My manuscript advanced to the Top 10! (Launch Pad 6th Annual Prose Writing Competition Top 10.) It may not be very professional, but I’ll admit: I cried when I read the news.

I am super excited. (Yes, Launch Pad, I was the one refreshing your website every thirty minutes all morning.)

This is such an opportunity. My manuscript is going to be read by eleven judges, including agents like Paula Munier at Talcott Notch Literary Agency and Amanda Jain at Bookends Literary (WTH?), as well as people involved with some of my favorite television shows and movies. John Buderwitz, I can’t tell you how many times I’ve watched the Jurassic World movies—they helped get me through the pandemic.

Although I don’t write screenplays, I love film and television, which is one of the reasons I enter contests like these. I’d love to have one of my stories optioned for film. I’d love to see something I wrote adapted to film by a talented screenwriter. I love the differences between the two, the things each form of media can accomplish, and the ways one can be more effective or effective in a unique way over the other. I’m currently studying screenwriting in my spare time and hope to write an original feature-length screenplay someday. But I’m not a screenwriter. My stretch dream is to be invited to attend the Academy Awards because a movie based on one of my stories is up for Best Adapted Screenplay.

So this is an exciting moment for me, and a huge opportunity. I can’t believe how far I’ve come in the last six years, when I went back to school to finish my BA in English and wasn’t even considering that I could have a second chance at a writing career.

The grand prize winner and three mentorships will be announced December 16th. Please wish me luck!