made the M.O. shortlist

I have a story that's made the short list over at The M.O. , which is the contest section of Criminal Element. I was pretty excited about just getting to be a contender, as I'd tried once before and didn't get that close. I sent in the bio and photo for the Rogues Gallery yesterday, but hadn't heard that the shortlist story beginnings had gone up on the website. So the first news I had of it was when someone I don't know found my email, presumably through my blog, and took the trouble to tell me that someone else was doing a good job of promoting their story, and then went on to tell me that I didn't stand a chance of winning.

Well, I never thought I had a great chance of winning. But if the whole contest is really about how large a pool of people you draw in to vote for you through social media, then what's the point of winning? It doesn't mean anything about your story, it just means that you're a good marketer.

So my request to you is to head on over to read the opening paragraphs of the stories in the contest and do what the contest asks of you: vote for the story that you most want to read the rest of. Seriously, it doesn't have to be mine. After all, I  won't be voting for it. I already know the ending.

Oh, and here is the winning story from the last round: "Fix Me" by S.W. Lauden. However it rose to the top, it's a pretty great story.