An encouragement, all things considered.

Mud and Glass ended up being longlisted (as in, one of the top 34 or so out of 165 manuscripts) for the Orbit/Queensland Writers Centre Manuscript Development Program. While it would have been nice to actually be one of the winners, I can't really complain about being in the top 20 percent of manuscripts. Not only does it validate my ability to actually write a novel-length work of some standard, it puts my synopsis and partial before the eyes of a major publisher, which can only be a good thing. That, and the acceptance of "I'm Too Loud" (see below), are a pretty generous helping of affirmation — more than I'm used to! Oh, I feel so full! *pats stomach*

I'm getting a short play critiqued on Monday at a crit group I go to in Sydney from time to time; let's see how badly deflated I am when I get home from that!