And the Winner is . . .

First, me-n-sewl want to thank you all for sharing your spooky, funny, touching, creepy, chilling stories with us. It's been a privilege to get a peek into your lives.

Second, DON'T scroll down to see who the spook-a-rama finalists are because I have a few announcements to make:

1.) Stop scrolling down and cheering.

2.) Stop scrolling down and crying.

3.) I said STOP SCROLLING DOWN! I'm talking here!

4.) Special thanks to all 5 of my favorite PRO-fessional PRO-fessors and colleagues and bosses who helped out with the judging. I was up all night baking and sewling cupcakes to say MAHALO! (That's how we say thank you on the islands.)

FYI: One bad thing about pulling my colleagues and bosses into my blog world is that they were under the impression I was a PRO-fessional Crash Test Smarty so now they're all like "Uh, heyyyyy . . . uh, so that blog of yours . . . uh . . . could use a . . . decaf!"

5.) Okay, Okay! Now you can scroll down!

It's time for the awards ceremony!

First place goes to . . . drumroll, please . . . TAMN, even though she didn't enter, because she said she wouldn't donate a prize unless she won first place.

But seriously, the finalists were paper-thin close so we have decided to post the top FOUR funnies and spookies.

The Funny Story Finalists are:

Shelle
Jen
Mariko
Annie

Ready . . . Set . . . VOTE!

Go to Sewl's blog to find out the Spooky Story Finalists.

And now for the special Awards (some of these will get prizes too):

Best first freaky-AND-well-written story goes to Andrea. (Great story, Andrea! Keep writing. And old boat guy, Andrea needs a grandpa too).

Best well-written-funny-freaky-story-about-a-fly-that-wasn't-actually-entered goes to Jami in my Ghosts are People Too Comment box. (SHOULD have entered smart/dumb girl).

Best hilarious-scary-story-that-wasn't-actually-scary goes to Pat. (LOVED it so much!)

Best string of super-real-super-intriguing-hauntings-in-Canada goes to Deedra (Totally freaked over the bed-wetting story. I wet the bed until I was 8 years old and had terrible nightmares every night.)

Best short-scary-story-within-the-word-limit-by-an-old-boat-guy goes to Arlon. (Your story rocked! Get it? Rocked! hee hee. And I award you BEST story title/s.)

Best silly-scary-story-about-Sewl, plus most SPOOKtacular purple Halloween blog goes to Ginger. (LOVE that purple blog!)

Best extremely-touching-true-ghost-story-about-grief-within-the-word-limit goes to Pokemom. (Sincerly appreciated this story! Thanks.)

Best creative-fiction-with-a-super-cool-twist-and-that-only-went-one-word-over-the-word-limit goes to Wendy. (Wendyburd, you are gooooood. And don't tell me you're shy again.)

Best creepy-clever-story-about-night-munching-rats-and-dirty-fridges goes to Laura. (Cute job, Girl (in a swirl) You were so close! Argh!)

Best cewl-photospooky-entry-with-a-way-cewl-orange-jacket goes to Audrey. (Sooo cewl and eclectic and way out of our league).

Best scary-then-disturbing-then-scary-again-then-puzzling-then-funny-then-what-the-?-story-that-was-soooooooo-close-to-getting-in-the-finals-it's-not-even-funny goes to Jake. (The judges accused this entry of plagiarism. (hee hee) But I cleared it all up).

(I just feel bad this whole thing was just a Halloween prank because so many people took it seriously. Good job anyway, guys. ;)