This morning the SouthWest Writers announced the winners of their 2021 short writings contest, including me. The list posted today is all the finalists, i.e., winners, within 20 categories of prose and poetry. The 45 authors will receive their awards at SWW’s annual meeting in October, but we won’t know our rank (as in 1st, 2nd, and 3rd place) until then.

What I do know is that “After the Rush Fades” placed in the crime/mystery category and will be published in their forthcoming anthology. I’m pleased, despite the wait until October for my ranking.
This story of a few employees’ attempt to out the vice and greed of a corporate honcho who is about to receive the company’s top honor for ethics and integrity should resonate with many. While it has had half a dozen revisions since I wrote it in 2014, the basic story is the same, as is its relativeness to corporate America. In fact, it seems even more relative today than when I first wrote it.
I celebrate with the other 45 authors and hope that by October I’ll get to meet them in person.