Black on Black in Black

I entered the 81st Annual Writer's Digest competition today with a short mystery story called Black on Black in Black. (If you don't understand the title, I'm sorry. It's a black-thang.)

A friend at The Philadelphia Tribune asked me a couple of years ago to write a mystery with her as the main character and we actually came up with the name for the protagonist together. But that was the extent of her contribution.

It's a murder mystery that I started two years ago but didn't get around to finishing it until last fall. It's not long -- just over 2,000 words -- but has a nice feel to it.

I had forgotten about this competition, which costs to enter but has really nice prizes. There are 10 categories, including magazine feature articles, rhyming and non-rhyming poems, movie scripts, and short stories. The maximum word word is about 4,000 words.

They offer cash prizes for first through 10th place in each of the categories and a $3,000 cash prize and a trip to New York for the Grand Prize winner, who is selected from all entries. Hard to see how I could win that but you can never tell. And you can't win if you don't enter. Since I entered, I could possibly win.

I haven't entered this contest in several years. But in 2007, a got an honorable mention in the television/movie script category for my screenplay, Loss of Consortium. But I decided to enter this year as part of my goal of entering more contests, and writing more short fiction. This is the second contest I have entered this year, after ABNA, and I am working on one final edit of my novel, An Untidy Affair, for a competition next month. No final decision on other competitions or contests but I'm looking around. There are lots to choose from. I just have to find the ones that are a good fit for me and for them.

So that's it for today. I have to get back to editing. But thanks for reading and I will see you next time.