It’s hot August nights and back to school time in the U.S. and we’re here to celebrate the winners of Havok’s July flash fiction contest! This year our contests revolve around character prompts. Every story during the month featured the same character — Miriel Takkenridge — but our authors got to choose the genre, the situation, and write the character through the lens of their own imagination — “Multiversal” style!
There’s a winner for each of our genre days: Mystery Monday, Techno Tuesday (sci-fi), Wacky Wednesday, Thriller Thursday, and Fantasy Friday. Only one of those five winners was selected by the creator of the character to be the “Maker’s Favorite”… and then we got a surprise honorable mention from the character’s creator, too!
So let’s meet the character and her creator…
July’s Featured Character: Miriel Takkenridge
Miriel Takkenridge was dreamed up by Gillian Bronte Adams. And given her history of writing books featuring amazing animal characters, we were not surprised that Miriel came along with her faithful canine companion, Matteo. Gillian writes epic fantasy novels, including the award-winning Of Fire and Ash and The Songkeeper Chronicles, and loves strong coffee, desert hikes, and trying out new soup recipes on crisp fall nights. Her favorite books are the ones that make your heart ache and soar in turn. When she’s not creating vibrant new worlds or dreaming up stories that ring with the echoes of eternity, she enjoys bringing life to the words on the page as an audiobook narrator. At the end of the day, she can be found off chasing sunsets with her horse or her dog, Took.
Thank you for sharing your brilliant imagination with us, Gillian!
- Shop Gillian’s books at her website: gillianbronteadams.com
- Sign up for her newsletter.
- Follow her on Instagram and Facebook
Here’s a peek at the Miriel Takkenridge character profile that inspired all the July stories:
The Winning Stories — But First, the Honorable Mention
Gillian happened to catch the story A Stew to Save the World on Havok’s website during its debut and told us that it “really captured Miriel”. Good job, Andrea Renae!
And now 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
And the “Maker’s Favorite”, selected by Gillian Bronte Adams:
Fantasy Friday
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 open for submissions during the entire month of 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 follow @havokauthornews on Instagram for daily prompts to get your artist imagination going!
Tell us your thoughts!