WINNER! Zombie Short Story Competition

Revealed: the winner and runners-up of the The Writing Dead competition! [UPDATED]

We have a winner for the Darren Shan-judged zombie short story writing competition and it is (drum roll) "Brand New, In Box" by James "JC" McFetridge. Congratulations JC!

A few months back we teamed up with Simon & Schuster to launch The Writing Dead, a zombie-themed short story competition judged by Zom-B author Darren Shan. The only rules were that the stories had to be about zombies and couldn't exceed 1500 words in length. Hundreds of you entered, writing stories ranging from the hilariously funny to the twisted and dark. JC's story is about a young man whose granny becomes the first known zombie.

You can read this short story in its entirety in SFX issue 250 , on sale today and available in print and digital as usual. As well as the complimentary verdict of top author Darren Shan ("I liked the sense of humour, dry as a zombie's mouth"), JC can expect to be read by tens of thousands of people in the milestone 250th issue of the world's number one sci-fi, fantasy and horror magazine. He'll also receive a signed hardback copy of the first seven books in Darren's Zom-B series. Zom-B Clans , the latest novel in the saga, and The Zom-B Chronicles , a new edition that combines the first two Zom-B books and features new grown-up covers, are both published on Thursday 3 July.

The four runners-up are:
"Sushi" by George Hopkin
"A Mother's Love" by KV Morgan
"Out Beyond The Naughty Step" by Paul Starkey
"The Small Print" by Paul Currion [previously Anonymous: he found us!]
You guys are just learning this for the first time, so many congratulations to you and please do now boast to everybody that the SFX team and Darren Shan all loved what you wrote.

Alas only one could be triumphant, and it's JC McFetridge, so please pick up a copy of issue 250 to see what made him the winner of The Writing Dead. The bumper 148-page issue is also downloadable to your Apple device or via Zinio for Android and PC and contains our biggest ever reader poll as well as exclusive features on Jupiter Ascending , Dawn Of The Planet Of The Apes , Star Wars and Doctor Who .