An Electronic Kick in the Pants

Things have been notably still on this blog for awhile and that’s totally my bad (I am the sole author, so it would be ludicrous to blame anyone else). However, I’ve given myself permission to slide as I’ve been working on a couple of other hot projects that have distracted me in a most sincerely good way.

September 20th was a fateful day. One of my long-time writer friends dropped me a quick note regarding a mystery writer’s competition. Karen Gilb reports on the Portland writing scene for the online publication Examiner.com and she came across the competition while researching an article.

I followed the link to the St. Martin’s Minotaur competition page, where the Malice Domestic First Novel competition was listed (among others). Perusing the requirements, I had to agree, it fit my mothballed mystery novel quite well and the deadline for submission was October 15th.

Then the speed bumps started popping up in the roadway.

First, I hadn’t touched the book in years since I’d wandered off in the weeds after it was read by a couple agents who recommended substantial rewrites. I had agreed with their feedback, relating mainly to the fact that the characters were too young (college students) for the reader demographic (middle-aged women). Although I’d started a rewrite that I liked much better than my original manuscript, I lost steam and never finished it.

Second, the submission deadline was October 15th, less than four weeks away. Could I possibly rewrite a full length manuscript, edit it and prepare it for submission on such a tight schedule?

Most people would consider this to be an impossible task. Maybe it was. But in the spirit of thinking differently, how could I say no? So I decided to enter the competition.

Just Think Differently.