The Slingink Prize/The Slingink Prize Competition Shortlist

Thanks to all those that entered the competition and to the judges for their hard work. I am pleased to announce the shortlisted 7 authors in each category. Each author will have their story or poem published in the competition anthology.

The shortlists are presented in alphabetical order of story or poem title.

Shortlisted authors will be sent their anthology proofs and agreements within the next few days. Once these have been returned the top 3 in each category will be announced.

Fiction 16+

A Trick of light                                                 Sarah Evans

Eleven                                                               Juliet Boyd

Fell-walking for Girls                                      Clair Humphries

Interference                                                    Faye Robertson

Por La Gracia De Dios                                    Robin Ganderton

Tides of Longing                                             Andrew Clusker

Vote Ebay                                                         Russel Herneman

Fiction 12 – 15

Aftershock                                                       Elizabeth Birch

Forget Me Not                                                Katie Tate

Into the Belly of the Whale                          India Bohanna

My Story                                                           Elisabeth Wilson

The Scream                                                      Holly Miyuki Gibbs-Leake

The Stalker                                                       Joschka Nakata

This is My Story                                               Kieran Phillips

Fiction 8-11

A Dragon’s Tail                                                Emily Brown

All Hallows Eve                                                Jack Carle Carnegie

Angry, Alone and Hearing Ghosts               Courtney Brotherson

Bluey’s Secret                                                  Sam Daddo

The Dark Girl                                                    Ellie Czyzowska

My Monster and Me                                      Lydia Bodell

Pirates and Seals                                             Imogen Childs

Poetry 16+

Chemistry Lesson                                           Helen Kay

Dancers                                                            Francis Hayes

Empty Cradle                                                   Anni Domingo

For Perdida                                                      Paola Fornari

I am the Walrus                                              Faye Robertson

Imitation of a Suicide                                    Jonathan Pinnock

Jessie                                                                 Ann Foxglove

Poetry 12 – 15

A Breath of Fresh Air                                      Jasmine Zara Belfield

Childhood                                                         Rachael King

Home or Roam                                               Tomás Clarke

Individual, Unique                                          Lucy Ann Smith

I remember                                                      Georgia Euden

Passage                                                                           Brianna Jones

Sister                                                                 Ankita Saxena

Poetry 8-11

A Fox’s Fears                                                   Mollie Russell

Animals                                                             Samantha-Jo Hollings

Country Barn Angel                                        Emma Kirby

Jubilee Green                                                   Luke Kelly

Push                                                                   Imogen Childs

Spooky Lights                                                  Rachel Plant

When You Wake Up Early                             Jack Carle Carnegie

Slingink Shorts 2010 – Winners

Who cares about the World Cup winners when it is time to announce the winners of Slingink Shorts 2010.

Our judge this year Hywela Lyn had a tough decision to make but she chose the following three prize winners and picked her top ten stories (finding it difficult to limit herself to just ten). Congratulations to the winners and to everyone that entered.

1st Nina Simon with Anti-clockwise (winning £50, publication on Slingink and a free copy of the anthology which will be named after her winning entry)

2nd Sharon Birch with Groundsman (winning £20, publication on Slingink and a free copy of the anthology)

3rd Caroline Palmer with Dragon (winning £10, publication on Slingink and a free copy of the anthology)

Highly Commended

4th Ann Oxley with Harness

5th Catherine Donald with Gossip

6th K.S. Dearsley with Sloth

7th Maggs Payne with Senses

8th Kerrie Myers with Seeing

9th Sharon Birch with Gemini

10th Wendy Greenberg with Alan

To read the winning stories check out our Winner’s Library.

Further information about the competition anthology ‘Anti-clockwise’ to follow shortly. Due to the quality of entries it will contain all 55 stories entered and the judging report.

Thanks to all those who entered, please come back next year for Slingink Shorts 2011.

Huge congratulations go to Vicky Daddo who won with her story Speak of the Devil.

Speak of the Devil

My devil and I have an agreement.  He stays quiet for the most part and when it’s appropriate, I let him have his fun.  So you can imagine the trouble I got into when my devil made himself known at a dinner organised to meet my best friend’s new fiancé.

Leila has been married before.  Twice before.  Both times to the same man.  But this time, she was marrying Alvin, not Dave.  Their romance had been not so much whirlwind as maelstrom – they met on a Mediterranean cruise whilst Leila was trying to get over the breakdown of her marriage to Dave.  Funnily enough, she went on a Scandinavian cruise to get over the breakdown of her first marriage to Dave, and he ended up flying to Helsinki and proposing again on a husky-sled ride.

Anyway, back to the dinner and the devil…

I was trying to squeeze into the dress that fitted last summer.  My devil had been suggesting to me all winter to eat more chocolate, now that the evidence proved it was good for you.  I was never quite convinced that a bar a day was the recommended daily intake, but … even with killer heels, I looked and felt stodgy.

My devil was being unkind too.  “You should have joined the gym when they had the special offer on, Della.”

“I know,” I huffed just as my husband Brian appeared.

“You look lovely,” he said with his eyes on the crossword crumpled in his hand.

“No wonder you were so long,” I sighed.  Then my devil added, “Did you spend all that time trying to work it out with a pen and paper?”

“Very funny.  Where’s my nice shirt?”

“Do you have one?” my devil asked before I could stop him.

“What?” said Brian.

“Which one?” I smiled.

“The beige one.”

“Stone, dear. We call it stone these days.  It’s in the wardrobe, far right, with all the natural colours.”

“I think you’ve been feeding me too much chocolate, Della.  Do I look alright?”

I took in the bulging buttons.  “Perhaps you should put the fawn one on instead.”  He stared at me blankly.  “Dark beige, Brian.  Dark beige.”

