Eve Fiction Writing Contest Winners are In

I loaded up Twitter and saw that the Fiction Contest results were in.  I flipped to this news article:

Pod and Planet Fiction Contest Winners Announced
reported by CCP Eterne | 2013-01-03T18:34:19Z

The Pod and Planet Fiction contest run by Telegram Sam in conjunction with CCP Games has come to a close and our winners have been announced. After reading through over 100 fantastic entries covering a wide variety of topics and styles, the judges have finally narrowed it down to our winners.

Congratulations go out to Ormond Lycurgus for his Grand Prize winning story “Hunted”. He will walk away with a Nvidia EVGA Superclocked GeForce GTX670 graphics card courtesy of CCP Games and Nvidia, 12 months of PLEX courtesy of EOH Tom, and 4 billion ISK courtesy of SomerBlink and EVE Online Hold'em. Other winners will receive two year-long subscriptions to EON Magazine courtesy of MMM Publishing as well as additional ISK prizes.
For a full list of winners and the prizes they received, please check the full announcement thread here. Thanks again to everyone who entered!

The results are in and there is a grand prize winner.  However, there are also first, second, third, and honorable mentions to be announced in the thread.  I'd not written a story that qualified for the Grand Prize due to the category I had selected.  Still, I had to admit that my hands shook a little with excitement and the dread that comes from admitting that I wanted to place, somewhere, and have that bit of acknowledgement that my writing had been good.

I skimmed through the results.  I saw that Rhavas has placed 1st in the secondary category that I had entered.  He is an excellent writer and I was pleased because I have also learned that he is a very cool dude and I chat with him on twitter.  He had also joined in on our poke the Dev's about the removal of our DED complexes so I admit, I'm rather fond of him for that.

I saw that I placed second.  My jaw dropped.  My story, "Ill Gained Goods" was the first one that I wrote and submitted only days after the contest started.  I was all shocked and amazed and going, "Holy shit I placed second!" in stunned wonder.

Somehow, the automatic part of my brain that controls things like breathing and balance kept my Viator jumping gates and docked safely.  If I had wound up dead and podded I would not be surprised. I don't remember docking.  I was to busy sending Rhavas congratulations in twitter and being in awe of having placed in the contest that I forgot to give Ren the stack of things I had just brought back from Rens.  Thank you Lizard brain, you saved my Viator.

All of the entries can be viewed at the Reading Bank.

My story was totally inspired by the Goons ganking freighters in high sec.  It was such a hot button topic and I had written more then once of my irritation about the events and how much thought and coordination it entailed.  That while a gank might go smoothly that didn't mean it was easy.  The contest popped up and all of that energy funneled into the story.

I wanted to place so badly I was almost embarrassed   It wasn't the prizes.  It was just the knowledge that I could please people with my writing to that extent.  I wanted some type of external validation by people who did not know me as a person or friend but as one random amidst others that what I created caught their attention.   I strive to be a good writer.  If I have any dreams it focuses around my ability to create with words.

I've spent a month hoping, deep in the back of my mind, that I would receive one of the honorable mention placements.  I missed my name the first time.  And then second place?  I am beyond ecstatic about that.

Congratulations to everyone and thank you again, to the judges.