Photographed at the Whatcom Creek Estuary, in Washington State, by criada.

© 2009. All rights reserved. Reproduced with permission.


Per a suggestion from tillyjane, and with agreement from criada whose photo this is, I held a flash fiction open round. Using criada's photo as their inspiration, twenty people wrote a piece of flash (500 words or less).

All of the stories can be read here: [ jlake.com | LiveJournal ]

I had four celebrity judges read all twenty stories, and give me preliminary rankings. My thanks go out to bravado111, calendula_witch, klingonguy and maryrobinette. Also, thanks and congratulations to everyone who played along. This was so much fun that I'll do another one of these before too long, I'm sure.

Now it's time to vote, in the poll here. The five finalist stories are all linked from the poll post, so it's easy to click through and peruse them. Check it out, and support your favorite.

Originally published at jlake.com.