Secret Project Update

Earlier this week, I finished my eighth round of edits on my secret project. Believe it or not, I think this story actually has a chance. Maybe my judgement is impaired because I am writing this at roughly 3 hours past my bedtime, but I feel encouraged at the moment. And I hardly would have thought that possible a month or two ago.
It's funny the emotional journey associated with this project. Early on, I had to rally my courage just to let my beta-reader see it. Later, my sister expressed her regrets that she didn't have time to read it at the moment, and I told her that I would let her read it later if it won (and that, if it didn't, "nevermind - because it must not have been worth reading anyway"). Then I let two young friends read it because they were so excited and encouraging and willing to offer their feedback. And now, I am leaning back with a feeling of satisfaction and a tingling hope that it just might win. It's the craziest feeling ever.

I know a number of skilled, talented writers who are entering this contest. Frankly, it's a little intimidating. I feel like they have so much more experience than I do, and I wonder (since they seem so confident) whether my story even has a chance. And that is not the feeling that I want to give you when you read of my "tingling hope." Instead, I want to instill in you the understanding that any of us have a chance...and even more so if we work on our craft. I want to promise that, even if a first draft doesn't seem prize-worthy, it can be improved upon. I want to assure you that, somewhere down the line, you will look at your revised manuscript with a smile and say "THIS is better."

And, yes, it is a pretty cool feeling.

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Goodbye and God Be With You

It's rather fitting that some things come to a close on this day -- the last day of the year. I submitted my last entry into the Rooglewood contest this morning. I can hardly believe it took me until the day of the deadline to send it in because I'm usually earlier than that. And, even with the extra time I took, I still felt a little bit like maybe I could have done better if I had more time. But there was no feeling of regret when I hit "send." Mostly it was just a prayer that Rooglewood would hear the heart of the message when they read it and that maybe, if I win, they could help me bring the full potential out of my little story. And there was also a feeling, after working on these stories for more than six months, that it felt good to close that chapter and move on to the next one. I did it. I wrote them. And I'm really proud of them. Last year, the act of hitting "send" on my contest entry catapulted me into an anticipatory state....

Wherein I Still Have My Nose and Ears

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Rooglewood Countdown: 12 days

For the next 12 1/2 days, as we do our final countdown until March 31st, I'm going to do 4 posts asking about something you would like to see in the Snow White collection. There are so many ways all of us, writers and readers alike, can win in this contest. Maybe a familiar name makes it into the final five -- hurray! Maybe a story in your favorite genre ended up in the collection this year -- woohoo! Maybe you finally get to read a winning story about an evil king and his Snow White son -- how awesome! So, in celebration of all the many things we can root for, I want to know some of the things that you think would be cool to find in this year's set of winners. Without further ado, here is my question for the day: What is a point of view you would like to see in this collection? Would you like a story written from the prince's perspective? A story from Snow White's p...

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