First I’d like to thank the eleven brave souls who submitted a short story for the Passing Strangers contest. It takes courage to put your work “out there,” so I want to honor your hard work as best I can.
On October first, I took all the short stories and took off the writer’s names. I then assigned each a number, so the judges have NO IDEA who wrote these stories. Who are the judges? Six lovely women from my book club volunteered to judge the entries. They are readers, and I trust their opinions completely.
Each story is being judged by at least three judges, and the judges are evaluating each story in these areas: overall impression, creativity, technical skill, and theme (how well did the story adhere to the theme of how a passing stranger influenced a life). The scores for each area are added up for a grand total, and then the scores from all three judges are averaged together.
The top winner will be the one with the highest score. And since we didn’t get 25 entries (the number I had thought would fit comfortably into a book), we will include stories that received an average of ten points and up–the highest any story could achieve was 20.
When all the scores are in, I will lightly edit the stories and format them into a book–the real deal, with a cover, ISBN, etc. When it’s available to order, I’ll let you know.
Thank you for participating! I hope to announce those who will be published in the short story collection as soon as I’ve heard from all the judges.
I am such a loser! I meant to enter a story, because I love this book…..shoot!
Many blessings to those who did!
Thank you so much for the update and the opportunity. God bless.