The Contest
Last week i organized a contest for readers and writers. The premise was that the writer-reader relationship is the glue of literary works, as Samuel Johnson aptly put — 'A writer only begins a book. A reader finishes it'.

My aim, in a sentence, was to encourage engagement through reading my works. Accordingly, i featured a story which i had written prior.
There were two categories, namely Category A and Category B. One could only take part in either of them, and not both.
In Category A, the task was to suggest the overall title for the story. To quote my words in the contests post
Of course each chapter will have a heading, but the complete story must have a title. One thing I am sure is that you will need to read all the chapters to finally zero down on the most suitable title. So just reading one chapter will not get you anywhere near, trust me!
So all you had to do, was suggest the most suitable title for the story.
The prize was 1SBD for the winner
In Category B, the task was suggest the the moral of the story. Again to quote my words in the contest post
I plan to ensure that each individual chapter of the story has at least one moral. So your task is to suggest at least three (3) morals. Of these, two (2) will have to be taken from any of the chapters (there will always be a minimum of 3 chapters). The third will be the overall moral of the story as you see fit.
Again all you had to do, was suggest at least 2 chapter morals, and 1 overall moral for the story
The prize was 2SBD
Results
The contest, on a low note, didn't get as much participation as i had expected. And there are probably many reasons to explain that, in large part because i likely ran it too soon, or maybe i didn't set the conditions to best taste.
But there is always a silver lining to every cloud. And there was even here. Four people took part in the contest.
Category A
There was only one entrant, namely . The title suggested was
COURAGEOUS
Effectively, wins the prize of 1SBD, not because he/she was the only entrant, but in large part because i found that a title close enough to what i'd have personally thought.
reasons, even helped stake the claim more.
Category B
This category had three (3) entrants, namely ,
and
. Honest to say, they each gave near identical morals of the several chapters, and it was kind of difficult for me to decide the winner. But i found
to have captured them more adeptly.
Other prizes
Whereas i did not mention in the contest post, there were also two other prizes to be won.
a). Prize for submitting the first entry. This was, you can say, my way of showing gratitude to the first entrant, for showing enthusiasm, being quick and supportive. The prize was 0.25$. And it went to , sent shortly afterward.
b). Prize for identifying one of the morals i had already, and deliberately included in one of the chapters. The reason i incldued the moral, was to act as a check, to ensure that contestants actually read the story. I expected that some would try to game the contest, by only just reading the last or first chapters persay. So included it in chapter 2. Whoever was the first to notice it, won 0.5 SBD. The winner again, was , and i sent the prize shortly afterward.

c) Post pay out share
Whoever would take part in the contest was entitled to an equal share of the payout from the contest post. As it stands, the post is yet to pay out (should be in two days). The contest ended, and there were only 4 entrants among whom the post pay out should be paid, ultimately.
However, considering that and
have already won BIG, and this was only a small contest, i would want to show equal love for the other two contestants!! I am of the opinion, provided
and
do not protest, that the post payout be divided and sent upon payout, to
and
.
Congratulations once again, ,
,
and
for truthfully reading and sharing in my story. Look out for the next!
With Love
