I was delighted to learn that, out of a field of over 3,000 writers, I have placed third in NYCmidnight’s Flash Fiction challenge.

This is a multi-round contest, so you have to consistently write good stories to advance to the next round. It’s not just a one-and-done.

The finals prompts were open genre (meaning we could write whatever genre we chose), set in a visitors center, and leftover food had to make an appearance somewhere in the story. I chose to write dystopian science fiction for my story “./Human Legacy”, which is definitely one of my favorite genres.

This contest is particularly close to my heart because it’s what got me into writing in the first place. Nine years ago, at a time when I was reinventing myself, I saw an ad for the contest and entered it on a whim, having never really written any fiction before.

Who knew it would spawn an obsession!

Many congrats to the top ten and honorable mentions. It was a tough playing field and there were many more excellent stories that didn’t make the list!