Congratulations to 2012's winner and finalists

Wow, what a bunch of stories to have gone through. First off, a big, hearty congratulations to Toby Bennett. Not only is he the winner of the 2012 SA HorrorFest Bloody Parchment short story competition with his story The Root Cellar, but another of his submissions was selected as a finalist—Wants and Needs. He wins a comprehensive round of edits for a novel-length work.

Our runners-up are Anna Reith, with Counting Seraphs, and Chris Limb, with Alibi. Each receives comprehensive edits for a short story or novella-length work or, alternatively, edits for the first three chapters of a novel.

Then, our finalists in no particular order:
Diane Awerbuck, Duiweltjie
Zane Marc Gentis, Heirloom
Stephen Hewitt, Kiss the Butcher's Daughter
SA Partridge, Jethro Mackenzie and the Devil
Icy Sedgwick, Protection
Glen Mehn, The Next Big Thing
Simon Dewar, The Kettle
Lee Mather, Jamie's Song
Benjamin Knox, Strands

Then, a huge humungous thank you to our judges. Sarah Lotz, Joe Vaz, Carrie Clevenger, Kelly (It's a Book Thing blog), Shaun Swingler and Cat Hellisen all offered their time to read over the entries and help in the decision-making process. And this year was tough. Trust me. Also, once again, many thanks to Louis Greenberg of eKhaya, for yet another year, and, as always, to Paul Blom and Sonja Ruppersberg, who bring us the SA HorrorFest annually, without fail.

Lastly, though I'd love to send out personal responses to everyone who entered, due to the volume of entries we received, I will not be able to notify those who didn't reach the final round. Many thanks to all those who submitted stories. I'll announce the opening for the 2013 contest later this year.