The Winner of the Hemingway's Baby Shoes Microfiction Contest!

We only had four entries in the Hemingway's Baby Shoes Blogfest and Microfiction Contest, but I was pleased to see four quite different stories, and it made for entertaining reading.

(A quick reminder to those who may have forgotten, the stories had to be under 1000 words, and had to be spring from Hemingway's six-word story "For sale, baby shoes. Never worn.")

I won't hold you in suspense, the winner is:

*Door-Stepping by Jez Watts

This story stood out as a touching tale of grief and revenge. It was well written, moody and vivid. It's a reminder that a thousand word story can indeed be a full story and it also (imho) illustrates why Hemingway's story is not enough.

And here are the others:

*Green & Gold by Mike Miller.

This is a story like I would write -- taking the concept of the Hemingway story and setting it on its ear in a more cheery way. It could potentially use a little more work on sowing the seeds of the ending better into the beginning.

*He Wore His Son's Baby Shoes by Kaye Linden.

Another vivid story of grief and healing. It was a bit too vivid in terms of grueling detail for me, but it also brought a lyrical folk culture element to the story too.

*Goodbye, Kids! by Uddhav Parab.

This sf story used the Hemingway story as more of a spring board for a story of another family tragedy, as an old man has to make a choice for his grandchildren. The details and language were sometimes a little hazy, but the old man's dilemma was vivid.

And for the blogfest there was my own story (not an entrant and therefore it exceeded the word limit):

"The Real Unexpurgated Story of The Baby Shoes Which Were Sold Unused."

I want to thank all of the participants. I hope to do this again, perhaps in the fall.