“Casket” Cops 1st Prize in Flash Suite Contest

It was weird. Results are now in for Defenestrationism.net’s Flash Suite competition (cf. January 1, December 14, et al.), and out of four official judges, none counted “Casket Suite” first. But two did vote it second. And in the fan voting, to count as a fifth “judge” as well as being the tie-breaker if needed, it wasn’t first either — but also came in second.

So, out of four judges’ totals where firsts counted 2 points, and seconds 1, no two judges agreed on a first, so that meant four separate 2-point stories. But two also had seconds from other judges for 3 points as well, with “Casket Suite” with its two runner-up votes getting 2 points plus another 1 as the fan vote second. So 3 points there too. And none of the other four was the one that came first in the fan vote.

Which means that les filles, as they do in their stories, slowly, seductively, wormed their way past their less toothy rivals — and grabbed onto the prize to take back to New Orleans!

Or, to quote the official contest page: ­And the Winners Are. . .

January 17th, 2022

Lord have mercy, what a contest!

Some of our finest flash fictionateering, ever,
ending in a three way tie for both prizes,
decided by the Fan Vote.

Not one to Waste Time, the Winners are:

the grand prize
“Casket Suite” by James Dorr

and runner-up
“Storm Surge” by Laurinda Lind

Yes indeed, a three way tie for both prizes.
The top contenders by judge votes were
“Clouds” by Ilhamul Azam, along with “Casket Suite” and “Storm Surge”.
As you may recall, a draw is decided by the Fan Vote:

“The Toll” by Stephen Page
won the Fan Favorite vote with over 30% of the 228 votes,
followed by
“Casket Suite” by James Dorr
with over 15%.

Of the top contenders, “Casket Suite had the most votes,
followed by “Storm Surge” by Laurinda Lind with almost 14%.

So it may not be the most elegant win ever, but Aimée and the Casket Girls will take it — as will I. And a special thank you to all those who voted in the fan contest, it was you who put us over the top!

And for any who may not have read all the stories, they still can be found by pressing here.