It’s time to announce the winners of the Tell Me Your Ghost Story Contest! There were so many amazing entries, I don’t know how my editor managed to whittle it down to the final three.
Drumroll, please…
3rd Place Winner: Sabryna with “Playmate”
2nd Place Winner: Trisha with untitled work
Grand Prize Winner: Grace O’Rourke “Normalcy”
Here’s what my editor, Jessica Jernigan, had to say about our grand prize winner:
“Grace O’Rourke does an excellent job of telling an emotionally intense and chilling story with very few words. She even manages an awful little twist that I did not see coming.”
For those of you who haven’t read it, here’s Grace’s fabulous piece of flash fiction!
Normalcy
by Grace O’Rourke
I watch from the doorway as my husband tucks my daughter into bed. She asks for a story, and he obliges and sits down. Just like he always used to. My hands begin to shake. Even if you love someone, it’s still disturbing to see them up and about after they’ve died. I never believed in ghosts, but it turns out I was wrong. He tells her the same story he always used to tell, about a knight who slays a dragon.
“The end,” he finishes, standing up and turning towards the door. Towards me. Tears gather in my eyes. My daughter sits up.
“Tell it again, Daddy. And Mommy, come sit next to him.”
He agrees hurriedly and begins the tale once more, and I rush over and sit down. We’re both too afraid of her to disobey. I don’t know if she’s my daughter anymore – death changed her.
***
A huge congrats to each of our winners! You did terrific work.
Here’s a quick refresher on what they won:
3rd Prize: A critique from K.C. Tansley of the first ten pages of your short story or manuscript + a query letter critique + an ebook copy of The Girl Who Ignored Ghosts + author goodies. Total value: $50.
2nd Prize: A one hour Skype visit with K.C. Tansley for you, your book club, your school, or your community. You can ask me any writing questions you’d like or chat about books with me. It’s your hour to pick my brain on anything writerly. If you want to pass pages by me for review, I can give you instant feedback during that hour. You’ll also receive a signed copy of The Girl Who Ignored Ghosts + author goodies. Total value: $70
Grand Prize: A gorgeous limited edition sterling silver replica of the Radcliffe ruby necklace. There are only three in existence and they were hand crafted by Marina A. Raye. You will also receive a signed copy of The Girl Who Ignored Ghosts + author goodies. In addition, I will publish your winning story on my blog + sing your praises on social media. Total value: $150.
I will be in touch via email with each of the winners via email to make sure I get your mailing address to send out your prizes and we can coordinate dates/times for skyping and critiquing. 🙂
You can check out the second place and third place winners over in the original post’s comments.
https://kourtneyheintz.wordpress.com/2015/06/01/tell-me-your-ghost-story-contest/
Thank you to everyone who participated. It was so cool to read your great entries and to get to hear your ghost stories. Keep writing!
Wow, that’s a great story. To be able to pull off a twist like that in such a short piece is impressive. Congrats to the winners!
Really amazing. Writing short is hard. But I think it’s a great exercise. If you can tell a story in 150 words, you’re practicing most of the mechanics of storytelling and can expand to longer pieces with those skills. All the entries were great, but that twist totally blew mw away too. 🙂 Sabryna and Trisha also had terrific entries. 🙂
Congratulations to All the final 3 winners.. How wonderful.. And WOW to Grace’s twist within her tale.. Loved it..
Have a great week Kourtney. Love Sue xx
They deserve it. Yes, that was an unexpected ending. Loved it. Have a great week Sue! Hugs, Kourtney
🙂 <3 xxx
Kudos to Grace on that great story! And congrats to Sabryna and Trisha, too!
Honestly, I wish I could have given everyone a prize. All the entries impressed me. 🙂 I’m so glad my editor had to pick the final 3. I’m not sure I could have done it!
Wow, what an amazing story to tell in 150 words! Congratulations to all three winners—and to everyone who shared a story on the post. I enjoyed reading them all!
The entrants made this a hard contest to judge. Trying to get it down to my top ten took me hours. That’s how good the submissions were. Everyone deserves a round of applause 🙂 The winners deserve a few hoots and hollers for their excellent work!
Congratulations to Grace. I agree, this story had a twist I didn’t see coming. Worthy for the win.
That twist spun me around. I had to read it again. It was really really well executed. She did so much in so few words. Truly gifted. 🙂
Great atmosphere and nice twist – very clever in so few words!
She really sucked me into her story. Excellent!
Congrats to all the winners! Some great stories! 🙂
Truly awesome writers participated in this contest. You all made it really hard on my editor and me. 🙂
Oh my goodness, I’m so happy right now! I really didn’t expect to win, I was just writing for the fun of it. I’m just here to say thank you so very much to all the people who said they liked it! Thank you all, and I’m glad you enjoyed my story!
Grace you have a real talent for storytelling. The ones we tell for fun are the ones that come out the best. You have to write for you first. I loved you story! Congrats!
Well done, Grace! You succeeded in giving me the creeps.
She’s amazing. I’m actually using her piece as an example of terrific flash fiction in a workshop I’m doing. 🙂
This was a great competition. I really enjoyed the stories I read -there were so many entries- but I agree, Grace’s story is an outstanding winner 🙂
I’m so glad I did it. It was a bit of work but really worth it. Grace told a great story with a terrific twist. She did so many things right and then she took it to another level. I see why my editor picked it! 🙂
Well done! And a big congratulations to all who entered and to Grace! 😀
Congrats to Grace. What a fascinating little story. Nice twist. Great contest.
Thanks Ally! I’m so glad we got so many entries. Made it hard to choose, but wow what talented writers!
Well done Grace, Trisha, and Sabryna. Great contest!
Thanks Kate. I loved your entry btw. 🙂
Well done, Grace! Congratulations to everyone who entered. Putting your work out there…it’s what every writer should do. Kudos to you, Kourtney, for offering the contest.
Thanks Jill. It was fun. I’m glad I did it. 🙂
That’s a winner all right! Super spooky in such a short space.
Kourtney, you gathered up such a lovely crowd of writers and readers with this contest. Thanks
Phil, she really did excellent work there. 🙂 I am so thrilled with all the entries we got. Happy you got to enjoy such cool works too!