At Short Fiction Break, we believe there are two groups of stars in every writing contest. The first group is obvious: all the writers who enter their stories, who bravely offer their writing for critique, judging, and publication.
The second group is less obvious, but equally important: the contest judges, working hard behind the scenes to read every story and select a handful of the very best.
Meet the Judges
In the last few weeks, we’ve celebrated the prizewinning stories and authors of the Spring Writing Contest. Now, it’s time to celebrate the judges who made this contest possible.
Editor Rebekah Olson
Even as a young child, Rebekah was always conjuring up stories and filling them with colorful characters, sharing them with anyone and everyone who would listen. Since then, she’s progressed quite a bit to formulating longer and more complex stories and sharing them with much larger audiences.
As a professional storyteller, she’s adept at using her imaginative thinking and creative flair to bring her stories to life in engaging and entertaining ways. She also offers her storytelling insight to other writers as a Story Grid certified developmental editor.
Edit With Rebekah
Rebekah is happy to work with new editorial clients, and if you’re working on a short story or novel, she’d love to help you write something amazing.
Rebekah is offering editorial services to our community through The Write Practice. She has a range of services for stories of all lengths.
If you’re working on a novel or nonfiction book, consider hiring her for a Story Grid Diagnostic.
If you’re working on a shorter piece of writing, find the editing package that’s right for you here.
Author Ruthanne Reid
Ruthanne Reid has led a convention panel on world-building, taught courses on plot and character development, and was the keynote speaker for the Write Practice 2021 Spring Retreat.
Author of two series with five books and fifty short stories, Ruthanne has lived in her head since childhood, when she wrote her first story about a pony princess and a genocidal snake-kingdom and used up her mom’s red typewriter ribbon in the process.
When she isn’t reading, writing, or reading about writing, Ruthanne enjoys old cartoons with her husband and two cats, and dreams of living on an island beach far, far away.
P.S. Red is still her favorite color.
Read Ruthanne’s Books
Harry Iskinder knows the rules. Don’t touch the water, or it will pull you under. Conserve food, because there’s no arable land. Use Sundered slaves gently, or they die too quickly to be worthwhile.
The Sundered create food. The Sundered create shelter. They’re also dying out. In a world lost to deadly flood, Harry searches for the mythical cure, the Hope of Humanity – but the Hope isn’t what he thinks, and neither are the slavish Sundered Ones. When he claims the magnificent and powerful Sundered named Aakesh, Harry quickly finds himself in deep and dangerous water.
Get The Sundered, the first book in the Hope of Humanity series, here.
And be sure to check out Ruthanne’s writing on her website, where you can read many of her short stories for free.
The Judges’ Expert Advice
In each contest, we offer writers the opportunity to hear directly from the judges why their story was or was not selected as a winner and what they can do to take their story-writing skills to the next level.
Together, Ruthanne and Rebekah wrote personalized, expert feedback for nearly two hundred writers in our Spring Writing Contest.
Didn’t sign up for feedback on your story? There are a handful of common challenges many stories in this contest faced. Check out this article on The Write Practice for the most common weaknesses judges find in contests and how to fix them.
Congratulations, Writers!
Of course, no contest is complete without the writers who enter and the stories that win! We’re excited to celebrate the eight stories judges selected as the winners of this contest.
Grand Prize:
At a Loss For Words by Jennifer Palmer
Runners Up (alphabetized by author):
From this Day Forward by Pablo Cervera
Stricken by J. D. Edwin
Honorable Mentions (alphabetized by author):
Erlkönig by Kathrin Auzinger-Hotzel
Fortunatus Fall by Palmer Hawkins
The Price of Silence by Kacy Hogg
Even Hell Has Angels by C. W. Murphy
Plane Sailing by Elizabeth Nettleton
Don’t miss out on these wonderful reads!
Want more like this? You can find the stories the judges shortlisted, as well as all the stories published in this contest, here.
More Stories to Come
We had so much fun in this writing contest, and we hope you did, too. Keep your eye out for our next contest, full of more exciting themes, supportive writing community, publication opportunities, and expert judging.
Until then, happy writing!
When will the results be in?