Nobody could have predicted how difficult and time consuming selecting the braingunk 500 short-list would be, but it certainly turned out to be just that. All of the entries were fantastic and I'm glad I wasn't personally forced on to the hot spot to choose just five of them to go through to the final.

But at last the judges have indeed finished their deliberations, all of the votes are in and have been counted and we can now reveal the five stories which will be passed on to our esteemed celebrity judge Alex Scarrow to choose the final winner.

The finalists for the first braingunk 500 short story competition are:
(in alphabetical order by title)

The Banyan Tree
By Mike Elliott

Containment
By Richard Sinnett

First Date
By Gary Dave

The Journey
By Alison Hill

Old Man Fogey
By Gary Dave

Congratulations to the writers of the five finalist entries and once again a massive thank you to all of the entrants, your stories have all been great reading  over the last few weeks and we all hope to see some more of your work soon.

The final winner will be announced as soon as possible along with the details of braingunk's next writing competition... the "braingunk 2500"

Keep reading (and writing too) :)