THE CHRONICLE'S FLASH FICTION COMPETITION WINNERS

We at the Chronicle take a pride in our investigative journalism. There are no other journalists like us on West Uist!


We have great pleasure in giving you a little information on our three winners.

First,  Simon Sylvester, whose winning 26 word story LAST ORDERS took first prize.

Simon Sylvester

Simon was born in 1980. His short stories have been published in magazines including Smoke, Gutter and Fractured West. His nanofiction collection 140 Characters is published by Cargo Crate, and he writes new stories daily on www.twitter.com/simonasylvester

Photo by http://www.neilthomasdouglas.com/

He lives in Cumbria with the abstract painter Monica Metsers, earning his crust as a teacher, journalist and labourer. 

His nanofiction collection is available as an ebook or as a print on demand paperback from Cargo Press at

http://www.cargopublishing.com/cargo-crate/140-characters-simon-sylvester/

Why don't you check out his stories on twitter and his collection on Cargo Press. Just click the links.

And in second place with his story MEMORIES


Andy McNab
I was born in 1986 in deepest Yorkshire.

I have dabbled in History and Law at various institutions in Hull, London and York for several years now.

I am an avid reader and I have always fantasised about writing something of my own, but a lack of confidence has hindered me from putting pen to paper.

Fortunately in my haste to hide from my textbooks I stumbled upon the addictive medium of FLASH FICTION. And thought I would try my luck.

This is my first attempt at writing anything and I am very happy that people seemed to enjoy my story!


And in third place with his story D.I.D. SHE DO IT


Joe Lunn
I was born in 1985 in Cawthorne, Barnsley. You can follow me on twitter    http://twitter.com/#!/Joelunn07

I have been interested in writing stories from a young age although not so much in my teen years. This competition has given me great encouragement to write more stories in the future.

This is the first time I've entered a writing competition and I was extremely pleased and surprised to have done so well. I guess the endless hours I've spent watching crime movies  and episodes of C.S.I. have inspired me to write my story.

This is my first attempt at writing anything and I am very happy that people seemed to enjoy my story!

And we certainly enjoyed all of your stories.

Congratulations again, guys!

Calum Steele

Keith Souter

THE POLL IS FINISHED AND THE RESULTS ARE IN....

Good morning folks,

The poll finished last night and we have three clear winners:


First prize         LAST ORDERS by Simon Sylvester
Second Prize     MEMORIES  by Andy  McNab
Third Prize       D.I.D. SHE DO IT by Joe Lunn

All three winners will be notified by email this morning and their prizes will be on their way this week.

These three stories consistently topped the final long-short list of 26 stories. All three were well crafted, told a story and had a twist. And the results speak for themselves. The public liked them.

Congratulations also to all of the writers who made the long-short list. Every one of them had its strength and deserved to be there.

Thank you also to all those writers whose stories did not make the list. As we said before, it was a very hard task whittling it down to a list of 26 stories. We literally had stories from all round the world.

Please come back later. We will try and get some information on these winning writers.

Calum Steele
Keith Souter

THE FINAL STRETCH

Dear Readers,

The flash fiction competition is heating up. The votes are still coming in, as you can see.

The order at the top of the leader board has shifted:

LAST ORDERS
MEMORIES
D.I.D. SHE DO IT

And in 4th place   KYOTO


Still half a day, so anything can happen.

I must say that after watching the Australian Open tennis final and seeing our lad Andy Murray falter, Keith and I needed something to lift our spirits. This flurry of voting is doing just that.

We have really enjoyed this competition - some really great stories.

Calum Steele
Keith Souter

 PS We are looking forward to the French Open now!

KEEP VOTING FOLKS

The competition is still close. A surge could see anyone rise up the table.

Currently the order is:

MEMORIES
LAST ORDERS
D.I.D. SHE DO IT

with in 4th place
KYOTO

Calum Steele
Keith Souter

ALMOST BACK ON TRACK !

Most of the votes are on the board now! A few votes are still missing. Our records show that every story has at least one point on the board.

This is certainly showing the same main contenders:

MEMORIES
LAST ORDERS
D.I.D. SHE DO IT
THE BEGINNING
KYOTO

Still plenty of time to catch the leaders.

Calum Steele
Keith Souter

LATEST POSITIONS

The top positions are as at the time of posting are:

LAST ORDERS
MEMORIES
D.I.D. SHE DO IT
THE BEGINNING
KYOTO


Calum
Keith

THE TOP 4 PLACES

Dear readers and voters,

There is still trouble at the poll!

Not just here, but in polls around the world, it seems. The trouble is that the votes come in, then disappear again after a while. The totals opposite this article are not accurate.

The only thing for us to do is keep a close watch. We are maintaining a manual tally and adjusting it with the votes that come in. Rather than reproducing the whole listing, we will post the top 4 positions, and only change them when and if another joins them on the same numbers, or knocks them out of the top four.

The top 4 at the time of posting are:

LAST ORDERS  and  MEMORIES
D.I.D. SHE DO IT
KYOTO

Calum Steele
Keith Souter

PLEASE KEEP VOTING

Dear readers and voters,

We are afraid that there has been a technical problem with the poll and the recording is showing the results for two days ago. But fear not, we have been able to keep a tally and we shall continue to do this manually.

New voters please keep voting.

We can assure you all that this will be done entirely accurately  and there will be no shenanigans! As all our readers know, The West Uist Chronicle is known for its journalistic integrity. We stand up for the people and we will do our utmost to ensure that we protect each and every one of our writers in this competition. Despite the technology we are going to ensure the fairness of this competition.

Calum Steele
Editor

WHOOPS! TECHNICAL HITCH WITH THE POLL

Hi folks,

If you have popped in to check on how your story is going you may be surprised to see that the poll seems to be showing the vote count from a couple of days ago. We are trying to find out what has happened. A technical hitch has occured and we are trying to have it fixed.

We checked this morning and it was fine, then votes have been lost. It seems that we are not the only poll affected, though!

Sorry, bear with us.

Please bear with us.

Calum Steele
Keith Souter

VOTING STARTS TODAY

Right folks, here we have the long-short list for our flash fiction competition. We thought the fairest way to get to the winners is by public vote. So here are the stories. Read them all and select the one that you think is best. Voting goes on until midnight on 31st January. The top three stories will win one of the prizes, as we announced earlier, and which you can see if you scroll down. In the event of ties the editorial team will decide.

Our congratulations to everyone who made it onto the list. Good luck to you all.

Calum Steele
Keith Souter