Without further ado . . .

Several months ago, I hosted a writing contest here. Well, I've finally come around to picking a winner and posting my thoughts. So, without further ado, I announce that the winner of my writing contest is . . .

lightwarriorkay!

(click on the link to read her entry)

Her story, entitled "The Rescue", intrigued me from the beginning. I've always been interested in fantasy, so that may have to do with it a little.

I was totally engaged by this story. I was engaged in the plot and the character's situation was compelling. The tension in the story was driven by the characters and their decisions and actions. The plot has a definite climax and I felt satisfied as the story ended. Thought the story has some issues that need to be addressed - such as switching verb tenses at the beginning and some incorrect punctuation - I liked how it "worked" for me as a reader.

The other entries for this writing contest were well-written, though they didn't appeal to me as much as lightwarriorkay's story.

Congratulations, Kay!

The Orthodontist

About a month ago, I posted about how the dentist told me that I needed braces for my overbite. Well, last Monday afternoon, my mom and I went to the orthodontist for a consultation. The ortho-hygienist (or whatever you would call her) took some pictures and x-rays. Then she developed the pictures and the orthodontist came in.
We went through what was wrong with my teeth / jaw, and he showed us the x-ray photo. As I've known for a long time, my top two canines (or cuspids, if you prefer) are still babies. The orthodontist then explained why they haven't come out yet: one of the adult teeth is impacted (aka: it's completely overlapping the roots of another adult tooth) and the other is 50-50 overlapping. So, once I get my braces on, I have to get - *gulp* - oral surgery.
Yeah, you saw it right. Oral surgery. Sometime after June 13 (because that's when I'm getting my braces and we haven't set a date yet) will be the procedure that will pull out my last two baby teeth - even though I still have four more babies that I won't lose for a long while because I'm missing those adults genetically.