Carey Burns

I checked the Cafe Doom website before work to see if they posted the winners and found out that my story won 2nd place--I'm stunned and pleased to say the least.  Next up is to query a few editors to see if they would be interested in publishing it.  All I can say is thank goodness I saw a centipede squiggling around on a coworker's back because if I hadn't, this story never would have written itself.  NaNo is going a lot better.  I broke 32000 words and would really like to finish either Sunday or Monday.  Wish me luck...

I've been purposefully avoiding the blog until Cafe Doom's Seventh Annual Short Story Contest was over.  I hate trying to keep secrets and not blabbing the title of my story was VERY painful.  But, the contest is over and now I can say that my story "Penny Farmer and the Bad Day" received some votes and quite a few honorable mentions.  Right now I'm tied for 9th place and waiting to see which top 10 story makes it into One Buck Horror and which is Ed's pick.  If you're a writer with a penchant for the dark side, you really need to check them out, join the forum, and participate in next year's contest.  The contest is judged by fellow writers (anonymously) and some people take the time to give brief critiques of the stories.  Even if my story isn't a big winner, I've gotten some great feedback and know what to do before I try sending it out to other publishers. NaNoWriMo is flying by and I'm over 21,000 words.  I'm behind and really ne