Fall Flash Festival – Winners!

Thank you so much to the fifteen writers who took time out to craft such a wonderful collection of stories for our Fall Flash Festival this year. It really was a treat reading such divergent takes on the season, some hewing close to the themes that are compelling about this time of year and others using something about autumn as a springboard to new realities. If you haven’t had a chance to read the entries yet, please do yourself a favor and take the time – there’s really some very wonderful writing to be found.

Most of the stories can be found here: http://www.inlinkz.com/wpview.php?id=315008, and the other two are http://flashfriday.wordpress.com/2013/10/03/autumn/ and http://jessicamarcarelli.blogspot.com/2013/10/fall-flash-festival-men-of-aiobheann.html.

You all gave my fellow judge, Dan Swensen, and me quite a difficult task in choosing winners, but after some thoughtful deliberation, we have arrived at the following choices for an Honorable Mention, a Second Place Winner, and a First Place Winner. There were many others we considered for recognition – thank you again for writing such wonderful stories.

Deep breath.

Honorable Mention – Lisa Shambrook’s story “Autumn Flame.” Lisa’s prose really shines. Some great poetry. We enjoyed the banter and just love the way Lisa strings together a sentence. The seasons really get a voice in her story  – and what a voice.

Second Place – Ruth Long’s story “Grasping at Straws.” Great voice, great tone, out of the gate. Overall a really great vignette. We agree with the comment that said it was reminiscent of Steinbeck. Just the right amount of humor and plot development.

and…

First Place – Marissa Ames’ story “Dead Leaves.” Brutal, action-packed, and cliffhangery. And the prose crackles. Grabs you from the opening and carries you through a twist that’s too interesting to just call a twist.

As previously announced, Missy will win a copy of Dan’s debut novel, Orison, as soon as it hits the virtual shelves. Congratulations!

But we didn’t feel right giving just one prize, so here’s the second place prize, assuming that you think of it as such. Ruth, you get to request a story from me – any theme, any prompt, any length (but please…if you want it this millennium, don’t go asking for the next War and Peace…). I’ll do my best to make it worthy of yours!

Whoo! Now go jump in a pile of leaves that aren’t too wet. 🙂