The Burien Actors Theatre, a small but well respected professional company in these parts, has decided to give my one-act play, Dr. Kritzinger’s 2 O’Clock first prize in the One-Act category of the Bill and Peggy Hunt Playwrights Festival. This means the show will go up six times between May 1st and May 25th, that I will appear for discussion panels after at least some of the performances, and that I will get a not-especially-large amount of money.

Winning competitions of this sort is one of the writing life’s few compensations. It provides a brief respite from the insecurity that gnaws at us the rest of the time. Unfortunately, it also makes us insufferably pleased with ourselves for a brief period. I’m combatting this by reminding myself that this means my job has only started, and there are many, many ways this could all fail before the curtain rises.

Still, I’m more than slightly chuffed.