From the Big Finish newsletter:
STORY COMPETITION NOW CLOSED
The 'Short Trips' short story competition has now closed.
Thank you to all of the 1,073 entrants! A winner will be
announced soon and will have their work published later this
year.

You know, it just hit me this morning - that short story I sent in on the 31st is officially my first fiction submission. I actually submitted work to be published. And while I'll probably be rejected, that's still pretty amazing. I actually sat down, outlined something, wrote something, revised something, and then submitted it in the hopes that I'll be published.


I'm really a writer now.

*awe*

It was a mad dash involving both me and my mom, but we made it with less than a minute to spare! The short story has officially been emailed to Big Finish. I'm sore, exhausted, and a lot wiser for my efforts. I'm also not expecting to win a damn thing. But it's done!!

Well, I just spent the last two and a half hours revising my short story. I cut out everything I marked on the hard copy and then some. I whittled it down from 32 double spaced pages to 16 double spaced pages. I mercilessly cut out bits that were funny, bits that were illuminating, and some bits that were just plain bad. And when I finally finish up and view my word count, what do I get?

4,852.

Damn it.

I'm really not sure how much further I can chop this thing and still have it make sense! Maybe I should just start from scratch and write something new and less involved. Maybe I should switch Doctors so I don't have to worry about trying to convey the Seventh Doctor's more cerebral approach to solving problems. Maybe I should go stick something in the microwave and watch it blow up. I really just don't know.

At any rate, I'm getting the heck out of here. The sun's gone down so now it's twice as cold as usual down in the basement. My shoulder aches, I'm exhausted, my fingers are like little elegantly shaped spears of ice, and I'm cranky that my good work is going to waste. CURSE YOU, BIG FINISH! LONG MAY YOUR WORD COUNT FEARING SCALPS ACHE!!!

I finished hardcopy editing of my Doctor Who short story half an hour ago. :) I'm not sure if I managed to cut 8,000 words worth of material, but I was pretty ruthless with it. We'll see what it's like once I enter it into the word processor and give it another read-through. I'm kind of irritated with Big Finish for only allowing 2,500 words per entry, because that makes it extremely difficult to craft an interesting story. I read the stuff that had already won - it's just fluff, because there isn't enough time to really let anything else BUT fluff develop. But I'm going to do my best to blow 'em away anyhow. :) And hey, if I lose - guess what my entire F-list gets to read! =D

I'm also watching a dog competition on Bravo. I thought it would be super boring like most dog competitions are but it's actually really cool. These dogs are doing some really amazing things. They just had a greyhound jump 68"! That's a new world record. She just took off like she had little rockets built into her paws! No ramps or anything! It was so cool.