Anthology Contest: WIND: Voting Thread

[tmso]

Hello Forum Members,

This is our second contest to determine which three stories from the following entries will grace the pages of an anthology about The End.

Without further ado, here are the stories:

1. A Taste of Armageddon
2. God's Laser
3. Half-finished Job
4. Julia's Garden
5. Let's see what tomorrow brings
6. Silver Sky
7. Sky Prey
8. Winds of Blackening

Now, how to vote? We will be doing something special this time round. In the spirit of keeping everything anonymous, and the voting blind, please read each entry, pick your three favorites, and send those choices to me via a private message (PM).

That's it. I will announce the winners on September 1st 2012, and reveal who voted for what.

If you have any questions, please ask.

Good luck to all. I look forward to reading each and every story.

[tmso]

NOTE: an entry has been removed, so there are now only EIGHT stories to read.

Happy Reading.

[Igor]

Any comments allowed/recommended?
Or would this spoil/tilt the favors?
Igor

[tmso]

Any comments allowed/recommended?
Or would this spoil/tilt the favors?
Igor

Comments are allowed (and encouraged!).

However, if you have a story submitted, please comment on your own as well as the others, so that folks are not able to ascertain who wrote what.

[Wulfen]

Some really good stuff here, will make voting very difficult!

[tmso]

That is always the case. There are some damn fine writers who hang out here.

The votes are coming in, folks. Very exciting to see the results! You will too. Sorry this is hidden from you all. I wonder if we can do this some other way. I will ponder...

By the way, we may end up with a tie. I'll put up a tie-breaker poll, if needed.

9.5 more days!

[Gkarlives]

I think the wind theme was possibly the toughest for everyone to deal with since most would like to have tried to imagine some kind of wind event that could destroy the planet. Wind, while destructive at times, seems to be more of a local event and not global in destructive nature. Many good stories were handled more in a post apocalypse nature or in a very, very thin way. But there still was some good reading here.

Winds of Blackening – Well written with a good world build and a somewhat Mayan feel to the world doom. Unfortunately, the ending did not leave me thinking the world was coming to an end. Theme handled through the early paragraphs, which could also fall under the fire theme.

Silver Sky – Very good story and writing and good dialogue. The world building was great and I loved the uplift universe feel with the monkeys and dolphins. Theme handled through solar winds.

Julia’s Garden – Great post apocalypse world build with good characterizations. Love the idea of apocalypse by over disinfecting. Theme was lightly handled through senses affected by wind and also winds probably spreading the disinfecting agents.

Sky Prey – Good idea but stumbled with the execution a bit. Dialogue was good but hard to follow who was talking at times. Theme handled through the idea of flight, more post apocalypse.

Half Finished Job – Good writing and pacing. Character was unfortunately not likeable aka Jack Vance’s third character in the Dying Earth series. Theme handled by storm the finishes town but no feel for an overall apocalypse.

Let’s See What Tomorrow Brings – Gruesome situation and ending graphically portrayed, needs some cleaning because I got confused and had to reread to understand. Theme handled through the continuous destructive wind.

God’s Laser – Have some questions on the damage caused by only 150 degree effect. Theme handled through the hurricane analogy but did not feel like an end of the world situation. Character was a little wishy washy.

A Taste of Armageddon – A well written and very descriptive read with harsh ideas about modern and ancient sins. Theme handled very thinly through smells, which are carried by the wind. Very apocalyptic ending though.

[tmso]

Folks have voted, but we could use some more! (as always)

One and a half more days. I'll announce the winners Saturday, or put up a tie-breaker if needed.

Read well.

[tmso]

A little early to make this announcement, but I'm going to bed now and will be out and about early tomorrow. Besides, for most of the world it is already tomorrow.

Wind Contest Results

Julia's Garden by Michael Aaron (Zachariah) VOTE COUNT: 8
A Taste for Armageddon by Rob Garbin (Gkarlives) VOTE COUNT: 0
Sky Prey by A Lynn (virangelus) VOTE COUNT: 1
God's Laser by Chris Mitchell (CMAuthor) VOTE COUNT: 0
Let's see what tomorrow brings (LSWTB) by Igor Ljubuncic (Igor) VOTE COUNT: 6
Half-finished Job by Chris Wilson (Wulfen) VOTE COUNT: 3
Silver Sky by Liam ? (JunkMonkey) VOTE COUNT: 6
Winds of Blackenng by Will Heydt-Minor (Merik7) VOTE COUNT: 2

Vote breakdown as follows:
Gkarlives voted for Sliver Sky, Julia's Garden, and LSWTB
Zachariah voted for Winds of Blackening, Silver Sky, and Half-Finished Job
JunkMonkey voted for Julia's Garden, Half-Finished Job, and LSWTB
CMTheAuthor voted for Sky Prey, LSWTB, Julia's Garden
Noumenon voted for Julia's Garden, Silver Sky, LSWTB
Wulfen voted for Julia's Garden, Silver Sky, LSWTB
norm voted for Julia's Garden, LSWTB, Half-Finished Job
DailyRich voted for Julia's Garden, LSWTB, Silver Sky
tmso voted for Silver Sky, Julia's Garden, Winds of Blackening

Many, many thanks to all who participated.

A heartfelt thank you and congratulations to all the writers for taking the time to share your creative stories with us. And a big hug to all that read and voted!

