"A Summer Mystery - Unofficial Challenge": Submissions Closed

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LATEST UPDATE: Check out the results!

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LATER UPDATE: Submissions are officially closed. Thank you all so much for playing!! I will take some time to read everyone's work at least twice before picking a winner. Stay tuned!

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NEWER UPDATE:

When I decided the arbitrary date for submission closure, I had no idea that the platform updates would roll out around that time — obviously. Wouldn't it be cool to have "the gift" and see future bugs of your favorite apps and websites, though?

Anyway.

On top of the platform shutting down for maintenance, over the past 2/3 days, I have been stuck in "Unable to sign in. Try again later." hell, and it has been very frustrating.

Many others have been in the same hell loop as well.

So, on the off chance that some creator who wanted to participate didn't make it because of the platform updates, I am extending the deadline for an additional 24 hours.

This means that the new deadline is the 4th of July 2026 at 2.00 pm (Amsterdam Time), also known as the 4th of July 2026 8.00 am EST for those of you who live in the US.

Updates on the judgement process, winners, and prizes will follow this week!

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UPDATE: We now have 12 submissions! 🥳🥳🥳 Woop woop!!!

This means that I get to go bananas and add at least another 2 prizes — on top of the 5 dollars first prize! (I won't make them public yet, but I have a few ideas...)

Can't wait to take my sweet time reading all your awesome entries!!

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At the beginning of June, my little man is turning one year old. And, although time seems to have lost all coherence and meaning ever since he was born, a whole year still seems like quite the milestone. So the three of us are getting ready to travel to Italy for a short vacation, mainly to celebrate with my side of the family.

Now, a summer vacation for an Italian person usually means lazily sun-cooking one's butt on the seashore, while solving enigmas: restorative for the body and the mind. Crosswords and detective novels make most of their sales this time of the year.

Since I'll be traveling with a not-quite-yet toddler, I won't have time to partake in this ancient Italian ritual and read a whole detective novel... which gave me the idea for hosting my first unofficial challenge.

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RULES:

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• What to write: Anything, as long as it is in the form of a solvable mystery. Emphasis on solvable. The "culprit" must be someone (or something) that the reader is aware of and could potentially figure out via the hints dropped throughout the story. The solution must be given at the end. BUT it can be submitted to any community. In fact, I challenge you to try communities you usually don't write for! I'd love to read a makeup tutorial or even a car review in the form of a solvable mystery. Go wild!
• How long: No limits here either. The minimum length is the one allowed by the community (and tag) you choose, and the maximum length is whatever Vocal will let you.
• How many submissions: Since I'm relatively new here and I don't expect too much participation, I will allow as many submissions as you feel like, but no more than one per community. So, effectively, up to 48 per person.
• Prizes: To be announced depending on participation. For now, a 5-dollar tip for one winner. I will update this section if enough people join... and I hope you do, because I'd love to award things like "most stories submitted" or "shortest mystery" (can anyone pack a solvable mystery in the form of a haiku?)
• Technicalities:

1. I'd like you to write something new and not previously published for this challenge. (Thanks to Lamar Wiggins for bringing this up!)
2. Please make sure your subtitle says "For Sasha Desideri's Summer Mystery Unofficial Challenge": I'd like you to spread the word as much as possible so more people can join in!
3. Please have a link to this article posted at some point in your story: same reason as above.
4. The story must be linked (or at least its full name written) in the comments to this post, so I can retrieve it easily.
5. Please drop your comment here before the 1st of July 2026 at 23:59 UTC. (Shoutout to Jesse Lee for noticing the ambiguity in the subtitle's date!)
6. How are winners decided? The ideal story will pack a punch: a plot twist that seems totally unexpected, despite the clues that were there all along. So, basically... the story whose ending will surprise me the most — yet, at a second reading, will seem obvious — will win. And, since this is my challenge, the winner(s) will be decided based on my personal taste and opinion (and I'm a bit of a weirdo, be warned).
7. When will winners be announced? I have no clue! Depending on participation, it might take me as little as a day or as much as several weeks to read through all the stories and decide. Winners will be announced in a separate post, and tips will be distributed as soon as the winners are announced (maybe even slightly before).

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Now that all that needed to be said has been said: good luck!

I hope to have a lot of your amazing mysteries to read and try to solve this summer vacation!

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All the entries in order of submission: