At LAST. At. Long. Bloody. Last. It's the summer break. I have six weeks of no school. I would say I haven't felt like this since I was a seventeen except that I used to get 3 months off when I was in High School and 8 weeks off in primary. The British education system is a tad stingier with vacation time. Still I'm not going anywhere near this gift-horse's gob. I'm just pleased that my jammies and I can get reacquainted with the daylight hours.
Now if I can just convince my children to stop expecting me to drive them everywhere I'd be a very happy bejammied bunny.
So to the news.
Big trumpet fanfare!
I officially returned to writing mode at the beginning of the month when at the very last hour (actually I think I had about 3 hours to spare) I sent an entry into Jason Evan's Clarity of Night flash fiction competition. The prompt was a photograph of a crystal glass filled with red wine and the title was "In Vino Veritas". Truth in Wine. Jason had a co-host for this competition - Jaye Wells, author of Red-Headed Stepchild, who herself was a former entrant of a Clarity of Night competition. I have a huge soft spot for Jason's blog and his competitions as it is the place where I took my first tentative steps into the world of writing and it is through him I have come to know so many of you. How Jason holds down a full time job, writes so much incredible poetry and fiction, manages several blogs (although alas the Book Roast is no more), takes breathtaking photos AND runs these competitions at regular intervals, is beyond me. (Rumour has it that he's a damn fine husband and father too). I can only assume he has wizard magic or he has learned how to bend time.
This is the fourth competition of Jason's I've entered and with each one I have gained insight and learned so much from the other entrants. And with each one I got better. In the last competition, Ascension, I got an honourable mention which for me felt like being shortlisted for the Booker!!! This time around my excitement went into the red zone when I diligently tuned in at 5pm yesterday (local time - noon EST) to find that I got 4th place in the competition. Theeeeen I read further down and blow me if I didn't win the Reader's Choice Award. Oh My Giddy Aunt! I immediately went into "Oscar" mode and started thanking the world. I almost went into Sally Field "YOU LIKE ME" mode, (as we share a birthday I have to blame the stars for that impulse) but 20 years of living in England has taught me something about restraint. Instead I went on Facebook and screamed OMG!OMG!OMG! at the world. Much classier.
So to say I'm a tad stoked is a bit like saying the sun's a tad warm. I'm beaming. But the truly fantastic thing about the competition is the company you get to keep. And I have to offer my warm and hearty congratulations to JR Thumbprints (Jim Tomlinson) whose entry,The Sober Truth About Tyler & Zachary on Bickerstaff Street, won the day. I urge you all to have a read because it's just excellent. The Honorable Mentions list included our beloved blogging buddies - (that our means 'belonging to us collectively' - I didn't mean to sound like the queen) - WHIRLOCHRE with A Full Bodied Red, STEPHEN PARRISH with Through a Wine Glass, Darkly and AERIN with Presage. I'd also like to point out that Absolute Vanilla, Sandra Cormier, Peter Dudley, Sarah Laurenson, J.C. Montgomery, Aniket Thakkar, Catherine Vibert and Sylvia Spruck Wrigley all were inducted into the 40's club (which means that they scored over 40 out of the possible 45 points in Jason's marking system) as well as many many more fantastic entries. I hope that new friends will be made this time too. On top of that, in the reader's choice award Peter Dudley took second place with Judgement Day and Chris Eldin took third place with Brotherly Advice. So can I get a big YEEEEEHAW! And say Well Done Us.
There I'll put my trumpet down now.
I do just want to say a massive big THANK YOU to Jason and Jaye for being so incredibly generous and taking the time to sift through 158 entries. It was an amazing contest and I really appreciate your hard work. I also want to say thank you to everyone who gave me their vote for the reader's choice. I'm gobsmacked and thrilled to bits.
And in case I forget my entry is here.*
*Contains lots of non-PG words of the ear-melting variety.
22 comments:
YAY YAY YAY YAY, Janey!!!!! Well deserved! I thought your entry was brilliant--down to earth yet philosophical...and funny as hell!
It was a great contest, and all the winners were commendable!
ps--Does "blow me" mean the same thing in England that it does in America? :)
Glad to see you back!
Precie YAY! I loved your piece. My original comment that blogger ate was suitably gushy about it but I fear that by the time I had discovered that it was gone I was about 100 entries in and my comments were getting less and less verbose. :0(. But it was so very very beautiful and imaginative. And I'm so happy to see you back. I've been on an extended break myself but I'm happy to be back on track again.
