On Writing Contests

Back when I had my "State of the State" phone call with Agent Carrie back in January of 2015, one of the things she suggested I do with my manuscript was enter it into a contest or two. The idea being that it gets the manuscript out there and that, if it won or got shortlisted for anything major, well, that's a selling point, right? Being able to tell editors, "This manuscript is a finalist for A Major Award" would make it more appealing to editors.

I agreed to do that, then started looking at Poets & Writers. I put together word document to list the contests I thought I might enter, and started to psyche myself up...

...and did nothing.

I dusted off the list yesterday and found I had put two contests on the list, and I did nothing about either one of them (in fairness, one of them had a deadline that was maybe a week out from the date I found it). Once in a great while during the year, I would look at P&W again, but half-heartedly.

Last month, when we again had our "State of the State" call, Carrie again suggested conferences, and again I said I would look into it, only this time, I mean it! (Well, I meant it last time, too; sometimes, it just takes a while for things to stick, know what I mean?) The good thing is, this time, when I looked at P&W, I found more choices. I think last year I must have gone searching at a downtime in the yearly calendar, because I only found those two that looked suitable.

There are three problems with the whole contest thing: first is the time they take up. Each of the contests will have different requirements. This one wants the first fifty pages of the manuscript, plus a three-page synopsis. That one wants twenty manuscript pages, and a two-page synopsis. Another asks for thirty and a single page synopsis. Plus a cover letter. It's a lot like querying agents again, pulling pieces out of the manuscript, formatting it, writing cover notes, etc., etc. And we all know what I'd rather be doing with my time.

The second thing is the money. Very few of these contests are free. It's thirty dollars here, twenty-five there. Not much in the grand scheme of things, perhaps, not when there's a shot at a thousand dollars (or more), and the prestige of winning one of these things. But it adds up, yes it does. We're not so flush in cash that I can just keep throwing it out the door in thirty and fifty dollar chunks. On the other hand, I suppose I can keep track of it and talk to my accountant about it as a deduction for next year.

Finally, there's the doubt. Of course there is, me being the Doubting Writer, after all. When I look at some of the awards and the criteria for winning, and think of the competition, I think, "there's no way I can win." One of the awards had over 600 entrants last year. What are the chances of my manuscript winning? They wouldn't seem to be very good. And it's not just a 1 in 600 chance, of course. I the manuscript were selected at random, maybe it would be worth it, but it's based on skill, and on the writer's ability to catch a contest judge in just the right way. Can I do that? Is it possible for me--for my manuscript--to be that much better than 600+ others? 

The doubter in me says, "No way. Don't even try." I recognize that I have skill, and I believe in my manuscript; but stacked up against 600 or more people? It just doesn't seem worth the effort. But then again....

From QuoteFanatic.com

So, I've got my eye on a couple of upcoming contests, and I'll jump through the ring of fire and stack my manuscript up against all the others. I don't think I'll hear anything back beyond, "You're a finalist/winner!" or "Sorry, kid, better luck next time", but that's okay. I'm taking a shot. Maybe I'll score.

On another note: it's funny how people want to kill Punxsutawney Phil this week, isn't it? Two weeks ago, everyone was all, "Rah, rah, we love Phil!" because of the no-brainer prediction of an early spring. Even with that prediction, people seemed to forget that we still had one little thing between us and spring: February.

A guy I knew in high school once called February "the armpit of months." I think that's a little harsh, myself, but, even with the mild winter we've had so far, I'm ready for real spring. Instead, I woke up to this yesterday:

Can you read it? It says "It's fucking cold."

That thermometer is mounted on the window frame in our pantry. It has an outdoor probe. At 6:30 yesterday morning (Sunday) it was thirty below. My dog was actually shivering when I took her outside; I don't think I've ever seen her so cold.

Oh, the number on the left? That's the inside temperature (at least measured right at the thermometer). Our pantry became a walk-in freezer for the day. Still, the sun was shining and, when the wind wasn't blowing, you could feel it, and that's a nice thing. Meanwhile, we're supposed to see temperatures closer to 40 later this week, so our yo-you winter continues. Crazy stuff.

That's it for me. Do you enter contests? What do you think of them?

Super (Sneaky) Advertising

Crap, here I am, stuck again.

Some time yesterday I had an idea for a blog post, one that was actually about writing. Nothing huge, mind you. The way I envisioned it, it would be short and sweet, a couple of paragraphs at best.

I don't know what I was doing when it came into my head. I might have been actually writing, or we may have been driving the Magpie to the bus station (she came home for a visit this weekend; it's good to be a senior with no classes on Friday!), or I may have been doing something else. "I like that," I thought. "I may have to use that on Monday."

