Confessions of a Busy Soul

Happy Saturday everyone. Hope you had a good week. Sorry for posting a day late, but my mind has been elsewhere these past few weeks. I’ve been fighting a nasty cold since last week which certainly hasn’t been easy with my son being sick too.  Cold season sucks!!! I am so ready for it to be springtime and ready to embrace the warmer weather.

Anyways a few weeks ago I don’t know if you remember me talking about how I submitted  one of my short stories to a contest. It was the Writer’s Digest Short, Short Story contest that I submitted to and a couple of weeks ago I got an email with an update on the judging. My heart was racing with excitement and fear as I clicked on the email to read. Over 6500 entries were submitted to this contest and the email went on to say the editors had already been in contact with all the winners previously. Wait, what? Already made contact? Oh no, what if I missed an email… I searched my junk mail… nothing. Searched my inbox… nothing. No email from any editor about the contest. I didn’t win a place in the top. Ouch! The disappointment I felt lasted a few moments before I reminded myself that I love my short story; I am proud of my short story. I took a chance but 6500 short stories is a lot of competition and obviously the judges were looking for something different from what my story had to offer. That’s okay! At the end of the day, I don’t need to win a contest to validate that what I wrote has touched many people who have read it. The fact alone that I could affect and touch one person reading it is enough validation alone. Included in the contest entry cost was access to a free webinar about self publishing which has given me more information, some inspiration and food for thought, so I certainly didn’t walk away from this  a loser. I am a winner because I took a chance.

 “Success is not final, failure is not fatal: it is the courage to continue that counts.” ― Winston S. Churchill

So off I go with my knowledge and another contest under my belt. Off to the next writing experience. I hope you all have a great rest of the weekend. Until next time! Thanks again for stopping by.

❤ Melissa