I've gone and done it.

Earlier this evening I submitted Chapter One of the Plotastic! novel to the First Chapter of a Novel Contest at The Writing Show. Paula Berinstein, the host of the show, has put this contest on for a few years. To be honest, I don't think I have a chance in hell of winning the thing. More likely, I'm hoping to be one of the ten random winners of 750 words of criticism about my chapter.

There are so far 119 entrants in the contest. I've told Paula that I believe I'll finish in the top third, somewhere between 40th place and 1st.

I have read some of the past winners of the contest, and I'm up against some stiff competition, which explains my expectation for 40th place or so.

Now for the big news: Since basically the chapter is now in the public domain, I'm going to post it here for the world to see, sometime before the weekend. There are two ways I might do this: all at once or in sections over a period of several days. The whole of Chapter One is about 4,000 words. So I could post 1,000 per day for four days, which would help build suspense. It would be easier to just upload the whole damn thing at once, though that may make it difficult to read. I still haven't decided.

Keep your fingers crossed for the contest. And keep your eyes peeled for Chapter One to be posted in the next 48 hours.

-Mark