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their one-day mini conference in San Francisco and announced the winners of their Touched By Love writing contest for unpublished authors.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.