I mentioned a few weeks ago that I had been entering contests for writer, hoping to learn about writing short stories and perhaps find other avenues for my work. To find these contests, I used Steffi Smiths Stephie Smith’s site and identified a number of contests, as I mentioned in a previous post. One of the contest I found on Smith’s site was for the Gulf Coast Writers Association based in Fort Myers, Florida, an association that provides “a forum for fellowship, education, and information for writers” in that community and from a variety of genres. The association sponsors an annual contest open to anyone, even non-members with several divisions: Children’s Stories, Fiction, Non-Fiction and Poetry. First place winners in each category receiving $100 and publication on the association website and often in the summer edition of Fort Myers Magazine. Well, I won first place in the fiction category! Who woulda thunk it?
The Entry
“Thirteen” is a story about a man taking a vacation alone after his divorce. The story was written based on this prompt: “You check into a seedy hotel and discover halfway through the night that it is made up entirely of thirteenth floors missing from other hotels.” This is from the reedsy.com. I modified the prompt and started writing. The result was the story where all the rooms are “13” something, like “1322,” “1369,” etc. I thought it was a rather creative story and the committee agreed.
The Prize
How sweet! This is my check for $100 from the Gulf Coast Writers Association, for first prize. This is my first payment for a story, as separate from people who purchase by novels, so I’m pumped. And I’ll definitely enter more contests like this one in the future!