See, the devil had already got the better of me.  And that was before we’d even got to the restaurant.

All the way there, I couldn’t help thinking about Alvin and whether or not he would look like a chipmunk.  I’d taken my grandson to see the film and unfortunately, my devil had conjured up an image of a man with quick eyes, a pointy face and buck teeth.

Leila’s small but loyal group of friends gathered at the table.  Including Dave.  And Dave’s new girlfriend – a spray-tanned dolly bird who looked like she was having trouble following the conversation.  It turned out she was.  She’d flown over from Moscow two weeks before and barely spoke two words of English.  She laughed a lot though.  Well, squawked, really.  My devil was feeling very naughty.

“So Dave, where did you meet Ivanka?” I asked.  “And how much did she cost?” My devil added, just as Ivanka downed her vodka in one.

“Sorry?” Dave frowned.

At that point Leila gushed in, carrying on her arm, the hapless Alvin.  Not so much chipmunk as Trappist monk.  His shiny head protruded through a ring of fuzzy red hair and if he said more than three words throughout the whole meal, I didn’t hear them.

My devil and I did notice how often Dave looked at Leila and Leila looked at Dave and after several glasses of vino my devil seemed to notice that Ivanka looked at Alvin quite often too.

I felt my devil building up for a big one and unfortunately I couldn’t hold it down.

“So Leila, what was the attraction to Alvin?” Leila glared behind her wine glass.  I felt it might be good to add something myself at this point.  “Apart from the good looks, that is.”  Sadly, Ivanka chose that moment to laugh again and even Brian got a fit of the giggles.  Dave would have laughed but he’d gone to the gents.  Alvin blushed beetroot and fiddled with his glasses, waiting for Leila’s response.  My devil bounced around my insides with glee.

“It’s his intellect I fell for,” she announced, rather haughtily, I thought.  Dave had returned and stifled a snort in his pint.  Alvin cleared his throat as though to defend his honour, but shrunk silently into his seat instead.

“I luf a men vif a beeg intellek,” Ivanka added for good measure.

I swear I saw Alvin’s mouth flicker into a smile.  Leila scowled.  Dave looked deflated.  Brian downed his beer in one and my devil was definitely in the zone. “They say that the definition of an intellectual is someone who’s found something more interesting than sex.”

All eyes needled into me in the stunned silence that followed.  I swallowed my devil down, feeling decidedly sick.  Alvin stood to leave.  Leila pulled him back down.  Ivanka giggled endlessly and Brian took me home.

My devil and I haven’t seen eye to eye for a while now. So when the wedding invitation arrived, I wasn’t quite sure what to do.

“We have to go.  She’s your best friend,” Brian said.  I knew he was right, but I still felt guilty over the dinner debacle. I didn’t think she’d ever trust me and my devilish mouth again.

As it turned out, the wedding was glorious.  My devil behaved.  The sun shone bright in the autumn sky.  Copper leaves drifted about the happy couple as they posed for photos.

I leant into Brian’s comforting body. “They look rather good together, don’t they?”

“Well, they should.  This is the third time they’ve been married.”

I waved at Leila and Dave. “They do say better the devil you know.”

Slingink Inspirations Jan-Feb 2010 Fiction Winner – Vicky Daddo (VickyDaddo)

Vicky will receive a certificate and Slingink bookmark and her story will be posted in our Winners’ Library.

Huge congratulations go to Colin Rennie who won with his poem Cold.

Cold

It’s not so warm

Now that I am in it

Alone

Our bed

Slingink Inspirations Jan-Feb 2010 Poetry Winner – Colin Rennie (rossoblu)

Colin will receive a certificate and Slingink bookmark and his poem will be posted in our Winners’ Library.

The Final Round was won by Blade with her story ‘The Interview: Transcript One (of Many).
The Round 7 tables can be found here –

In the closest run Eurofiction ever (I think) there was 1 point between the top two contestants.
The Master Scoreboard can be found here –

1st Place – Steffi (82 points) wins £100
2nd Place – Blade (81 points) wins £30
3rd Place – Two lagers and a ferret (61 points) wins £10

A huge congratulations to our prizewinners but also to everyone who participated.

Feedback for the final round will be sent after the 28th December, along with requests for inclusion of stories in the Eurofiction 2009 e-magazine.

Thanks for the support for the competition, I hope you join us again in 2010 – Competition starts 10th September – registration will begin in August.

Congratulations to Blade who won this round with their story ‘The Curious Journal of Cuthbert Campbell (Anno 1842)’

The table of those who scored can be found here:

The Master scoreboard here:

 Congratulations to Tapes who won this round and well done to all those who entered.

The scoring table for this round can be found here – http://slingink.com/slingink-competitions/eurofiction-2009/eurofiction-task-prompts/4/

The Masterscoreboard is here – http://slingink.com/slingink-competitions/eurofiction-2009/eurofiction-2009-master-scoreboard/

Congratulations to the winner of this round and now the current leader - Blade.

The results table for the round can be found here: http://slingink.com/slingink-competitions/eurofiction-2009/eurofiction-task-prompts/3/ Members can read Blade’s winning entry on this link.

The Master Scoreboard here: http://slingink.com/slingink-competitions/eurofiction-2009/eurofiction-2009-master-scoreboard/

Round 3 is now closed. Round 4 prompts available on page 5 of the task page.

Keep it up guys – you are doing great.

Apologies slightly later than scheduled but the results are now here: http://slingink.com/slingink-competitions/eurofiction-2009/eurofiction-task-prompts/2/

We have joint winners – Dreamboat Annie and latepaul – members can read their winning stories on the link above.