Winning

I didn't win. Let's be clear about that. I came second. It was a literary prize for flash fiction. Second is my middle name. Second is my second name. Ha! In fact I have come second a lot in my life, but never before in writing.

Coming second in a writing competition, however small, feels like a win. To beat various other writers is to win, nasty as that is. The judge was a poet, writer and former professor of Law and all the competitors were members of the NZ Society of Authors, Auckland branch, so one feels in good company at least.

If my second counts as a win (not to obsess about it or make a big deal of it or anything), it is my first competition win, if you don't count my publishing contract, which was won in a sense.

I Googled the actual winner. She is none other than the judge for the current NZ micro flash (100 words) competition. She has published here and there and won writing competitions before. Her name is Eileen.

It was my first time entering. 150 words on an expressed theme (marriage equality); a tight task master alright. I wrote exactly 150 words, excluding title. Use all the words, I say.

There was a third place awarded, which seems to suggest a significant number of entries - or at least three! All the place-getters were female.