Writers of the Future again

Just got word that my story "The Burden of Triumph" made the semi-finals for the 1st quarter of Writers of the Future Contest. That's one of eleven spots, and among the top 20 out of thousands of submissions. Really nice to have made it that high in back-to-back quarters. As before, Mr. Dave "Farland" Wolverton will be providing me with a free critique. I'll probably update this post later to quote some highlights.

Writers of the Future Contest

I failed to mention that I was a semi-finalist of the Writers of the Future Contest last year, fourth quarter, 2012. That means I made it within the top 16 stories and, considering there were as many as 2,000 submissions, that's pretty neat! Though officially it still counts as losing, I did get a personal critique from award winning, NY Times best selling writer, David Farland. This was what he had to say:

"First, congratulations on being a semi-finalist this quarter. The competition was tough, and this [story] came very close to being a finalist ... [The] sense of humor that you displayed got me hooked in paragraph one, and I read it to the end and found that it was quite touching. So this is publishable as it stands ... [It] was quite effective. Congratulations on a fine story."

I was very flattered by his comments, and very appreciative of his and Joni Labaqui's time. Still looking for a publisher for this story, but I'm confident I'll find someone soon. If you're interested, the results have been posted: here.