Image Credit: https://www.deviantart.com/nept
The TLDR version? This contest is my favorite one of all the ones I’ve entered and I finally got noticed – Honorable Mention -2019 for Malbone Chocolates. 🙂 I’ll be posting that soon, but for now, here are three things I like about this contest:
- You have full rights to your work – some of these contests are scams that try to collect your IP. READ the contracts! Make sure you know what you’re getting into
- The feedback -every entry, even those that aren’t winner receives feedback. It’s funny because last years entrant, Grembus Awakes, I thought was a stronger work, but Malbone takes the Honorable mention. Perhaps it was the feedback I got from the first one? Who knows?
- Writing outside of my lane – This contest is fun and different from my novel slog because it randomizes the genre, the character type, and setting. For example, my assignment this time was a Crime Caper, Chocolatier, and a funeral. Tough one!
I frankly didn’t know really what a Crime caper was (think Oceans 11). My first step was to research the genre and see what the better forms of the art were. I selected a movie (because I was traveling for work). The movie? A Fish Called Wanda, a strange, funny, awkward movie from way back when. Jamie Lee Curtis was great in it, and I was always curious about it. Now was my excuse to watch it, and I don’t regret it.
Between this work and some older capers I put together Malbone Chocolates, I hope you enjoy it!