Well, it was an interesting week.
On Tuesday I went to pick up Sacred Scars (sequel to Skin Hunger) from the library, and when it wasn't on the holds shelf, I realized with a rapidly sinking heart that I might have waited too long to get it. So I approached the librarian at the desk and inquired after it—she looked up my card, saw that a different hold (Enna Burning; I've had it on hold for months now and it's yet to appear) was still active, and told me as much. I explained to her that, no, it was a different book I was after. She produced a Binder of Lists, and informed me that I was indeed too late to get it, and that it had been sent back. She looked at me and said, in a Very Superior Tone: "It waited a while but it could only wait so long."
I felt myself to be summarily snubbed. I went afterwards to Target, where I managed to misplace my wallet in the parking lot for half an hour. That was fun.
Then I sent out two new query letters, as I'd begun to despair ever hearing back from the full.
On Wednesday, I was attacked with a strange malady of Nausea Induced by Violently Spinning World, and had to stay home from teaching, alternately laying in bed moaning and reading Octavian Nothing.
(Which, on a side note, I finished, and liked a lot, though it was sad and disturbing and a bit unsettling in places. It was excellently written, with an intriguing story, characters, and very interesting viewpoint on the Revolutionary War. I highly recommend it if you can handle some disturbing concepts/scenes.)
Wednesday evening commenced, also the Weekend of Housesitting for Crazy Dogs, which consisted muchly of laying on the couch watching Stargate SG-1 on Hulu (I'm, er, partway through the second season now).
Then came Thursday and Friday, during which I taught piano lessons, housesat, ate ice cream, worked on my outline a liiiiiittttle bit, and watched Stargate. On Saturday, I popped home for a while and received a Large White Envelope in the mail with F & W Publications written on the return address. For about thirty seconds, I entertained wild notions of a multi-million dollar book deal from that errant full, and then I opened it to news almost as good:
My short story, The Painter and the Sky, won an Honorable Mention in the Writer's Digest annual writing competition! For proof, I direct you here. I'm number fifty-one on the list, which means, I suppose, that there were fifty stories esteemed more highly than mine, but, conversely, that there were forty-nine esteemed lower. ;-) Or it could mean nothing at all. Whatever. The point is, out of 13,557 entries (in ten different categories) in a national contest, I got an honorable mention!!! :-) :-) :-)
And that was my week!
Off to outline my novel *cough* watch Stargate *cough*,
Joanna, the Yellow Dart Smith
also known as
Genre Short Story Honorable Mention Winner No. 51
5 comments:
Squeee! It's nice when success happens, especially when it happens to one of us.
I love the humor in your writing. hehe! It reminds me of a mix of British wit and the humor of Lemony Snicket's books. haha!
Thanks, Claire! I agree. In another few years or so I'm pretty sure we'll all be famous. :-)
Heehee, glad you approve, Erika. I try. :-)
Congratulations! Did you know what was in the envelope before you opened it? I also received an honorable mention (different category), but I had forgotten about the contest and thought it was a magazine subscription! :)
Congrats to you, too, Michelle! Nope I had no idea. I thought it was probably junk mail, and was pleasantly surprised to the contrary. :-) Yay for both of us for forgetting we entered a contest and then finding out we got honorable mentions!! :-)
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