All of this rewriting of old material and recognising how much my writing has improved has created a new hunger to create new material. I do miss it right now despite other things that take up my time. I know I’m planning to release my compilation for the end of the year but I’m ever conscious of the two major competitions I have entered before and how much I want to keep up with the game by continuing to enter them.

I’m thing ahead already to the James White Award (deadline January) and wondering whether my dinner date story which I had initially intended to send to the Arc 1.1 competition could be suitable. It has the right feel based on their guidelines and my understanding of previous winners.

The other is the L. Ron Hubbard Writers of the Future Contest. There is a little more flexibility with this as the competition runs four times per year. Long-term readers may remember I entered this for September 2011 with Weight of Reason. I feel this is the best thing I’ve written so it has become my benchmark. I want to enter this competition again – and enter every year if possible – so I need to produce high quality work with big ideas. Need to get the thinking cap on for that one.

Finally, I’m hoping that Arcfinity runs a competition in every issue. Deadlines for this are tighter:  quarterly like WOTF but each has a different theme. If you miss it, tough.

My goals then: James White 2013, at least one L. Ron Hubbard and at least one Arcfinity all the while working on a novel