2013 HorseChannel.com Fiction Contest

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    Silent Harmony
    The Results Are in!

    We received hundreds of entries from horse lovers around the country and beyond, and narrowing the field down to just ten finalists was no easy task. Thank you to everyone who participated in our inaugural fiction contest, and congratulations to the winning writers!

    Grand Prize:

    Let’s Fly
    By Jennifer Bissett

    Runners-up:

    Free Spirit
    By Clarissa Chipman

    Toby’s Meadow
    By Greg Huddleston

    To Fly without Wings
    By Dana Kerkentzes

    Just to Finish
    By Kerry Lowrey

    I Do What I Do
    By Jess Paquette

    Hopelessly Horse-Crazy
    By Deborah Penn

    Echoes of Sunrise
    By Chelsea Schmidt

    Waiting for Sally
    By Mariamne Shin

    Miracle Mare
    By Mollie Trainum


    The horseillustrated.com editors selected ten finalists to be judged by equine author Michele Scott. The grand prize winner receives a $100 Amazon.com gift card and will have her story published in an upcoming issue of Horse Illustrated!

    The ten finalists each receive an autographed copy of Michele Scott’s new novel, Silent Harmony.

    Back to all horse contests >>

    91 COMMENTS

    1. Can it be the beginning of a book im writing because just writing a story is kinda hard but maybe a lead or something to my book? like the first chapter or less

    2. Wow! this is so cool! Being a book writer myself, I am going to enter my book, but make it into a short story. 🙂 I’ve never seen Silent Harmony, but it looks great! I will buy it if I don’t win.

    3. This is awesome! I’m not that great of a short story writer, but I’ve seen so many great horse books I want on amazon, I’m going to give it a try.

    4. Hhmm…seems fun! I love to write, so I guess this is right up my alley…not sure about the word limit, though. Wonder how well I’ll do with that!
      Good luck, everyone! Happy writing!

    5. Interesting! I hope that everyone’s weekend is both great and safe,plus I also hope that they are having a nice Flag Day and have a happy Father’s Day. That goes for last year and all the othr years that I’ve missed. Good luck to the contestants!

    6. mmmmm me pondre a hacer algunos ensayos
      tengo miles de historias que puedo compartir ‘
      el problema es que no soy escritor ejejej
      saludos

    7. i can’t do it, i wrote my short story and i can’t fit it all into 1500, i’m a novel writer i can’t write short stories!!!!:( and there no way i can come up with another idea and hope that i can fit it all in without sounding vague.:( no amazon card for me…

    8. Done! I really enjoyed writing it.
      Also, here is a qoute for you people who say you can’t do it:
      “One is not a true writer until one can overcome all the styles of writing, be it first, second, or third person, short stories, summaries, or novels. If one is a true writer, the love of writing will prevail over any challenges thrown in one’s way.”
      Which is to say, if you love writing enough you will be able to write in any format or style, no matter how bad it is. 🙂

    9. Wow. I finally finished and there is only one day left! I write longer pieces, like novels, and doing a short story in 1500 words was complicated. But I enjoyed it!
      Good luck to everyone, and I really look forward to reading them!

    10. I wish it could be more than 1,500 words! It’s so hard to go into as little detail as possible to try and fit some things in, because horses and just so beautiful and to capture their beauty in mere words, you need lots of detail! If whoever decided to host this decided to do it again, please allow more words!
      Anyways, I just finished mine now, at 11:25 pm , the 29th of June (LOL)

    11. I cut that close. Set the story by email, hope it went through.
      It is definitely hard to figure out a way to tell a story, especially pacing wise, in 1,500 words. I’m used to chapter writing as well.

    12. Just sent mine in! Talk about last minute, but I wasn’t quite done tweaking. Had to send it off before I started picking at it too much, lol.

    13. I just spent a long time writing this story and now the email address won’t work…is the deadline past due already? It’s 8:32 PM on June 30th.

    14. Got the July issue and saw the ad for the contest on the back. Thought it would be cool to enter. Didn’t know the contest was over June 30th……so why was the ad in the July magazine?

    15. I am really dissapointed in Horse Illustrated. I saw the ad in the July issue and was so looking forward to the possibility of having my work published. And now the deadline was June 30th… That’s really not friendly!!!! I am fourteen years old and that completly killed my interest in Horse Illustrated.

    16. Wow, this just sucks!!!! How can you put an ad for a contest in a July magazine if the deadline was June 30th?! I am likewise very dissapointed and 14 years old

    17. Wow, I am bummed. I was looking forward to entering my story into the contest, but it’s really not fair that the add for it came out in the July issue! But whatever, I’ll live.

