Semi-Finalist? That's a win, in my book. Ha! My book. See what I did, there?

I enter my finished manuscripts into lots of contests while they await that beautiful day when they go out into the world. I've learned to carefully consider each opportunity (and its requirements) against each manuscript. Chrysalis is a frequent contestant, as it tends to fit the "literary" category, despite its cross-dressing male prostitute junkie protagonist. I gotta say, Trey is a solid favorite of mine...now. It took a while to get to know and love him. Funny; I wonder how he's doing, sometimes.
Anyway, Chrysalis ended up in the semi-finalist category for the Eludia Award with Hidden River Arts. 
OK, so, upon further inspection, I've found that there were like, sixty semi-finalists, but I'm still taking it as a more positive sort of rejection. Like, I sorta came in second. With lots of other semi-finalists who also deserved it. And after the finalists who didn't win.
...
And their email was nice. "Beautiful work," they said. Don't mind me; I'm just letting that sink in nice and deep.
It's a flotation device, thrown just as my arms were getting really tired of treading water. And dangit, I'll take what I can get.

Thank you for sending us "Chrysalis". It passed to the semi-finalist stage of our deliberations, but did not pass into the finalist stage. We include here a link to our announcement of the semi-finalists and finalists, so that you can see the naming of your work in the semi-finalist category.

Thanks again for your interest in our Eludia Award and for your kind patience . We sincerely wish you the best of luck with placing this beautiful work.