Getting Pumped for the FWA 2018

There's a couple of things to note.

I plan on attending the Florida Writers Association's ceremony for the Royal Palm Literary Award. As a Finalist, I'm guaranteed a Third Place at the least (no, it turns out I was wrong about that), so here's knocking on processed wood about making it to First.

I've had some writing awards before: The South Florida Writers group had a short story contest of their own, which I earned a Second Place plaque back in 2002. When I was in Eighth Grade, I won a county award for Palm Harbor Middle for Writing... but that was kinda a cheat because I was the only one who submitted work for it (that was the FIRST year the school was back after the old one had closed 5-6 years earlier). I won Third Place for a Largo Library writing contest back in high school for a science fiction category, and oh what a funny situation that turned out to be...

I'd like to see if I can do well enough to earn a First Place, one that counts against decent competition.

Like I said, knock on processed wood about that.

The second thing to note is that I'm making a pitch to a literary agent at the conference. I don't have much besides some published shorts and a couple of unfinished novels, but the real challenge is making the pitch itself. See if I can argue my case as it were that I'm a viable writer worth finding a readership.

Gotta knock processed wood for this too.

Check my mood by the next post.