With the three stories from our invited authors, three from the first contest, and the three from this one; we now have nine wonderful stories to share with the world. Yay!

The next contest will start tomorrow. I'll announce it in the main anthology thread, and I encourage everyone who participated in this contest to do so again in the next!*

Congrats and catch ya all on the next round.

*Writer's whose stories have won in a previous anthology contest are ineligible to submit another story. But please do read and vote in the next contest!

[Igor]

Are we allowed to repost these stories now at our own blogs?
Because the stories sub-forum is only accessible to registered users ...
Or maybe they can be moved to general section or such?

Congratulations all!

Cheers,
Igor

[Wulfen]

Good thing I'm still up so I can go cry in a corner.

[zachariah]

Congratulations to everybody! Many thanks to all who read and voted, as well as the wonderful writers.

So, finally I can stop biting my tongue and give some feedback. Here we go!


A Taste for Armageddon by Rob Garbin (Gkarlives)
Excellent writing in the initial build-up. The atmosphere and descriptive work is really something, and I was dying to know how this was going to tie in with the theme. Unfortunately, it didn't. Tenuous links to the apocalypse (barely alluded to and happening off-screen) and wind/meteorological disaster (let's be honest, didn't happen) meant I couldn't include it as a voting option. Without those constraints, a very nice piece but I'm none the wiser to what Helen actually is or how she came to play such a pivotal role in Hell.

Sky Prey by A Lynn (virangelus)
I found this one problematic, I'm afraid. Generic dark clouds overhead did not justify any link to the theme, nor was it really apocalyptic if humanity still struggled on in various factions. The scene is a fragment of a much larger whole, and so didn't work for me as a stand-alone. The accented dialogue did not add to the characters IMO, their 'otherness' to the narrator can be signaled by less obvious means. What you did really well was paint a vivid picture of a broken-down semi-steampunk world that I'd be happy to spend more time in.

God's Laser by Chris Mitchell (CMAuthor)
Interesting concept of a natural solar lens frying a path across the continental US. You've got a good flowing style that's easy to read. What let you down in this reader's opinion was that you chose the wrong guy to follow. What do we get from watching an ineffective functionary dithering about? Almost nothing. The real action was under the giant zapping cloud, which we never saw. No peril, no story.

Let's see what tomorrow brings by Igor Ljubuncic (Igor)
The only story to take a literal approach to apocalypse via wind, and all the more powerful for it simply happening and that's that. A very tightly woven piece, but just didn't gel with my reading tastebuds. I didn't get the sense that any of it really mattered to the main character.

Half-finished Job by Chris Wilson (Wulfen)
Take heart, Chris! I really like what you have going here. But you've learned the hard way why Hollywood prefers happy endings and clean-cut leads. It's very hard to get enthusiastic about a character who actively stomps on the sensibilities of the average reader, even when it's as well-crafted as this. Excellent work otherwise, with the caveat that your apocalypse is far too local. And not windy.

Silver Sky by Liam ? (JunkMonkey)
A very lively piece that I liked a lot. Not quite sold on the saucy scenes, they felt a little gratuitous, and the ending was signposted too early for it to be any surprise. There's also the sense that, although the world was destroyed, it was hardly apocalyptic for the bulk of humanity, for whom the destruction of planet Earth is no cause for concern. Quibbles aside, it's a very strong and good old-fashioned sci-fi extravaganza.

Winds of Blackenng by Will Heydt-Minor (Merik7)
A very convincing portrayal of (what I assume to be) an alt-earth cargo cult. I seem to be in the minority in that I didn't mind the various conflicting languages, I thought the way you handled their understanding of each other's intentions was clear. What was less clear was what was going on between the warring factions, and why they suddenly found common ground in destroying the super-weapon. Windy link was metaphorical at best. Still, a fun and action-packed story.

[tmso]

Good thing I'm still up so I can go cry in a corner.

Don't feel too bad, Wulfen. I just got three rejection notices - all on the same day! And you know what? I didn't cry. I actually smiled. Okay, so it was more like a grimace, but I. Did. Not. Cry. (Okay, well, maybe later, but not right now!).

[tmso]

Are we allowed to repost these stories now at our own blogs?
Because the stories sub-forum is only accessible to registered users ...
Or maybe they can be moved to general section or such?

Congratulations all!

Cheers,
Igor

Hi Igor, I sent you an email with the contract. Please respond to my email and we can discuss how and when you can re-post your story to your blog.

With that said, let me explain (for the benefit of anyone else who may consider participating).

You, of course, can do what you want with your story, but the idea was that you were submitting the story for inclusion to an anthology I will be putting out later this year (to be published with stories from Hugh Howey, Michael J Sullivan and Tristis Ward!).

So...it would be nice if you didn't post it elsewhere until that got published. If you do decide to publish it elsewhere prior to our anthology, then I will have to decline your submission. In other words, I will not include it in our anthology (the story with the next most votes would take your place).

I do hope you consider keeping the piece with our anthology!

[Igor]

No problem - no posting. I hope I can announce the second place? Get the people interested - after all a million of them get to see the site every month, ought to get some good press for us all.

And point to this thread here - or something similar?

Bottom line: what's the best way for me to go about it?
This meas - go as planned with The End and offer my readers a tiny teaser as to what will happen when it gets published.

Regards,
Igor