Yeah.

Except I didn't write it down.

And so, here we are.

I didn't watch the Super Bowl last night, but I looked at the boxscore when it was over, took a spin through the 'play by play' list, and all I could think was, "Wow, this looks like the most boring Super Bowl ever!" If you watched it, was it as bad as the recap made it look?

A lot is being made over Peyton Manning kissing the Papa John's pizza guy on TV, and at least twice telling interviewers, "I'm going to drink a lot of Budweisers." Questions of taste in beer and pizza aside, some vilified Manning for blatant, inappropriate product placement. Seems all the goodwill Peyton garnered for beating Tom Brady and the Patriots was immediately squandered.

I have to wonder, though: is it all that different from "I'm going to Disney World"? Maybe, in the sense that those commercials are commercials, and a post-game press conference or sideline interview isn't expected to be about product placement, right?

Oh. Hmm. Okay, then.

Granted, comparing a hockey coach's mid-season, post-game interview with a spontaneous, post-game event is a bit of an apples-to-oranges thing. The truth is, just about everything in sports these days, especially the big events, is about advertising and product placement. How many times did the announcers mention that the game was being played in Levi's Stadium? I'm willing to bet that, just before the opening kickoff, viewers were told that the kickoff was being sponsored by Met Life or Go Daddy or someone. And that half-time show, that was all Pepsi, right?

I wouldn't be overly upset with Manning. For all we know, he might just equate Budweiser with beer, the way millions of people think a copy machine is a Xerox or a facial tissue is a Kleenex or a can of soda is a Coke. Just wait--it won't be long until the team names in the end zones take up half the space they do now, with a sponsor name taking up the rest, or the uniforms the players wear are covered with advertisements. I'll be more upset by that then a throw-in plug that may or may not have been an accident.

That's it for me. Did you watch the game? What did you think?

Monday Musing

Last week was one of those weeks that nearly ate my brain. We had a big grant application due on Friday that kept me in the office for 22 combined hours on Wednesday and Thursday, and took up almost all of my other time in the office. Despite that, I actually managed to draft a post that I wanted to run today...but couldn't quite bring it home this morning. So it goes, as some famous author once said. Instead, here are some random bits and pieces.

The great winter that wasn't continues. My radiator was cold to the touch this morning, but mainly because the heat wasn't going on often enough to make it warm. It was about 45 F when I got up this morning. Given the mild winter, I expect a spike in the price of maple syrup this year, because I can't imagine we're going to see a whole lot produced this year. Back in December, the grass was green and there were a few dandelions popping up. When we took the Catbird back to school after Thanksgiving, there was a red maple in flower on the campus quad (they're not supposed to flower until late winter/early spring), and I've heard reports of Forsythia blooming downstate. El Niño has brought us wonderful, mild weather, but I can't help but wonder what the spring is going to look like.

Tomorrow is groundhog day, and I fully expect that the mayor of Punxsatawney is going to tell us it's going to be an early spring this year. I also expect that, some time in February, we're going to get a murderous cold snap that will make us forget how mild everything has been. It's still winter, after all.

Two notable events occurred in sports over the weekend: the NHL held its All-Star weekend, and the NFL held the Pro Bowl. Does anyone even watch this stuff anymore?

Writing is progressing. Actually, I've been reading and taking notes on my current manuscript. I expect to finish very soon and start yet another rewrite. Aside from a couple of thin spots, I'm actually pretty happy.

Speaking of writing--when Carrie and I had our conversation, she asked me if I had any ideas for The Next Project. I did. I do. One is partially written, another was just an idea. This weekend, a story started writing itself in my head. I'm not sure where it came from. It feels like it has potential....

Speaking of writing, II: Elephant's Bookshelf Press is opening up to submissions for their next anthology. Matt is a good guy and a great editor, and I'm not just saying that because he published two of my short stories. Details can be found here.

Last week, quite by accident, I discovered that Hulu is running a special mini-series adaptation of Stephen King's 11/22/63. In case you're not aware, this was a mighty, mighty book by King about a man who traveled back in time to stop the Kennedy assassination. It's an excellent book, and I will watch this. I just hope it's better than the treatment given to Under the Dome.

Finally, here's an oldie for you, one that is appropriate in these troubled times: Elvis Costello and The Attractions covering Nick Lowe. Have a great week, everyone.

