for the first time.
Thanks Everyone!
AND many thanks to the writers who participated in the Editor Unleashed/Smashwords Flash Fiction 40 Contest. It was a pleasure
reading all the entries. Congrats to those in the top 40. I’m thrilled to be included in an anthology with you.
Special thanks to Maria Schneider of Editor Unleashed, Mark Coker of Smashwords, and Kat Meyers of Next Chapter Communications for an
incredible experience.
Onward Ho!
Ravenne
Congratulations, all! And Whoo! I’m not one to win popularity contests, and I see my story dipped under on the popular vote, but I’m thrilled that it bubbled high enough to get attention =) Thank you, too, to everyone who read and sent me messages about it. =)
I didn’t manage to read/vote on all the submissions (made it through maybe 70 of them), so I look forward to reading the others in the top 40. :)
Well done, all! So many great stories – I’m sorry there couldn’t be more included, there were some good ones left out of the mix!
I read your ‘flash fiction 40 winners’ with great interest. All those stories in 48 hours is a lot!
I run an online writing competition from England that I wonder if you may be interested in, and/or your participants. I’m always on the lookout to bump up interest for both myself and others – call me alltruistic or what but I believe, perhaps naively that hgood contacts can make all the difference – they can also make advertising cheap! If you would go on my site, which is http://www.write-invite.com and look specifically for writonesite which occurs every Saturday at 5.30 pm GMT your appetite may be wetted – and seeing as I have already seen and liked your site perhaps we could do the ole’ reciprocal link thing. I am trying to break into the whole Amercian thaaaang naturally, and you lot seem a little more open to new ideas too – have a look and a think, please – many thanks and I look forward to hearing from you – Rob