Whenever one takes up a dare, there’s always a risk of failure or disappointment.

Well, I dared to take a risk, and now I must accept disappointment.

I checked the Realm Makers News page just to verify if a particular author also had a story in the running. I then discovered that they finally narrowed down the field from ten semi-finalists to four finalists, and my story along with five others are no longer shown.

Am I disappointed? Sure! I’m also a little irritated. Why did they ask for a photo and an acceptance speech if all they had to do was wait a week and ask only those who made the top four? I can guess an answer, though: They needed one from all the semi-finalists to make sure they were available for the overhead presentation in time for the banquet.

Still it feels a bit… Cruel seems too harsh of a word to use for them to get my hopes up like that, but I can’t think of (or have the wherewithal to consult a thesaurus for) a better word. I also feel like I wasted my time and energy on a headshot and speech when it was all for naught.

Good news is (because I’m an eternal optimist), my story is still considered a semi-finalist (out of over 400 entries, and that’s nothing to sniff at). Nor will I hold on to said disappointment while I root for the finalists. All of them were published through Havok Publishing, and I will feel like a proud parent to whomever wins.