MicroHorror

Ladies and gentlemen, it has taken far too long for me to make this announcement. In my defense, I attribute the delay to the time it took to sort through these truly excellent stories and select the three winners. Sarah and I both had to make some very, very difficult decisions to narrow down the field, and many worthy stories did not receive awards this year.  That’s just the burden a contest judge has to bear, I suppose. Thank you, thank you, a million times thank you to everyone who contributed, and a most hearty congratulations to the three victors whose stories will be illustrated. And now, without further ado, I ask you all to follow the jump, where the lovely and talented (a cliché, perhaps, but true) Sarah Clarke will announce the winners in her own words.

Take it away, Sarah!

Out for Blood by Gail Sosinsky Wickman was an immediate favourite, for the imagery of a bunch of poor sods being attacked by every animal product in range, never mind the dead animals themselves. A touch humourous, very quirky, and with a nod to the traditional lore of full-moon madness, we thought this was an all-round good gore-fest made a winner with the mosquitos at the end, as well as something so innocent as leather boots and woollen jumpers.

The First of the Sea by Lori Titus struck us with its beautiful and mesmerising imagery, alluding to something soft and irresistibly charming–which it is, until it drags you down into the crushing depths of the ocean, still beautiful as ever. We chose this not only for the quality of prose, but also the juxtaposition of the beautiful creature and its end result, chilling and unsettling without buckets of gore.

The Final Chapter by Oonah V Joslin is a superb little flash of one of millions of possible far-distant futures, and we were captivated by the lush descriptions of the bio-technological creatures crawling up from the depths. It tasted very much of classic sci-fi novels with their technological marvels rising up over the sunken, destroyed wreckage of human civilisation in a desolate, lonely and dystopian future of the kind that normal people dread to think about as a possible reality.

There you have it, folks. Winners, enjoy your laurels–you’ve earned them. Sarah has promised me that the illustrations will be completed by the end of January, and I know they’ll be well worth the wait. Finally, congratulations to Gail, Lori and (for the second year in a row!) Oonah, thanks to everyone who’s helped make the contest and the site itself a success, and a round of applause for illustrator and guest judge Sarah Clarke. Visit viking-carrot.net to see more of her artwork.

Until next time, pleasant dreams!

Late update: You can read all three winners and see Sarah’s illustrations a href=”http://www.microhorror.com/microhorror/tag/halloween-2008-winners/”>here!