A Shock in my Email

Yesterday, when I was collecting my kids from school, I missed a phone call. In the rush to get them to their swimming lessons, I only found out when I checked my email and found a congratulatory header from Contest Admin at Writers of the Future. I assumed, since it was an email, that it must be congratulating me for achieving an Honourable Mention or maybe a Semi-Finalist. But… I am a Finalist! Joni, the contest administrator, had been unable to contact me by phone.

It didn’t feel real. I had to concentrate hard to drive my kids to their lesson safely, and when I got there I read the email on my cell phone again several times over. No mistake. When I got home, I checked my answering machine, and sure enough, there was Joni’s message.

The thing is, this is the biggest contest for writers of Science Fiction, Fantasy and Dark Fantasy in the world. It has been running for thirty years. Many winners have gone on to forge successful writing careers. Anyone can enter so long as they have not yet made three qualifying professional sales. There are thousands of entries. This was my first ever entry. Being a finalist this quarter means my story has made it to the top eight.

Those eight stories are sent to four more judges, who will choose the first, second and third place winners. Even if I don’t win a place in the end, I already feel as though I’ve won to have got so far!