The Story of the Week for March 2 to 6 is…
Paradise by Matthew D. Wheaton.
The core concept isn’t especially unique, with a remnant of humanity surviving an apocalypse and emerging from underground many years later, but the twist that is added to it with the return to the start of the cycle in the Garden of Eden is really clever and story-expanding. Great story, Matthew.
The Story of the Week for February 23 to 27 is…
Closing Time by Steve Lucas.
Steve edited this story from its original form, and this new version he sent me was so much richer, more complex, and more full of characters and plot. It’s very rare to see a 50-word story with this many characters, each of whom feels very well developed, despite only getting a few words to their credit. Great job, Steve.
The Story of the Week for February 16 to 20 is…
Year’s End by Devon R Widmer
Devon submitted this story for posting on Lunar New Year’s, and to me it really captured the spirit and feel of the holiday, with a dark, mystical tinge.
The Story of the Week for February 9 to 13 is…
Death and I by Clio Velentza
The story sets up like a classic three-part joke, leading into a pattern-based punchline, but the punchline hits the heart instead of the funnybone. Excellently done, Clio!
The Story of the Month is chosen from the Story of the Week winners announced from the past month. The finalists for January were:
A Honeymoon Walk by Perry McDaid
The Incantation by Frank Solomon
Old Wounds by Perry McDaid
Math Lesson by Cathy Ulrich
A Presaged Day Ago by Bob McNeil
The winner of the January 2015 Story of the Month, and the $10 prize, is…
Math Lesson
Congratulations, Cathy!
The Story of the Week for January 26 to 30 is…
Tripping by Caitlin McGill
The story layers humour and drama together really well, and takes some time to pull apart and interpret, in a really good way. Great work, Caitlin.
As 50WS continues to grow, I’m seeing the submission inbox get more and more full. That’s great, and I welcome the submissions, but it also means it’s taking longer and longer before I’m able to get back to authors with my feedback and decision on whether or not to publish their story.
To help with this, I’ve changed the guidelines for now. Until further notice, I’m asking that authors only send in one story per month, instead of the previous guideline of two per month.
For those of you who have been diligently submitting your two stories per month, thank you, and I hope this won’t be too much of a hardship! I look forward to receiving and reviewing your very best work.
The Story of the Week for January 26 to 30 is…
Math Lesson by Cathy Ulrich
and
A Presaged Day Ago by Bob McNeil
Yep, that’s right: I picked two stories of the week this week. I couldn’t choose between the two!
Math Lesson is really powerful and heartbreaking, and the way it disguises its intentions mirrors the way the father disguises his own intentions, which shows some beautiful writing.
A Presaged Day Ago is that rare beast, an effective piece of 50-word sci-fi. The key phrase that really earned my appreciation in this story was “Acclimated to Armageddon”, which is just a fantastic little trio of words, and so significant.
Congratulations to both of you!
As you may have noticed, today I started switching 50WS over from a star-based ratings system to a “Likes” system. There are multiple reasons I’ve decided to make this change, and I’ll try to put together a post explaining my thought process soon.
For now, the ratings still exist and the “Popular Stories” box in the sidebar still shows the highest rated stories since we started using the current rating system. Over the next days or weeks I will completely phase out the ratings and replace them with the new Likes setup, including replacing the “Popular Stories” sidebar to reflect the stories with the most likes.
I’m definitely interested in your feedback on this change, so let me know how you feel about the switch. I will try to get my thoughts together soon for the sake of more clarity.
Edit: You can read more of my thoughts and reasoning here.
The Story of the Week for January 19 to 23 is Old Wounds by Perry McDaid.
Perry earned this distinction by exploring a relatively rare genre for this site, and conveying otherworldiness and a touch of horror/suspense quite effectively.