Hi all, the team here. Everyone helped collate this post:
As usual, we had a difficult time deciding our shortlists, but it quickly became apparent that everyone had a favorite: We sent this list to Nick:
Susan - Urban Nightmare
Sally - Blame
Shannon Lawrence - The Widow
Dixie Jarchow - Urban Horror
Carole Stolz - Her Urban Nightmare
Toi Thomas - Driving Home
JUNE 2020 saw WEP move to WEP-Lite to stay afloat during trying times. Many of the team were struck with various storms of life and need some time to recover. We're glad we went ahead with the challenge as many found it cathartic to write about various horrors. Even though fictional, there was a large dose of truth intermingled. Some of us have been personally touched by the virus and death. So, writing is a great exercise to take us away from the horror for a while. The JUNE entries were excellent and reflect that need.
Thank you, everyone, for your amazing tales, they were filled with hope, humor, love, life lessons, but especially the creativity that continues to amaze and inspire us.
It's always a delight to welcome new writers to WEP. New writers add an excitement as we eagerly anticipate a new writing style and approach to the prompt. This month we welcomed Helen Mathey-Horn . Thank you all for making Helen welcome!
CRITIQUING
And we'd like to add in a friendly reminder about the different levels of critique while we're here. Each of you should choose a level of critique you feel comfortable with. Here's a quick reminder of what the various critique levels are:
The explanations are fairly straight forward. If you choose Full Critique Acceptable (FCA), that means people may offer a thorough critique. While we would never condone a critique that is outright cruel, such a critique may involve pointing out a lot of issues with your writing you may not have seen before. For some this may be uncomfortable. Only choose FCA if you think you can handle it and wish to use such commentary to strengthen your work in the future. Otherwise feel free to select any of the other levels you feel are right for you at this time. Alternatively you could ask for a full critique to be emailed to you.
It's always a delight to welcome new writers to WEP. New writers add an excitement as we eagerly anticipate a new writing style and approach to the prompt. This month we welcomed Helen Mathey-Horn . Thank you all for making Helen welcome!
CRITIQUING
And we'd like to add in a friendly reminder about the different levels of critique while we're here. Each of you should choose a level of critique you feel comfortable with. Here's a quick reminder of what the various critique levels are:
The explanations are fairly straight forward. If you choose Full Critique Acceptable (FCA), that means people may offer a thorough critique. While we would never condone a critique that is outright cruel, such a critique may involve pointing out a lot of issues with your writing you may not have seen before. For some this may be uncomfortable. Only choose FCA if you think you can handle it and wish to use such commentary to strengthen your work in the future. Otherwise feel free to select any of the other levels you feel are right for you at this time. Alternatively you could ask for a full critique to be emailed to you.
We're sorry that we lack blurbs this month. But all entries are perpetually available to read by accessing the sign-up post.
SHORTLIST
Susan - Urban Nightmare
Sally - Blame
Shannon Lawrence - The Widow
Dixie Jarchow - Urban Horror
Carole Stolz - Her Urban Nightmare
Toi Thomas - Driving Home
~*~
COMMENTING
Thank you, everyone for commenting so generously without the motivation of the Best Commenter award! And please know that the team reads your comments, taking them into consideration when forming the shortlist. They are more important than you may think. Besides informing our decisions, it feeds the writer. Feedback is not a simple thing. It means the world to the writer.
Quite a few readers left comments on the WEP blog as they couldn't access your comments. Please turn off comment moderation for the week. There's always glitches beyond our control, but please try to make sure your blog accepts comments. It takes a patient person to comment multiple times then have to come to the WEP blog in the end. Thanks everyone!
Quite a few readers left comments on the WEP blog as they couldn't access your comments. Please turn off comment moderation for the week. There's always glitches beyond our control, but please try to make sure your blog accepts comments. It takes a patient person to comment multiple times then have to come to the WEP blog in the end. Thanks everyone!
OUR WINNERS:
Nick commented: " All entries were excellent ... Tough choice!"
But we had to choose ... so ...
THE WINNER OF JUNE'S 2020 CHALLENGE
URBAN NIGHTMARE is:
Congratulations, Toi!
Nick wrote, "Timely and devastating in just a few lines. This one gave me pause."
Nick wrote, "Timely and devastating in just a few lines. This one gave me pause."
Congratulations Toi! We were all moved so much by your few words. Please link the badge to your story, Driving Home, and post it on your blog.
In addition, you've won a 5,000 word critique plus synopsis from Rohini Sundaram, and a guest post here at WEP.
Details will be emailed to you shortly.
Congratulations, on such an evocative entry!
~*~
THE RUNNER-UP OF JUNE'S 2020 CHALLENGE URBAN NIGHTMARE is:
Congratulations, Carole!
Nick wrote, "Really packs a punch. I hope the narrator can escape this nightmare."
Carole, please link the badge to your story, Her Urban Nightmare, and post it on your blog.
Nick wrote, "Really packs a punch. I hope the narrator can escape this nightmare."
Carole, please link the badge to your story, Her Urban Nightmare, and post it on your blog.
~*~
THE ENCOURAGEMENT AWARD FOR JUNE’S
URBAN NIGHTMARE is:
Congratulations, Sally!
Nick wrote, "A really different take on the prompt as well as the current times. Interesting to see the rat's POV and then to find out they're just the scapegoat."
Sally, please link the badge to your story, Blame,
and post it on your blog.
Nick wrote, "A really different take on the prompt as well as the current times. Interesting to see the rat's POV and then to find out they're just the scapegoat."
Sally, please link the badge to your story, Blame,
and post it on your blog.
