The Codex Writers forum just finished the Codexian Idol contest. What was the Codexian Idol contest, you ask?
In the first round, all the contestants anonymously submitted the first 500 words of a story. The voters then voted on the stories, and the top eight moved on to the second round. After a few days for the authors to add 500-1000 words, the stories were uploaded and voted on. The top four stories moved on to the final round. The authors then finished the stories and uploaded them.
To my great surprise, after the first round my story “A Lincoln in Time” was in first place. At the end of the second round, my story just barely managed to hold the lead, with only 1 point separating it from the second-place story. In the final round, my story ended up taking second place, behind a clearly superior story by James Maxey. I doubt any major market will buy my story (the time-travel/presidential-assassination ground having been well-covered by many authors), while I think it likely James will sell his very quickly.
In any case, I’m very pleased to have placed in a Codex contest for the third time.