June

Issue 33

When we announced this contest back in February, we had no idea that we would get so many great stories!  The response was beyond my wildest dreams. We got a total of twenty-seven entries.  Even better, the quality of the stories was amazing.  We were overjoyed by all the brilliant, innovative work that was sent our way.  Reading the entries was a pleasure.  

I want to thank everyone who participated.  Win or lose, you’ve got something to be proud of.

The number and quality of entries did have a downside though.  We had to bump back our announcement date in order to give all the entries the time and attention they deserved.  (I know that was hard on all you waiting authors out there.  Sorry about that.)  Also, it made the decisions very difficult indeed.  Naming just four seemed impossible.  In fact, I am sure we will end up accepting more than just the four winning stories for publication.  There are just too many good stories that I can’t bear to let any of them slip away, even if they didn’t make the top four.

But what you really want to know is what stories DID make the top four.  

So, without further ado, here are the winners of this year’s fiction contest.  Expect to see them published here later in the month.

To start off, we have two Honorable Mentions:
"Heartwyrm" by Micheal C. Planck, a fable of adventure, love, and duty,  
and
"The Waters Stir" by Rachel A. Marks, a beautiful story of sacrifice.

Our Runner Up is
"Even A Stone" by Jane Lebak
This very inventive story finds an angel assigned to test the proverb: "Even a stone will warm up if you sit on it for three years."  I love the humor in this one.

And the Winner of DKA's 2006 Fiction Contest is
"The Fortunate Purgatory of Arthur MacArthur" by Chris Mikesell
Talk about innovative use of a dragon, a knight, and an angel!  Professor MacArthur finds himself in purgatory with a trapped dragon.  But all is not as it seems.  Or is it?

The competition was very tough and there are several great stories that didn’t make the top 4.  But don’t worry, you’ll be seeing some of them in future issues of DKA.

I want to again extend my thanks to all the authors who entered the contest.

I encourage everyone to check out these stories when they are published here at DKA later in the month. I’m sure you’ll enjoy them as much as we did.