Here's our prompt for AUGUST. So get those thinking caps on. The announcement will be posted on AUGUST 1st in the thinking-caps post.
And the Sign-up Link Post goes live on AUGUST 19th.
Until then, say safe and stay well!
And Sue!
Thank you, Sue, for stepping in and helping to monitor the posts and report problems, and helping us choose the winners. You made a difficult job run much more smoothly!
We'd love for you to Tweet this post or share it to Facebook
or your favorite social media site.
#WEPFF URBAN NIGHTMARE winners announced @DeniseCCovey @yolandarenee @LGKeltner @OlgaGodim https://writeeditpublishnow.blogspot.com/2020/07/wepff-winners-post-urban-nightmare.html #amwriting #flashfiction #wepwinners
More writing excellence from our WEP June winners @DeniseCCovey @yolandarenee @LGKeltner @OlgaGodim https://writeeditpublishnow.blogspot.com/2020/07/wepff-winners-post-urban-nightmare.html #amwriting #flashfiction #wepwinners
Come congratulate our June winners. #WEPFF URBAN NIGHTMARE Challenge @DeniseCCovey @yolandarenee @OlgaGodim @LGKeltner #amwriting #flashfiction #wepwinners https://writeeditpublishnow.blogspot.com/2020/07/wepff-winners-post-urban-nightmare.html
The #WEPFF writers had some fantastic entries! WEP winners announced! @DeniseCCovey @yolandarenee @OlgaGodim @LGKeltner #amwriting #flashfiction #wepwinners https://writeeditpublishnow.blogspot.com/2020/07/wepff-winners-post-urban-nightmare.html
#WEPFF URBAN NIGHTMARE winners all @DeniseCCovey @yolndarenee @OlgaGodim @LGKeltner #amwriting #flashfiction #wepwinners https://writeeditpublishnow.blogspot.com/2020/07/wepff-winners-post-urban-nightmare.html
Thank you for the writing excellence, WEP Winners! @LGKeltner @DeniseCCovey @yolandarenee @OlgaGodim #amwriting #flashfiction #wepwinners https://writeeditpublishnow.blogspot.com/2020/07/wepff-winners-post-urban-nightmare.html
Huge congratulations to the winners. Nick had a very difficult job. And equally huge thanks to all those who participated. As always the stories blew me away.
ReplyDeleteAnd thank you Sue for your tireless input in helping us out! Made the rough road smoother!
DeleteThanks everyone who wrote such awesome entries! Truly, you just get better and better! Especial congrats to the winners. You must have been truly spectacular to stand out from this crowd!
ReplyDeleteThanks to the wonderful team who helped during this difficult time!
Good Morning,
ReplyDeleteCongratulations to the winners.
Excellent choices!
Shalom aleichem,
Pat G
Hi Pat! You would know how difficult it was to whittle down the shortlist to the winners. Such great choices!
DeleteGood morning! Congratulations to the winners! Well deserved.
ReplyDeleteSonia from https://soniadogra.com
Thanks Sonia! Thanks for being part of WEP!
DeleteHi Denise and all WEP entrants ... so well done to Toi on winning, Carole as runner up, and Sally with her encouragement award ... and everyone ... lots of interesting takes ...
ReplyDeleteThanks Nick for choosing the winners, and to the WEP team for putting forward the selected entries. All the best - Hilary
Thanks for your gracious thanks, Hilary. So glad we went ahead and reaped the reward of magnificent writing.
DeleteCongratulations to the winners. They truly stood out amongst a batch of remarkable stories. What a delight it has been to read them. C
ReplyDeleteI'm with you Kalpanaa. Delight for sure. What a great bunch of talented writers!
DeleteCongrats to all winners! Each and every entry was a gem this round, outstanding!
ReplyDeleteWell done, Toi Thomas and to Carole Stolz- such great writing. Thank you so much for the Encouragement Award. All the entries were great and my thanks go to all participants and especially the WEP team for keeping us all going during these very challenging times.
ReplyDeleteThanks Sally for being such a loyal, long standing member of WEP and coming up with fresh approaches to the prompt. This month yours was outstanding, as were so many others.
DeleteI was so moved by all the entries for June. Some left me speechless, which made commenting difficult. I can't imagine having to choose just one winner. I am so grateful to the WEP team and this community for being so encouraging and helping us all get through these trying times. Thank you for this recognition. It really means a lot.
ReplyDeleteYou've said it Toi - speechless. Choosing the winner wasn't so hard, but choosing second and third was nigh impossible. The stories were just so touching.
DeleteToi's piece was my favourite as well! Congrats to Toi and all the other winners. It was indeed another month of great stories!
ReplyDeleteWho could go past Toi's this month? So many were heart wrenching, but hers stood out. Great quality stories overall.
DeleteCongratulations to all the winners!
ReplyDeleteCongratulations to all the winners! There were so many great entries this time around!
ReplyDeleteI was moved - sometimes to tears - by all the entries. I congratulate the judges for their choices, and Nick's final choice. Congratulations to the winners, especially Toi as her piece was the bare truth of a true nightmare for too many.
ReplyDeleteYes Roland, the stories bit deep this month. The choice was even more difficult as so many needed rewarding. But what a pleasure to read stories of this caliber.
DeleteCongratulations! Heartbreaking, poignant, and extremely thoughtful. It's this kind of talent that keeps us working to ensure each challenge happens. Thank you!
ReplyDeleteCongratulations. I have not yet finished reading yet. Hoping to finish it shortly.
ReplyDeleteThanks for taking part and for reading Sanhita.
DeleteCongratulate the winner this time: Toi Thomas. Good luck.
ReplyDelete