I always enjoy entering writing contests. It’s fun to test myself and some contests give you story feedback from the judges, so I can make a story better to submit for publication.
Last year, I submitted The Heart of Kublai Khan’s Menagerie Keeper to the Chanticleer International Book Awards 2023 SHORTS Contest for Short Stories and Essays. The story is a fantasy adventure about a zoo keeper who goes on a treasure hunt adventure to Australia.
My story advanced to the finals, and on April 20 at the Chanticleer Authors Conference awards banquet in Bellingham, WA, I was awarded Grand Prize in this category. It was a great honor to receive this prestigious award.
I had also submitted another story to this same contest. Finding Namaste is a longer story about a travel ICU nurse on vacation in the middle of the pandemic. She feels like she’s letting her patients down and she can’t relax. The story shows how she gets her joy and peace back.
It also made it to the finals round, so I was doubly thrilled. The contest organizers contacted me and recommended pulling the story from the 2023 contest so that it didn’t compete against Menagerie Keeper to the detriment of each. I have done that, and it will automatically be entered in the 2024 contest, so next year, I have another chance to reach the finals with that story.
All in all, it was an exciting opportunity.
The plot of Fantasy Adventure is intricately woven with surprises and revelations. It’s impossible not to be hooked!
Absolutely.