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.

You’ve seen the announcement of the $50 Story of the Year prize and the enshrinement in the new 50WS Hall of Fame.

You’ve read the six Story of the Year finalists, who each won a Story of the Month prize along the way.

You’ve voiced your opinions in the comments…

And while I had to deliberate long and hard, it turns out I ultimately agreed with most of you. The winner of the 2014 Story of the Year is:

The Mapmaker’s Calligraphist Daughter by Bob Thurber

Congratulations, Bob! Your 2014 submissions to 50WS were a great contribution to the site.

Keep an eye out for the creation of the 50WS Hall of Fame, where Bob will be installed as the first honouree. Winning Story of the Year may not end up being the only way to enter the Hall, so stay tuned for any developments on that front, too!

The story of the week for January 5 to 9 is A Honeymoon Walk by Perry McDaid. (Sorry, I didn’t realize I’d missed this week!)

The story of the week for January 12 16 is The Incantation by Frank Solomon.

The Story of the Month is chosen from the Story of the Week winners announced from the past month. The finalists for December were:

Coffee Cups by Sarah Henry
Loyalty vs. Duty by Agata Ratajczak
The Learner Voice by Arthur Brown
Labels by Barry O’Farrell

The winner of the December 2014 Story of the Month, and the $10 prize, is…

The Learner Voice

Congratulations, Arthur!

The story of the week for December 29 to January 2 is Auld Lang Syne by CK Black.