The Christmas Short Story Challenge — Final Result

The voting ended and the results are in . . . but, before I present the winner — if you haven’t yet done so and if so inclined — please take a few minutes (about 15-20 minutes) and read the three stories in THIS POST for context. Otherwise, dear reader, skip this post as the awards will be meaningless to you. Well, OK, they’re probably only of importance to the writers. Still, award-winning fiction is (maybe) worth reading.

The results below are based on 19 votes (out of 121 total views). I had warned the writers who contributed their stories that my 1,500 followers are mostly no-show and fewer than 1% engage with the blog.

I was encouraged by the nearly double the number of votes of the first challenge, but discouraged by the drop in participation. The first challenge had fewer views but higher participation in voting (20%). This challenge had more than twice the views but only 16% participation. What do it mean? I don’t know.

So, what are the results?

The winner — with 63% of the votes — is . . . .

Well, gosh, this is embarrassing. I mean, it’s my blog and, well, it seems a bit crass to pull a win.

I asked me for a statement regarding the win . . . and me was tempted to copy Perry’s statements from when he won. But, me decided that would be unfair to the people who voted.

Therefore . . .

Sending one’s works out onto the wild to be judged is an exercise in hope and apprehension for one never knows how audiences will react to a given offering. Praise is as likely as derision or, worse yet, indifference, and thus . . .

Recognizing time as the most precious commodity, and on behalf of the three of us, I thank all who read the offerings and add special thanks to the readers who went a step further and voted.

Lastly, my personal and appreciative “thank you” to readers who voted for my story. There is no greater gift for a writer than positive feedback on their work.

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In second place, with 26% of the votes, sits Perry’s entry . . .

In third place, with 11% of the votes, sits Gary’s entry . . .

There’s one more reward up for grabs — the Professional Validation Award. I’ll post an update when I receive notification of the winner.

We opted to forgo critiqueing each other’s stories but we may get indipendent critiques of the submissions. If it comes to pass, I’ll include them in a future post.

That’s it. This post has ended . . . except for the stuff below.

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