My Golden Year

 Alan Place - A Writer in time 

                                                                 Alan Place - Award Winning Author

2012 was my Golden Year. That year, I earned two awards for my writing ability, one from an organisation in the USA, and the other from a writing contest on Facebook.

I am sure other writers felt the same, 2012 was the year of the Mayan Calendar, many writers wrote stories about the end of the world. I opften wonder what happened to them after that? But, if you made a lot of money that year, what followed is not important.

I wonder if any got a writing contract after that year?

All those books about 2012 are gathering dust on the shelves, but if they made you money, or earned a contract, I guess you don't care.

I was offered a contrct in 2012, but I turned it down as the publisher didn't care what I wrote as long as it was legal.

For years after that, I wondered did I do the correct thing, as that was the only offer I was offered in my 15 years as a writer?

Some writers I knew said, "If you're asking the question, you know the answer."

It didn't matter in the end, for some reason the publisher went out of business soon after

Alan Place - Writer of Science Fiction

 My Golden year

Forgestriker

2012 was the year my Science Fiction series was at its foremost, that year, the Forgestriker series sold over 1,000 eBooks. A friend in Canada said, "If that had been on Amazon, I would be classed a bestseller." However, it was on Draft2Digital, so it went unnoticed.

The cheat who lost

 My Golden year

Why cheat?

2012 was my summit as a writer, two of my stories earned an award, and I beat my harshest critic in contests THREE times that year. Usually cheats win, but I would rather come second knowing I did my best, than win knowing I cheated.

Here are some examples of what I am talking about. In 2012, I beat my critic, despite her asking a friend to hack a site, to eliminate one of my stories, which came back to beat hers on its return. The same year, she proclaimed a prize she had "claimed" on LinkedIn, that was until I pointed out, I had bought the story months earlier from a friend, and posted a photo of the book the story was in.

My Golden year

 The year of the Awards

Two Writing Awards in a year

In 2012, both of these books earned an award. Chronicles of Mark Johnson earned an award given by a site based in the USA. Sea Ghosts earned an award given in a writing contest set up by Facebook.

Yet, this was not the best part for me, personally. My joy came from beating a writer I used to know, not once, but THREE times in contest in 2012. Despite going against the site rules, which didn't apply to her, or her freinds, she often tried to ridicule my writing as inferior to hers.
It was an opinion not shared by many people on the site. One contest was set up by a friend of the writer, and I didn't wish to enter, I knew her tactics from old, "Win at any cost," which often included hacking a site. Against my wishes, I was coaxed by my freinds to enter. the other writer invited her friends to come to view my publis humilation. I amgine her horror when despite the site being hacked, and one of my stories being deleted, the story came back to take fourth place, well ahead of her best story, which came 10th.

I did consider going to the site, and posting about my win, but chnged my mind, it isn't my style to brag, and besides, her freinds already knew the news.