As many of you know, I have entered, quite a few time the L. Ron Hubbard’s Writers Of The Future Contest. Twice I have gotten an honorable Mention, twice I have gotten a semi-finalist, and many times I have been simply rejected.
Two years I got a rejection for my short story “Proof of Principle.” That rejection, for reason I have clue about, stung me more than any other rejection. (And on that front I have a lot.) I’ve spent the intervening time working on novel length projects and not short stories.
Towards the end of last year, 2011, I decided to move back to short stories and I started by doing a wholesale re-write of ‘Proof of Principle,’ utilizing skills I had learned in sentence structure. Earlier this year I saw the results posted on their blog, no ‘Honorable Mention’ for me and I assumed “Proof” had gather another plain rejection, but I was wrong.
Those were for the results of the quarter before my submission. The rewrite of ‘Proof’ did place as an Honorable Mention in 1 quarter of 2012 (Which ran Oct- Dec because the contest is strange.)
Sadly the email letting me know I had placed as an Honorable Mention for the third time also informed me that the coordinating judge for the contest K.D. Wentworth has passed away from cancer. She was a fine person and a good judge. I met her once several years ago and I was impressed with her memory for all the stories she had read in her duties. (She was the first reader it was up to her which stories advanced to the panel for judge, a level of achievement I have not yet met.)
I already have another story in for the 2nd quarter, and I am writing my 3rd Quarter story right now.
I popped over the forum for the contest, to express my condolences on K.D.’s passing and learned quite a bit about the contest. Like the stories should be accept for a high school library, with no graphic sex, and little cursing. (oops) I also learned that K.D. like more positive stories and not so much for dark endings. Hmm if you’ve read my collection ‘Horseshoes & Hand Grenades’ which is a collection of my stories that won at least an Honorable Mention from the contest then you know I was bucking that guideline. I’m kind of surprised I scored as high as I did.
Surprisingly, even before I learned this, I had already planned that this quarter’s story would end on an upbeat note, that this story, on its own, was an optimistic piece. We shall see how it does if the current submission fails.
