In 2003 I entered the Writers of the Future contest for the first time. I think, though I am not certain, I entered the story The Station on the Edge an attempt at cosmic horror.  The story placed as a semi-finalist and I foolishly thought that it would be a short trip to the winner’s circle.

Here’s how the contest works. The cycle is quarterly so every three months they receive thousands (they do not release the exact number but only ‘thousands’) of stories from around the world – though the stories must be in English. With all author identifying information stripped away the coordinating judge reviews the stories.  Most do not place and you get a form rejection letting you know that. Another group of 20-30 get an Honorable Mention these writers get a nice little certificate, a handful are awarded Semi-Finalist, these get a certificate and a short as to why their story failed to make it to Finalist. Six are named Finalists and these six stories are passed from the Coordinating Judge to the Quarterly Judges, a rotating panel of professional writers in the SF and Fantasy field. From the Finalist the Judge selected three winners, 1st, 2nd, and 3rd place. Once all four quarters winners are determined the contest arranges a weeklong workshop for the 12 winners, and from the 4 1st place quarterly winners 1 grand prizewinner is determined.

So you can see how scoring a semi-finalist on my first try boosted my confidence and my ego. Skip ahead 15 years, I have not entered every quarter but I have entered a lot and in those 15 years, and in those 60 quarters I scored 5 semi-finalists and a little more than that in Honorable Mentions. It’s a very tough competition among writers who have not yet achieved professional status. If fact it’s been quite a few years since I scored anything more than an Honorable Mention.

Until yesterday.

My most recent entry has placed as a Finalist. It is one of the six stories from which the three winners will be selected. (And no that does give me a 50% chance. As the great editor Gardner Dozois once said from a panel “It’s NOT a lottery!” My chances depend on the style and quality of the other stories and the tastes of the Judges this quarter.) This is closer to winning than I ever achieved but I am preparing myself for a loss.

Still, this is very exciting.