7th #SatSunTails Winners!

I’d first like to start off by apologising for the lateness of this judging, but due to unforeseen circumstances I had to postpone judging. A friend from school and a great man passed away rather unexpectedly. & so (on a rather more sombre note than usual) we have our #SatSunTails winner.

You can help by promoting next week’s #SatSunTails on your blogs, twitter, G+, facebook, tumblr etc, that would be great. Also, if you’re on twitter and you’d like an @reply every weekend in order to remind you that the competition is open then please leave a note regarding this along with your twitter handle in the comments of this post so I can set that up for you.

Runner Up Mentions

@DavidALudwig –

A strange but intriguing tale that poses more questions than it answers.

@klingorengi –

I loved the way the description played out as dreamy and ethereal as the content.

@leo_godin –

The beautiful narrative and the humorous twist made this one of my favourite pieces.

Overall Winner

@charitygirlblog –

An great take on an old classic and I adored the line about her bloated body – a truly brilliant image.

A FAIRYTALE ENDING

Had she been a princess it might have been different. Not that princesses didn’t have their own troubles, but given the choice between hopeless poverty or sleeping for one hundred years, Ethel knew she would be snoring faster than you could say, ‘Burn every spinning wheel in the land.’

A whole industry gone thanks to Maleficent’s curse and with it Ethel’s livelihood.

She was too old to retrain. Too set in her ways. In her dreams she spun crystalline threads through her skeletal fingers, heard the hum of the wheel as hunger ate her belly and rain dripped through the roof she couldn’t afford to mend.

She stared into the rushing river water seeking rubbish to salvage.

CRACK.

The sky split, danced with colour. She fell forward, water streaming over her face.

Three days later the guards dragged a tiny bloated corpse from the river.

"Heard that the princess is safe?"

"Aye, saw the fireworks."

Critique Mentions

Now, as promised, I shall critique those entries that didn’t make it.

Andrew –

Every entry you make is always a fantastic improvement. The story this week was wonderful, however, I feel you sometimes need to have a more thorough read through before you post to avoid awkward wording such as the ‘grey haired’ comment and the confusing opening sentence.

@solimond –

I loved Nellie’s story and the only tiny problem was the repetition of ‘face’ in the last sentence. It’s only a small point, but this week’s entries were so close. 

@JohnBBadd –

John’s entry was by far one of my favourites for the story it held, however, he couldn’t garner even one of the honourable mentions due to a step grossly over the word count. Hopefully that won’t be the case next time.

So thank you to all of those who entered.  The criticism is never meant to harm. It is there to help you better your writing and someday win overall. I’m sure it will also benefit those who were not criticised. I hope this has helped you as well as encouraged you to join in again next week!

Click here to read the mentioned entries.

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