Animal Kingdom Anthology Winners and Cover Reveal!

Hello, dear authors and beloved Havok community! Teddi Deppner here, Havok’s marketing director and author/member care kraken. Today we share with you the winners of Havok’s seventh seasonal contest.

All of these stories are fabulous, and I’m hard-pressed to say whether I’m more excited about seeing familiar names whose talent we enjoy so very much or the brand new names of first-time winners… especially since some of these first-time winners have names that are not brand new. They are authors who have continued to write, to improve, to enter this writing competition again and again until they got the prize.

Wherever you are, please join me in putting your hands together in a round of applause for the…

Winners of the Animal Kingdom contest!

Demon Coyotes by Lincoln Reed
The Stardust Smugglers by Beka Gremikova
The Curious Conduct of Miss O’Reilly by Katie Hanna
Tale of the Spectral Kite by Jeff Gard
The Once-Stars by Kayla E. Green
Hunt for the Goblin Queen by Hannah Carter
10,001 Tiny Rebellions by Jeff Gard
Wizards and Chickons by Arlan Gerig
The Great White Whale by Katie Hanna
Flight Across Stars by Anna Augustine
Primeval by Lincoln Reed
Before and After by H. B. Flyte
Cats Rule by Allie Jo Andersen
Preserving Peace by S. E. M. Ishida
The Healing Tree by John de Sousa
The King’s Cat by Cynthia Wilfert
Z Karr and the Pearls of Aphrodite by Patrick M. Fitzgerald
Small Talk by Rachel Dib
Danger Where It Walks by Pamela Love
A Clamor of Wings by Cassandra Hamm
Man & Beast by Lauren Hildebrand
The Immortal Mr. Ballantyne by Abigail Falanga
Negotiations of an Igneous Nature by Michael Dolan
Mirror of the Sky by Patrick M. Fitzgerald
What a Marriage Needs by Jeff Gard
Theirs by Pamela Love
Rise of the Elead by Kyrsten Newlon
The Ginormous Giant Panda Lie by Hannah Carter
Taming the Volcano by Cassandra Hamm
A Fluke at Work by Hannah Muldery
Sky Rays by Emily Barnett

My hat is off to ALL of you. Check your inboxes, we sent out winner badges yesterday. My heart is thankful for all of you. Writing–and even publishing–can be a lonely process, a challenging work for which there is little feedback or thanks. But the Havok community makes the work so much more rewarding.

All of us here at Havok are passionate volunteers. We aren’t perfect, and if you’ve been around for a while you know that our name is also our brand, and there’s a bit of havoc happening all the time around here. “Shouldn’t that anthology have come out in September?” Why yes, thanks for noticing. And thank you for extending such grace when there are delays. “Why didn’t my story get a story cover?” Oh, I wish we had enough design volunteers to give everyone a cover! Tell your artistic friends to volunteer with us!

Any time I need encouragement, all I have to do is read the comments on today’s story. You all encourage each other daily, and I cannot express how amazing that is in a world where negativity bombards us from so many sources. Keep it up, amazing peeps. Keep cheering each other on, keep pursuing your dreams. And we’ll be here, doing our part to lift you up and move you forward.

Order Animal Kingdom
As the holidays approach, I hope you’ll consider giving the gift of Havok to the people in your life. Even if they aren’t avid readers, the pocket-sized fiction we make together here is perfect for busy lifestyles. It’s just $4.99 for a whole year of access to the entire Havok archive of over one thousand stories. We are planning more reader contests for 2023 (and if you are interested in helping organize fun contests and create social posts for them, please join the Havok team)!

SAVE THE DATE: Friday, October 28

You are invited to our launch party for Animal Kingdom on Friday, October 28 at 7pm Central. We’ll have author interviews, fun and prizes, and celebrate the Editors’ Choice and Readers’ Choice winners!