The Universe is full of surprises.
I have just heard that my short story “All The Way” was the third place winner in the Jim Baen Memorial Writing Contest!
Now, I’m a pretty dour and miserable sort of person and I enter writing competitions with only slightly less pessimism than I’d enter a national lottery. In fact, I’d normally avoid both gambles unless there were special circumstances. In this case, there were.
First of all, well, it’s Jim Baen’s Universe and the (American) National Space Centre who sponsor the contest – both of which get my vote.
Secondly – and most importantly – the guidelines for the competition really inspired me, viz. “…a short story of no more than 8,000 words, that shows the near future (no more than about 50-60 years out) of manned space exploration in a positive, exciting and hopeful way.”
As soon as I read that, I sat down and wrote out a future history for the next sixty years broken down by area: space technology, social developments, biological sciences, medicine, environment, politics, economy, etc.. It took quite a while to do it but I now have a great resource. And, by the time I’d finished it, the story had already formed in my head.
Thirdly – the story, when I’d written it, felt like a winner. You know that feeling when you write a piece and you just know you’ve done something you’ll be proud of when you re-read it in ten years’ time? Well that’s the feeling I had with “All The Way”. In fact, to my shame, I liked it so much, I’ve been regretting sending it off to a competition and tying it up for months when I could have been hawking it around the magazines. Boy am I embarrassed about that sentiment now!
So there you have it. And here am I, late for bed and so excited I have to share the news before I can settle down. Dour and miserable, perhaps, but inside I’m just a big kid. And do you know what? On top of all this pleasure they’ve just delivered, they’ll also be sending me a prize! Could it get any better than that?
Nice one! There’s the prize to reward that year of great work. It’s funny, isn’t it? People say that writing is subjective but there seems to be an internal mechanism that tells us when we’re onto something. Congratulations. Oh, and thanks for adding me to your blogroll. Just noticed.
(A sleepy Somerset town in South West England is rudely awoken) HOORAY! Congratulations – wow, that is fabulous! Will we be able to read it anywhere? I love your shorts stories
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Thanks, guys!
Emma, I wish there was some way to bottle you, so I could take a sip when things look bleak.
And Jack, I wrote a long, immensely insightful response on the subject of that ‘internal mechanism’ but my browser crashed and I lost it. I suggest you try to imagine what I might have written – it’ll probably be more erudite without all my waffle in the way.
As for the blogroll entry, Jack, you’re welcome. You’ll note that I put you with ‘Other Writers’. You could just as well be listed under ‘Resources for Writers’ if you’d rather I did that.
Mate, Well done. You’re having a blinder of a year – keep on typing!
You’ve certainly had an interesting 12 months (counting the time of your blog life), perhaps you might like to share some comparisonns with this 12 months and an earlier time, a time when you may have struggled with the idea of being published. I would appreciate any wisdom, any thoughts that kept you going fromm those days.
Failing that, just waffle for a bit, it’s all good.
terry
Hmmm. I think there’s at least one blog post in there, Terry. Maybe more. In the meantime I’m going to keep up the waffle.
Hey, a big “Congrats!” from another winner.
Right back at ya, Pat. I wish I could say I’ll see you at the 2009 International Space Development Conference in Orlando for the prize-giving but it’s a bit of a long drive from Brisbane.
I’ll be in Florida next week, but it’s unlikely I’ll be able to get back down there again at the end of the month. Hopefully we have nice certificates on the way.
wonderful news graham – congratulations on another stellar success! i can see that one day, there will be a collection of these stories in the bookshops one day!
Pat, the certificate is going straight up on the wall! But wouldn’t that little plastic spaceship have been nice too?
J-A, I should be so lucky (lucky, lucky, lucky*) and, anyway, who’ll notice a collection like that with all your novels crowding out the shelves.
*For the benefit of non-Australians, this is a quote from our future national anthem, sung by our future President.
Somehow i missed this post. Congrats, Graham! That’s a pretty big deal.
Thanks, Isaac. You know, I thought it was a pretty big deal too (not just for me, I mean) but the result seems to have had almost zero publicity so far. Ah well, for me, it was just about the biggest deal of my fiction writing career.
Yeah, it is a big deal, even if it doesn’t garner much publicity. It’s a helluva credit to put down on cover letters for short story subs and may open doors within Baen’s that might not have opened otherwise. And if you can get into the Baen’s Universe (as in perhaps secure a publishing deal with them for longer work) then that is a *huge* deal.