Most Valuable Players

It was way back at the beginning of May that Naomi Johnson announced the start of the second annual Watery Grave Invitational Short Story Contest (WGI), organized by The Drowning Machine blog. Shortly thereafter, 10 contestants were chosen from among those who submitted already-published short yarns for consideration. They joined “Keith Rawson and Jimmy Callaway (top five finalists from last year’s competition) in creating original crime stories of 3,500 words or less based on the theme of: Baseball.”

Today, Johnson finally named the five winners of this challenge. The top three will receive cash prizes (albeit small), while the other two will automatically be invited to participate in next year’s Watery Grave Invitational. Those five are:

1. “Beat on the Brat,” by Nigel Bird ($25)
2. “When You’re a Jet,” by Joe Hartlaub ($15)
3. “Ghostman on Third,” by Chad Eagleton ($10)
4. “Hanging Curve,” by Dan Ames (a bye into the next WGI)
5. “The Big Fuzz,” by Liam Jose (a bye into the next WGI)

If The Drowning Machine follows last year’s example, it should soon be posting those stories by the top three winners. Look for them here.