My wife spotted an article in the Sunday paper spotlighting a fiction contest open to U of Minnesota alumni and students. In the dark ages of my youth I wrote a few short stories; one was published in the high school literary magazine after the selection committee had my English Professor, Colonel Hagood, take me aside to establish that it was original (it was). Naturally I was simultaneously pleased and outraged that my name was mentioned in the same sentence as plagiarism.
The first draft is complete and on its way to the critique group. Compared to novel writing, a 3000 word story is easy to produce in terms of the time commitment. The rules and objectives are quite different. Another departure is my use of the first person. The three novels I've produced were all in third person. Keeping the point of view consistent and deciding when to change are non-factors in the first person.
The contest deadline is in February. I'm going to keep it under wraps until after the winner is announced. If I don't win, I'll use it to experiment with self publishing and put it out in e-book form for free, if possible. If I win, I'll make a link to the story online. Oh yes, and my wife gets the check.
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