Oklahoma Writer’s Federation, Annual Writing Contest

I did make a New Year’s resolution to post something on this blog every week. But then, I also made New Year’s resolutions to quit, abstain from, and generally cut down on my bad habits, and I haven’t done any of those things either. Oh hum.

Truth is I’ve been totally swamped with work preparing my entries for the Oklahoma Writer’s Federation annual writing contest. Admitedly, most of the work was already done, though some pieces needed editing and revising. Then I made the mistake of deciding to enter a category that needed a lot of work.

I’ve been tinkering around with an idea for a nonfiction book for some time now, and have even written a few chapters, but the thing takes a lot of research, and other projects kept getting in the way. Well, that’s my excuse, I guess there was also an element of procrastination involved, isn’t there always?

Anyway, I had a sudden rush of blood to the head and decided to submit the thing ― you notice how it’s become “the thing?” ― to the nonfiction book category of the contest. This involved writing a chapter outline and submitting sample chapters, and as I had only written about seven chapters thus far, the scale of the project was monumental. I had to spend every available moment on the computer, and my husband, Mick, got lumbered with making dinner, grocery shopping, and several other chores for a week. I don’t know what I’d do without him.

To cut a long story short, I just got it done in time for the deadline, then I had to walk round to the post office in a blizzard to get the thing in the mail. I know it doesn’t stand a snowball in hell’s chance of winning, as I had no time to revise or edit, but hopefully I’ll get some feedback from the judge about my idea.

Right now, I never want to see the bloody thing again, but give it a few weeks...