Saturday, April 12, 2008

Off to Boston and contestorama

We're off to Boston to visit my mother and go on the Swanboats (When I was 5, I was in love with a boy named Michael who ate all the peanuts instead of giving them to the real swans swimming by us. God, I got started early loving bad boys!)

Meanwhile, I am desperately trying to finish a script so I can enter the Nicholl Fellowships. Awards are funny things. I've won some awards and competitions, lost a LOT, and I got to judge the MidAtlantic Arts Fiction Competition a few years ago, which made me feel a whole lot better (and worse) about the whole process.

You are faced with six hundred 20 page entries to read. It's overwhelming. For one whole day, six of us got together to discuss our favorites, but almost every time, nobody agreed. In the end, did the stories I wanted to win win? Two did. TWO. I don't remember how many other people won, but there were at least ten. But it broke my heart because the real talent I saw didn't even place because I was the only one championing it. (It happens. A friend reminded me that Little Miss Sunshine didn't win the Nicholls.)

So, I'm curious. Anyone out there ever judged one of these? Ever won the Nicholls? Have a better attitude about contests than I do?

On another tangent--the press-on letters I bought for my keyboard because the letters wear off in six weeks....they are wearing off. I'm so disheartened. Next up, I'm trying plastic keyboard covers. I just pound the keys too hard so I'm not certain those are going to work either. Someone previously told me it has to do with acid in your fingertips, but I can't imagine wearing surgical gloves to type.

OK, gotta go pack!

6 comments:

Caroline said...

Drat! I just discovered I can't enter the Nicholls because I earned option money for other projects! Sigh...

Clea Simon said...

BOTHER! Ah well, at least the deadline made you get a lot of work done.

Hey - an idea - what about using nail polish to paint the letters on the keyboard? I think you'd have to get a tiny tiny brush and also it might feel bumpy and annoying to your fingers. But as any of us who've gotten nail polish on things knows, it NEVER wears off!

PJ McIlvaine said...

Hey, don't be discouraged. Selling the script would be better than winning Nicholls. :)

Gina Sorell said...

Shoot! Oh well, I agree...selling it would be the better than winning the competition.

As for the keyboard...Clea got me thinking with the nail polish idea...what if you used clear nail polish to seal the letters on your next keyboard?

Have a great time in Boston!

Jeff Lyons said...

Nicholls smicholls. We don't need no stinking contest!

Re keyboard... you might get one of the new Mac USB keyboards. I think they work with PCs. They're metal and pretty indestructible.

J

Clea Simon said...

Oh I love Gina's idea! Better than trying to write with colored nail polish. Seal them on with clear nail polish!!