Once upon a time, 15 years ago, I entered three short stories in the League of Utah Writers contest, and I won first prize on all three. The next year, I figured it would be no problem to win some more since I had such luck the first time. I got a couple of second prizes. Not bad. The next year, I entered a few more pieces and won nothing. I gave up for a while. I've entered a few contests since, have gotten a few honorable mentions here and there, including with Writer's Digest. But otherwise, I have struggled to repeat the glory of that one shimmering year.
I've started assembling several short stories, including the prize winners, into a short story collection called "One if by Starlight" about women finding confidence in an insecure world. It has kind of a slim plot in a frame story. I'm not sure if I should publish it as a whole or hold onto the individual stories against publishing indie if I have to go that route with my novels. For now, I'm polishing the best of the stories to submit them in a contest for prior winners. The part that makes me feel really good is that I'm finding so much to fix. The last time I tinkered with them several years ago, they were as polished as I could get them. Now, I'm finding more to polish and fix. I guess that means I've improved as a writer. I know it couldn't hurt to get some more wins on my resume for when I submit my novel to another publisher. Now if only I could find time to do everything at once.
