10/13/09–"Blog, on, blog on, with hope in your heart, and you'll never blog alone." To paraphrase a famous song. I know that a few read my blogs.  I have comments and e-mails that testify to this, but I sometimes think I'm blogging into the "blue."However, I keep at it as it is another exercise in putting words together–ia practice I will never get enough of.  

Yesterday I spent two hours getting a manuscript ready for a contest, making sure I checked everything–submission deadline, word lenght, proper format, return envelope ("for report on winners," the rules said.  I really don't care who the winners are unless I'm one!)  After packaging the Ms and putting stamps on the envelope, I opened my e-mail to learn that the Oct. 15 deadline for postmark had been rescinded.  "We had enough manuscripts to judge by Oct 5 so the contest is closed." Well hooray! 

But email this morning reports on another contest that is still open. It would be right for the story I wanted to send in yesterday, so all is not lost.  E-mail also brought me the news that a CA writing friend has won two prizes (1st and 3rd) in a short-short story contest.  Hooray for writers. Appropriately, her writer group is named "High Hopes Writers." –Willma