Just as we were about to put Kalkion's Short Story Contest to bed, we got hit with a bunch of other stories on the day before it closed and on the closing date itself, and none too bad either. Timing for this contest was great considering Hurricane Irene is barreling up the coastline heading for my plastic and glue based rowhouse.
And the winner is....Kite Fliers by Robert Walton.
Overall, one or two were very close, and one in particular was about 2 nanometers behind Kite Flliers I think Kite Fliers hit all of us in a place from our past, as well as a possible future, and presented some aspects about ourselves as a species that needed probing.
I certainly recall from day’s gone by, hoping the cops would never show up and catch us red-handed in the midst of some of the antics we pulled. Some were down right dangerous and most of the others plain old stupid. They didn’t, but my mother found out anyway. It might have been better if they had.
I also remember hiding under the bed from the Crawing Eye every time a heavy fog rolled in. Yeah Mr. Walton, you hit a nerve.
The difference in style and substance between the two high scoring stories was, between H.G. Wells and Douglas Adams. Both were done well, but just one was a bit better.
So that’s that.
Congratulations Robert, I liked it. I wished I had written it, really. It keeps bouncing around in my head.
Richard Tornello ( Contest Judge and writer)
For: STEEL MOUSE TRAP PUBLICATIONS, LLC
