The neat thing about a well funded and organized contest is that they will be around next year.
To the semi-finalists, I wish you the best of luck. Only five of you will take home the ultimate gold.

I still have two more contests to enter by January as per my writing resolutions. One is December the other is September.

After a quick skim of The Last Track yesterday and today, I emailed the manuscript to the agent. Very strange feeling watching 3 years of my life shoot down the pipes towards a unknown mail server in NYC.

While it might have been an odd sensation letting go, knowing that the pages were in the pocket and required no last minute intervention was a huge relief. Usually when requests for material arrive, I have to talk myself out of tinkering. There is the tendency to doubt the project. And even where I overcome the urge, I still feel like there are more fine tunings that can be done.

Not this time. Oh no, not for this agent. Part of this ease draws from the thorough deliberateness of which Oriana scoured the manuscript; she really neutralized the minute oversights that though relatively innocuous in trace amounts, when they persist and gather over the span of a narrative, greatly undermine the writing.

Though I had a few expletive laden mental conversations with her to get to that point when implementing the fixes, it was worth the piece of mind.

The Nicholl’s screenwriting contest began notifying semi-finalists in the last 24-48 hours and a conclusive response will land shortly. For now, I have some interesting news. At 5:43 PM on Sunday, this email arrived from an agent–the very one who requested a substantial partial of the manuscript a mere 6 business days ago:

Hi –

This is a close call. It came down to a “no” from my reader but I’m still intrigued. Why don’t you send me the complete manuscript and I’ll get back to you once I’m done. Please send it via email once again.

Just so you know, I’m off on vacation this week and won’t be back until August 14th, so please be patient.

Many thanks.

* Agent name redacted by Sam *

So no idea where I am on the screen writing contest, but someone of great note is reading my novel with interest.

Sweetness.

Thursday I’m off for a few days and when I return it’s full bore ahead, though I will update a few times before leaving. Speaking of the day job, the real business of work resumes around August 20th–which is good in the sense there’s free food on tap, bad in the sense there are long days and nights until the students settle in–and I expect the normal emotional roller coaster and stress through early October. Oh yes, there will be whining from students. As I’ve said before, the job would be perfect if it wasn’t for the students.

The new screenplay is going well. In terms of a project, it’s a little unusual process wise because I’m actively researching while writing, so there’s a hearty dose of observer-participant at play. Usually I finish my homework before I begin the lifting; this time I’m letting the writing determine what gaps to fill with field work.

It’s a full moon tonight. Thought I sensed a severe disturbance in the universe.