That's right. The Fireworks Contest is over. I mean, technically, it's been over for 12 hours now, but this is the official announcement (No, this wasn't a cheeky way to stay open for late submissions, I swear). I thank the three individuals for giving it a shot, and congratulate them on qualifying for the 1st to 3rd place prizes for being the only three to submit. I was a little disappointed that there weren't more entrees, but what can you do? I gave it my damnedest. And this started out as a little experiment to see if it would work if made contests on this groups seem more official, gave more time allotted, and warned members of its upcoming end. I guess it kinda worked, seeing as there is a full prize roster. But, you know...

Anyway, enough of my asinine rambling. It's now time for my part of the job. Over the next while (probably a month or so), I'll be reading and re-reading these stories to see where they stand on the contest's very small leaderboard, and from there, I'll ask the three winners about their prizes. I'll also critique each story, because what's the point of reading a story critically in order to grade it higher over others if you aren't going to have some positive and negative suggestions and thoughts that should be shared?

Check out the story list here to read these very good stories which I shall be judging very, very soon.