Congratulations to the winner(s), great stories. I enjoyed reading all of them, and I voted for those that I somehow could relate to. I made up my mind very quickly so it must have been something in those stories that caught me. My thanks to you all and to Ponderable.

@Ghost-of-a-Duke

I wrote Hollywood Ending. In looking for an ending I remembered some cartoon character using a vacuum to suck up the ghost. When I went on the internet I ran the key words and the Oreck vacuum cleaner add (as mentioned in the story) was quoted verbatim. Who woulda thought?!

Anyway thank you Ponderable for running a great contest. I'm not a big ghost story person but I can see everyone else was. Great jobs all and to Moonbus for two of the top three!

@mike169 said
@Ghost-of-a-Duke

I wrote Hollywood Ending. In looking for an ending I remembered some cartoon character using a vacuum to suck up the ghost. When I went on the internet I ran the key words and the Oreck vacuum cleaner add (as mentioned in the story) was quoted verbatim. Who woulda thought?!

Anyway thank you Ponderable for running a great contest. I'm not a big ghost story person but I can see everyone else was. Great jobs all and to Moonbus for two of the top three!

@ghost-of-a-duke said
I know Mike, I know.

Think I give you top marks every year. 😆

@torunn said
How do you kno who wrote what? I'm amazed by these stories and those who created them.

@kevcvs57 said
Likewise well done to all who submitted an entry and / or voted.
Congrats to the top three and special congrats to the author of ‘stray cat’ for a clear win.
I’ll hold my hands up to submitting ‘Ghost Dog’ a process I enjoyed very much, and thanx to anyone who gave it a point.
As always extra special thanx to Ponderable for doing all that hard work again.

Thank you Ponerable for the work and time invested it took to have the competition. I really liked all stories and am amazed there is so much talent around. Thanks to the people who voted for my story: The Crayon.

@Ghost-of-a-Duke Thank you for the kind remarks. Can never tell if people recognize the way I write. Just a rookie. The only time I write fiction is in this contest. Glad it's there for those of us who, if we come in the top 3, can claim success in an international competition!

@WOLFE63

I've read lots of crime stuff including Mickey Spillane and his cop Mike Hammer. Unfortunately this was about the ghosts. Casper was a favorite of mine growing up. I've finally exorcised my ghost.

@kegge said
Thank you Ponerable for the work and time invested it took to have the competition. I really liked all stories and am amazed there is so much talent around. Thanks to the people who voted for my story: The Crayon.

@ghost-of-a-duke said
Hey, nice job.

Yours was the only story that inspired me to go to google for more info. (To discover who Adolf Diekmann was). Love that it had a historical undercurrent.

@mike169 said
@Ghost-of-a-Duke Thank you for the kind remarks. Can never tell if people recognize the way I write. Just a rookie. The only time I write fiction is in this contest. Glad it's there for those of us who, if we come in the top 3, can claim success in an international competition!

@kegge said
Thank you Ponerable for the work and time invested it took to have the competition. I really liked all stories and am amazed there is so much talent around. Thanks to the people who voted for my story: The Crayon.

@Ghost-of-a-Duke
I'm a painter actually. The writing that I do is mostly in a journal that I've been faithful to for 30 years now. This contest is a nice chance to do something that only takes 800 words but that's the challenge as well. Thanks for your kind words. Send me your email and I'll send you examples of my artwork.

Stray cat was written the best I feel and so do a lot of others. I hope moonbus is a chick 🤗

I instantly knew "Are you in there?" Was Ghost of a Duke and I thought it would win easily.
The plot was genius.

I also think the top 5 vote totals could have been shown and that would have been fine.
No reason to let everyone know that some stories didn't do well.