CONTEST CONNECTION
at Women Writers Worldwide
Including contests from around the nation
Thank you for your patience ~ the time has arrived
... drum roll, please ...
1st place in the 2007 WWW-Halloween Fiction Contest
goes to ...
Hugh Neeld
Jacksonville, Texas
for "Racing with the Moon"
CONGRATULATIONS!!!
Excerpt from "Racing with the Moon" ...
"Rust stains ran down the sides of the vault. Over the years, three of the bolts had rusted through, the plaque held in place by a single bolt. When rotated on that bolt, it revealed a rectangular opening in the concrete. The glass casket top, long since broken, allowed a view of the remains of Dead Charlie. When word spread, the Rhome cemetery became an irresistible magnet for Fort Worth teenagers."
Click here to read the whole fun, story!
More drum roll, please ...
2nd Place goes to
Ali Koomen
Mesa, Arizona
for "The Parsonage"
Excerpt from "The Parsonage" ...
"When she lifted the lid, a strange aroma wafted from the box: dust, cinnamon, old paper, tobacco, and underneath it all, something rotten, like meat left out too long. A book was inside. ... With trembling fingers, she turned the page, then the next. Horrifying images assailed her. A sacrificial ceremony too realistic to have been drawn from imagination. A conflagration, with faces pressed to windows in a rictus of ecstasy. An eviscerated corpse being skinned ... Suddenly, the source of the leather cover became apparent."
Full story coming soon!
Do I hear one more drum roll?
3rd Place goes to
Christina Brett
Charlotte, Michigan
for "Velvety Wings of Death"
Excerpt from "Velvety Wings of Death" ...
"He snapped the ceiling light on and saw his fiancée lying in a pool of blood on the four-poster. Her head had been chopped off and rested a few inches from the rest of her body. On top of her, hanging from the canopied bed, was an enormous moth, its wings still flapping a bit. Nigel screamed her name and ran to the bed, and at that moment he realized that the moth was made of soft velvet, with beads for eyes, and feather-like antennas."
Full story coming soon!
A couple of fun statistics:
- 12% of entries had the lead character lost and more than a few, during a storm
- 12% of entries included rabid animals
- 18% of entries found a remote cabin in their story
- 65% of entries were written in the first person - is this a new trend??
Hints for next Halloween? None of the winners included the elements mentioned above and the First Place winning entry is in the first person ... sometimes it works to break the rules.
Thank you to everyone who entered ~ hope you had fun!
Look for this competition to repeat in 2008!
(There will be a 2008 essay competition open to women only, as usual, but this fiction contest is open to everyone.)