Contest Results

[SFEley]

Wow.  It's been a long, strange, but excellent trip.  For those who didn't register to vote on the stories: sorry you missed it.  But it's not too late to read them; we'll be keeping the stories up in the private boards.  (Any authors who wish to contact me about taking theirs down can do so.)

The list of winners is as follows:

FIRST PLACE: Mission to Dover by Gideon Fostick
SECOND PLACE: Skyscrapers by Rachel Swirsky
THIRD PLACE: Karakuri by Gideon Fostick

Congratulations to Gideon and Rachel for some amazing pieces.  In addition, I've sent out contracts today to the following authors, whose stories I felt were especially suited for Escape Pod:

• Hoarding Colored Rags by Jared Axelrod
• From Liquid to Glass by J.R. Blackwell
• Birthday Wish by Tina Connolly
• The Sad History of the Tearless Onion by Anne Leckie
• Up the Chimney by Cat Rambo
• The Way Before by Anna Schwind
• Hello I Love You by Katherine Sparrow
• Silence by Rachel Swirsky
• Tooth Fairy by Jeffrey Valka

I'm hoping to get these stories produced in audio and released on Escape Pod in the next six months or so, along with other flash already in inventory.  We'll be doing the three winners first, followed by the others.

If your story isn't in this list, please don't take it as a sign that the work wasn't good.  A dozen 300-word stories is simply as many as we can reasonably handle.  We had many, many more quality stories than I was expecting, and there wasn't a single story out of the hundreds that I didn't enjoy the experience of reading. 

Thanks to all of you for making this contest such a great success.

[Rachel Swirsky]

Hoarding Colored Rags by Jared Axelrod
From Liquid to Glass by J.R. Blackwell
Birthday Wish by Tina Connolly
The Sad History of the Tearless Onion by Anne Leckie
Up the Chimney by Cat Rambo
The Way Before by Anna Schwind
Hello I Love You by Katherine Sparrow
Silence by Rachel Swirsky
Tooth Fairy by Jeffrey Valka

Wow, I find this list completely awesome. Congratulations to everyone, but particularly the people I know or have been interacting with a lot on the boards: Tina, Ann, Cat, Anna, and Katie!

Sorry to see "Stone Born" didn't make it.  I will now brazenly rejectomancy it even though Steve is right there watching the thread, and suggest that perhaps the story's a bit complex for audio. Good luck, Loreen!

[Swamp]

Again, congratulations to Gideon and Rachel!  Well deserved. 

I'm very gald to see The Sad History of the Tearless Onion by Anne Leckie will be produced.  Can't wait to hear it.

I also look forward to hearing Birthday Wish by Tina Connolly

Still no Stone Born?  This makes me very sad.  

[GoodDamon]

This is a very good list. Congrats to everyone on it!

[Swamp]

Sorry to see "Stone Born" didn't make it.  I will now brazenly rejectomancy it even though Steve is right there watching the thread, and suggest that perhaps the story's a bit complex for audio. Good luck, Loreen!

Perhaps the "works well in audio" criteria is the reason for its exclusion, about the only one I can think of, besides the "it's not up to me" factor.

[Tina Connolly]

Ditto congrats to everyone else on the list!  This contest was a lot of fun and I read a lot of great stories over the last month.  (And also read a lot of great comment threads...wait, where did February go?  )

tina

[floatingtide]

The editor's-choice list makes me really happy.

I was rooting for more of those stories than there were winning slots. It'll also be fun to hear readings of works I read so very carefully.

[BrandtPileggi]

Crimeny. Is there going to be another one of these in 6 months?

[Ocicat]

Crimeny. Is there going to be another one of these in 6 months?

Apparently not.