In Search of Perdition

And so it is here, my last time to judge the entries, a task made so hard week in, week out through the sheer quality of writing which has been poured forth onto these pages. My winner this week is an absent friend who returned this week. That friend is  Crimson Archer  with his entry Try and Try Again . Paul - I thought that the writing was exquisite. That opening line "A whole shattered into fragments becomes an enigma." was just beautiful and there were so many other phrases to admire. And then that shock of an ending. Wow. I do hope you won't be a stranger to The Prediction at Colleen's place with writing like that. No runners-up but, and this is the second time of me doing this, a more than honourable mention to RR Kovar and Colleen for their Nate and Seth series. I have become seriously addicted to this series and am not sure if it will continue at Prediction Fiction . It feels like there is still a bit more to come and I would love to read it. Now this is...

Phew, you made it past the apocalypse and ploughed your way through richly deserved Christmas merriments. I have to apologise to everyone as I have become befuddled with days of the week over this yuletide period and thought today was Thursday hence now being a day late to proclaim my winner! So, without further ado, and much grovelling for forgiveness, here is my winner for this week.... ..... RR Kovar with Pageant . Rebecca - if I am right this is the second time you have provided poetry for us and grabbed first place. I really liked Pageant, the way it weaved stories within stories. A beautiful mythos unfolding as we discover more about the world, and the fate, that the orphan queen has thrust herself into. Just felt that this one had a wonderful sense of legend about it at this time of the year. A deserved winner. My congratulations to Rebecca and I will abstain from naming a runner-up this week in my haste to get new words out to all. Needless to say, I have enjoyed rea...

If you believe the stories being bandied around on the internet and in the tabloids, the world is due to end on Friday 21 December as foretold (or not) by the Mayans. So, will the impending apocalypse inspire you or send you screaming to the hills? Well, I guess we shall have to see. In the meantime, you have a fortnight to get your entries in as I have a social engagement on Thursday next week so will be unable to judge. Therefore I will close The Prediction on Thursday 27 December so you have a bit more time to fit writing around last minute Christmas shopping (or world destroying meteor showers, whichever comes first). If you want a chance to write over both weeks then don't forget to check out Hunted , our collaborative chain story. Sandra added another piece this week. Do go and check it out and write the next installment if you are so inclined. Now on to the winner for this week. Tough, tough decision this week (isn't it always though) and I've thought long and ...

And so we approach that annual witching hour that we call Halloween where spooks and spirits seek to suck our souls to hell (depending on what beliefs you subscribe to). Me, I see this as a gloriously wonderful time of year where the scary gets celebrated and we get the chance to see some glorious tales to chill our very cores. I'm hoping that the Predictioneers will all rise to the challenge this week and give me something with a ghostly tinge to honour this time of year. But before then I am sure you want to know who the winner was from last week. After much deliberation I have decided that my winner is......RR Kovar with Impact. Rebecca - this is a tale which I confessed in my comments that I didn't grasp at first (my dimwittedness rather than your writing) but when I understood the fullness of it, boy was I blown away. Clever, clever stuff which I would encourage everyone to go back and read. My runner-up this week is Matt Farr with his two takes on Only the Mundane V...

Ok, as I forewarned a couple of weeks back, I won't be able to comment on the Prediction entries for a few weeks. Wait, I hear you cry, what does that mean for us? Well, dear friends, I am handing the asylum over to the inmates (so to speak). Whilst I will cunningly arrange for new words to appear every Thursday evening after each Prediction closes I cannot fulfil my role as judge. Solution, this week's winner will choose next week's winner(s) and runner-up(s). No obligation to comment on all entries, just to say who you felt was best. Post your winner, etc in the comments section (and preferably on the Friday if you can). Then that week's winner chooses the winner for the next week. If the winner is unable to choose for that week then no worries - there will still be words for everyone to play with, after all that's the fun of this right! Hope that's all clear and I'll resume judging duties for the Prediction the week which ends Thurs 13 September.  ...

Why hello there, nice of you all to pop round once again for another installment of The Prediction. I decided to post my results and new words this evening as I always write this on a Thursday night before bed and then schedule it to appear on the Friday morning. Do you prefer it this way or would you rather wait for Friday for it to appear? Do let me know. Also, another change for this week  I am going to give you two weeks to get your entries in. I'm out for drinks with a friend who just recovering from a v. serious illness on Thursday night and then it's my wedding anniversary on Friday (yes, that's right Friday 13th and it was also Friday 13th when we get wed five years ago up in bonnie Scotland). So, rather than try the impossible and fit everything in, I thought I would postpone judging until Thursday 19th July. Hope it gives you all more time to play and that you will forgive me my indulgences just this once and we will return to weekly after that. So, let's ...

With so much water around this week, I've decided to do some plugging before I get into the important act of judging last week's winners. Firstly, Predictioneer David Barber is moving his site The Flash Fiction Offensive to pastures new. Go check out his current site  and see where it is heading. The stories on there are well worth a read and maybe you'll feel like submitting something too. Second plug is for my mate Colin Barnes' call for submissions to his latest anthology over at Anachron Press . Looking for cyber crime writing plus it's a paying market. I appear in his forthcoming anthology City of Hell Chronicles: Trifecta  released later this month. Finally, I've started a collaborative story at Phlambler's World. It's called Hunted  and you're all welcome to play. Should be a lot of fun! Right, on to the judging as I imagine you're all eager to know who my winner is this week. So, without further ado..... ....my  winner  is Sandra...