Read The Finding Party, here.
But accolades ain't so bad, either! In round one of my heat (among those who got the same prompts - an estimated group of 25 writers or so?) my story, The Finding Party, came in 2nd place! Holy smokes! This was out of a possible five slots, with four honorable mentions per grouping.
Now, this is only the first round of three, mind you — so I'll keep you posted on how the competition shakes out in the subsequent heats. But for now, I'm pretty dang pleased: this baby was cranked out in 7 days, had to be less than 2,500 words (and you better believe I pretty much used all of 'em), and had to include the prescriptive elements in the screengrab above (ghost story, farmer, a fixation).
One of the best things about this particular contest is that whether you place or not, every story comes back with the judge's comments and feedback. For a writer, this is invaluable.
(WARNING! SPOILERS BELOW!!). To sweeten the emotional payoff in The Finding Party, for example, the judges would have liked to have seen a bit more backstory about my narrator's failing marriage—a great note. At the same time, they also praised the execution of the plot twist, the interplay of sweetness and sadness in the story's tone, and, my personal favorite among the panel's comments, "this writer clearly has a handle on structure." (Aggh! Yesss! Swoon!).
This also represents my first attempt at putting something together on Substack, yet another experiment born out of throwing things at the wall during the pandemic to see what sticks. There, you'll be able to sign up or subscribe to read more of my work (if that's your thing).
Until then, happy backpacking season, y'all!
