Drumroll, please

Sorry about my failure to post this on Friday, everyone. I was sick. Linda-Blair-in-Exorcist sick.

I'm better now.

And, finally, for the winner of the September Fiction contest:

It's a tie!
Congratulations to Reesha and Jordan!!!

They are truly genre-blending geniuses.

Jordan has brought us children's male ennui picture books:

And then the sad, lonely bunny said, "They're all a bunch of phonies." And hopped away to take his medication.

And Reesha will surely write the first Southern Gothic Medical Murder Mystery ("like Flannery O'Connor meets NCIS").

"He might be mental, but he's still the best on the team we have." She remembered these words just before breaking down the door of the house, as if her memory was trying to warn her with a bad omen.

Rose-water wafted out to her, reminding Betsy of a funeral home and her grandma's at the same time. She squeezed the handle of her gun, swiveled around a corner and yelled "Clear!" Brad rushed past her in swift military fashion into the next doorway. Looking around, she noticed everything was floral or dusty pink. She heard Brad discharge his firearm.

"Red is such a lovely color." he said from the next room. Curious and confused as to what he could possibly be doing when a killer could be around the next corner, she cautiously approached. She smelled the blood before she saw it.

Brad was bending over a small pool of fresh blood, his hands covered in it. He pressed his palms down on the floor until the blood covered his knuckles, then held them up, dripping.

"You caught me red handed." He laughed.

Betsy was about to scream until he stood up, revealing that he had only shot the cat. He gently stroked her cheek, leaving a smear of red on it.

"This is your first time seeing something get shot, isn't it?" Being new to the force, she wasn't sure what to do and was frightened of her superior.

"Well then. It's only natural you should blush. Darn thing nearly startled me to death."

He wiped his hands on his dark pants and proceeded with the operation, leaving Betsy alone in the room with the dead thing, a horrified look on her face and two red half-moons of blood on her cheeks.

Plus, think of the licensing potential. I see a new Law & Order spin-off in the making!

Okay, we'll be back to our regularly scheduled blogging tomorrow. Hope you all had a great weekend, and congrats again to our creative winners, who will be getting a yummy fudge recipe via email, and thank you to everyone who entered the contest!