FINISH THAT THOUGHT #2-17 - RESULTS!

Welcome back! We had a small, but amazing week! Go read the entries here. Now let's read what the judge had to say:

Having only three entries did make my first time as a judge for ANYTHING related to writing a lot easier. I hope the dip in numbers meant everyone else was getting a Halloween costume ready, rather than thinking, "Boy, this prompt sucks!" If the latter, sorry folks. On to the comments.

"Chasing Cars" by Emily Karn

This was a fun story. I LOVED the "gorgeous transvestite dressed up as Carmen Electra." That, along with "my partner," makes you think it's about a homosexual relationship (which is fine, of course). But you pull a switcheroo, and make the MC a dog. Then the title ties it up in a bow. Great.

"The Lesson" by Rebekah Postupak

While reading this one, I kept thinking "What's going on?" Which is good. You sprinkled a lot of nice little nuggets throughout. My favorite was “In bowling!” “You’d be surprised.” The ending really caught me off guard.

"Capabilities" by Michael Simko

Good suspense. (I have a short story about skydiving gone awry, which is why I picked this prompt.) You did a nice a job of building tension. Then, a comic release at the end. Nice job.

And the Grand Champion is:

"Capabilities." by Michael Simko

The story starts out tense. "Her ring, which cost me five month’s salary taunts me each time we hit the angle right for the sun" is both a nice turn of phrase, and sets up the relationship between the MC and Aliyah. "if she’s still alive" maintains the suspense. Then she "comes to life," but says nothing. She just lands on the "punked," and leaves the rest up to him.