SPECTRAVAGANZA - Index, grabber

Life and Death and Stealing Toads by Eric M. Witchey - to save his dying wife Morgan tries to steal a magic toad from the witch, old lady Grael, down the block. He gets caught. Mrs. Grael is oh, so sympathetic, until he learns the price for a healing.
A Communion of Maggots by Amy Beth Forbes - Kippler must cross forbidden territory to get home, but the owners of the land won't let him pass until he finds a song and sings it to them. But who will give him a song? Jumping Mouse? Or maybe even Turtle Father himself?
The Raven and the Snake by Samantha Henderson - Jeremy crosses to another dimension to find the soul of his deceased son. With help from a tribal society he learns that to find his son he must allow the mage, N’Anamanste, to kill him. The mage hopes to be able to revive him again.
Pooka and the Pryanik by Sarah Prineas - a pooka is coerced to search for an enemy witch's lost apprentice. The boy was accidently turned into a cat and ran off. Little can the pooka guess how his life will change when he finds the cat.
The Devil and John Bartlett by Robert J. Santa - John and the Devil have been bridge partners for years, until one day the Devil, on a winning streak, announces that he wants to play John for his soul. John refuses ... unless the Devil puts his life on the line too.
The Grabber Contest Judges - meet the world's best panel of final judges ... oh yeah, and little old me.

Several months ago I had the bright (I thought) idea of holding a contest. Not just any contest, but one that would, in tune with the aims of my Ralan.com web site, emphasize one of the aspects of writing. The beginning. The opener. The Grabber! I also had in mind drumming up some monetary support for Ralan.com, which I'd been paying for out of pocket since 1996. Financing your endeavors is always a problem on the web, but this contest idea seemed like it might work.

Several months later, two hundred and thirty-nine "YESES" (writers saying they'd enter), eighty-two actual entries, ten finalists, and five winners later ... (deep breath) ... here we are. Six of us a little heavier in the pockets, and a new publication on the web.

These five winning stories were judged solely on the content of the first five hundred words. The rest of the story came after the contest was finished. I was committed to publishing them no matter how they finished up. Luckily they are all great stories: beginning, middle, and end. I think that says something about the quality of the judging. Could anyone ask for a better panel than this?

As for my part in the judging, I did it completely blind. I know too many of the authors to have done it any other way. The entries were sent to my web designers at first, then to my daughter (and assistant in this) Nina. They striped the author's name off and forwarded them to me. I had no idea who authored the ten I sent to the judging panel, and I was as in the dark and excited to learn who they were as any of the entrants. But I waited for the final judge to return their score. Only after I added them up did I match the stories to the author, one by one starting with the Honorable Mentions.

The judging panel voted on the stories by rating them from 1 to 10, 1 being their favorite. The first three places received scores of 15, 16, and 18 points respectively (low score, of course, being the best). The two Honorable Mentions both got 20 points. My designating them as "A" and "B" is purely a matter of last name order in the alphabet.

I sincerely hope you enjoy these stories. As for the question, "Will I do the contest again next year?" We'll see. It's a heck of a lot of work ... but we'll see.

Masthead

Editor & publisher: Ralan Conley
Web designers:
Financial Coordinator: Jon Hodges at
Assistants: Mikael Conley, Nina-Lee Marie Conley
Moral support (perhaps the most important): Karen Conley
Virtual support: Fil Uhyre (my personal monster)

The SPECTRAVAGANZA is not now and will never be open to unsolicited submissions. All stories appearing in this publication are chosen via contests held under the auspices of Ralan.com.

There is NO contest open at this time! Any submissions received will be deleted unread and unanswered. (Sorry, don't have the time.)

NOTE: By accessing any of the pages or information beyond this page, the user agrees to all conditions of the Terms of Use. If you are not familiar with the TOU, go to my Market Notes page on my Ralan.com web site before you open any other pages. The information provided on all my pages is provided in good faith with the belief it is correct. Nevertheless, I can accept no responsibility for any errors or omissions. Each visitor assumes all risk associated with its use or misuse.