Saturday, December 14, 2013

A Dusting of Words

I always love the first snow of the season. Last weekend's ice pellets and freezing rain notwithstanding, I'm marking this as Waynesboro's official winter preview. A nice dusting from Mother Nature to ease us into winter.

Not even a week ago I was bummed that 2013 had been such a slow writing year. Other demands on my time. If you have  a family, a job, a home, or any combination thereof, you know what I mean. I don't track my total word count for any given period of time, but I had no doubt 2013 had set no records. Still, the real hope is that the caliber of the wordsmithing is improving. Quality not quantity, right? And then the call comes in from Joni Labaqui from the Writers of the Future Contest and I receive that much coveted validation.

So my advice to my fellow writers is this. Next time you're bummed over word count, take a close look at those words and share them with friends, family, contests and editors. Take a chance. That dust might be made of gold.






----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

4th Quarter Finalists in the L. Ron Hubbard Writers of the Future Contest
The final round of the contest's 30th year.

Kate Hall of Minnesota
C. Stuart Hardwick of Texas
Oleg Kazantsev of Chicago
Joel G. Kempff of Montana
Stephanie Loree of Ohio
Fi Mitchell of New South Wales, Australia
Megan E. O'Keefe of California
William R.D. Wood of Virginia

Yes, ladies and gentlemen. I am in good company.

2 comments:

  1. It does feel good, doesn't it, Bill? I was doing tech support when I got the call. That transition from fussing over computers to someone calling to to give that kind of validation is a pretty big one. ;-)

    ReplyDelete
  2. You bet. Nothing like it!

    I hope to join you guys in the winner's circle someday soon, too. In the meantime I'm looking forward to reading your story in the 30th anniversary antho!

    ReplyDelete