Mar
26

A Chance to Bloom

Posted in contests, metaphoric crap that is supposed to mean something deep but probably doesn't | 3 Comments
The trees are finally starting to blossom in my back yard. The few that are left anyway. I’ve got three I need to take down now, because the weight of that last big snow actually uprooted them and they are just slowly dying. Still, the ones that are here and perking up are very pretty, even in the rainy and windy mess we had yesterday. I’m rather fond of the image of flower petals blowing around. Quaint and poetic and all that crap. Yesterday was also the RWA’s announcement of the Golden Heart finalists. Clearly, I didn’t make it, though I’m kind of itching to see my scores. I don’t usually do too well with the more “traditional” romance contests, so it will be interesting to see just how far off the mark I was. And yes, I can be this glib about it because it doesn’t really matter to… Read more
Nov
11

Contests and Updates

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Well. I had this really cool ass post written up about PoV, but then Blogger shit the bed and I lost it all. My loss, your gain? I’ll try to come up with something else tomorrow, but in the meantime, a few small updates. 1) Didn’t get any further with my drive-by-final, but that’s okay. It was a surprise to have gotten that far anyway and I didn’t have any major expectations. 2) I didn’t win the Best-in-Show for the Toronto Golden Opportunity, but I did get 3rd. And a request for the full from Kristin Nelson! 🙂 And isn’t that what it’s all about? 3) I won the chance to pitch to Jenny Rappaport. Was supposed to have happened last night, but poor woman and her husband have both contracted the swine flu, so hopefully it will happen next week. 4) Paul Durham from Black Lab is following me… Read more
Nov
4

Stealth Finalist

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You know, for all my fine words about turning off Twitter to NaNo (which I did) – I popped on a little while ago to find a congratulations from @lynettecurtis. For finaling in the Lori Brighton blog contest. And I was like…I did? *facepalm* Yes. Actually it turns out that my opening paragraph finaled. You can see mine and the other finalists here –> https://loribrighton.blogspot.com/2009/11/finalists.html.  There are 24 of us, out of something like 100 or more, I think. Megan Records of Kensington judged them, and the end result is now I get to send in my first page. If I make it past that, then it’s the first 15 pages. If I win, she sees the first 3 chapters. The irony of it is that I entered it on a lark. Someone twittered the thing with a link, I checked it out and was like…Hmmm…free? Sure! And really, what do… Read more
Oct
15

Ouch!

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So I got scores back for another contest last night (one which will remain nameless), and I have to say that if I’d this was the first contest I’d ever entered I’d be pretty devastated right about now. Out of a total of 40 points, I got a 25, a 24.5 and a *15*! Clearly this was a contest where the judges just didn’t get it. And by get, I mean  – sure, they thought the writing was fine, but the five to ten pages they got (which isn’t even an entire chapter, might I add) didn’t answer all their questions. Which kinda skeeves me – I mean, taking off points because I don’t show both characters’ full GMC in the first five pages seems a bit ridiculous to me. But sweet Jesus, some of the comments: 1) “She swears too much.”  (You know, I’ll concede on this one…I’ve been… Read more
Aug
19

Honorable Mention

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Well, I still haven’t quite managed to final in the writing contest world(though I seem to be getting awfully close – I was off by two slots for one of them – and I *have* made it to the second round for the Mollys, but haven’t heard about the next round yet.) Shadow of the Incubus *did* get an Honorable Mention for the New Jersey “Put Your Heart in Book” contest. Not quite a final, but I emailed them to ask what it meant and I guess everyone who got an average of 130 or better (out of 145) gets that. Looks like there were about 7 or 8 of us who did. I haven’t gotten the scores back yet, so I don’t know where I fall. Guess I’ll keep plugging away. 🙂 I’ve got a few additional ones I’ll try for and by then the next book’s starting manuscript… Read more