Happy Halloween, everyone! The day has finally come!
And holy crap! This was an amazing turnout, guys! I think it's safe to say that theOtaku.com's very first Halloween Writer's Jam was a resounding success.
Not including any further holiday-themed stories to trickle in over the course of today (and I can think of at least a couple on the way), we got about forty published Halloween-themed written works done for this event. That's pretty badass, I gotta say.
And while surely the reason everyone wanted to write for this little Writer's Jam was simply to take part in a community-wide event simply from the goodness of your enthusiastic little hearts... we did dangle a little bit of a carrot in the form of a year's supply of theOtaku.com Premium Status.
Well, I'm extremely happy to say that we judges (myself, NightBeck, Kei, SabrinaM, and Anomaly) were thinking in very much the same line, and that while there were definitely some great submissions this month, we all unanimously knew with whom we were going...
Ladies and gentlemen, boys and girls, the winner of the grand prize of theOtaku.com's 2008 Halloween Writer's Jam... is...
...Shinmaru, with his short story, "A Long Halloween"!
In Shin's story, "A Long Halloween", a young college student learns to make the best of being a chaperone for his neighbour's two teenaged kids as they go trick-or-treating. Although it's a Halloween story, it's not exactly scary in any way. Still, some excellent writing ability on top of a surprisingly heartwarming story make for an amazing read and undoubtedly this year's top pick.
So good on ya, Shin'! Damn good on ya!
But wait! There's more on the next page!
