Just got back from the mailbox. My prize check from Author Services, for Coward’s Steel, the 3rd place winner in the 1st Quarter 2009 Writers of the Future competition.
$500!
I’m going out right now to spend it on something frivolous, before reality picks the lock on those handcuffs and rips away the duct tape to remind me about all the practical uses I could make of the money.
Haha, it’s cool to actually have all those words materialize into cash, isn’t it?
On the other hand, when I think just how many contests I’d need to win each year just to maintain my current standard of living, I’m painfully reminded exactly how feasible making money off short fiction is.
Enjoy it!
Ah, but we write short fiction for the love of it, Tom. Novels — sweaty, grimy, torn tee-shirt novels — are what we’re supposed to write to make money.
And the money is gone but not wasted after all. I drew the rest of my short-story earnings out of Paypal and bought a pretty decent laptop.
Now I can pitch out my ratty one-lunged wheezer, which picks the most inopportune moments to crash, and have something decent to take to Kansas next week.
Congrats! Sounds like a good investment.
:_( we still have to pay taxes though
Yes, short fiction for the love of it. . .and also for the craft. For me craft was the first motivation – I used to much prefer novels to shorts, but I found I learned at a snail’s pace trying to write them. I love reading short fiction now, but it’s definitely been a taste acquired over time.
woohoo!!! What a thrill. Hope you enjoyed the shopping trip and included a niced bottle of champagne too.
How exciting! What a great thing to find in one’s mail box! Have fun spending it!
Erin: I had a blast. 😉