So Rainfurrest was great. I have never seen a con with such a wonderfully diverse collection of panels and so many writing focused events - I was all over the writing track and really enjoyed myself.

One of the events was a writing competition - basic concept: a panel is held for interested writers, the topic for the next year's con is revealed to them - secret under the pain of pain - and they're basically told "Write a story in the 2000-5000 word range. In two days. We'll name the winners at closing ceremonies."

Being somewhat masochistic, I jumped at this opportunity. Showed up, the room was filled with accomplished writers and the panel was led by respected and published writers who would also judge the pieces. They gave us the con theme, and I went 'aw hell' as it was rather outside of my usual genres despite some experience with it some time ago. But I bubbled an idea around in my brain a bit, spent a few hours sitting in one of the lobbies with laptop and caffeine and pounded out 3500 words, submitted it with 15 minutes before deadline, and left the con to come home midday Sunday. Felt pretty good about the story - anything that makes me mist up at the climax usually does pretty good - but whether it would be good against a bunch of other really good writers was really uncertain.

So I'm back in Vancouver and waiting for a bus to get home and check my phone to a bunch of Tweets letting me know that I won the competition.

I what?

I've been bouncing off the walls since I got home. I get a feature spot in the 2014 Rainfurrest conbook, and a free membership for next year! The conbook puts my piece in front of 2000 or so readers, and all the furry publishers are involved with the con and the writing track in some way, so this is pretty awesome stuff.

Kitsune is thrilled. =)

Beyond that, I enjoyed the hell out of the con, and look forward to doing more of them. VancouFur is coming up in March - I'm looking for conbook submissions for that! Drop me a note for details!