On Dynasties

Most of the people in my life that I know are from New York, especially Long Island and the New York City region. This was made all the more clear last night, when my Facebook feed erupted in gloating after the Denver Broncos defeated the New England Patriots in last night's AFC title game. No seventh trip to the Super Bowl for coach Bill Belichick, quarterback Tom Brady, and the rest of the Pats. No fifth Super Bowl title for the hated team from New England. My friends who are Jets fans were joined by a lot of others from all across the country in gleefully waving

to New England.

Of course, this also leads to predictions of New England's demise. Tom Brady is 38, ancient for a quarterback. Coach Bill Belichick can't do this forever. And in the modern world of sports, there's no way they can hold this winning team together for much longer, right? Jets fans (and, seemingly, everyone else) are salivating over a season of mediocrity from New England, or even something as bad as Belichick's first season in New England, when the Patriots went five and eleven. Everyone would like to see New England plunged back into the dark ages, maybe into a run as desperately bad as the Detroit Lions of 2008 (winless) or the Columbia University football squad (forty-four consecutive losses). That would be sweet revenge, right?

Maybe not.

Though the Patriots can no longer quite be considered a true dynasty team in the sense of what the word means (multiple consecutive championships, like the New York Yankees who won five straight World Series titles, the Montreal Canadiens, who won five straight Stanley Cups and appeared in an astounding ten consecutive Stanley Cup finals, or the Boston Celtics and their eight straight NBA championships) their consistent winning record is the closest thing we have in sports right now. The changes that have occurred in modern sports--salary caps, free agency, endless expansion, of leagues and playoffs--have all but knocked off the true dynasties, and that's too bad, in my opinion.

The people who run the sports leagues want parity, and there's something to be said for it. As a fan, it's nice to look at your team and your favorite sports league at the beginning of a season and think, "We've got a shot." It's also nice to know that rebuilding your team to contender status doesn't have to take a generation. Playoff races are more intense and upsets in the playoffs are more likely--hooray for parity! Yet, I feel like we're losing something at the same time.

Dynasties give us someone to hate. They also give us someone to look up to, to grudgingly admire. Dynasty teams tend to bring out the best in their opponents, even if they end up making them look silly. They serve as motivation and provide a template for other general managers. And if we're lucky, and our general manager is any good, we fans have hope that, some day, our team will be the one sitting on the throne and running off championship after championship.

We don't know if the Patriots are done. Maybe they are, maybe they're not. But I think that, when they are finally gone (as all dynasties must eventually fall), some of those Jets fans will one day look back and say (grudgingly), "Yeah, that was one hell of a football team."

Have a great week, everyone.

This and That Monday

Another Monday morning in blogland. Yesterday was spent on the road; the Catbird went back to school after a nice month home, and I'm finding that, the older I get, the more long drives wear me out. So, this will be one of those days where I'm just meandering around a bit, as opposed to one of those times where I have something coherent to say.

FIRST, writing land business. Agent Carrie is open to submissions for her query critique. If you've got a query, and you're looking for a shot at having an agent critique it (and having an agent potentially review your first hundred pages), go check it out. And if you don't have a query, consider checking back there in a few days or a week, so that you can help the lucky winner--and learn something yourself.

And speaking of Agent Carrie, just as governors have a State of the State address, and presidents do a State of the Union, she and I will be conferring for our annual State of the Partnership Phone Conference. This is a chance to formally discuss what's going on and setting the goals and plans for the coming year into place. For me, on the broadest level, it's "finish  the book, start the next," though I have other thinsg in mind, as well.

While on the subject of writing, I did "finish" my current project last week--huzzah!--but I was alarmed to look at how much the word count has grown. In a few more days, it's back into the grinder with it to see what fluff can come out. Writing a novel can seem to be a never-ending process, can't it?

I caught the last two hours of last night's debate, and found I actually enjoyed it. Three intelligent people who were sticking to debating the issues and not resorting to a series of schoolyard-level insults. Most surprisingly, I felt that the moderators  were rather pro-Sanders in terms of how they ran the debate. They seemed to throw a lot of questions his way, and seemed more willing to defer to him when he asked for a few seconds to respond to something stated by the other candidates during the previous discussion. I feel a bit for Martin O'Malley, who really has to struggle to get his voice heard. Sanders and Clinton are both LOUD and aggressive; O'Malley is kind of a nice balance to that, but he disappeared for long stretches, which is part personality, and part the fault of the moderators.

And, just to finish, tomorrow the Magpie goes back to school as well, so the nest will once again be empty. This is it for her, the final semester of her life as a college student (unless she ultimately opts for graduate school, but that won't be the same). It is truly amazing how fast the time goes, isn't it?

That's all I've got for today; what have YOU got?
 

