It's Contest Time Again

Well its contest time again. I've been working on that for the past month and ignoring this blog again. Shame on me but this time of year all of us are eating and breathing this contest. Getting all my stuff in order as well as helping others with theirs and answering questions. In less than a week now we'll all be sitting back waiting to see if we made the first cut.

I feel fairly confident in my entry but you never know from year to year how things will go. As we all know, writing is very subjective and sometimes it seems like it just takes the right person seeing it. So you could have something fantastic and if it isn't the reviewers cup of tea, you get the boot before the thing gets started. You definitely have to have something unique and interesting to along with superb writing skills.

Fantasy is what I write and it has never won this contest. Will this be the year for a fantasy manuscript to take the prize? We can only hope so. I thought about writing in a different genre but fantasy is what I do best, however I have started a couple of other novels. One is a literary fiction piece and the other is a mystery. I have no idea if and when I'll finish them and what shape they'll be in when I do. You never know what genre the publisher is looking for from year to year, but it seems so far a human interest story has taken the top prize except for the first contest when it was a mystery story. But we can't give up hope. I'll be happy if I just advance a few rounds in the contest even if I don't win. You meet a great bunch of people on the boards and we all share with each other, so its also about camaraderie as well as entering the contest.

I'm entering last year's novel "Saving the Rainbow." I feel confident its a fairly original idea and that counts a lot. And I didn't have anything else ready anyway. I wasn't about to put myself through the stress of finishing and polishing in a months time. I did that last year and it was very hectic.

I'll keep updates posted here as things go along.

Blessings everyone.
Sunni