Kaboom

I submitted my manuscript today to the CAL Scribe Fiction Prize 2010.  The first prize if $15,000 (half of which is an advance on the book deal the publisher signs with the winner).  I spent last night and all of today revising the text yet again.  I've no idea if it's a prize-winning novel.  That's for the judges to decide.  I don't even know if it's a publishable story.  But I read it again as I fine-tuned the draft.  It stands up.  It's a decent first work of 91,300 words.  Here's how it now starts:

To tell you the truth I have no idea where a man in my condition should start.  But I know this much.  It’s no surprise to wake up here; no surprise at all.  In fact it’s something of a consolation.  A long time ago I was warned that I would end up here, in a place like this.  I was told that I would come to no good, which is exactly what I’ve come to.  Mind you, there’s a perverse pleasure in having confirmed through experience something my elders and betters foretold would be mine if I did not mend my wasteful ways.  I hate to disappoint people.  So here I am, as predicted.

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