Me? A Golden Gateway finalist?

Okay, so I'm doing a happy dance all over the house...

And I know this is probably waaaaay too much info for you, but just in case there are others who are thinking of entering the contests....

As some of you know, I started entering contests this year for the feedback and to get my stuff in front of the editors b/c the slush pile didn't seem to be working.

But, I garnered enough courage to try my hand via the contest route after a daily douse of the Seeker blog at http://seekerville.blogspot.com/

Back in the spring, I subbed 2 entries in ACFW's Genesis contest and then blogged about the results here. Then, I took the critiques I rec'd from those 3 judges, revised my 2 ms's, and sent them off to my CP's.

When they came back, I revised some more then submitted the 2 entries into the ‘From the Heart' Romance Writers Golden Gateway contest. This was back in July.

I know they didn't get as many entries as they wanted b/c they even extended the deadline to draw more in.

While waiting, I subbed 3 entries between 5 contests, targeting the final judges that I most wanted to work with.

While reading the contest alert loop, I know that the finalists are phoned with the good news. But nobody phoned me.

The contest results were due to be announced on or around Sep 10th. No phone call. But late that night around midnight, I rec'd an email. I thought it was like the Genesis one informing me that I wasn't a finalist but thanking me for entering.

Which was cool with me b/c I really wanted the judges critiques so that I can fix up the ms that I'll be pitching at the ACFW conference next weekend in Minn.

Well, wasn't I surprised however when I slowed down to actually read the email and it congratulated me on being a finalist. Wow.

Then the email advised me to take the judges critiques, revise my entry and re-submit by Monday. Monday? Yikes.

I know I should already have my one-sheets photocopied for the conf, but am I ever glad I held off, b/c now I have something else to add...something that actually shows I can write...

Yeeehaaaaaaw!!!

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