- "Dulcinea,
what a sweet antique name, though perhaps better than all the
Danis, Tracis, Tiffanys, and the other cutesy names that have
become so fashonable. Sweet love that the name conjures, didn't
prepare me for the wonder in the submissions that came via e-mail.
I confess that I hadn't read any of the original Dulcinea stories;
I didn't want to prejudice myself in any manner. It's always
awkward judging someone elses work, though we do it every day
in countless ways. I wondered how I would respond to a story
that was truly horrible. Fortunately, that never came to pass.
The stories were all well conceived and tinged with mellow (and
sometimes hot) eroticism. To all who wrote, I say well done.
To all who read, I say you are in for a treat. To those still
pondering the real big question - no I will not name my daughter
(if I have one) Dulcinea."
Allison
- 'The name "Dulcinea"
is from the Latin, meaning "sweet". And sweetness
is a keynote in Dulcinea's work. Whether the unnamed couple
are married or not, their relationship is marked by tender
playfulness. As were the contest entries.
A few, a very few, entrants either hadn't
read the rules or hadn't read Dulcinea. But the overwhelming
majority of entrants were of high calibre. The proposed categories
were gold, silver, bronze and dross. I couldn't bring myself
to describe any of the qualifying entries as "dross".
You know us Brits and our sense of fair play. I simply wasn't
sent any dross. So I devolved my marking into a system of
bronzes, silvers, golds, and double, then triple, golds.
Lucky for me there were no names attached
(and, no, I made no effort to guess). And lucky for me that
even in this fragrant field a few flowers stood extra tall
and lovely. Thank you for asking me. What a privilege. How
enjoyable.'
Bronwen
-
"I'd like to say that I love the
idea that Dulcinea stories portray, a loving relationship
that faces everyday life and finds romance, sex, and humor
in life together. I'm a romantic fool at heart. In this group
of 38 stories, I found this portrayal in nearly all of them.
There were a few stories that were excellently written but
didn't represent Dulcinea. All In all, I was completely bowled
over by the quality of all the stories. Come on, the odds
are that in 38 stories, there's going to be some "bad" stuff.
In fact, I didn't find that to be true. I was pleasantly surprised.
I'd
like to thank the directors for giving me the chance to judge.
I really enjoyed it. I'm very grateful that I had no idea
who wrote each story. I will admit I had some fun in trying
to guess by style of writing alone. But the anonymity of each
writer allowed me to have no prejudices in my decision. I'd
like to think that I have the wherewithal not to be biased
but I'm thankful I didn't have to put that to the test.
To
each writer, I hope you enjoyed writing as much as I enjoyed
reading your efforts. These stories convince me that hope,
love and romance are still alive and well worth reading about."
Desdmona
- "The difficult thing
about writing a good Dulcinea-style story, is that the author
must create conflict between the characters, which provides
interest to the reader, but must do so without altering the
essentially loving relationship essential to this type of
story. Some of the stories entered were good stories, but
I felt they did too much damage to the loving relationship
between the two characters for a true Dulcinea story. Many
of the other stories maintained the loving relationship, but
provided no character conflict which would pull the reader
forward through the story -- a good sex scene is always a
pleasure, but without conflict, what you are left with is
a vignette, not a story. The best stories, in my opinion,
were the ones that walked the fine line of presenting a believable
loving relationship between the protagonists, while still
giving us a plausible conflict which created tension in the
story (and the reader). And, of course -- they were still
hot! :-)"
Mary
Anne Mohanraj
I
did my judging over lunch at work. That wasn't such a good
idea. People kept asking me why I would go "Whoa!"
every so often and grind my thighs together. What I like about
Dulcinea-type stories is that they are like quickies with
someone you love... no need for extensive foreplay or backstory
because you already have a history together. And then reality
intrudes.
Neneh
