Thursday, February 15, 2007

GBA(s)FC Winners Announced

The first thing I feel I need to mention is how many of the stories received votes and how close the voting came out. Often only a single vote meant the difference between one award and another, or winning an award or not. This was an extremely close one, which shouldn't be a tremendous surprise to those who read the entries.

I also want to say that almost every entry received one or more votes, whether through Reader's Votes or in the somewhat weightier Author's Votes.

There were simply too many entries of quality for this to be an easy home run for anyone. I hope everyone who submitted a story is proud of his or her entry. If not, you should be, whether your name appears below or not.

Authors should check their stories to make sure that I have entered the names and links correctly. I also want to encourage you to comment on all of the stories now that voting is closed. I know Basest in particular was frustrated by his inability to congratulate some of the other writers.

Winners are as follows:

Reader's Choice Award:
Entry #1—
Little Swallow, by Brian ($20)

Writer's Choice Awards:
1st Place: Entry #18—Pigeons by SilverTiger ($20)
2nd Place: Entry #13—Coppelia by Catherine Edmunds ($15)
3rd Place: Entry #43—Eye Exam, 2208, by Emarie ($10)
4th Place: Entry #8—Harry's Pipe Dream, by Mary Cassells ($5)
5th Place: Entry #34—Untitled, by Miss Understood (Badge Only)

Maht's Choice Award:
Entry #14—
If (A Study In Foresight), by Minx ($20)

Honorable Mention: (no monetary prize, badge to come)
Entry #4—Miss Ping, by Shameless
Entry #28—Snake Failure, by Peg
Entry #44—FotoRama, by Sundry

Winners can claim their badges from the post of their story, or email me and I'll send you one. Monetary prizes (which will appear in the form of Amazon.com gift certificates) will go out sometime next week.

This was a great contest, and I certainly learned a lot and made a few new friends (I think). I hope everyone had fun, and I especially hope that those who did not win an award understand that a vote or two here or there could have made an enormous difference. I encourage all of you to enter again when I next host one of these things.

I'll probably do a final post-contest wrap-up in the next day or so, but for now I really require some sleep.

Thanks again to all who entered—and all who voted—for making this contest such a success. This was so much more work than I imagined, but it was also a lot more rewarding.

16 comments:

Caroline said...

I've been waiting in my rather delightful ballgown for you to announce the winners.

Congratulations to all *clink clink glasses of champagne.*

And Maht I do believe that you are a rather kind and very nice man for arranging all of this.

Now let's dance.

Unknown said...

Thank you, Maht! Surprised and delighted.

A great conpetition with some fabulous entries - hope you will do it again sometime.

Elaine Denning said...

I just wanted to thank you for a great competition, and also say a huge thanks to everyone who voted for me. This was my first ever competiton entry, and I took part just for fun, with no expectation at all of winning a thing. After seeing the standard of the entries, I didn't even think I'd come close! So I'm completely overwhelmed and taken aback by my award! Thanks again...and Maht, I'm looking forward to the next one!

Pants said...

Brilliant Maht - and lots of fun - thanks for organising the competition. It made for great reading.

Anonymous said...

You deserve some sort of prize as well, Mr. T. For the work you did pre and post. It was a great grouping of writers, stories and anthropoids.

Like the winners posted here, I hope you feel some well-deserve pride at this time, as well.

basest said...

Congrats, maht, on a very successful conclusion to the contest. and also to all the entrants. I really enjoyed reading the stories. In the next few days I'll be commenting specifically on some of the stories that really hit home for me, but for now, I'd like to say that mine excluded, there wasn't a stinker in the bunch!

Liz Dwyer said...

YAY! Congratulations to all the winners and nice that we can comment on everybody's stories now!

Reading the Signs said...

My thanks too, Mr. Moon Topples, for a really splendid competition for which I also feel you deserve a prize.

S. Kearney said...

Hey, wowwwwww, congrats to all the winners - there was lots of good stuff there. BRAVOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!
Thanks for the honourable mention, it means a lot and has given me a boost to attack my novel rewrite and new book with VIGOUR! :)

Minx, WELL DONE on your prize. I am teary eyed for you! Drink some champagne for me!

Maht, you were a trooper for organising this, and you had a hard job.

Also, can I say that I really liked story 10, Ilker Drennan by Donna, which didn't figure in the awards. Thems the brakes, but I really loved this!

Well done to everyone!

nmj said...

Hey Maht, I already congratulated the winners on my own blog and thanked you for organising the whole thing, but just saying it again! You must feel pleased it all went off so well!

Anonymous said...

Thanks for the contest. I think we all enjoyed flexing our creative muscles (or at least stretching them a little) and also reading all of the entries. That, and I discovered your blog. Bonus!

Anonymous said...

Huge Canadian congrats to all the worthy winners ... and to maht (amazing organizational feat, Mr. Moon!) ... and to everyone who entered. There's some excellent flash fiction here. I hope the stories stay up for a few more days so I can do some individual commenting during my weekend out of the office.

Rick said...

Congratulations! to all the winners and well done! all around to everyone who participated!

Thanks again, Maht, for putting this together! Looking forward to the next one!

Ms Baroque said...

Hmm, let me just add my thanks and praise to the chorus - it was fab fun, it was the first piece of prose story-telling I'd written for several years, and it was great reading all the others!

Voting was hard, & I'm with Basest - except for mine, etc etc... (I wonder which is his, though.)

Ms Baroque said...

Maht, I forgot to say thanks for all the hard work - and, really, your generosity, to do this! Can't wait till the next one?!

Ms Melancholy said...

Well done, Mr Moon, on a fabulous contest. Well done all to all the entrants for some great reads. Well done Mr PE and Caroline for casting your votes so generously...