Pages

July 05, 2011

Epic Win!

Total Read Time: 2 minutes


So I wrote this fantasy short story last year called The God’s Eye.  I basically scrawled it in a notebook while riding the train to and from work.  I don’t really consider myself to be a short story writer, so when it was finished, I let it kick around for a few months while I worked on other writing projects.

January 2011 rolled around and I thought, “Hey, why not enter it into that Writers’ Journal fiction contest?”  My other fantasy short story, The Unclean, had placed third in the same contest the year before, so it seemed like a good idea.
Logically, I knew my work would be judged as an anonymous piece and the judges were probably different from the previous contest, so there was no real reason to think I could pull off two wins in a row, but I hadn’t gotten into indie publishing yet, and the story only needed some polishing…  I rushed to revise and submit it before the deadline.  And then I waited.

And waited.  Seriously, contests results take forever!

I started lurking around the Writers’ Journal site a little while ago, to see if the winners had been posted.  I didn’t want to get my hopes up, but I needed to know!  Nothing was up yet.

Yesterday, I checked the site out of habit.  The contest results issue was out.  I took a moment before clicking on the Contest Winners link, reminding myself I might not be on the list.  Even when I clicked through to the next page, I took a deep breath before scrolling down, steeling myself.

I read the First Place title on the list: The God’s Eye.  (Hey, that’s the same as MY short story title!  What are the odds?)  I let my gaze slide to the right. 

Wait.  Jacquelyn Smith?  That’s me!  Holy crap, I won first place!  Not only that, but I’ve now placed 2 years in a row!

Let’s just say there was quite a bit of celebratory (and probably ridiculous-looking), happy dancing on my part after it all sunk in.  I still can’t believe it.  I can’t wait to get my package in the mail!  (We’ve been having a postal strike situation here, hence my stalking of the website for results.)  So, yeah.  My week is off to a pretty good start. :D

If you want to check out my story, it’s on newsstands now in the July/August issue of Writers’ Journal.  I’m also going to convert it to ebook format so it will be available to purchase online.  (Updates to follow.)



9 comments:

  1. OMG! How exciting! Congrats on winning! ;) Placing twice in a row is epic indeed.

    ReplyDelete
  2. AnonymousJuly 05, 2011

    Jacquelyn! That's amazing! Congratulations! Good start to the week, indeed. You must be on cloud 9!

    ReplyDelete
  3. Thanks, Cherie and SB! :)

    ReplyDelete
  4. Congratulations!!! That's great news!!!

    ReplyDelete
  5. @Scott Niven
    Thanks! I still can't really believe it.

    ReplyDelete
  6. Congratulations!

    I never had much luck with contests, but I have a couple of short stories that appeared in anthologies eons ago. Really should hunt them down and turn them into ebooks, if only freebies. Good way to get the word out about your other work! :)

    ReplyDelete
  7. @Lindsay
    Thanks, Lindsay :)

    I'm not usually big on contests either, but I've had really good luck with this one. (Some of the other ones out there seem kinda scammy to me...)

    That's awesome that you've had stories published in anthologies!

    ReplyDelete
  8. AnonymousJuly 25, 2011

    Congrats!!

    ReplyDelete
  9. @Sophie Li

    Thanks, Sophie! Good to see you again. :) Hope you're having a great summer!

    ReplyDelete

Comment Rules:
Feedback is awesome. Trolling/flaming is not. If you are rude, your post will be deleted.

Please do not put your website in the comment text, as this can come across as spam.

Thanks for adding to the conversation! Have fun :)