    18. Have the winners been notified yet? If not, when will they be? What issue will the winning story be published in? Excited to see who won, and of course I hope it’s me 🙂

    19. How can you have a contest, when the deadline is before the ad was published? My wife has been working very hard on a story to submit, and when she finished it, was very disappointed to find out she was too late. It is so unfair to get one’s hopes up to no avail. Nothing in the ad for the contest mentioned a deadline. She is a faithful subscriber and you do this? A slap in the face, Phil Parent (Supportive husband)

    20. Phil, your righteous anger may be misplaced, for I, too, worked on a story for this contest, but I clicked on this same web page days before the contest ended and the deadline was very clear. It was featured on the horsechannel.com home page for quite a while when the contest opened, too.
      I hope your wife credits you for your protectiveness, though.

    21. I agree with CB. It’s an unfortunate thing that there were people who missed the deadline for this, but I also only saw it in the July issue, but checked it out online and saw the deadline. I’m grateful that I was able to get a story in on time, but sorry that others missed out. Hopefully this contest goes over well and they’ll hold one again in the future! Hope to see the winners list soon!

    22. I think this is a GREAT idea to have this type of equine-inspired-story writing contest! I was disappointed however, when I came online to see the deadline for this contest advertised in the July issue, which I had just picked up to read from the library, as being closed June 30.
      So July magazine advertising an awesome writing contest, but that has the deadline the last day of the previous month, June 30.
      Would love to see this opportunity again! Just with closer attention to detail of contest deadline not having happened before the month of the magazine it it still being advertised within! Thanks, Jeanne

    23. I’m with Holland. Any news would be welcomed. List of winners, announce the issue that the winning story will be in, etc. Please?

    24. Based on when other HorseChannel.com contests ended compared to when results were displayed, I estimated the results would be posted around Sept. 30. But since t the next contest in line to display the results, hopefully it will be sooner! 🙂 I’m trying to wait patiently, but it’s difficult. It’s unfortunate it takes them this long to judge.

    25. This contest has been skipped on the results list. The HI 2013 Photo Contest was the same way, but the results for that is in the September HI issue. There’s no word on this one, which is making the wait all the more difficult. I don’t think the judging would be taking THIS long, but I don’t know what else they might be waiting on either.

    26. Erin has a good point. They might show it in the next Horse Illustrated Issue, like they did in the September issue for the 2013 HI photo Contest!

    27. Hi, everyone. Thanks for your patience with the results. The finalists have been selected and the judge is currently working on choosing the overall winner. As soon as we have her selection, we’ll notify the winner and the finalists by email and post the winning stories.

    28. I don’t think narrowing down to the finalists story would take that long! Will this be posted on the next Horse Illustrated November Issue? Or online, or both?

    29. Not going to lie, I am a little crushed, but congrats to the winners! There’s always next time, hopefully they do this contest again next year!

    30. I have to admit that I’m sorry I wasn’t picked but then again, who do I think I am? 🙂
      Congratulations to the winners. I’ll be back to read each story.

    31. Congratulations to everyone that won! I really hoped that my story (story: “Don’t Give Up”) would’ve won, as I have never ever won a story contest in my life, so if I did win it would’ve made a big change in my life.

    32. Wow those stories are so good! I was hoping to make it into the top ten, but the authors of these stories are wonderful! Well done!! You are so talented!

    33. I think my favorite was miracle mare, I also volunteer at a therapeutic riding stables called Exceptional Equestrian of Missouri Valley, and can relate tho the feelings, never had something that big happen, but smaller accomplishments, a rider attempting two point even thinner was really nervous etc

    34. What beautiful artistry! Portraits painted with words. I was curious regarding the inspiration of the various authors. My entry was based on the life-long love between my mother and Toby. She always spoke in such endearing terms of their relationship. Horses had such importance to rural Missourians during the early and middle part of last century, becoming beloved and celebrated members of the family. I enjoyed each story very much and am joyous to discover the art of writing and storytelling represented so well here. Thank you HorseChannel!

    35. Fellow finalists…did any of you receive your book yet? I am worried it had fallen prey to package theft as I am missing another package I was expecting from Amazon as well. 🙁

    36. Dana, no book yet as of this morning. But I do have a brand new box of crayons in anticipation of next year’s HorseChannel Short Story Fiction contest! *smile* So I am ready! (I do believe I write better in blue.)

    37. It’s been so lovely to read so many kind comments about all of the stories! I’m truly honored to have won the contest, and I LOVED reading all of the stories by the finalists. Thank you again Horse Illustrated, HorseChannel.com and Michele Scott for giving us a place to share our stories! You’ll never know how much this has meant to me.

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