I don’t often boast, so I’ll boast now. I won the Daily News-Miner’s Holiday Story Contest. There are two things I should mention about this though:

1. I consider my entry crap. If I had submitted a story I was genuinely proud of, I can say for certain that I never would have won. In writing the story, I knew I had to cater to what the News-Miner was looking for. This goes beyond the plot and subject matter, it encompasses the writing style, too. Apparently I had a good idea of what they wanted. They tend to like similar sounds in successive words (wooden web, for example). That kind of ‘cute’ feature in creative writing tends to make me sick, but 1st place was $100, so I was bribed into it.

2. I was probably not up against very good writers. The News-Miner has been criticized for being biased in favor of republicans, and it’s very obvious why. The political coverage has a republican slant, not to mention the paper is owned by some big fish in one of the deep south red states. As a consequence of the News-Miner being partial to republicans, I would guess that most of the people who subscribe to the paper are conservatives. I would furthermore state that liberals are better creative writers, generally speaking, than conservatives. What this means, then, is that I was up against conservative wannabe writers, and so the fact I won is not so impressive. The counter argument to this is that liberals would participate in the contest precisely because they detest the News-Miner, with the logic that if they won, they would be taking $100 from the pockets of republicans. It is impossible to know how many liberals participated, but I would guess very few, simply because I won. Am I belittling my achievement? Probably. Maybe I am modest by nature.