I’ve been Invited!

Yesterday, I emailed a friend and said, “I’m having one of those ‘why do I bother’ phases.” I go through this phase at least once a year. It’s nothing serious. I just start doubting my ability and my reasons for writing. Within a few days, a week at the most, I’m back to thinking like a writer should think.

This time, however, the phase has been bad enough for me to consider removing myself from the “internet” scene and just writing like I used to write. In those days, I was a prolific writer and I wrote two complete 200,000+ manuscripts, one 100,000+ manuscript and started several others. Since I turned my mind to publication, I’ve hardly written a thing. Well, that’s not entirely true. I’m being slightly melodramatic. I’ve written two children’s chapter books and three short stories. If I compare the word count, that amounts to nothing. Yet if I compare quality, my latest writing wins out for sure.

Anyway, I’ve been down in the dumps and not particularly motivated. Then…out of the blue…I received an invitation.

Instantly, the writer in me reawakened. Instantly, ideas started swirling around in my mind. Instantly, I want to get back into writing.

Why?

I’ve already told you – I’ve been invited. 😀

In 2004, I organised an anthology project. I’ve written about it numerous times on this blog. Unfortunately, the project didn’t go as planned and I didn’t manage to get the stories published as publishers are not interested in unknown authors. They want to pick the theme, the stories and the authors (preferably well known, published authors).

However, it was because of the anthology that I started corresponding with Julie E. Czerneda. The Anthology submission found its way onto her desk. After long consideration she rejected the stories, but not the authors. She invited us to give our details for future consideration of other anthologies she planned on editing for publication through DAW Books Inc.

Yesterday, I received an invitation to submit a story. I am one of eleven people she has invited to submit for the Editor’s Choice. Only one story will be successful. Considering we have a 1 in 10,000 chance (and that is probably way under the mark) when we submit to publishers and agents, I think a 1 in 11 chance is mighty fine. It certainly has given me the motivation I needed.

The deadline is 15th May. My time zone is well ahead of Canada, so I had better say the deadline is 12th May to be safe. The theme is “magic meets technology”. I already have a story in mind and now I have two months to plan, write, edit, proof, edit, proof again and final edit this story. That sounds like plenty of time, but I usually spent weeks thinking about the story, then weeks planning the story before writing a single word. That’s not going to fit the deadline this time round, so I have set a goal and I want to start writing the story next weekend. This means I have five days to plan the story and characters. Five days. That’s not long at all.

Better go, I have a story to plan…

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