In the “always a bridesmaid” category, I’ve received another Honorable Mention from Writers of the Future.

One of my previous Honorable Mentions sold to Andromeda Spaceways, but another Honorable Mention and my Semi-Finalist story have yet to sell. Interestingly, one of my straight rejections sold to Urban Fantasy Magazine.

In recent quarters, I’ve entered sporadically when I’ve had a story I thought stood a chance. My work doesn’t tend to resemble the sorts of stories that end up in the anthology in form, style, or subject matter so it’s always a risk to send to Writers of the Future. But I keep entering because I’d love to go to the workshop — as a working mom with a demanding, full-time day job, I’m unlikely ever to be able to go to one of the six-week workshops, but a week I could swing.

Lately, in particular, I’ve been experimenting with story form (stories in the form of FAQs and message boards, or in forms closer to prose poems than anything else) and with atypical narrators (choral narrators, ensemble narrators, narrators without main characters), both of which are death knells for the contest. So I haven’t been submitting to the contest much.

I had a blast writing the story that got the Honorable Mention, and I still enjoy reading it. I hope it finds a good home.