Finalist!

When I checked my e-mail last night (between cleaning the house and getting the tree ready) I saw an e-mail from the Writers of the Future folks. "Uh, oh," I thought, "here it is -- another e-mail thanking me for submitting and informing me that my story placed at quarter finalist level (meaning K.D. Wentworth, the contest judge, managed to get through the story without putting it into a reject pile)." When I read the message, I learned that my story, "Glass Mask Magic," had reached finalist level. That means that it's in the running for first, second, or third place for the quarter. If the story doesn't win, there's a possibility that they might choose to publish it in the Writers of the Future anthology anyway.

This is really good news. I've been a semi-finalist three times before (meaning that K.D. Wentworth thought my stories were in the top 20 for the quarter, but didn't make the cut to finalist level). As a finalist story, "Glass Mask Magic" goes to a panel of other writers, and they decide the first-, second-, and third-place winners. Even if the story doesn't place, it means that it's certainly marketable. Of course it would be vindicating to win the grand prize (best first place story), but I won't know for a few more days if I've placed first (or at all) and nobody knows who the grand prize winner is until August 2007.