Juniper Ink.

I recently received word that I won an honorable mention for my entry in the Spring 24-Hour Short Story Contest run by Writers Weekly. I was excited because I was generally pretty happy with the story after writing it.

Honorable mention stories are not published on the contest site, but you can still see my name in lights. Scroll down to the Honorable Mentions section and about half-way down you’ll see “This Garden by Jennifer Smith Gray, Toronto, ON, Canada.” Oh, and while you’re there, you should read the winning entries.

Cash and book prizes were given to the top three winners. The 28 honorable mention winners received a one-year subscription to The Write Markets Report (a monthly list of paying markets for writers) and a single e-book of from the prize page. There were a number of e-books of interest. Many of them are about freelance writing, in general. I chose Make Money Writing for Niche Markets. I thought it might inspire me to try out some specialized writing (and to find niches that I might not realize that I actually know about!). I haven’t had a chance to read it yet, so we’ll see.

I think I might enter the summer 24-Hour Short Story Contest. I wasn’t going to do so because it’ll really mean losing half a weekend in the summer, and those are so precious. But, I’m feeling a bit inspired by the honorable mention, so perhaps I’ll try to put aside some time for it. It’s a fun process and you’re forced to finish the project right away, which is always a good feeling.