I Won First Place in Writers of the Future!

Okay, wow. I thought I would never be writing this post - the one where something finally gave way. It's been a long and arduous road for me. A lot of late nights meeting self-imposed deadlines, of toting the laptop or notebook places so I could squeeze in some writing time. But this has been my dream, and dreams don't actually happen overnight (despite evidence to the contrary).
Even after all the work, the rejection after rejection, I have never thought about or considered giving up. And I'm...