Just...wow!

So, I entered an anonymous one shot contest called the Jukebox contest. It was a real challenge because the premise was to pick a song from a vast list (I think 80 songs was the final count) and then write a story encompassing the song or a lyric from the song.

Unfortunately, since I had never written a story around a song, I choose a song that I instantly recognized and loved. The reason this was a terrible idea was because the song I choose was 'The Blower's Daughter' by Damien Rice. 

Yes, this is a lovely song -- beautiful and heartfelt and devastating -- but, you see, therein laid the problem; In order to encompass a beautiful and heartfelt and devastating song, you have a to write a beautiful and heartfelt and devastating story. Yeah, sounds easy, right? Ha! (that's a scoff, btw).

If you're reading this blog, chances are that at some point you've met or talked to me within the fandom. Hell, you may have even read one of my stories. If you have (read one of my stories, that is ) then you know exactly where this is going, but if you haven't then.... The easiest way I can describe myself --in life as well as the Twilight fandom -- is a jokester, a goofball, a WussPerv, and a smut connoisseur.

Basically, I don't do serious.

Needless to say, I contemplated just not doing it. I wrote about two paragraphs the first week the contest was opened and then didn't touch the story again until a week before it was due. I rarely finish anything I start and I realized that that made me a quitter, and quitters are losers by default.

I don't like to lose, though I do it often.

With renewed vigor, I restarted the story. It took me two days and five thousand words, but I finally did it. I named it 'And So It Is' and I got it to the wonderful coachlady1, who gave a me a rushed BJ (that's beta-job you h00rs!)  and we got it into the contest hours before the entries closed. 

What happened next, you may ask. Well, then I forgot about it, naturally. As I told you, I lose, -- a lot -- so I thought that it'd be the last I saw of the contest. And after I read over half of the other 42 entries (yeah, I know!) it solidified my resolve that this just wasn't my cup of tea, but it was worth a nice effort. I was glad I tried something out of my comfort zone, but I wasn't at all expecting to walk away with anything more than an exhale and a self pat on the back.

Let's just say wow! Just, wow! I can't even tell you how excited I was when I opened my Twitter and saw that they were posting the winners on the WayWard Pushers' blog. There were so many ties in the contest, too! I was just minding my own business, reading the reviews of the winners and scoping to see if I'd already read the entry or not -- opening tabs with the URL so that I could read them if I hadn't already.

This is what it came to:

People's Choice:

• 1st Place: Irreversible by LFC Hotstuff
• 2nd Place: Cygnus Reawakened by Risbee
• 2nd Place: All Of Me by elusivetwilight
• 3rd Place: His Word is Good by jadedandboring 
• 3rd Place: Wicked Way by il-bel-mondo
• 3rd Place: Do you Feel the Same by mizzdee  

Judge's Choice:

• 1st Place: Made of Choices by Vampire Extraordinaire
• 2nd Place: Love is on the Air by cosmoandmarvar
• 2nd Place: Cygnus Reawakened by Risbee  
• 2nd Place: Crown of Love by mephis1
• 3rd Place: All Of Me by elusivetwilight 

As you can see, there were a lot of repeat winners. I didn't think I had a chance. Then, I looked at the most recent post and saw that all the number one awards were viewed as one blog post, and I was floored.

I completely lost my shit. Like, I screeched at the computer screen and was like, "Are you fucking kidding me right now? Seriously?" I hopped up and down and startled my baby. My next door neighbor came over to make sure I was alright. I swear this to you. I even text'd "The Boy" and told him how excited I was. He graciously congratulated me and I felt like a million dollars.

And then, to make it even better, Tkegl was a judge and she liked my story enough to make me a banner. 

Did I mentioned that I was dead? I literally died of shock. Seriously.

Anyway, I just didn't know what to do with myself. I was so hyped, I couldn't keep it to myself. Thank you to everyone who participated, judged, hosted, wrote, voted, twitted, all of it! Thanks so much to everyone!

Check out the Jukebox FFn profile to read the stories and to listen to the playlist of all the songs. You can find my story there or on my own FFn profile as well.

~Tay