My apologies. I thought the deadline was midnight tonight. Instead it was noon, something I realized after I saw your message title saying the contest was done.

Although I won't be entering any future contests on this forum, may I make one respectful suggestion? If you're going to extend the deadline because of computer issues, please make the deadline clearer by using words like "noon EST" or "midnight EST," because that's what polite people do.

I am mad and I am extremely disappointed. I spent hours trying to figure out how to write a story about a clown without it being a nonsensical piece of fluff, and my real goal was to write a story that would incorporate all the prompts without a casual reader realizing there were any prompts at all. I don't know that I did a perfect job, or even a good one, but I worked long and hard on it.

Best of luck and love to you and everyone that entered this contest and any future ones. Again, I am angry and upset, but I'll get over it. And it wasn't your fault that you had computer problems.

But please, in the future, for other people, please make your deadlines clearer. That wasn't fair.