October 2021 (Issue #38)
The premise for Issue #38 was
MONSTER
We challenged contestants to write a creative, compelling, well-crafted story between 1,000 and 5,000 words long in which someone or something is viewed as some kind of monster (though whether it really is a monster is up to the author).
Remember last issue’s record of 480+ entries? Hah! This contest blew that record apart with 631 contest entries. Of those entries, we chose six stories for prizes.
Two of our prizewinners have had a story published in OTP before, and one has had several mini-contest entries published. The other three authors are new to OTP. Four of this issue’s stories are speculative fiction and the other two are real-world stories.
CONTENTS:
Leila doesn’t mind having a monster under her bed. Aside from the occasional outburst of sulfurous flatulence, he’s no trouble at all.
FIRST PLACE: The Monster Under the Bed, Jennifer Moore’s speculative story about a child who likes monsters and a mother who doesn’t.(Jennifer’s mini-contest entries have been published numerous times, but this is the first time we have published a short story of hers.)
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He was nobody I knew from neighboring homesteads or that I ever saw in town. Finding him in my house brought my heart up into my throat.
SECOND PLACE: The Right to Hang, Brandon Barrows’s real-world story about the search for justice in the older American West. (New OTP author.)
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Thirteen in all including Allie. Allie was number six. He’d refined his craft by then.
THIRD PLACE: Slaying Monsters, Leonie Harrison’s real-world story about a courtroom trial that doesn’t quite go as expected.(Leonie was also published in Issue #34.)
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Farrah wanted a boyfriend (or even just a date) where she could be unapologetically a werewolf.
HONORABLE MENTION: Swipe Right, Daphne Strasert’s speculative story about how dating isn’t easy for anybody, really, in these modern times.(New OTP author.)
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“Baaba is at the mosque, he’ll see you there.”
“You know we aren’t allowed in God’s house.”
HONORABLE MENTION: A Monstrous Bargain, Adelehin Ijasan’s speculative story about the clash between new technologies and old customs. (Adelehin was also published in Issue #4, all the way back in 2008. Wow!)
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The rusty knob rattled. No, it didn’t simply rattle, as if slapped by a paw. It turned, slow and deliberate, first clockwise then counterclockwise.
HONORABLE MENTION: Skins, Michael D. Winkle’s speculative story about a real-life historical villain encountering an even stranger local legend.(New OTP author.)