I received the following email this morning.
'Thank-you for your entry to the 2013 Victorian Premier's Literary Award for an Unpublished Manuscript by an emerging Victorian writer.
Unfortunately your entry did not make the shortlist,this year, but we thank you for your submission and congratulate you on all the effort that goes into completing and submitting a manuscript.
We received a particularly high number of entries this year- 131 in total. The shortlist consists of three, and will be announced tomorrow via The Wheeler Centre website and a press release from the Premier.
We welcome you to join us for the announcement of the winner next Thursday 23 May (invitation attached).'
This was pretty much what I expected, given there is only a week before the big event, but there is always that spark of optimism, that hope against hope, that you will be one of the chosen - but it wasn't to be. The shortlist came down to three, which makes it a very short shortlist indeed and a very long list of those in whose company I now stand - 128 in total who didn't make the first cut.
Of course I can crack hardy, pretend I don't care, that I have other plans afoot - but the truth is I don't have other plans for the novel right now, as I've simply immersed myself in other projects while waiting for the miracle of inclusion and acceptance, so one or the other will have to be put on the back burner for the moment. I suspect it will be the novel. I think I'll leave it sulking on the hard drive for a while, complete my current projects and then take it by the hand and drag it out for another outing.
Chin chin fellow unshortlisted ones and sincere congratulations to those who made it. Well done!
Thank you so much for sharing this with us Merlene. I think you've articulated well those thoughts and feelings most writers (who enter competitions and don't make a short list) have.
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