Thank you all who participated, commented and helped spreading the word for Cindy Pon’s new book Fury Of The Phoenix.

Cindy has picked Beautiful Jade by BandE and  Banished by Margaret as winners. Congratulations!!!!

Please mail your snail-mail address to aniket[at]flashfiction.in and I’ll send you your copies of Silver Phoenix at the earliest. I hope you’ll love Silver Phoenix as much as I did.

Cindy really liked all the entries and had real fun judging it. Seriously, I’m not making this up. You can ask her at CindyPon.com. She loves feedback.

I had just met Cindy when her first novel ‘Silver Phoenix’  came out. She was super nice to have given a personalized book mark when I bought the book. She’s always super-nice btw, a rare trait these days!

Silver Phoenix is not your traditional fantasy novel with a teenage kid burdened to save the world. It has a female protagonist for starters. And is rich in cultural references. I especially like how Cindy takes the little things like describing each meal of the day and weave it into the plot. I wont give any more spoilers.

Go buy your copy if you haven’t already. So that you can catch up with its sequel ‘Fury Of The Phoenix’ when it releases on 3/29/11.

Here’s a short blurb from ‘Fury of the Phoenix’ to tease you about what’s in store:

And if you want more, here’s the youtube trailer for Fury Of The Phoenix:

Visit www.cindypon.com to request a signed copy. You know you want to.

Thanks again for being here and being you. We’ll resume business with regular prompts by putting up a new prompt tomorrow!

First off, I’d like to thank everyone who participated in this contest—writers and commenters alike! The contest surpassed my expectations, and it was a delight to see so many entrants, in addition to all of the enthusiasm and support in the comments section. I truly appreciate everybody who took part, and I’d especially like to give my heartfelt thanks to Aniket for hosting the contest. We had a great deal going–I got to sit back and have fun; he did all the work.

Until last night, that is, when I made my final choices. And what a decision it was. I’d like to talk about my judging process a little, for those of you who are curious. First, I narrowed the entries down to five. These five, to me, demonstrated the highest facility of writing. Each of these stories or poems was a wonderful, fluid reading experience for me as a reader. There were very few hiccups in terms of grammar, punctuation, awkward phrasing or dialogue, or excessive wordiness. These entries flowed, lending a precious believability to, and immersion in, the story itself.

From there, it became harder. I had to squeeze down on each line of each piece. Minor problems—like sloppy sentences, overwrought phrasing or dialogue, or a lack of narrative immediacy—were accounted for. Ultimately, I believe that good writing trumps everything. Good writing is what makes the story breathe on the page, and is what translates emotion to the reader’s heart. The selections I made are wonderful examples of writing we all can aspire to.

And here, in no particular order, are the two winners whom I selected to receive free copies of Plum Blossoms in Paris:

Morning Maelstrom by May Anderton

Because it relied so heavily on “telling” and peripheral action, this was an exceptionally tricky story to pull off. But May did so beautifully. It wouldn’t have worked nearly as well as a straight-up breakup tale. As it was, I found it hypnotic. The swirl of events occurring on the narrator’s fringes—the excruciating detail of what she distracts herself with—contrasted with the vast remove of her emotional state felt acutely realistic to me. As if she had become the stranger to herself.

To me, this entry was a French film, played out in deep, deep focus.

Congratulations, May! Impeccable craftsmanship.

Present by Precie

To me, Precie’s title could be interpreted in two ways. One, of course, is that the painting was a gift to her parents. But there is also an important realization congealing from those unsatisfying layers of paint: that Dee’s present relationship with Chris cannot compare to her parents’ past. She will not give up on that dream, just as she cannot give up on painting that perfect work of art.

Precie’s writing painted the details well here, and Dee’s epiphany felt organic to me. I had great sympathy for Chris, but Dee’s stubborn sense of artistic and romantic idealism struck a nerve of painful authenticity.

Congratulations, Precie! Matisse would be proud.

Note from Aniket:

* Winners please mail your shipping address to aniket.thakkar@gmail.com for your soon-to-be-cherished copy of Plum Blossoms In Paris. Congratulations for your deserved win! *

Submissions to PLUM BLOSSOMS IN PARIS – Flash Fiction Contest are closed. The results would be announced by Sarah Hina,Author of the novel: Plum Blossoms In Paris, on 23rd July, 2010. Till then please read the wonderful entries that we’ve received. If you like them, please drop in a comment to them. Its what the writers most crave for – some love.

Here is a list to all the entries:

A Paris by Karen

Bon Appetite by Akash

One Night In Paris by Kits

In Transit In Paris by Siddhartha

The Right Thing To Do by AmitU

Tea for Two…Adieu by by Virginia C

Clingstone by B.Nagel

Sunday Afternoon by Aerin

On the Champs-Élysées by Machel

Just Another Love Bite by Rohan

Unconditional Love by Kiran

Plum Blossoms In Paris by Nishita

Forgiveness By Kiki

Present By Precie

That is not you and me its us by Sweta

Fealty by Sweta

to an empty chair by SarahJrJr

To Be The Man by Paul

The Middle Of The End by Elvie

Morning Maelstorm by May

The Birthday Party by Soulless Machine

Le Quartier Latin by Rooshaba

High Tea by adj4