Baa Baa Back Story

The "Wicked" winner was in today's Globe. I obviously misunderstood something, probably that one needed to do the backstory of a character in "Wicked," not just any nursery rhyme, etc., although this was not specified in the rules. Sometimes you read a work that bested yours and you think "Wow," that is really good, and you admire it. Other times, you think that the judges must have picked the winner in a dark cave with no candles.

I love my big bad black sheep who jumped out of his pen and raised hell at the county fair.

Amazon has a novel contest, which I am entering, and MWA has one, which I am not. I think Borders or Barnes and Noble also has a contest, all for crime writers. Will there soon be more contests that unpublished novels? No way. I think novels reproduce at night while we sleep.

I'm starting my California novel and thinking about the first and the last scenes. I had opted for a bleak ending, and now I'm changing my mind. All my endings are a little bleak.
If the Amazon contest ends like the Wicked, I'm going to switch to a career that will bring in some cash and some real recognition. Well, maybe not. Writing is a disease. Incurable, too.

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