When entries for our competitions are submitted, we receive them as anonymous manuscripts. We print them out and compare notes, sifting down to a short list, and finally choosing finalists. With this competition, we narrowed our choices down to four stories that exemplify the quality of content we want to provide for our readers. Then it was just a matter of ranking them amongst themselves.

Once that’s done, it’s time to correlate stories with authors and notify them of the good news.

First Place – The Blindfold Agreement

When our 1st Place story turned out to be a wonderfully erotic, blood boiling romp by our very own Kirsten S. Blacketer, I wouldn’t say we were overly surprised. Kirsten’s work has matured into some of the best published romance out there, and we are honoured that she’s given us another one of her gems.

Second Place – A Flower By Another Name

When our 2nd Place story turned out to be a sweet, exotic tale by our own Geoff LaCasse, I would say that was unexpected, but very welcome indeed! Geoff’s style and male perspective, coupled with his skill and experience always make for an entertaining story. We are proud to include another one of his stories in our collection.

Third Place – Twice As Tempting

When our 3rd Place story turned out to be a fun, cheeky narrative by our very own Bonnie Wood, we were starting to see a pattern. Bonnie’s fresh and relatable romance caught our attention and kept it long after we’d finished reading. It’s been a long time since we’ve connected with Bonnie, and we are thrilled to have her back.

Honourable Mention – Loose Ends

So when we decided to include our fourth finalist as well for publication, we thought it’d be funny if it, too, were written by one our Romantic Shorts writers. And that’s exactly what happened! We are happy to present our own Alexandra Meryn with a bittersweet romance that shows off her talent with dialogue. Welcome back!

I’ve always found that, when having to make a choice from amongst many things – choosing a car, a paint colour, an item of clothing – when I keep coming back to the same thing, I know I’ve found the right one. And so it is with this round of competition winners. Each of them has been a Romantic Shorts™ author for a long time. Choosing them again only speaks to the quality of and interest in their work. I would like to congratulate all four of our winning writers and thank them for their time, effort, and trust in writing for us.

I would also like to thank all of the writers whose works were not chosen. Most of them were simply not a fit for Romantic Shorts; they were well written, engaging, and memorable stories, and we would be happy to consider any future works these authors may want to submit in the future.

And to our readers, we offer these new stories, with the confidence that you will be more than happy to have read them.

Welcome. And enjoy!