So since last time I did a writing update on Writers of the Future stuff…books and certificates and authors ahoy!

• I decided to treat myself to the seven-volume package of Writers of the Future anthologies that was on sale a few months ago. They came in a big cardboard box carefully packed all snug together so no corners were stubbed or pages crumpled, all mint-condition and shiny covers. They are currently stacked on my bookshelf, waiting to be given their own little place of honor.

They sent me bookmarks.

I know that shouldn’t make me nearly as happy as it does.

• After writing my two-part review of Writers of the Future Vol. 36, posting it on Goodreads, and expecting it to be buried under everything else that goes on in the book community, Leah Ning, the author of “Yellow and Pink,” and Zach Be, author of “As Able as the Air,” both left friendly little comments on my review saying thank-you (and in Zach Be’s case, inviting another scathing review in the future).

Okay, aside from the fact that they both were internationally recognized by the SF&F community this year for their contributions to the genre and what an awesome PR move it is to engage with “fans”…

I wonder if they both realize that by saying hello to a random, unknown book blogger who is too reclusive to even leave her name that they made me feel wonderful and confident in a way that doesn’t often happen in my dragon-infested corner of the world.

So…in the unlikely event you’re reading, Leah and Zach:

thank you. (Cue deep BookmarkedOne bow, doffing Gandalf hat in salute)

Anyway.

See the whole Goodreads conversation for yourself and please go poke around on their websites: Leah’s and Zach’s.

• I started (slowly) working my way through the Writers of the Future Online Writing Workshop. Yup, based off the same one that’s exclusively for the writing contest winners held in California every year. It’s jam-packed full of videos with David Farland, Orson Scott Card, and Tim Powers and essays by contest judges from years past. Probably going to scribble more about that experience once I’ve finished.

• Also this…

Ta-da! Our very own online “Honorable Mention” badge from Writers of the Future. Just in case you thought I was making it all up. It is real. Submit your own stories if you want:  www.writersofthefuture.com. The contest is also redesigning their certificates and sending out electronic copies for the first time ever this quarter. Very exciting.

And now?

Now I’m still waiting on the results for my last story, hoping this will be the one that makes even the judges of Writers of the Future forget who they are and what they know, only thinking about reading, reading, another page. Even with their exceptional careers and the fact that they’ve read every SF&F plot to be imagined in the last three decades at least.

A girl’s gotta dream, right?

And I have another short story to send off in the next 20 days. Not that it’s breathing down my neck or anything. Actually, it’s been finished since the end of May.

During university finals, yeah. I’m a little worried. It’s the same one I was cheerfully griping about earlier…alpha readers shipping characters and all that fun. I haven’t touched it since then.

So now if I can just persuade my inner editor to let me hit submit…