IWSG: Anthology Contest

It's the first Wednesday of the month, and time for members of the Insecure Writer's Support Group to share their writerly insecurities. The group was started by Alex J. Cavanaugh, and those interested in joining in can visit www.insecurewriterssupportgroup.com for more information.

Well, the cat's been out of the bag for about a month now, but just in case you missed it, the IWSG is celebrating the success of its crowd-sourced Guide to Publishing and Beyond by putting together a short story anthology contest. The competition is open to all active members, and submissions end on the 1st of November, so be sure to send in your entries, if you haven't done so already.

I was finally able to put in my submission earlier this week, after sitting on it for the better part of the past month, though truth be told, I'd been working on the story for something more in the tune of the past two and a half years. It is an idea I'd been playing around with, and it draws inspiration from sources as varied as the graphic novel Watchmen, the video game series Fallout, and the Philip K. Dick novel, The Man in the High Castle.

Needless to say, it is a work of speculative fiction and alternative history, much like the stories I have highlighted above, which by the way also happens to be the theme of the anthology contest. There's no saying whether or not it would make the cut, but it's been nice getting some actual writing done for a change. I'd almost forgotten how exhilarating it feels, watching my words come together on a computer screen to form a story.