The Pen of a Ready Writer

      Today is the deadline for submitting your Snow White retelling to Rooglewood Press.  If you need a link to the contest rules, here it is: Rooglewood Writing Contest .  So, even if it is last minute, get that story to the judges!      It has been fun to see, through the blog world as well as Facebook, the rush of last-minute send-offs.  It seems that many of us didn't get our stories finished until the last minute.  Wow, what happened this year!      The judges are already reading through the stories that have been submitted so far.  Rooglewood gives judges a checklist of things to help them gauge a story's potential to fit into this anthology.  Somewhere out there, my story is moving through the Rooglewood process.  Has it been read yet?  Did they like it?  Was it compatible with their criteria?  Did it move on to the next round of judging or was it settled into a...

     Regardless of what day you set aside to celebrate it, God's Son did come to earth, born as a human so He could take our place and pay the redemption price we were unable to pay on our own.      Merry Christmas!

Merry Christmas Eve!  I hope your holidays are bright!!!      My contest entry has been in Rooglewood's hands for 5 days.  My mental status has gone from the over-the-top excited and relieved when I first submitted it...to a steady optimism that my story actually might have a decent chance this year...to a closed-off state where I was convinced that I didn't even need to worry about it until next April...to today.      Today I am tore up with the certain feeling of my stories significant and amateur flaws.  Who would read this?  How can this compare to the other amazing authors chosen by Rooglewood?  What was I thinking to submit such a meager tale?      I do this every year.  And it is a passing feeling. I know it is.  The artist cycle is something I've talked about before on this blog.  It helps to know that this is normal and that I will be excited about my story again tomorrow. ...

     Today, I did the terrifying act of releasing my story into the big, cruel world.  I sent my Snow White entry to Rooglewood Press, so it can start its journey through the contest judges.      Ahhhh!  The exhileration. The terror.  The accomplishment.  The chance of a big crash at the end of my flight.  Wow.      It kinda makes me want to hide my manuscript under the floor of a dungeon somewhere.      But that defeats the point of entering a contest.  Stories are meant to be read.  And mine will be...by at least one judge.  Hurray!       Now we get to wait until April 2, 2018 to find out which 5 stories made it into the anthology.  If you are like me, you have plenty to do between now and then.  Laundry.  Work.  Studies.  Other writing.  Et cetera.      But I also love pas...

It fits!!! I took my big story, cut off the corners, and stuffed it down into the box labeled "20k words only." (Aka, my story has been edited to comply with Rooglewood's wordcount limit.) Hurray! All I need to do is polish it up and send it in!

     Hello, delightful friends!       This is the last post of my Friday Quotes, at least for now.  Join in the fun today and let's make it a grand finale!  Here's how it works: IN THE COMMENTS BELOW:       Post a quote of something YOU wrote. Or Something you edited this week (of something you previous wrote).     Don't make the quote too long because I don't want you to spoil your story.        For this finale, I am lifting the restriction that you had to write it THIS week.  Pick any quote that you have written (preferably this year).  So excited to see everybody's snippets!       Thank you for playing with me!!!!!