On Writing and Competitions

[I started this on 11 November, but in the flurry of class activity, work, and travel plans, it slipped through the cracks until a calm place could be reached...]

Another way my class this semester has been an advantage, is the passing of information. Earlier in the semester, my instructor got an email from another university, North Carolina State University, about their short story competition. He then passed the information on to us, and encouraged us to send something in. The only catch is that there were only a few days between when he got the information and passed in onto us, and the postmark date for entries to be submitted by.

I looked over the requirements and prepared one of my medium-ish stories (2200 words) that I already had ready to go for the "Fiction" (up to 5000 words) category. I entertained the idea of trying to put something together for the "Short Fiction", but decided not to try, since it usually takes me a good week to feel like I've gotten close to a good product. I packaged it up, complete with a brief cover letter, and dropped it in the mail on the last day for entries to be postmarked.

A side note about the contest: it was being judged by Samuel R. Delany.

Once I dropped it in the mail, after about an hour I had forgotten all about it. A couple of weeks later, while getting ready for bed one night (around 8 November), Mary Catherine asked if I had heard anything back from the submissions I had out.

That's when I remembered the contest.

I fired up my browser, surfed over to one of my email accounts, set up exclusively for writing submissions and responses. It's one I don't check every day, because it takes a little time to hear back from editors, and would be rather silly to email a submission and expect a response back in 24 hours. So I pecked away at the keyboard and wiggled my finger over the touchpad, and lo and behold, I find this waiting for me.

"Though Samuel Delany has picked someone else as the winner in the longer (5000 word) story competition, along with two honorable mentions, you made the rigorous cut to be a finalist..."

Woot! My first break, so to speak, in terms of a professional writing career!* It was a great feeling, and was a point of much joy and celebration over the next couple of weeks (in family circles, and in the class and academic department). To see the full list of Winners/Finalists (past and present), you can go here.

I skipped the reading, due to previous family plans and really bad weather, but I plan on keeping an eye out at Readercon next year in case Delany attends.

*No, no money was involved which would really register as "professional," but it serves as an item that can be put in cover/query letters, and as an item that can be listed on a professional CV of writerly accomplishments.