Well, what do you know…?!

Sent: Sunday, August 01, 2010 6:31 PMSubject: Re: Smile, Hon No. 13What a marvelous, well-researched piece!  Thank you so much for submitting it, and I would be honored to run it in the next issue (No. 13) of "Smile, Hon, You're in Baltimore!", which should be in print in the early fall.  I will contact you down the line, closer to publication, with further details regarding contributor copies and the like.  In the meantime, should you have any questions, please do not hesitate to contact me. Editor, Eight-Stone Press

No pink slip!  I'm flabbergasted.  Beginner's luck.Meanwhile, I've been working on another piece. 

Writing FitzgeraldA Public Writing CompetitionTo celebrate the opening of the Barnes & Noble at the University of Baltimore, a "college superstore", located at The Fitzgerald at UB Midtown, the University's School of Communications Design is sponsoring two writing competitions.The Fitzgerald Project, a joint venture of UB and The Bozzuto Group, is located in midtown Baltimore, between the University of Baltimore and MICA at Mount Royal Avenue and Oliver Street. It's named The Fitzgerald because it's located just a few blocks from the Park Avenue house where F. Scott Fitzgerald lived in the 1930s; he wrote most of Tender is the Night in that house, apparently, while pacing back and forth on the balcony.Creative Nonfiction CompetitionWrite about some aspect of F. Scott Fitzgerald's life in an interesting, non-academic way. 750 words maximum.

And I may try to squeeze in one more before I leave on Saturday: 

The Third Annual Donald Barthelme Prize for Short Prose Is Now Open to Submissions!One prose poem, micro-essay, or short story of five hundred words or less.

It's good practise, at the very least!