Hello all

Here we are the results are here - after 10 great pieces of writing and 18 sets of votes (slightly down on last year) here are the results (only top 3 authors will be revealed the others please feel free to come forward)

10th - Bushfire 3points
9th - Peters Pans 6 Points
8th - Victims 7 points
7th - A Letter which never sent 8 points
6th - Hunters & Prey (my entry) 9 points
5th - The Hunted 11 points
4th - The Hunters 18 points

and now the top 3

3rd Sunset in Fall by Hand of Hecate 23 Points

2nd In the Sun Room mike169 32 points

and

1st Song of Herself mike 169 45 points


BIG WELL DONE to mike169 for coming first and second and taking a second win in the RHP prose competition

Well done to all and if people would like this to run again in the next year or the summer please let me know 🙂

Silverstriker

Originally posted by Silverstriker
Hello all

Here we are the results are here - after 10 great pieces of writing and 18 sets of votes (slightly down on last year) here are the results (only top 3 authors will be revealed the others please feel free to come forward)

10th - Bushfire 3points
9th - Peters Pans 6 Poin ...[text shortened]... uld like this to run again in the next year or the summer please let me know 🙂

Silverstriker

Originally posted by Silverstriker
Hello all

Here we are the results are here - after 10 great pieces of writing and 18 sets of votes (slightly down on last year) here are the results (only top 3 authors will be revealed the others please feel free to come forward)

10th - Bushfire 3points
9th - Peters Pans 6 Poin ...[text shortened]... uld like this to run again in the next year or the summer please let me know 🙂

Silverstriker

The post that was quoted here has been removed

The post that was quoted here has been removed

Originally posted by Silverstriker
I'm hoping everyone comes in to reveal their writings 🙂 (I think there were 4 or 5 new writers this time round)

Great work, Mike169, but one tiny quibble: Leaves of Grass is a collection of Whitman's poems, not just one.

Your story brought back a flood of New York memories.

Thank you to all who participated and thank you for voting for my entries. I thought everyone was great and I hope everyone continues to participate in this fun event. Thanks again to Silverstreaker, who, as usual, did a wonderful job!

DISCLAIMER: I do not wish to derail this results thread. I merely wanted to re-post Mike169's winning entry from last year as a tribute to this year's winning writer.

2012 Prose Competition winner - The Tick

Chiappini’s is an old gas station. It looks like all gas stations did in the 1930’s, 40’s and 50’s before they lost their mechanics and became self pumping mini marts. Their two pumps sit under a roof attached to their store which also serves the small community of Melrose, Florida as a drinking establishment.
He didn’t have much truck with the Chiapinni’s having had a falling out a number of years back but he still set up next to their establishment and sold Mayport shrimp to any commuter passing the intersection where Chiappini’s sat where State Rd. 21 crossed State Rd. 24. Everyday he picked his shrimp from the shrimpers up at Mayport, north of Jacksonville, and carried it back in two big ice chests to his spot at the roadside. He’d put up his table and umbrella and sit through the heat of the day as customers lazily pulled their cars to the side of the road got out and examined the shrimp and bought or did not buy depending on whatever fancy they took. This was his routine. It didn’t pay much but no job in North Central Florida paid much these days.
Tick wandered down Rte 21 with his dog Leb. His head was down and the man could discern the nature of the problem. Tick, short for Bostick, was an 11 year old towheaded boy whose home was half a mile from the crossroads where the man sold his shrimp.
“Have a seat Tick. What’s on your mind?”
“Nothin’”, said Tick scratching Leb’s head and ears.
The man knew however.
The day was a North Florida summer day with high fluffy clouds surrounded by heat you could almost eat. Tick had been pretty much quiet in the 45 minutes he had been sitting alongside the man as he sold his shrimp. Whenever he came to the man it was to get out of the house. Things weren’t good there.

After a couple of hours the man asked Tick if he’d watch for customers as he wanted to get a beer. He bought Tick a Pepsi and headed across the street to the Blue Water. It was hot and the Blue Water’s fans, just about moving, pushed the heavy air this way and that but never enough to generate so much as a breeze. Kimmie was tending bar as it was Kerry’s day off and the man’s entrance distracted Kimmie who had been looking out the window enjoying the heat and traffic from the confines of the dark bar.
“I see ya got Tick again.”
“Yup” answered the man as Kimmie served him a cold Budweiser from an ice chest.
A voice down the end of the bard sai he had seen Vel at the Keystone Saloon last night.
“Drunk as a balled owl and half as smart.”
Vel was Tick’s father.
“I thought as much”, said the man though whether it was Keystone, Hawthorne, Waldo or Starke made no difference. Vel knew them all.
The man had known many men like Vel. The area was full of them. Nice young men once. Then lost. Never to come back. It happened that way for some reason. Angry at everything and everyone who stood between them and whatever it was they wanted.
Roy Orbison’s “Blue Bayou” oozed from the old juke and curled around the inside of the bar.
The man finished his beer and headed back to the table and Tick and Leb, who now laid immobilized by the heat beneath the table. The man laid down a bowl of water Kimmie had sent over so that Leb might not die of the heat. Leb looked up and laid his head back down not up to the effort.
Round four o’clock the traffic slowed and the man began to pack up his gear. The unsold shrimp would be sold the next day at half price. As he and Tick loaded everything into the back of the man’s pickup a beat up mid 70’s Pontiac pulled up next to the man’s truck.
“Get in Tick!”
It was Vel the man knew him.
“You okay Tick?” asked the man.
His head down he said “Yes I’m okay. Thanks for the Pepsi.”
The boy and Leb moved to the car and Vel said “Leave that dog!” The boy turned to the man whose look told him it was okay. The boy got into the front seat and Vel sped away. Leaving the man and Leb to finish the day.

Congrats to two-time winner Mike 169!

Originally posted by mike169
Thank you to all who participated and thank you for voting for my entries. I thought everyone was great and I hope everyone continues to participate in this fun event. Thanks again to Silverstreaker, who, as usual, did a wonderful job!

Thank you - that was nice.

Originally posted by mike169
Thank you - that was nice.

To Jalapeno Kitten: No - the more the people who enter the better the competition and variety. I'd like to see everyone on the site participating because I love to see what people's creativity can bring forth. Writing a story and being constricted to a 750 word (or so) limit is a really good challenge to a writer. Let's see what next year brings!

Originally posted by mike169
To Jalapeno Kitten: No - the more the people who enter the better the competition and variety. I'd like to see everyone on the site participating because I love to see what people's creativity can bring forth. Writing a story and being constricted to a 750 word (or so) limit is a really good challenge to a writer. Let's see what next year brings!