Saturday, August 02, 2008

Woo Hoo! I Got Second Place!


This past Wednesday the Faith, Hope, and Love chapter of Romance Writers of America held their one-day mini conference in San Francisco and announced the winners of their Touched By Love writing contest for unpublished authors.

I received Second Place in the long contemporary category!!!

I've known for several months I was a finalist. All finalists had their entries judged by five published authors. Their scoresheets made the experience like getting five paid crits for the price of one entry fee. Wow!

The story I entered was Murder For Breakfast, the mystery-romance I have mentioned here countless times. The judges' comments were all very positive, but they also pointed out weaknesses they thought were there. Now I have to carefully consider their comments and where two or more point out similar things, decide what I can do to tweak and improve.

I'm currently working on my proposal for the Little Hope, Wisconsin story and need to wrap that up soon so my agent can send it off to the publisher. Then, before I get back to working on the Little Hope draft, I'll shift gears and work on MFB and doing those tweaks.

I am so grateful to God for this wonderful affirmation that I received. People keep saying I'm getting close to publishing, but the only one who knows that is God. If it is His will, it will happen. However, nothing will happen without me putting rubber to the road, nose to the grindstone, cowgirling it up, and whatever other cliche you can think of. You get the idea :-).

I've got a lot to do before the ACFW conference next month, but right now I just want to bask in the glow for just a minute.

3 comments:

Amy said...

Hi Pam:
I'm another client of Terry's. Congratulations! This is wonderful news. I hope I get to read the story sometime soon.

Anonymous said...

Woohoo! Congrats on the 2nd place. Hope this really boosts the editor considerations at the conference.

Sounds like we're both busy on books we want done before conference time.

Catch you later.

Pamela J said...

Hi Pam...
I am so happy when I hear news of this sort. Got your sunglasses on? When you say bask in the glow, bright spots are what I am reminded of and they usually need shades. I'll check in again occasionally to hear progress. Yes, you are right: God knows when publishing will (not if) will happen. Have a great day.
Pam Williams