Showcasing the talent of our e-book competition winners
Last month we celebrated the rise of the ebook in Scotland and invited readers to send in a pitch for a book that would be written, or created, with digital publication in mind.
The judges were impressed with the quality of the entries, and chose winners whose work was well crafted and caught our attention from the outset.
The overall winner, Henderson von Braun, created tension from the first sentence of his entry - the judges wanted to read on and discover more about the people and events involved.
Mr von Braun will receive a prize sponsored by the Scottish digital publisher Blasted Heath, of the company’s nine-book back catalogue, and all the books published on its imprint in 2012.
Two runners up, Arundati Dandapani and Scott White, will receive the Blasted Boxset - a gift tin containing five digital novels on a USB stick. It has been decided to award a further highly commended prize, also of a Blasted Boxset, to Stephen Fox, whose proposal made the judges chuckle.
Read the winning entries below:
Protector, by Henderson von Braun
As she stared at him across the classroom, one thought crossed her mind; he must not leave here with his shoelace untied.
When the bell sounds he will stand up, walk out of the door, meet his friends in the corridor; they will run out of school, he will trip on his shoelace, and he will land face first on a spiked fence. He'll be dead in minutes.
Velda Cate gazed at the boy’s red Converse sneaker, concentrated on the lace, and completed the perfect surgeon’s knot. She blinked and refocused on his shoe, smiling at her handiwork.
The Bald Headed Island, by Arundati Dandapani
When twelve year old Nikhil is sent alone for the first time aboard Bharat Airlines, he finds himself in a circle of peculiar grownups — a pleasant airhostess, a middle aged businessman, giggly seventeen-year -old girls enchanted by the stone-studded Linda Rathee and her quiet husband Desmond, naughty Punjabi boys and their socially conscious gul Didi.
As time settles, secrets unravel behind the bomb threat and unexpected flight detour, the concealed identity of the island owner and the reappearance of a dead classmate.
Can the Takladweep tribes coexist with the sudden explosion of tourists on an island which hasn't been exposed to the public eye since the last tsunami?
Goat, by Scott White
I've seen men beaten to the ground before, bloody and weakened. I've seen men beg for mercy, offer bribes and weep like a new born. And earlier tonight, I saw a man stand up after being beaten on by four guys as if it was nothing. He didn't beg or weep, he didn't laugh, or spit at us; he just stood up and locked eyes with Fraser and started to talk.
We backed off and let Fraser get to work. Less than a minute later, Fraser's body lay dead upon the ground, and we watched as his killer smiled.
Fire in the land of Mist and Frost, by Stephen Fox
In the future...
...One decade ago, cyber-general WR_Ecclesiastes and his party of Tartan Noir-chemises first rose to power in a bloody coup to seize power in the Republic of Caledonia. Among many banished is book-seller Danny Shual.
When an uneasy truce is declared, Danny, self-styled "lone voice crying out in the post-modern wilderness", leads a daring expedition (consisting of Presbyters, Queers, Nerds and Neds) into rebel territory to finally end The Next Great War!
However, a chilling revelation awaits him...
Part allegory-for-the-digital-age, this novel is an explosive and moving mix of cultural satire and holocaust-history; with graphics, audio-narration and sound-track.
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