We are happy to announce the winners and finalists of the 2014 Story Quest Short Story Contest, which was themed for the first time – ‘Punkin’ the Train’. In this contest authors had to submit stories of 3k or less which included trains or train stations in a significant way, and which were written in one of the ***punk sub-genre styles, such as steampunk and dieselpunk.

The winners are:

1st Place (US$100 prize and published in SQ Mag): The Carbonite’s Daughter by Deryn Pittar (New Zealand)
2nd Place (US$50 prize and published in SQ Mag): Like Clockwork by Tim Major (United Kingdom)
3rd Place(US$25 prize and published in SQ Mag): Robert Fairweather And The Wrong Ticket by Mark Rookyard (United Kingdom)

Additionally, the following 3 stories are finalists and will also be published in SQ Mag (in no particular order):

Rainbows and Death Machines by J. B. Rockwell (United States)
Riding a Runaway by Andrew Knighton (United Kingdom)
Final Journey by Stephen C. Ormsby (Australia)

All stories published attract payments for publication (in addition to the winners’ prizes), and they all have a chance of being included in the Star Quake 4 anthology, which will be published in 2016 (and represents the best stories from SQ Mag for 2015).

We would like to take the opportunity to thank all the judges for their great, and dedicated work, and in particular Tonia Brown, our guest judge, who injected her expertise in all things steampunk and trains.

The 7th Annual Story Quest Short Story Contest will be held again mid to late 2015, so keep an eye out for announcements around that time.