And so it has come to pass that the voting for Round 5 of this great challenge has come to a close. All that’s left is to report on the results of the furious voting battle that took place over the past two weeks.

26 votes were cast since voting started, which I believe is a record for this challenge and approaches levels seen during the Alphabet Challenge. Perry made a valiant effort this past week, but could not catch Gary.

Someone running late and still wanting to express their appreciation for their favorite story can do so HERE, and, while any additional votes will not count, they will be registered for posterity. For them who still haven’t read the stories, here are the links and a teaser description:

E. J. D’Alise submission<<link
A puzzling crime, interpersonal conflicts, and a touch of woo. It’s all in a few days’ work for Officer Wright.

Perry Broxson submission<<link
Rainman has a job uniquely suited for his despicable disposition: he hunts people. Specifically, he hunts down “abortion-seeking” women.  He meets his match when he encounters a 400-year-old witch named Maud LeFaye – a midwife dedicated to women’s right to choose.

R. G. Broxson submission<<link
It’s an epidemic! Autism Spectrum Disorder is running rampant, and nobody is saying a word. Statistics show that half of our children will be diagnosed with some form of it by the year 2025. Why the silence? Where is Fauci? Is the government involved? One girl pulls back the curtain to see why she is so different from her classmates. You’ll be surprised by what she finds.

As a reminder, each writer wrote a story drawing on whatever inspiration they got from the title “Rainman”.

The voting closed today at Noon, but it was really won in the first few days, when Gary took an early and insurmountable lead. Here are the results.

Congratulations to Gary for the win and Perry for the silver. Once again, Gary showed us who’s boss.

My votes totals shrank down from the previous round’s heady heights of 7 to a more sedate 4. Actually, it’s below my usual sedate number, once again making me grateful I’m not reliant on my writing to earn a living.

A Round 6 title has been chosen (HERE), and the stories for that title — It’s A Wonderful Life — are tentatively set to publish this weekend. This week being a busier week than usual, that’s an even more ‘fluid’ deadline than usual.

Once again, these are the Paper Artist app’s rendition of the first photo above, itself the product of another app, Adobe Photoshop Mix (merging and blending of multiple photos) . . .

As some might remember from a few weeks ago (HERE), Photoshop Mix is an Android app (since discontinued) that allowed one to blend various photos.

This particular Mix uses a photo of a wooden Indian head, a photo of leaves, and one of my doodles.

These are linked fairly small, but anyone wishing to see larger can visit the SmugMug Gallery of all the Reminder Photos for this round . . .

This is another Mix creation from some of my doodles . . . an abstract, I think it would be labeled.

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

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