Million Writers Award update

I've behind on storySouth Million Writers Award updates, so here we go:

• A ton of reader and editor nominations are coming in. So far, editors at 56 online magazines have nominated their favorite stories for the award. The deadline to make a nomination is February 28. If you want to make a nomination or see what others have nominated, check out the reader nominations here and the editor nominations here.
   
• Thank to generous donations, we now have over $500 in total prize money, along with a $100 gift certificate from the great people at ThinkGeek. I'm behind on creating the page listing the donors, but I plan to have that up soon. At the moment, this means the prize money for the 2010 Million Writers Award will break down as $350 plus the $100 ThinkGeek gift certificate for the first place winner, and $150 for the runner-up.

In addition to these updates, I also wanted to draw attention to some of the stories which are catching the eyes of our preliminary judges. This doesn't mean the judges will select these as notable stories of the years. But these are stories some judges have mentioned in excited tones, so take that as you will.

• "Inspirations" by Seanan McGuire from Edge of Propinquity
• "Galatea's Stepchildren" by Sam S. Kepfield from The Future Fire.

The judge who mentioned those two stories to me said both "take topics that have been covered a million times before and do something really fresh and surprising with them. While I'm at it, I was impressed by the overall quality of stories from both these publications."

• "Shades of White and Road" by Camille Alexa from Fantasy Magazine.

The judge who mentioned this tale said "I loved this story! Great writing, fun characters, and very imaginative. I wouldn't mind seeing this one get lots of attention."

Comments

[Cate Gardner]

I love Camille's story.

[Rachel Swirsky]

"Shades of White and Road" is lots of fun. It didn't all add up for me, but it was a very entertaining journey.

[Cat Rambo]

It's an absolutely beautiful story, and deserves any attention it gets!