My Paranormal encounters short story

This Halloween we bring a surprise for you. With the onset of the spooky season, Wingless Dreamer had organised a Halloween contest called “My Paranormal encounters”. We had asked you to write and send us the most spine-chilling, nerve-wracking, and mind-boggling stories and poems. With the submissions that we received, we were truly spooked. You all nailed it.

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MESSAGE FROM THE JUDGE QIN QIN

Congratulations to all the contributors who made it into this anthology.

As always, it’s a privilege and honor to witness the beauty of everyone’s work. Sharing your writing is an incredibly vulnerable but necessary act. During their 2022 world tour, Alok Vaid-Memon, an Indian-American genderqueer poet and performance artist, revealed that they were grieving their recently-deceased grandfather. I offer you a paraphrased anecdote: [I did not wish to share my art with you because I am in pain. But it is precise because I am in pain that I must share my art with you; to let you know that I am grieving. Perhaps, sharing my writing while I am hurting will help you with your own hurt.]

Let’s quickly put on our white hoods and gather around with lit candles because we’re about to announce the winners. Don’t let the cold breeze blow the candle flame.

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THE GRAND WINNER IS:

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Randall Clements – A Conversation with Him
Randall Clements is an active creative writer/ poet/ and photographer with roots being in Southern California. The style for his creative works are based in realism and stem from his environment growing up in the Inland Empire. The goal for his works are to achieve a setting and tone of the modern day society with common themes being realism, violence, interpersonal inspection, and male mental health. Email: randallxclements@gmail.com

The first runner-up is:

Elizabeth Wadsworth Ellis – So this is where you ended up
Elizabeth’s work was published in Antonym, Barzakh, Bluntly, Bell, Coffin Bell, Denver Quarterly, isotrope, Meow Meow Pow Pow Lit, O:JA&L, Oregon State’s “45th Parallel,” Poached Hare, Underwood,Vermillion, and Wingless Dreamer

The second runner-up is:

Sara Hailstone – The Purple Moth
Sara Hailstone’s writing is born from navigating the raw and confronting connections that living in rurality projects by scouring collapsed domestic landscapes. She is an educator and writer from Madoc, Ontario who orients towards the ferocity and serenity of nature and what we can learn as humans from the face of forest in our own lives. A graduate of Guelph University (B.A.) and Queen’s University (M.A. and B.Ed.), she has recently finished her Master in English in Public Texts at Trent University.

And the top finalists are:

Mick Bratton – Before Sunset From My Window
Mick Bratton is a poet, spiritual writer, and creative wanderer residing in a small mountain town about an hour from Los Angeles, California. She currently is working on compiling her own book of poetry, mostly prose, and loves to capture such complex emotions of the human experience through creative nonfiction.

Savannah Wade – Pierced
Savannah Wade received her B.A. in Literature with a concentration in Creative Writing from UNC Asheville in 2016. She has been previously published with Dead Mule School for Southern Literature, Things As They Aren’t Magazine, and Shakespeare and Punk. Her creative works typically focus on historical narratives and the gothic, grotesque, and horror of the modern day.

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Brianna Malotke – Rose doesn’t believe

Brianna Malotke is a freelance writer and member of the Horror Writers Association. Some of her most recent work can be found online at The Crypt, Witch House Amateur Magazine, and Sirens Call Publications. She has poetry in The Spectre Review and The Nottingham Horror Collective. She has work in the anthologies Beneath, Cosmos, The Deep, Beautiful Tragedies 2, and The Dire Circle. More recently, her poetry was included in the Women in Horror Poetry Showcase, Under Her Skin. Looking ahead, she has stories included in “Out of Time” from Timber Wolf Press and “Their Ghoulish Reputation” from Dark Lake Publishing LLP. In 2023 she will be a “Writer in Residence” at the Chateau d’Orquevaux in France.

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Monique Rardin Richardson – An afternoon at Frankie’s

Monique Rardin Richardson is a native of Northern California. She found the joy of reading early in life and began writing poetry and short stories in middle school. However, as a busy mother, Monique was afforded only time to journal. Her son is now following his dreams, and she has more time to pursue her photography and writing passions. She recently published a novelette, The Unlikely Dreamcatcher, and a memoir, When Then Became Now, on a lifelong friendship she had with a man who lost his life on the streets from addiction. She is a California Writer’s Club and Pleasanton Art League member and has award-winning photos in galleries throughout the United States. https://www.foreverpresent.net

Douglas Colston – The Meaning of Psyche
Douglas Colston has played in Ska bands, picked up university degrees, supported his parents during terminal illnesses, married his love, fathered two great-children, had his inheritance embezzled, transitioned into Counselling as a vocation and experienced debilitating mental and physical illnesses. Now, among other things, he is pursuing a PhD (and some of his poetry, fiction and nonfiction has been published in anthologies and magazines).

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Congratulation to all the contributors who made it to our anthology, “Paranormal whispers”. The contributors’ list will be uploaded here soon on the same web page. The book is now available for pre-order. Check it out.