On the Cusp

A funny thing happened while I've been griping and grumbling and carping about my current WiP: I'm nearly finished.

Last night, I sat down and tried to work on the penultimate chapter. I didn't have much success, but that's okay. The morning was productive, and this chapter will come--I may start in on it after I finish this post, or this evening when I'm home from work. If all goes well, by the time I have my "State of the Union" conference with Carrie later this week, I'll be able to tell her, "It's done!"* and we'll both be pretty happy about that.

It's funny how stuff like this can sneak up on you. You're plugging along, focused on what's in front of you, and all of a sudden, there it is--whoa, how'd that happen? For a long time it felt like I would never get here, but it happened the way writing always happens: one word, one sentence, one paragraph, one page at a time.

*Of course, I'm not quite ready to pop the champagne just yet (I don't do that, anyway, though I might allow myself a nip of scotch or something). There are those last two chapters to get through. The one I couldn't quite face last night will require a little more heavy construction than the last one. And then it's definitely going to need a re-read and a pass-through before I send it off. Will it ultimately be good enough? That remains to be seen, but it's a step almost completed, and given how difficult it's been to get here, I'll enjoy the moment.

Have you ever surprised yourself by reaching the end of one of your projects? How do you celebrate hitting 'The End'?

I was a little shocked this morning to sit down at my computer and see the news that David Bowie died. Every once in a while someone will die and you'll think, "Wait, I didn't even know he was still alive!" but that was not the case with Bowie. What did surprise me was that he had been battling cancer. Either I don't pay that much attention to the celebrity news or Bowie kept this one to himself. Even when he released a new song not all that long ago (I gave it a listen, and really didn't like it), I don't recall there being any mention of cancer.

I was never a huge Bowie fan; I liked some of his music, but not all of it. Still, there was no doubt that he was a huge persona, and a huge influence in the world of music. Here's "Modern Love." Back when I was a college freshman, there was a guy a few doors down who used to blast this all day.

New Year Noodling

First post of the new year, and I'm in rather familiar territory: not knowing what to write! So, we'll ramble.

-We did not watch the ball drop--it's just not the same without Dick Clark (though the last time I saw Dick Clark, that wasn't the same, either). We did do a countdown, complete with New Year's hugs and kisses, and I ran outside for a few seconds to bang a wooden spoon against the bottom of a pot. It's something we used to do when I was a kid, part of an old tradition that may have been for good luck, or to chase away bad luck or spirits or something. A lot of people on the block used to do it; here in rural New York, where the neighbors are a little more spread out, I'm the only one who does it.

-The first time I ever came across or heard of "First Night" was when my not-then-wife and I were in Boston for her brother's wedding back in the 90s and we kind of stumbled across it. We had a sort of magical night, which included lucking into a table at a restaurant in the Faneuil Hall Marketplace (New Year's Eve dining without a reservation? Don't try this at home). When we got done with dinner (around 11:30), we walked out of the door and right into the countdown, fireworks, all of it. It was incredible (even more incredible was how fast the place emptied out when it was over).

Since then, First Nights are all over the place, but this weekend, I found myself wondering: shouldn't it really be called Last Night? Or First Morning? Just wondering.

-This weekend we had visits from a couple of the Magpie's friends, and while I know these kids don't want to hear it, I couldn't help but ask them how they were feeling about impending college graduations (I recognize these poor kids have to answer the same questions every time they run into someone they know, but I can't help myself; I'm curious). The consensus seems to be 'Quite Nervous.' I don't remember if I was quite as terrified when I was staring down graduation or not, but I think this is a scarier world than the one I came of age in. These are good kids, smart kids, and they'll be all right. It will be interesting to see where they're at a year from now.

-Yesterday, I did something I haven't done since April: I went to the writers' circle I'm a part of. I have no good explanation for having been away so long, except things started getting crazy toward the end of the Catbird's senior year; there always seemed to be something to do, even on Sundays, and then I got to the point where it was habit not to go.

It was a small group, a number of people missing, and the room we worked in was cold, but it was fun. It was fun to write something that was not part of my current manuscript, a one-off bit about a woman watching her boyfriend get dressed. Good fun, and even if it leads to nothing (and this, I'm pretty sure, is exactly that), it was nice to spend the time and get those creative juices flowing in a slightly different direction. Now, to make going a habit again!

-Finally, this song has been stuck in my head for the better part of a week. Maybe it's the goofy title. Maybe its that pedal steel guitar. Maybe it's that jaunty piano. I don't know. It's catchy, even if it's kind of dark, lyrically.


That's all for me for this week--hope your new year is off to a great start!