Voting for phase 2 of the Marcher Lord Select contest ( http://wherethemapends.proboards.com/index.cgi ) is now open! You have until Sunday, November 30 to vote. Again for both the main and premise contest you must vote for at least three.

I’ve been thinking about what I consider my chances for this one. I admit I’m in a gray zone, neither confident or uncertain.

Okay, maybe a little uncertain.

It’s one thing to look forward to the opinion of a single person, publisher or agent. No matter the outcome, it is after all the opinion of one. That the ego can bear.

With this contest, I’m depending on the opinion of hundreds. To find out that hundreds didn’t vote for mine is not something my ego can shake off so easily. By the same token, if those hundreds vote for mine, I’ll have trouble keeping my ego from giving my forehead stretch marks.

Yet, as a writer seeking publication, that’s the pool I’m diving into. To be published is only the beginning of the swim. Yet if I am to succeed, I have to take a risk and allow hundreds if not thousands of readers to judge my work.

As a Christian, I could easily say that there is only one Judge that really matters. While true, it’s not my only goal. I want the words I write to be read by others, and, God willing, find God in them.

After all, no one ever said ambition can’t be a good thing — as long as I dedicate that ambition to God.

Now I’m going to slather my forehead with some anti-stretch-mark cream.