I consider that our present sufferings are not worth comparing with the glory that will be revealed in us. The creation waits in eager expectation for the sons of God to be revealed. For the creation was subjected to frustration, not by its own choice, but by the will of the one who subjected it, in hope that the creation itself will be liberated from its bondage to decay and brought into the glorious freedom of the children of God.
~ Romans 8:18-21
This is one pretty passage! Our creation is subjected to pain, wrongdoing, and frustration (kinda like my post below). It's like our world is trapped in a pit. But our hope is to freed and drawn out of the pit, into glorious cleanness and freedom! Praise God that He would call us His children and see fit to save us for no reason!
Also, I've a prayer request. I have this short story in my computer. Tis 4891 words long, and is called, The End Date. The long and short of it is, it is my baby. My favorite thing I have ever written. God really helped me during the writing of it and gave me some great ideas. I think I even cried while I wrote it (doesn't ever happen). Everyone that read it loved it, or said they did, and I thought it was an excellent story.
So I entered it in a Christian short story contest. Paid the entry fee, sent it in, waited patiently for the results. But no emails or phone calls. When I went on the final date to see who the winners were there was no awesome Meggy-written story...it was...a western. Are you kidding me?! And to add insult to injury, the contest people sent me a little book of all the shorts and poems that had won money that year. There was a painful lack of Meggy in that book, I noticed.
So now I'm looking for more contests that maybe will see the value of such a story. But there are problems all over the place. I want a contest that will take my story with it's current wordcount, have a good grand prize, not have an INSANE entry fee (it gets a little nuts), and give my story a shot even though it's Christian. There's always a problem. Good money-winning ones want 1500 words. 5000 worders charge a $50 entry fee. Christian ones want your publishing rights. This list goes on. Also, all contests want previously unpublished work. Say I entered my story somewhere and got like, honorable mention. I'd get like $50 and then it would be published and it would no longer be mine--no making any more money off of it or nuthin. See what I mean? This little fact makes me scared that, when I DO find a good contest, I won't win enough to be worth it. And with secular contests I know that they will be hesitant to publish such decidedly Christian material to their magazine or whatever...so even if I was better than the others, someone else might get picked and I'd have wasted my money to get in.
So, lots of fears and failures. I really want the best for this story and don't want the whole thing to come out a flop. It's probably just my own pride that doesn't want to take honorable mention and lose it's publishing rights. Still praying about what to do with it as I read it over and let others read it.
1 comment:
I would say stop entering those contests...publish it yourself. Figure it out.
Think of it this way...I create a contest and market it properly to people that are desperatly trying to; have the approval of man, win a little money, whatever. They want those petty things so much that they would sell their birthright for it. Then, I charge them money to boot...say 50 bucks. But the grand prize is 1000 dollars!! Second place is 250, 3rd is 100...HMs get 50 a piece to the tune of 1500 dollars!Let's say 100 people enter. I pull in 5000 dollars, potentially good stories that I have the rights to...let's say 1000 people enter. Wow..good for me the contest holder.
There's not a lot to that Meg. I would recommend doing your research and pubilshing your own or creating your own publishing company or starting your own contests.
:-)
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