Every year the Maryland Writer’s Association hold a contest of sorts. Usually that contest is for novels in the categories of Historical, Mystery / Thriller, Science Fiction / Fantasy / Speculative Fiction, or Literary / Mainstream. In 2018, I submitted Twin Worlds into the contest but didn’t win. For 2019, the association decided to commemorate their 30th anniversary by forgoing the contest and instead producing an anthology entitled 30 Ways to Love Maryland. The idea was for their to be thirty items within the anthology from Maryland Writers, all of which focused on some element of Maryland. This allowed for short stories, essays and memoirs to be included. Sixty-four items were submitted, and about thirty were selected. Well, my story “By the River” got in!
This was a surprise, not because I didn’t think the story was good, but because I hadn’t heard anything from the association for a couple of months. But I was attending a program associated with the Chesapeake Chapter of Sisters in Crime on Sunday afternoon in Bethesda. Ellen was seated next to Eileen McIntyre, the president of the Maryland Writer’s Association. After we introduced ourselves, she squinted, then asked my name again. She said that I’m was one of the authors whose short story had been selected for the anthology, and I hadn’t responded to give them my bio and a picture. I was floored.
When we arrived home, I checked my email, and lo and behold I found an email with a list of the stories and items that had been selected for the anthology. Buried in the middle of the list was “By the River.” So, for the 2019 conference, I was the only contributor whose bio and picture didn’t appear in the anthology. On the other hand, nine of the contributors were in attendance, and most attendees treated the nine of us like we were kind of a big deal, which was very nice. I thought it was cool all along, but it was nice that other folks felt that way as well.
While I’m not being paid for the anthology, it’s nice to know that people are paying money to see a small piece of my writing!
