The Amazon Contest

I've leaped over the first hurdle, which was getting the formatting, etc. correct for the Amazon Writing Contest entry. Got a notification I had passed.

The second hurdle will be to be in the top 1000 among the 5000 entries. Logic says, with 5 books under my belt, and all the attention to craft and just practice, that I should make the first real cut. We'll see. Have to wait a while to find out. I'll write while I'm waiting.

The Gather Contest has been very quiet and I can't figure out what's going on. No emails, nothing much happening. Aren't we supposed to be reading the entries and commenting? I can't even find the entries. Technical problems? I got an email saying they had received my submission. Gather, from what I learned somewhere had far fewer entries than Amazon, and the deadline to enter is passed. I read the one entry I found and it was amaturish and not very well written. Many basic mistakes in the first paragraph. I must have learned something over the years.

The Amazon message board has protests of disbelief from those whose formatting or reading skills was put to the test and failed. Little cliques start to proliferate. High school on steroids. Or something.

After an inauspicious beginning, to wit, rain, we had a beautiful fall day and I finished the last of the garden chores. Hooray! Still some unfrozen herbs. Another harvest! I love it. Snow forecast for weekend, the The End Is Near. Adieu cilantro! Adios dill! Ciao parsley. How the hell do you spell parsley? Looks weird. And so forth.

Must go watch Nip and Tuck. Can't believe I has missed all these seasons. Sigh.

Grapeshot