Archive for the ‘Contests’ Category
I’m sure I’m not the only one counting down the days hours until Golden Heart finalist calls go out.
To keep my nerves at bay, I’ve been checking in with the gals at the Ruby Slippered Sisterhood. They’ve been on GH countdown all week, and will have a big e-party on Friday.
I scheduled myself a massage Friday morning and (inadvertently) a chiropractor’s appointment. (I realized that when I went to enter the massage in my cell phone calendar.)
Maybe I should go shopping for some consolatory chocolate — or a celebratory tiara, as Anne Marie recommended in Wednesday’s post.
And I’ll definitely keep in mind the advice in Thursday’s entry: Not finaling in the GH doesn’t mean your story is no good. Maybe one of your judges was having a bad day … or a bad hair day. Or they hated your hero/heroine.
I hope that none of those things are the case, and that my sparkling prose earned me a lot of high scores, securing me one of those coveted calls and a spot in the 2011 class of GH finalists.
But if it didn’t, don’t worry: I’m not going anywhere. What is it they say? If at first you don’t succeed, try, try again.
Today just might go down as the highlight of my writing career to-date. It could be the start of something big.
Today, I was one of the lucky 125 entrants selected to submit to the Knight Agency’s Author Speed Date contest. You should have heard the excited whoop I let out when I saw my name on that list. (Everyone in the newsroom sure did. A few people even came over to my desk to see if I was OK.)
Panic quickly supplanted the initial excitement: Which of my novels do I send them? (I have so darn many to pick from — six completed MSs in all.) After some thought, I chose the one with the proven track record, my Beacon finalist, “Beauty and the Ballplayer.”
When I received word a few hours later that “Beauty and the Ballplayer” did not final in the Write Stuff contest, I second-guessed my decision. Big time. Lucky for me, I hadn’t had a chance to ship off my entry yet.)
The score sheets sat in my Gmail inbox, waiting for me to decide: Do I read them now, before I send my entry to the Knight Agency, so I can try to “fix” it?
A coworker convinced me to go ahead and look. “If they make any suggestions for the first three pages, use them if you think they have merit.”
So I took a peek. I couldn’t believe my eyes: Two perfect scores! The last judge gave me a 66 of 100, though. (Hope I didn’t get that judge for the Golden Heart. 😉 ) None of them wanted to make substantial alterations to pages 1-3.
I literally just shipped off my entry (the first three pages). Now, I wait … just like I’m waiting for the Golden Heart calls. The Speed Date results will come back faster, though. I’ll know by Thursday if I advance to the next round. (Just 25 of 125 will be so lucky.)
Well, I’m dealing with the disappointment of not getting into the first round of “Speed Dating with Deidre.” I didn’t even get the consolation prize, a chance to send in a one-page query.
However, life — and the querying process — will go on. So will the nerve-wracking process of entering contests.
None is more nerve-wracking — for me, at least — than the Golden Heart. But I cleared another hurdle in that process: I mailed in my entries … all 654 pages of them, plus a disc with each full MS, a week ago Monday.
That's a lot of paper!
That’s what they looked like stacked together. Singly, they looked like this:
Two entries, complete with synopses.
Still pretty impressive, eh? Nothing like requiring a couple of trees to make the supreme sacrifice to the Golden gods. 😉
Anyway, I checked with the Post Office today, and delivery confirmation said my entries were delivered on Nov. 24.
Delivery confirmed!
Now, the wait begins.
Since I volunteered to judge this year, I suspect at least some of my fretting time will be usurped. I’m not complaining!
Since I’m usually up until 3:30 or 4 a.m., I didn’t think it’d be tough to stay up an extra couple of hours — but it’s turning out to be more difficult than I planned. In the last 30 minutes, my eyelids have started to droop and I desperately want to turn off the light and burrow under the covers.
Still, I must stay awake for another 40 minutes so I have a chance to enter the “Speed Dating with Deidre” contest at the Knight Agency blog. She’s offering 125 spots … 125 lucky entrants will submit three pages of MS. Up to 25 will advance.
“Beauty and the Ballplayer” wants another at-bat. After last week’s contest final, it’s ready to knock another one out of the park.
Uh-oh. My sleepy brain can’t conjure up any more baseball metaphors. Good thing I have less than 25 minutes to go. 😉
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