Havok’s seasonal flash fiction contest has hit the halfway mark with its June winners! Havok Season 12: Multiversal is a contest all about writing to a character prompt. The entire month of June featured stories exploring different authors’ take on one enigmatic character: Ethel Grieves.
Then we had the difficult task of selecting only ONE winner from each of our genre days: Mystery Monday, Techno Tuesday (sci-fi), Wacky Wednesday, Thriller Thursday, and Fantasy Friday. And then only one of those five winners was selected by the creator of the character to be the “Maker’s Favorite”!
So let’s meet the character and her creator…
June’s Featured Character: Ethel Grieves
Ethel Grieves was concocted from the clever mind of Kara Swanson. Kara writes stories about fairy tales and fiery souls. She spent her childhood a little like a Lost Girl, running barefoot through lush green jungles which inspired her award-winning Peter Pan retellings, Dust and Shadow.
Kara’s latest novel, Ignite, is a YA category finalist in the 2025 Realm Awards. Congrats on that! And thank you for sharing your talents with our author community!
- Shop Kara’s books and sign up for her newsletter at her website: karaswanson.com
- Follow her on X, Instagram and Facebook
Here’s a peek at the Ethel Grieves character profile that inspired all the June stories:
The Winning Stories
Without further ado, we present the winning stories — one from each of our daily genres! If you’re a Havok member, tap or click the image to read the story.
Mystery Monday
Techno Tuesday
Wacky Wednesday
Thriller Thursday
Fantasy Friday
And the “Maker’s Favorite”, selected by Kara Swanson:
???? We’ll update this post and share on socials when we find out!
Congratulations to ALL the winners!
If you haven’t already, grab a Havok membership for just $4.99 and you’ll be ready to
- read the winning stories
- enjoy the full year of stories
- participate in our reader contests (with great prizes!)
- and explore our entire collection of over 1,700 flash fiction stories at your leisure.
WRITERS NOTE: If you’re a writer, head over to our Season Themes page to see the latest contest details. We’d love to see you submit a story to the Multiversal contest!
P.S. If you are a winner listed above and didn’t receive the notification we sent via email, please check your junk mail folder and whitelist @gohavok.com
Other Exciting Havok News!
Havok’s first ever art contest is coming in August! We’ve had so much fun seeing how different authors are writing the Multiversal theme characters, and it was a natural leap to ask, “What would these characters look like through the eyes of various artists?”
Check out all the details on our Character Art Contest page, and watch our socials for more announcements about it!
Havok’s latest merch fundraiser offers limited edition products featuring our Remember When designs. If you had a story published in 2024, this is your chance to get some souvenirs of your publication. If you’re a Havok reader, this is a great way to contribute towards our author payments and operations. Please help us raise funds by sharing our merch promos on social media when you see them — it makes a difference! Here’s a peek at a few more items, but there are lots more in the shop so check it out!
Congratulations to the winners. I’ve been trying to read most of the Ethel stories, and they’ve all excitingly captured this character.