Entering contests

In the spring, I submitted the manuscript for "Ruxandra" to the William Faulkner Society competition in the novel category. It didn't make it as a finalist. There were 406 entries in that category alone. "Ruxandra" made it to the semi finalist list, which was 152 entries long. There was another short list of 83 entries and the finalist list of 14 entries. I suppose I should feel pleased that it was in the top half of all entries. I pity the poor souls who had to read all of the entries. Their eyes must have the consistency of boiled onions.