Over the past couple of months I’ve been working occasionally on the story I wrote during the Orson Scott Card workshop. I tried several new beginnings for the story, and none of them worked. On Tuesday, I wrote yet another beginning, and while I’m not sure that it works either, at least it feels consistent with the rest of the story. (The others didn’t.)
I also had trouble with the title. Originally, it was “The Horseman and the Stoneworker,” which I picked because it has hidden meanings in view of the story. But after flipping back and forth for a while, i finally decided on “Betrayer of Trees,” because I think it sounds more interesting.
Anyway, I polished up what I had and mailed it yesterday to the Writers of the Future contest for their next quarterly competition. Since I’m a finalist in the previous quarter but do not yet know if I’m a winner, I was told to put a note on the front of the manuscript indicating that I was a finalist, because if I win for last quarter, I’m ineligible to compete again.