And so it has come to pass that the voting for Round 9 of this great challenge has come to a close. All that’s left is to report the results of the voting that took place over the past two weeks.

Armadillo, anyone?

22 votes were cast for this round, which is two more than the last round. Assuming that trend continues, 100 rounds from now we’ll have 222 votes . . . but not today. Today, we have 22 votes.

In a departure from the last two rounds, this round had Gary jumping to a strong start and early lead, and never letting up. I dominated second place for a short time, but, after a few days, Perry’s fans catapulted him ahead of me and to the eventual silver.

Anyone running late and 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
Your life continues Behind the Green Door . . . or, does it?

R. G. Broxson submission<<link
It’s Halloween. I couldn’t resist waking a few classic monsters from their coffins or crypts. James, a backyard bard, tells a campfire horror story that gets just a little too real for his audience of neighborhood children. In the end, we’ll find out who the real monsters are (insert evil laughter here…).

Perry Broxson submission<<link
Rocco D’Angelo wanted to be his generation’s next Philip Marlow – the preeminent Private Investigator. But he screwed up and got a girl killed. Now, in the latter years of his abject career, he gets one final opportunity to redeem himself. However, the mission is virtually impossible. It’s his task to rescue a baby . . . a baby that died 30 years prior, unbaptized. It’s Rocco’s job to save her from Infant Purgatory!

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

The voting closed today at Noon. Here are the results.

Congratulations to Gary for the win and Perry for the silver.

I matched the number of votes I had in the last round, so at least I didn’t lose any ground. Plus, I had a great time writing my piece.

What about an owl?

I’ve chosen the Round 10 title, and the stories for that title — Once Upon a Time…— are tentatively set to publish within a few days.

I’ll be doing something a bit different with my Round 10 story, but I’ll explain when the stories go up.

You can click on the images to get a larger version open in a new tab or window, and anyone wishing to see the full-size versions can visit the SmugMug Gallery of all the Reminder Photos.

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

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