NEWS ALERT! The top twenty finalists are in for the Brava Contest! Yesterday the last two were posted and I do agree with the judges–these are twenty top pieces of work! 
Congratulations to all who made the cut!
Nope, I wasn’t one of them but I’m certainly happy I embarked on the
whole journey. The last couple of months of writing, rewriting, and
rewriting again have taught me so much! The possibility of what could
be and the energy derived from the dream of what might happen is so
awesome and thrilling… its something everyone should be so lucky to
experience. It makes you feel young, full of life and capable of
climbing mountains! Something we all are able to do but tend to forget
with the daily grind. Thank you Brava for providing this contest!
I also have a secret to tell you—I’m kind
of relieved I didn’t final. The way my story unfolds does not entirely
please me. It feels too rushed. I wanted several things to go in
different directions but was constrained by the length required for the
contest. Novella was the length and I HAD to fit to those parameters
for the contest. Okay, yeah, I know of several people who didn’t obey
the rules and breaking the rules sometimes in life does work. That
wasn’t how I wanted to do it though and didn’t. But now… NOW I can
write things the way I want to. I can allow the story to take longer to
be told, include the twists that were screaming to be added and deepen
the relationships between everyone the way I felt/feel they should have
been told.
Now before many of you jump on me and let me know how I should
always be writing like this in the first place I want to remind you
that I went into this contest as a challenge to myself… to see if I
could write a short story… to learn how to be more concise… to learn
how to tighten things up… the list goes on. I feel I did learn a lot of
those things. Even when writing a ST length story I think things should
be tight and well put together, so this exercise in writing was by no
means a waste. It worked exactly like I wanted, needed. And it was cool
to discover that I really do create ‘ideas’ that are not small. The
concepts and plots are not single plane. They are complicated and
involved. They are the types of story lines for ST and this makes me
happy… this is what I want to write most of the time. 
(note:
this is NOT a cut on or in any way a minimalization of the novella
story–writing a short story is in my opinion a lot harder than writing
a longer one, you have less time to say and have happen what you need
in a manner that engages the reader)
So will I try this again? You bet! I totally believe in stretching
ones self into new territories and living life to its fullest. I would
never have experienced that rush of excitement that lasted for four
months if I’d not tried!
I will finish the story(again) and send it in. I love it! I never would
have probably come up with the concept if I’d not been prompted! So
see, there are tons of reasons to go for it. Next year, if I’m not
published with Brava and they do another one of these contests… I’ll be
the first in line once again! 
THERE IS ONE MORE THING! Now we get to vote for the best entrant of the twenty top finalists! 
This is the Readers Choice Award. I encourage everyone to zip on over to the Brava Contest
forum site, become a member–its free and only takes a second–and vote
for the entrant who you think has the best 750 words of their story
entered. You can’t actually start voting until about the 20th of
January but you can certainly start reading and make your decision now.
Happy Reading to everyone and a heartfelt congratulations to all the contestants who made the top twenty!
Cole
Nicole Reising
www.nicolereising.com
www.nicolereising.com/blog
Imagination... the magical whispers from within.
