I has written a story!

[artemis_rex]

I entered the fall writing competition at www.hurog.com, Author Patricia Briggs' official site.

All the entries are here: http://hurog.com/forum/index.php?topic=3575.0

Mine is "Once Upon a Time." You don't have to read it, but if you do, please tell me what you thought of it. (It is entirely okay not to like it. I'd love to hear what you thought

Comments

[big_town_avenue]

Wow. I wish I could write like that. I really loved it.

And by the way, you're kicking ass in that contest. WOO!

[artemis_rex]

That really means a lot to me, because I love the way YOU write, and because I know that genre isn't your favorite. Thanks so much!

[artemis_rex]

THANK YOU! I appreciate it so much, you don't even know.

[rileysmomma]

Registered with the site and voted for you. Really liked the final version. And it looks like you're winning by a landslide. :)

[artemis_rex]

Thanks so much! I'm glad you liked it -- I'm tooling around with the idea of expanding it as a YA novel when I finish my current WIP. Do you think it'd work?

[rileysmomma]

I think it would work. There's a lot to expand on and explore with everything that Sunny has going on and how certain things parallel with Matt. And just from what you've already written, Sunny's already a million times more likeable than Bella.

You know, there are several women here in my office that have read Twilight ... I'm thinking I might have them take a look at your short and see if I can get you some feedback from non-writers.

Two takers so far ... the other two won't be back into the office until tomorrow.

[artemis_rex]

That's really generous of you to formulate a "test group!" Thank you. If it ever makes the (really big) leap to a book, I'll be sure to remember you in the acknowledgements!

WTH?

[nittanylizard]

Did somebody un-vote? Your story had 11 votes, and now it's got 10.

Re: WTH?

[artemis_rex]

The board admin accused me of asking people to vote for my story without reading the others.

I don't know what happened to that vote. They may have decided to delete it, someone may have changed their mind, I just don't know.

I've decided that I won't frequent that board anymore. I don't want to be accused of causing drama, and the whole thing has left me with a bad taste in my mouth.

Re: WTH?

[nittanylizard]

That's a harsh accusation. I voted after reading every other story, and I can honestly say I would not have voted for your story if there was one I liked better (for exactly this reason). There wasn't.

As I was reading them, I was surprised at how, uh, not good some of them were, lol. There were a few I didn't even finish reading because either the grammar was consistently bad, the writing was too stiff and choppy, or the story itself was forced. A couple were okay, but they just didn't grab me.

Re: WTH?

[artemis_rex]

I was disappointed in the quality as well. I had hoped for better.

I told them I had asked for input, and if people came and signed up and voted for my story, then it was because they chose to do so, not because I asked them to. Their response was that it hadn't even occurred to them that I hadn't enlisted people to vote.

I think they perhaps felt a little overwhelmed and maybe invaded, but, honestly, maybe three or four people went and voted. And I trust that they all read the stories, because they are honest, trustworthy people.

They never said the voting was only open to regular members. That would be easily solved by making the voting forum open only to those who have made a set number of posts.

Funny thing is, someone on one of the mailing list that I'm on asked everyone to vote for a story she'd written for a contest yesterday -- just what I was accused of doing.