And The Winner Is... (Fucked Up Fairytales Unofficial Challenge)

Judging for this challenge closed last night, Sunday 23rd June at 11.59PM (GMT).

The scoring was really simple: I asked everyone to vote for their favourites of the five finalists, giving 3 points to their favourite, 2 points to their second favourite, and 1 point to their third favourite.

Judging this mothersucker of a challenge to whittle it down to five finalists was hard. Not just because there were more entries than I'd expected (a lot more), but because the standard was generally high. It was humbling. I was needled by this little voice, going, Why did I decide to do this? It was meant to be fun, and this stuff is... okay, it is fun. A lot of fun, actually! But it's also seriously, seriously good. No way am I good enough to be judging these people...!

I am so glad and so grateful that I had some help on that front.

Another thing that made it tricky, was that I'd also not considered the possibility that the finalists would also like to vote. That was a daft oversight on my part.

I checked in with the people helping me out with judging, and we decided collectively not to count votes from finalists. I will definitely make a decision on this at the outset if I decide to do another one, and make it clear right away.

Okey dokey then, pass me that gold envelope...

And the winner is...

Drumroll please...

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It's a tie!

Joint first place goes to:

Rebekah Conard's Royal Misfortune and Dana Crandell's Rap Unzel.

Here they are - please go and show them some appreciation!

It seems fitting to me that there should be two winners, given there were so many entries. There were more than fifty! For a scrappy little unofficial challenge. I am still so impressed by that response.

The runner up is Kendall Defoe with "Goldilicks". Here it is:

Congratulations

Huge congratulations to all three! All my gratitude for, not just taking the time to participate, but putting so much effort in. It was noticed and appreciated.

Tips should land in your wallet in the next 48hrs.

The Finalists

If you'd like to read the entries from all the finalists, you can do that by browsing the comment section here. Please note I won't be counting any more votes now, obviously! You are still more than welcome to leave a comment if you like.

Other Entries

If you'd like to read other entries, you can look at the comment section here.

I wrote two stories in response to the prompt. (These weren't entered or judged, of course.) This was a take on Cinderella, and a twisted version of The Elves and the Shoemaker. If you would like to read those, you can do that here:

What's next?

• I intend to keep going with my personal daily micro challenge. I am 176 days in, so almost halfway. There's no stopping now! You can read about that project here. You can read my most recent micro here.
• I have an idea for another challenge - a much smaller one, I hope! I'll be posting about that soon.
• I've been rolling a Dialogue entry around in my skull. Who knows if it might find its way out.
• Either way, I am cogitating over a Wanky Poem. Stand by.
• I think I am overdue to do another prompt list. I didn't do one for May or June (I was just too busy!)

Thank you's

I have already thanked everyone in my last post about this challenge, but I seriously can't thank Hannah Moore and Caroline Jane enough for their help.

Thank you to everyone who voted, and thank you, as always, for reading!