As for Blow me - yup that means the same thing here as it does on your side of the pond (I stifle a childish giggle) but "Blow me down" simply means that I was so surprised I could have been knocked over by the sharp exhalation of a breath. ;0D
I'm so pleased for you all! I've been back and commented on as many as I could - well, on the people I know at any rate.
Janey, I hope this means a return to some diligent regular word count and a rise in the Koala Rankings...
Then there's the good old-fashioned 'blow me down with a feather'.
McK - I will certainly we working harder. I feel that your rankings may have left me far behind but like the 90 year old granny that decides to run the marathon - I will finish even if have to walk the course and take numerous pee breaks.
I did say blow me didn't I? Well I was in a celebratory frame of mind!
Yay Janey! So well deserved. Your entry was very funny and dealt with a difficult subject so very well.
I'm glad to see you in both categories!
Blow me, Blow me down - what's in a word?
Congrats! How exciting! And you are so right to BE excited! :) Kudos on a job very well done!
SO EXCITING! Congrats, my dear! And enjoy this vacation!!
Awesome! Congrats, Janey! What fabulous news to give upon reentering blogland. Missed you, by the way. Enjoy these next 6 weeks!
Hi Janey,
First of all, many congrats!!!!!!!! Your entry ROCKED!!! And I'm very glad you're going to take more steps into the writing world.
(Could you send me an email when you have a chance? Sorry if I have your addy and can't find it. Thanks! chriseldin1@gmail.com)
Well done, Janey! Congrats and kudos and yay! Very well-deserved too.
:) Congrats, Janey!! My smile was huge as I was tallying the Reader's Choice votes (that's my little contribution, while Jason and Jaye were sweating over their enormously humongous job...)
I really enjoyed your story, too!
Thanks for the mention Janey and BIG, BIG, BIG congratulatory hugs!!!
Sarah - thank you. I thought your poem was amazing. So happy to see your name with an astrix next to it.
Aimee - nice to see you here and thank you for your kind words. I think that your piece had a great deal of potential to be a novel. I'm intrigued about The Messanger - it's like a spy story from medieval times.
Thank you Kiersten. I'm feeling more like myself already!
Thank you Natalie. I've missed being around. But I found that I can't do everything and I had to prioritise the earning money thing. In this climate I'm very grateful to have a job.
Thanks Chris - delighted to be back.
Fairyhedgehog - you are very kind to say so.
Aine - Thank you so much. If you think your smile was huge you should've seen mine.!!!! I am so appreciative of all that Jason and Jaye did. I think humungous is a brilliant word to describe the work involved in judging 158 entries. I'm in awe.
JCM - thanks and congrats to you too.
I'M SO GLAD YOU'RE BACK, JANEY!
And huge congrats to you! Excellent!
HEY ROBIN!!!! I'm glad to be back too. Thanks for the congrats.
Janey - Loved your entry so much that I came here to see what else you get up to! Congratulations on your win and Reader's Choice award.
Congrats! If you don't mind, I'll be back.
As soon as catch up with the dozens of blogs I follow, I will happily dip into some tasty fiction. Congrats on this really positive writing feedback.
So glad you are BACK and I hope you have many happy bejammied writing hours this summer. One silver lining about the un-summery weather is that lazy people needn't feel guilty about staying indoors.
Heeeehaw! We'll I've already told you how much I loved your entry. :D
Am so very glad you won. We couldn't have lost to a better person. :D
Awesome people them Jason, Jaye and Aine. Cheers to all of you!
PS: Thanks for the link-love. :D
Whoohoo!!! Okay, I'm not going to do all the cheering here again - you've had it from me in all other forms everywhere else! I'm just delighted that the wins have given you the motivation to get on with your fiction! Go, girl, go!
And I got over 40 points? Sheesh, I didn't even know that. Perhaps there's hope for me, after all ;-)
already sent you grats at jason's, janey... forgot to do so here, so...
WAY TO GO!!! :)
most deserved, i might add!
Now that you're bck, hope we'll be hearing more from ya with your good posts, girl.
Would it be melodramatic of me to add thet life without you has been like a bizarre form of death?
Anyhow — glad you're back.
And — great writing.
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